Finally in Deutschland

I made it to Germany in one piece, with no lost or damaged luggage.  it was quite a trip from Panama to Berlin.  Probably the most interesting part of it all was the layover in Colombia.  It wasn't very long, but it was amazing the amount of security they have there.  After getting off the plane from Panama, I had to go through a metal detector and X-ray scan of my carry-ons (didn't they just do that before I got on the plane?)  Then to walk to the boarding gates, I had to go through a manual search of my bags by the police.  They took everything out, smelled every pocket and crevice, then ushered me along.  Then each individual gate has another security checkpoint before the waiting area.  Another metal detector, X-ray, and manual bag check.  I thought this would be the last of the hassling.  I was wrong.  While sitting in the waiting area, I was approached by an attractive woman dressed in civilian clothing, but showed me a badge and said she was the police.  She didn't speak English so thank god I speak Spanish.  She then grilled me on where I was, how long I stayed there, where I was staying, why I went there, what I did, where I was going, where I came from.....the list goes on.  I imagine they are looking for people who get nervous or agitated, but I say if they made it to that point without getting caught with anything, kudos to them.  I guess I passed her test because she gave me back my passport, said thank you and moved on to the next person.  

It was a long flight from Bogota to Madrid (10 hours), but they had personal TVs with on-demand movies, TV shows and music, so it all worked out.  Of course I wasn't able to sleep, I hate airplanes.  I should've tried to upgrade to business class.  The layover in Spain went fairly quickly, it took me a while to go through customs, collect my luggage, check in for my new flight which was on a different carrier, go through security......  so I didn't have to wait long until the flight boarded.  Even though it was only 3 hours, that was the longest flight I've ever been on.  I'd been awake at that point for over 24 hours and needed to get to my hotel and sleep.  

Once in Berlin everything went very smoothly, I got my baggage and got in a cab to my hotel.  The cab accidentally went about 2 buildings past the hotel, so he decided to back up.  Literally right in front of my hotel is where we were in an accident.  Someone was coming around the corner as we were backing up and we crashed right into them.  A flawless journey halfway around the world and I was in an accident in front of my hotel right before I was about to get out.  Nothing major, just a fender bender.  So I got my stuff out of the cab, paid him, and went inside to check in.  I watched the police come and all the hassle of it from my balcony.  Oops.

I was starving so I went to the nearest restaurant to eat, a very traditional German restaurant.  I had some delicious Schnitzel and an even more delicious beer.  Then went home and slept for 13 hours.  Today I walked around for a few hours, sat at a restaurant for a while and people watched.  Today is when it actually hit me: holy shit I think I just moved to Berlin.  I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen here, but am excited to see.  Tomorrow I move in with the host I found through the language school I'll be starting Monday for 8 weeks.  We've exchanged a few emails and he seems like a nice guy.  He's in the art/design/music/theatre world so I imagine we'll get along.