COLUMN : welcome to berlin

so we’ve made it ! we’re in berlin and we’re still alive.
after three hours of sleep and some crazy busy weeks behind us though, we were definitely not in shape to deal with unnecessary problems due to someone mucking about.

our plane landed 8am this morning and we were supposed to call our host straight away to meet up and leave the bags in the apartment – to come back after lunch when she’d had the time to clean the place. we had a feeling something would go wrong with this plan. needless to say, a bunch of phone calls and texts later, we still couldn’t reach her.

so we took a taxi to the apartment and simply ring the door bell. where an unassuming french girl is looking at us surprised saying nothing more than ‘ i think there’s been a mistake ‘.

turns out, our host is not there, and we’re talking to the couple who’ve been renting the place before us. they had tried calling the host too without luck.

we go to a nearby vegan café and chill for a bit, as you can see in the pics. and return to the flat at the time when the other guests are leaving. still no host. so now we’re all standing there in the hallway. with our coats on. with our bags packed. with shoes on. and with moods turnings worse with every minute.

finally the other guests decide to just go. they leave the keys with us and now where here. in a flat in berlin, without ever meeting the owner. an hour later, still no sign of the host.

we begin calling airbnb. they’re really helpful thank god, and start looking for other places for us. we don’t know the wifi password so we spend forever setting up a wifi hotspot account. we’re annoyed.
we’re cancelling our romantic plans for the day, realising we won’t have the time or energy.

and just when we’re about to cancel this apartment and check in to a hotel – we get a text message.
‘ sorry my phone didn’t woke me’.

that’s it. after four and a half hours of being on the phone sorting out where to stay, looking at other accommodations online getting all tired and moody, we get a ‘ sorry my phone didn’t woke me ‘.

she still hasn’t come by. she has other things to do than clean our apartment apparently, so we’re not getting in properly until tonight. in the middle of all this irritation, david looks at me and tells me that although this is all very disappointing and frustrating, we still don’t behave like we’re that upset. and that’s probably because we’re so used to people messing up our mojo from our london days, that we’ve become experts at sorting out problems caused by others. and getting too frustrated is not going to make things easier.

yep this is so london. people never doing what they say they’re going to do. one of the nicest things with stockholm is that you can trust people. we were hoping that berlin’s better than london, but so far we’re off to a rocky start.

here’s what i’m going to do : i’m going to buy myself a pair of trousers. right now. then i’m going to buy ingredients for a steaming hot tomato soup with vegan parmesan. a bottle of wine. come back here, put on some romantic music. cook and eat with david. take a shower and collapse in bed and sleep for 12 hours straight. then i’ll be ready to give berlin another go !

thanks kiddos for staying through this very long rant. david is taking a power nap as i write, so knowing that you’re here is really cheering me up already. to be honest, i’m already smiling at the memory of us standing in winter coats together with the french couple being all annoyed. you guys always cheer me up !

ok time to put on some bright red lipstick, crawl into my huge fake fur and wake david up. let’s go get those trousers.

love // jenny

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other not-so-happy columns :
a day so horrible you just have to laugh at it
celebrate your way out of melancholia
the importance of sadness