I miraculously arrived (albeit not without some fumbling up and down the street) at the school and waited for her for a long time. She had told me that she would be there at 4pm, but since I had called and talked to her from the airport, I had hoped that I would catch her before then, so I could get to her house, rest, and do some practice.
Kind of wishful thinking I guess, cos she had told me that she would be having a packed day and did tell me it'd be 4pm that she would be there. Actually, I don't know what made me think I would catch her earlier, seeing as she specified a meeting time. I was just being an egg I guess. So I waited and waited and waited...and I was JUST about to ask a Korean student if I could borrow her mobile to call my friend when she showed up out of nowhere with a big smile and instructions on how to get to her house.
I followed those instructions. I got to her house. I was famished, exhausted, so ready for a brief snooze then a playthrough of everything, then an early night. I dragged myself up to the 9th floor of her house, unlocked the door but
the door wouldn't open.
I tried again and again, but to no avail. To my extreme agonising unbelievable frustration I could feel the door locking and unlocking over and over but for some reason this big bulking wooden thing stood firm, unyielding. I couldn't believe my luck. All this way and I'm stumped at the last frickin' stop!!! I was literally 5cm away from a drink of water, a bed, a piano...I could have cried (but didn't, because I'm a real man).
I got fed up with trying. I was beyond tired, and my friend was due home in one or two hours (not that I knew for sure, because I didn't have a phone or a watch on me...bit of a problem, should probably amend that soon), so I just decided to wait. It was quite cold that day in Berlin and the marble floors didn't help, but I was so tired that I just sprawled out on the floor in front of her door and went for a snooze.
A while after I heard the elevator doors open and a "gaghghghh!" of surprise. I looked up to find a horrified German lady who was looking at me incredulously. I began babbling in limited German that I was waiting for my friend and that I couldn't get the door open. "Ja ok," she replied, "but uggrrhghh! *gesticulating at the ground*...did you want a coffee?" No, I replied, I'm ok thank you. "Ok then," she replied, and went inside, and I was left in the dark corridor by myself again, thinking if maybe I should have accepted, wah, etc.
Eventually my friend turned up - "why are you still out here?? Why aren't you inside??" - and I explained that I couldn't get the door open, and maybe she didn't give me a key for the other lock? "No, that is the only lock," she told me, and to my unbelievable sense of WTF-ness she proceeded to put her key in the lock, click click, and open the door JUST LIKE THAT, BAM.
Evidently I didn't quite get the intricacies of the click action right, or something. -_-!!!
The rest of my time in Berlin went relatively smoothly otherwise. I finally mastered the art of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn system, and even helped some German tourists buy day tickets, in German! The only exception was one night when I was returning home I mistakenly went one stop too far and ended up walking an entire S-Bahn stop home, probably about 3-4km. Oh and also had a Monroe-esque moment when I walked over an air vent without thinking and happened to be in a dress. The people of the U-Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten got a good view of my London and my France. I am such a giving person.
Last time I was in Berlin, I had been overwhelmed by its sheer size and grittiness and crowds and felt almost like it was too cool for me. This time, although I was there for only half as long, I enjoyed it more, somehow. My last night there was spent with friends in a biergarten by the Zoo and we ended up having the best time, talking to two Englishmen for hours and hours. We eventually got home around 2:30am and I slept for a total of three hours before getting up to catch my flight. Only a minor freak-out moment of "OMG WHERE IS THE BUS STOP FOR THE AIRPORT BUS" for that journey; the rest went very smoothly and I returned to my abode in Wien feeling like a seasoned traveller. Ho ho ho.
P.S. Oh yeah, I played like crap in my audition and didn't get through to the 2nd round, but that was to be expected. Not too hung up about it, so that's good. But here's hoping I can step back up and prove myself with the remaining three auditions! Keep your fingers crossed for me and send me good wishes!
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