Kebabs in Berlin. (Oct. 27, 2009)

The other day I managed to break my glasses and lose my contact lens case all within an hour from each other.  Fortunately, the contacts were in my eyes at the time,  but finding a new lens case has been a pain in my frozen butt (it has been 3 years since I've experienced winter you know).  There is no Wal-Mart here like in the U.S, and there isn't an optometrist on each corner like in Thailand.  But honestly, as inconvenient as it's been, there's a part of me that loves the idea of being forced into going to a specific store to meet specific needs.  Gigantic supercenters are quite possible some of the saddest places on the planet.

Tonight I ordered a Kebab  from a small stand on the street.  I always thought kebabs were little chunks of meat, tomatoes, onions, and peppers pierced and grilled together on a large skewer.  But I think that must just be the Mississippi version.  This was a huge spinning pole of chicken sliced and stacked like newspapers.  The guy then slices the chicken vertically as it cooks and  makes a sandwich... which I think is the kebab.  Ordering was a fun experience that reminded me of my first months in Thailand with a lot of pointing and grunting.  The man knew I couldn't speak German but seemed to enjoy pretending like I did. 

Tomorrow I will say goodbye to the dormatory for a night and check-in to the Intercontinental.  It's probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at, and has the added bonus that I won't be sharing my room with 20 other people, some of questionable hygine.  When I travel I prefer to spend the bulk of my money on experiences, not accomadation. The reason for this splurge was justified with four semi-valid reasons:

(1.)  I bought a ticket to the sold-out MUSE concert in Berlin (from Thailand) and it was only $5 to ship it to the hotel, while it would have been $60 to ship it to Bangkok.
(2.)  I didn't trust a guesthouse to keep up with my ticket for a month until I arrived in Germany.
(3.)  Priceline.com had an amazing deal on the hotel.
(4.)  After a month of traveling, mostly through the desert, can you really put a price on a comfortable bed and a swimming pool? 

Despite these justifications, the primary one (securing my concert ticket) has apparently already fallen through.  I called the hotel tonight to confirm my ticket had arrived, and they confirmed it had not.  I then called the ticket company who politely informed me that didn't even have a record of my order.  I was told to call back tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.   The cute, chocolate-throwing  German girl offered her condolences and said she didn't mind speaking with them in German.  Hopefully it'll all work out.  We'll see what tomorrow brings...