Reaching the end... A perfect and tiny bit of Berlin.

We took the train from Prague to Berlin, crowded; I had to stand most of trip as it was difficult to find places for us to sit together.  We survived the last train journey, we were tired, and soon ready to go home, but we arrived in Berlin to enjoy two quiet days, with no intention to do tourist stuff.  We stayed at my friends flat in Simon-DachStreet in  Friedrichshain, a vibrant neighborhood in the East side of Berlin, full of life, cafes, restaurants, and eccentric  and alternative looking people. I enjoyed immensely going to the shopping market, making food, sitting in a living room and hearing the wind touch those big trees behind my friend’s flat, the afternoon thunder, lightning and rain that came to freshen up our overheated backpacking experience in the other parts of Europe.  

 

We felt home in Berlin, in the way it allowed us to fit in, in the way people spoke German at us assuming we could speak it despite our looks, and in the kindness  given to us once we disclosed we were tourist and just passing by.  How refreshing I thought, how wonderful experience just being there, to see no landmarks and just observe life among these eclectic mix of people none of them wearing straw hats.

We spent the following  day at one of the Berlin lakes, something I wished to do very much and Berliners seem to greatly enjoy. We took the efficient metro and tram system to the other side of the city in search of lake Muggelsee,  it was a great experience and we spent most of the day there, swimming and lying under the sun. My friend Sam invited her friend Karianne from Stavanger, who also lives in Berlin, a very down to earth person who both Aleksander and I enjoyed meeting. Seldom it is in fact to meet a woman so kind and fun to be around that seems so unaware of her physical beauty, the tall Viking woman from Rogaland with her long strawberry blond hair, piercing blue eyes and freckles like grains of sand splashed all over her made people turn their heads to catch a glimpse of her.  

Despite our age difference, I can still recognize something about me in both Karianne and Sam, and the similarities of our lives, both of them are young women in their 30’s, looking for meaning elsewhere; I have walked longer than them, and I have found my place for now, the place where I can tap from my reality in Norway a greater meaning to my life, but the seeker of new experiences that lives inside of me is neither dead or dormant. I feel alive and vibrant.

The days since we arrived home in Stavanger have been hectic with visits from Namsos and Bergen, my home is full of life, there has been no time to sit down and digest in silence the end of this journey, find a thought, a small but personal meaning in which this trip has redefined me.

As to us, a son and a mother, the journey was unique, busy, it was hard work and it was also fun. We learned to trust each other more; we learned to compromise, we both have grown much individually and as a family. I have seen sides of my son that have made me very proud. I have seen sides of him that also tell me we are doing something right in the way we both, his father and I are raising him.  I have also seen the sides of me that need to improve as a parent, but for those sides I have apologized to him when necessary, and have corrected my ways.

To forgive is to love, and to love is to live. There is no doubt, we are living! And that is perhaps the greatest realization of this trip.

With a special dedication to Geir Arne Aarre father of my #youngbackpacker and supporter of our adventures.

 Thank you Sam for the perfect and tiny bit of Berlin

Distre Backpacker Europe
From Stavanger 25.07.2015

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