The Purple Beanie

Hello, Berlin

After being on the plane for what felt like a week, Conner and the others finally reached London's Heathrow Airport, where they boarded their connecting flight to Berlin. Seeing so many people of different cultures and nationalities traveling around them made Conner feel very worldly. He was sure he'd return home much more dignified than when he left - dignified but exhausted, that is. By the time their second flight touched German ground, Conner had only slept three hours of their fifteen-hour journey, and wondered if his neck would ever recover from sitting in a cramped position for so long.

"I recommend we try to sleep as soon as we get to the hotel," Mrs. Peters instructed her group as she led the way to the baggage claim area. "We don't want to be too jet-lagged for the readings tomorrow."

Mrs. Peters, Bree, and the Book Huggers collected their luggage at the baggage claim with no problem, but Betsy was nowhere to be found. Conner wasn't worried about his luggage being lost, though. On the contrary, he thought wearing the same clothes for the next few days might be worth not having to lug the decaying trunk around Germany. Just as he had happily come to terms with the idea, Betsy slid down into the luggage carousel, making more noise than any other suitcase had. Betsy had arrived in Germany and she wanted everyone to know about it.

The group followed Mrs. Peters through the crowded Berlin airport as they made their way toward the Ausgang, or "exit." They shuffled their way outside where Mrs. Peters had arranged for a small van to pick them up. The driver was a stern older man with a plump face and a thin mustache. He held up a sign that said PETERS.

"Guten Tag," Mrs. Peters said to the driver. "I'm Evelyn Peters, so nice to meet you."

"HELLO," Cindy said very loudly to the driver, and forced him to shake her hand. "WE'RE FROM THE UNITED STATES. IT'S AN HONOR TO BE IN YOUR COUNTRY."

Everyone rolled their eyes at her except the driver. Clearly, this wasn't his first experience with a tourist like Cindy, the type who gave tourists a bad name.

"I'm German, not hard of hearing," the driver said in perfect English. Oooh, ROASTED, Conner thought to himself with satisfaction. "Let me load your bags into the van and we'll be on the way to your hotel."

As the driver drove them away from the airport, all eyes in the group widened as they took in the first sights of a new country. Seeing his first glimpses of Germany reminded Conner of seeing the Land of Stories for the first time; they were so far away from home, yet a very familiar world of its own existed here. The Book Huggers took out their cameras and started taking pictures of everything they saw. 

"Look, it's a telephone pole!" Lindy said, and showed the others the photo she'd taken of it.

"It looks just like the telephone poles back home," Bree said.

"But it's a German telephone pole," Lindy said, as if Bree was missing something.

Every street the van drove down gave them something new to gawk at that they would never see at home. A massive cathedral with gargoyles stood next to an office building made entirely out of glass. An abstract art installation of a balloon dog was planted near a statue honoring a famous German opera singer. Tiny shops that looked like gingerbread houses were across the street from strip malls similar to ones in the United States.

Berlin was unlike any city Conner and the girls had ever been to. It was a combination of new and old, with monuments celebrating people and events of the past, alongside tributes encouraging thoughts and ideas for the future.

"Of all the cities in the world, Berlin in very much among those that shaped the world into what it is today," Mrs. Peters said. "There is history everywhere you look, some noble, some terrible, but highly important nonetheless."