Once I got to Berlin with the girls it was nice to relax, shower, eat some food and get off this unknowingly broken foot of mine. The girls had the next day planned out with a few activities and site seeing but my priority was getting to the hospital to get my foot looked at. I went into emerge and when I registered I was charged 100 euro because I’m foreign. OUCH! But I do have health insurance so I should be getting that back at some point. My hospital experience was interesting. I had to go to special room to explain how I fell and what happened to my foot while someone else translated to the Doctor. Then I sat in a waiting room where I waited for some sort of sign from the doctors of what to do next. I got an X-Ray and the doc checked out my bruised knee. He later came out to tell me that I have a broken bone in my foot and showed me on the X-Ray. It’s the bone that connects to my baby toe. After that, another doctor put a removable cast on me and gave me crutches. Then they gave me a few needles of a medication that I needed to inject into my stomach before every flight. It’s some sort of blood thinner so that the blood doesn’t rise, which prevents blood clots that could lead to a heart attack on the plane. Well that’s what a gathered from the German/English explanation I received. I’ve never had to give myself a needle before but it wasn’t all that bad, just a little pinch. Overall it was a pretty good hospital experience. I registered, saw the doc, had an x-ray done, and a cast put on, all within 3.5 hours time. Not so bad for being in a foreign country.
During the evening that night I decided to go out with the girls wearing the cast and crutches. While it took me some time to get my grove with the crutches, I actually had a really fun night. I ended up bonding with another guy who had a broken wrist and matching cast to mine, “shots for being temporarily handy cap.” The night life in Berlin is a never ending party. It’s very alive and happening. There are a lot of young party people in this city just looking for a good time. I also noticed that the fashion in Berlin is like an art. Everyone seems to express themselves through dress. Moreover, the vibe in Berlin feels very laid back, much less pretentious and judgmental than it can be in some cities aka Toronto. As a result, people feel comfortable wear/be whatever and whoever they want. It’s nice to see. One very popular slogan in Berlin is “Poor but Sexy.” Get it?
The next morning, I did a bike tour with Rachel as I really wanted to see some of the historic sites in Berlin. We saw parts of the city that had once been bombed during World War 2, a piece the Berlin wall that once divided West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East Berlin, a memorial from the Holocaust and Hitler’s bunker where he committed suicide with his wife in 1945. It was interesting to see but also very eerie and quite sad. While I learned about these topics in school and I understood the importance of what went on during both world wars, it never truly felt real to me. But being in Berlin changes that.
Overall, I enjoyed Berlin but I didn’t fall in love with this city like many people do. Perhaps it’s because I needed some more time there to get a real feel for it? Or maybe because I went with a broken foot? Nonetheless, it is definitely a city worth checking out.
