K yes so this follows my Nightlife Tribute so my day "started" at 7am when I got home. I considered just staying up until Mass - probably would've been smart to have taken a shower and be finished with church so I could sleep. But I was shockingly not that smart, and took a 3-hour "sleep" and woke up at 10:30, meaning I missed French Mass at 11am (it takes an hour to get there), so I looked up other Mass times.
Why not St. Elizabeth's at noon? Great. I hop on the tram (it's also an hour-ride... English+Catholic is not easy my friends) and arrive at an actual church. Like it's made out of brick and has a steeple and everything. I was shocked. I walk into a GORGEOUS Gregorian chant and I'm thinking "ok wow I found my place". There were some people walking around so I thought "man this must be historic" until all the people stopped walking around and father ended Mass. Oh. Kinda weird since it was like 5 minutes past noon and they were just ending communion. I look around the back for some papers with Mass info but come up short.
The celebration concludes and I figure I'll just sit in a pew and google some things and go somewhere else for church. Then ever so casually, I run into one of my colleagues. Woah!! Church?? And Berlin is so huge. This is what I love about Flixbus is I can be truly anywhere around Berlin and just see someone on the street that I know. I can't even do that in Milwaukee outside of Wisconsin Ave. And I've only been here three months! I really like it here.
Anyways - this guy Augustin (featured in my last entry as the quiet "nerdy" guy with secretly amazing drunk dance moves), French of course who else would be at a Catholic church, finally answers to my waves and he helps me figure out the next Mass time. English Mass time since this one that just ended was in German. I'm super glad I caught the end of it though because it reminded me that Mass is one of the best ways to learn a language, and I need to stop going to only-English church. I don't really want Augustin to think I'm stalking him, but I really liked the vibe of that Mass and I wanna go next week - or whenever I'm in town on a Sunday next.
Turns out the next Mass is at 2pm (great!!! <that was sarcasm) which is too short to go back home, but it's better than a 7pm Mass which would get me back home at 9pm dead tired. I decide to just walk for one hour then walk back the other hour. I try to head to Gleisdreik (a park on old train tracks - super cool, actually where I thought I would be living now) but I stop in a cafe beforehand because hungry. It was a hip little place (open on a Sunday, not normal) where you could do your laundry and eat at the cafe & do work while you wait. There was also a dog but that made me want to leave. I asked the guy for a salad, and he said it would take 15 minutes to get the things cleaned or something, and I said "oh, that's ok" and walked out ...not realizing that a phrase like that is normally negative in America (especially with the face I made) but would come off quite positive for a non-native. I realized this maybe two steps out the door but I was already committed to finding a cheaper, less canine establishment for hangover food.
Yeah also I didn't go to church last Sunday because I went at 1pm on Saturday for Ann's wedding so I think I was in a bit of a punishment here.
I'm strollin' around south Berlin, very nice, and I finally find a little döner place and I get a falafel + coke. I sat down (finally after a night on my feet and walking so much now) and slowly enjoy my over-sauced meal, trying my best to kill time and not look at my dying phones.
This is where I interject that I love being alone. It's just so nice to sit and enjoy the weather without having to talk to people. Yes I love people and I've become an extrovert, but I'm really cherishing these alone times. It seems more common here to just sit on a bench and not do anything - no phone, no newspaper, no music - just sit. That is just my absolute favorite thing on a nice day. I just want to sit in beautiful weather and not bear the unwanted stares brought on by breaking social codes.
Yep so I finish my falafel and head out again, aiming to go through as many parks as Google Maps said was possible. They however do not define if a park is a park or if a park is a cemetery. Honestly it was an absolutely beautiful cemetery and I think I found a bench that is perfect for sitting alone. I don't wanna say that I spent my Sundays sitting on a bench in a cemetery in Berlin, but I just might end up doing that. It was so darn beautiful, and this is the Berlin I want to see. I still haven't seen 80% of the tourist things, including the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is obviously insanely important and needs to be seen, but I want to also see real Berlin life... and death I guess. Sure there were many tombstones that ended in 1945, but several did not. Some before (late 1800's), some after (2000's). This was a real cemetery, and it was full of life of family members watering the flowers around the stones of their beloved. It was a personal place. It was a preserved place, which I'm realizing I'm now innately stunned if anything (especially trees) originate before the 1930's.
It was really beautiful.
And so quiet. I realized I need some nature time. I have a travelling weekend next weekend, as in I kinda secretly get paid to go on a trip by myself as long as I end up in Munich on Monday, so I'm thinking I need to do some sort of solo nature retreat. Like not talk to anyone and just eat fruits and bread in the woods. I dunno, sounds kinda nice.
As I'm walking through this glorious cemetery, I find that it is not in fact a through-way. GREAT. I was two hours early for church, and now I'm gonna be late! I stroll on over to the entrance, then make my way to the church.
Then I find out that it's the Ghana community's Mass. Now I knew about this Mass's existence and have been wanting to go, but I was specifically trying to avoid is for this Sunday given my physical state and low energy. Like I said, I didn't go to Mass last week...
The celebration lasted two hours. It was really great, I really like that priest, but man everything took long. And they had a projector with a powerpoint with what looked like song lyrics, but they never changed slides so it was half a blank slide the whole time. Ugh! At the end though they did a thanksgiving procession for a couple that was married yesterday, it was really cute. And then they went around asking who was new - I should've known better than to raise my hand when they said "we'll come to you", but luckily they didn't see me. They had all the new people stand and introduce themselves, and then everyone after came around and shook their hand and welcomed them. It was really nice, but I'm glad they didn't see me. Truly this was not my day.
FINALLY I leave the church and take the hour-ride home where I can shower and brush my teeth and sleep.
2025-02-17