I'm not the best at waiting and Steve wasn't due here 'till five.
I started the day with a ride around the local area. As I set off it was spitting and by the time I got to the end of the street it was chucking it down. I found a cafe and rung out my clothes over a coffee. Reasoning that I was as wet as I could be and, luxuriously, I had a warm dry room to return to, I headed up to Akexanderplatz. I passed a man walking along bare footed in just shorts and a t-shirt, singing to the sky.
I wandered around the square. Looked in some shops, bought a new notebook. Had a sandwich. Heading back to the hotel I changed into some dry clothes and went down to the lobby. Did some work (I don't arrive back until days before school starts) and procrastinated. Steve was due in an hour. I was to meet him at the very handy metro station yards from the hotel door. At half four I still hadn't heard from him and I was getting restless. I went for a wander round the block. I saw the same man, still in just his shorts and t-shirt but now with a beer.
At last Steve arrived in Berlin, late due to a flight delay. He got the bus to Alexanderplatz and then the metro line. It's strange waiting and watching the clock count down in exact minutes the arrival of the train. Here at last! Obviously I was a little emotional: he, far more controlled.
I haven't really been doing that much talking, especially to English speakers. It was odd. I wittered away but always checking he understood. My sentences were short. It took longer to find words. I got over it soon enough. Much to his delight I'm sure, as I regaled him with a month's worth of travelling tales.
On my earlier bike ride I had noticed stalls and and food trucks along Karl Marx Allee so for tea we headed that way. Turned out to be Berlin Beer Festival. Lots of beer, food and helium balloons. And some familiar names.
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