BerlinPartei Day 4: Getting Home and Halupki

So, last night, I got back to the hotel and into bed by about 5h30. Thankfully, it was too early in the morning this time for that group of loud children to be playing in the yard. However, my body hadn't fallen asleep before 10am for the last four days, so it was very uninterested in going to sleep. I finally slipped into a deep, replenishing sleep around 8h00...

...and at 10h30 there was a loud knock on my door. I open my door to see a squat German woman, glaring at me and saying "Check Out?" I gave her a confused look and said (in my broken German) "But I thought check out was at twelve?" "No, check out ends at eleven. You have 30 minutes." "Oh."

Well, great. With that, I hauled my body into gear and started getting myself ready. Miraculously, I was showered, clothed and packed in under 30 minutes. At 10h55, I headed out the door and off toward the airport. In the end, I suppose it was for the best that I was booted out early, because I had forgotten how long the train to the airport can be. After taking about 20 minutes to get to the Friedrichstraße station on the U-Bahn, I had to wait another 15 minutes for a train that was heading to Schoenfeld airport. The train ride itself was almost 40 minutes long, so by the time I got off the train and walked over to the airport and found the check-in for EasyJet, it was already past 12h30 and time to check in.

The waiting for the flight and the flight itself was pretty uneventful, although finding my way back from Orly airport by public transport was a bit of a feat. It wasn't particularly gruelling or complicated, it was just that the signs in the airport were less than helpful, so I walked the length of the terminal a couple of times before I realized that the OrlyVal train connects to the nearest RER station, Anthony. Meh.

I got home and decompressed for a bit, unpacking my crap and starting to reply to the large stack of emails I had waiting for me (although I certainly haven't gotten to all them yet!). Shortly afterwards, I got an email DJ inviting me to come down to his room for halupki later that night. Yay!! DJ had been tempting me with his mom's cabbage rolls since he got here, and this would also mean that I didn't have to go grocery shopping and make dinner.

After a long and delicious dinner (complete with campari apéritifs and bourbon digestifs), DJ showed me the wonders of the TV comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (available on iTunes, apparently) and then I sauntered off to my room for some well-deserved sleep. Oh, and DJ sent me home with a few more of those delicious halupkis...so I don't have to think about lunch tomorrow, either!