Category: English

I had a hard time deciding what to write in this post. It’s been a little over a week since we broke up and I still have no idea what the right words are.

So I’ll just leave it at that.

Girl 3 and I are giving it another go! Happiness reinstated :)

It was a short yet very intense relationship. It appears as if there was no way to settle some differences of opinions that have crept into what seemed to be a very promising start. I’m finding it hard to describe what happened without getting into the gruesome details. I guess it can be painted as a clash of two stubborn and insistent personalities over an issue we both consider crucial.

I’m very sad about it ending. I had high hopes for this one.

I’d like to tell you about the new source of happiness in my life, to be known on this blog as Girl 3, at least for now. Those of you who possess keen observation skills and are also familiar with my naming convention for girls on this blog probably noticed that this is already Episode 2. How is that possible, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

It all started about a year and a half ago. I wrote her on Facebook in one of those dating applications. She didn’t respond until months later, but by then I was on the big trip of 2009 and not really emotionally available to start a relationship. It’s another way of saying I was too stupidly blind to notice that I struck pure gold with this girl. And so it ended shortly after. That was Episode 1.

Fast forward to today (about a year later): Girl 3 writes me and we decide to meet for the first time. It was a great first date. So great, in fact, that I’m writing this only a week after but it feels like we’ve known each other for a very long time. So it’s still a week-old relationship and there’s not much to tell, but you may have noticed that I’m in a very good mood lately.

Now you know why.

Finally I got around to selecting and uploading pictures from my latest trip, and here they are:

The alternative pub crawl last night was very cool. Alternative means that it wasn’t the regular pub tour, but one that involves pubs which you will probably not hear about or even find if you walked the streets of Berlin where most people walk.

The most intriguing pub of all was Dr. Pong’s, where you can play a game of International Ping Pong. In this game anyone who wants to play grabs a pedal, walks around the Ping Pong table, hits the ball once and continues walking around the table until he/she gets to the other side to hit the ball again. If you miss – you’re out. Once there are two players left they play a short game of Ping Pong up to 5 points. The game is very friendly and a lot of fun.

The pub crawl is about meeting and connecting with other people, though. We were with a large group from all over the world, some of them waiting for their flight back home after they got stuck in Berlin due to the volcanic ashes thing. Others were there intentionally, including a group of 5 Australians that are on an amazing 9-month tour around the world. They’re the always-partying kind of group. Meeting people like that, who are very outgoing and can easily connect to others, always leaves me a little jealous that I’m not that kind of guy. We also met one local Berliner, who told us about her friend that opted to become Jewish and is slowly turning more and more religious.

Today we went on a tour of Berlin. The city is packed with history and heritage. The tour guide, who was very knowledgeable, obviously mentioned the Nazis, the Holocaust and the Berlin wall, which came down in 1989 due to a very funny slip of the tongue. All spiced up with great anecdotes and stories.

I’m writing this while sitting in a 5-stories second hand shop, which Rinat wanted to visit, and waiting for her to finish her shopping. I wouldn’t imagine going shopping on a trip. The loyal 3 readers of this blog probably remember how much I dislike shopping.

Tomorrow we’re going back home, my back still badly hurting. I’m worried about how long I won’t be able to do my workouts. Last time I went to a Prodigy gig, it took my knees a week to recover. I’m not happy about this at all.

But still, it’s time to find the next Prodigy gig to go to. The Israeli date has not been announced yet and it feels like it’s not going to happen. But for whatever gig I go to, I will probably get an extra ticket. Any takers?

Luckily both of us have German friends that pointed out to us websites where people offer rides for payment, and we arranged two rides to Berlin.

We arrived yesterday at 7pm to Dusseldorf after a 5-hour ride. At the hotel where we stayed the manager turned out to be an really nice Israeli, Danny, and he pointed us to the Old City (Altstadt) where many people hang out in the evening. We sat at a nice place and ate great steaks for a small price.

We also met a very nice Canadian couple who were stranded in Germany, with their 7 year old back home thinking they’ll never come back. Hopefully they’re on their way back home by now. Then we took a peek at the gigantic Rhine river, but it was so cold and we were tired, so we didn’t really appreciate the beauty of it. Also, our ride to Berlin was early in the next morning.

And today we finally got to Berlin after an additional 5-hour ride. The scenery on the way was very beautiful, but these rides are exhausting and my back is pretty much killing me ever since that first Prodigy show 4 days ago. So while I’m enjoying myself a lot, there’s a pain that comes with it all along.

Tonight we’re planning to go on an alternative pub crawl, which is basically a pub tour. I’m sure it will be interesting and that the Diet Coke will be great in each and every pub we visit. Tomorrow we’ll probably go on a sight-seeing tour.

All in all, with our flight from Paris to Berlin being cancelled, I think we made the best out of a bad situation. Also, our bet was that it’ll be worth it to get to Berlin to try and catch our flight on Friday (the alternative was to try and go to a southern airport to fly home.) Currently, it seems like this bet will pay off, unless the skies close again.