Bye Felicia

It was our last day for hopping on and off the bus. We split up from the Seagroves and managed to grab some front seats. 

We rode to Alexanderplatz where we switched buses to grab the blue route. 

We were able to see a different part of the city and to see the longest continuous stretch of wall. 

We found the world clock and saw that it was just after 7am EST. 

Everyone was hungry, so we found a little pizza place. 

It feels so quiet after being with another family for over a week. 

After pizza we enjoyed some delicious gelato as we walked back to our bus. 

I love these busses, but the German ones spend a really long time at each stop. Like 10+ minutes. That makes it sloooow. 

The American Embassy!

We hopped off the bus at Bellevue Palace, which is the official home of the President of Germany. It’s beautiful!

My friend that used to live in Berlin said we had to climb the Victory Tower, and I kind of wanted to do it anyway, so we made it happen. 

It’s beautiful!

And windy. Even at the bottom, but especially at the top. 

We were all a little nervous, probably Matt and D the least, then Frankie. 

But we all managed to walk full circle around the top. 

This is how I feel the whole time. Even my hair stands on end. 

The Gold Else is really lovely though. 

Could almost be a lighthouse. 

I am always happy I climbed and also happy to be back at the bottom. 

Those 285 steps made all of our legs a little wobbly. 

It was 60° today and I pretty quickly regretted bringing my coat. I knew I wouldn’t want it for the climb, so off it came. 

Matt has really wanted to see this sculpture from a Depeche Mode video, so we finally made our way over there today. 

He’s been semi patiently waiting, so I was glad we could go on a nice weather day. 

I even got a video for him. 

It was just over a mile to our apartment, so we walked and walked. 

These are the outside doors to our apartment. This leads into the courtyard. Matt says this is how it was in Spain too. 

Amy and I walked in search of sparkling cider for midnight, and on the way back I picked up the best Doner Kebab of the trip. I got a big Doner with everything on it and Matt and I shared it. It was so tasty!

We played games and ate appetizers and rang in the new year on our garden rooftop with pots and pans and celebratory ribbon. 

After the rooftop festivities we ventured out onto the streets. The fireworks have been going off randomly since we got here, growing more frequent each day as we got closer to NYE. But tonight was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Just nonstop bangs, a cloudy haze, and fireworks coming from every direction. I took a bunch of videos (which I never do) to show just how wild it was. We stayed glued to the walls of our complex and when the kids would inevitably venture pot we’d grab them back in. Revelers were drinking, and these were not little fireworks, they had full on big ones. They were shooting them at passing cars and over top of buildings. It was so crazy. 

After a few minutes of that we can inside and cheersed some spritz-fritz. 

And blew some more confetti ribbon. It is now 1:37am and there are still loud bangs going on, though not nearly as many. 

2022 was hard. And also really beautiful and so so good. Why does it seem the bad always has to happen to enjoy the good? I know the answer, I just still don’t like it. But I’m grateful for all the lessons and growth that have come as a result of this difficult year. I’ve got my word of the year for 2023 and all my resolutions all written down. I am 100% ready to say bye Felicia to 2022 and I hope everyone will just be cool going into 2023. Let’s all be chill and go in nice and easy. 

Here’s to a new year.