Steinwerder

And the journey is over! I am back home and it was pretty easy getting here. I got up and had some breakfast on the boat, packed up the last of my things in my backpack, waited until my disembarkment time and headed off the boat. They had given me a paper that said I had to make sure to check in with the customs officers since I don't have an EU passport and get my passport stamped or there could be issues at the airport when I leave Germany! When I got down there there was barely a line so I handed my passport over and the lady barely looked at it. She kind of did that quick flip through the pages thing and then handed it back to me and said have a good day. No stamp, not sure why they even had that check to be honest, maybe it was because of my permanent residency? It worked out so no issues.

Then it was off to the bus to take me to the train station. I had paid for it via the boat people and it was so easy! I went and got on, they loaded my luggage and we were off! It was annoying trying to get my 2 giant heavy suitcases to the correct platform, but I had plenty of time. My train was 20 min late leaving Hamburg and then we arrived 40 min late in Berlin, but it was so quick and painless it was great. I did try and read on the train, but that was a no go and I pretty much instantly started to get sick. Oh well.

Then I decided to get a taxi home from the train station (I was going to take another train up to a closer to home train station that has parking since the main station for some reason doesn't have an area to pick up/drop off except for taxis, but the next train wasn't leaving for 20 min and I could be home by then!).

It was so nice seeing Raymond again!! He was like I don't have to do much at work today so we can do whatever you want! So I unpacked my things, then we went to the park and hung out and read some (he had kept sending me photos of him reading in the park while I was gone and I was like how come we never do that??? Or really he never reads except on vacation! Why does he read when I am not there?? He said he needs more book recs so I gave him a few :) We went out to dinner since I didn't want to go shopping and get stuff and we went to go to this vegan restaurant that is right around the corner basically, but it wasn't the vegan restaurant anymore. It was a new restaurant but had basically the same vegan menu, but also meat stuff, so we decided to try it out. It was pretty good, maybe better than the other versions of the things we normally got! I was sad at first, but I think this is a better restaurant so yey for having some good food nearby!

So that is it for this adventure! I loved the boat ride and will definitely book looking to do that again when I go visit PA. So much easier and less stressful than flying even if it take a lot longer. Plus I get to be on the water for so long! I love that. It was also super nice getting to see my mom again and visit her for such a long time. I still am like how did we ever fit everything into a 2 week visit? It was such a nice time!! Though I am happy to be with Raymond again and start planning the next adventure! 4 weeks till Norway! Until then :)Read more