The Magician.

Berlin… 1st shocking thing: it’s freezing here! My first day, Jule and I went to Warschauer Straße, longingly started at the Universal headquarters, and walked along the newly-painted Berlin Wall. The Wall somehow lost its authenticity while it gained the brightness and freshness of new Germany. 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell. German government thought it was high-time to freshen it up last year.

Finally, finally I got my passport stamped with 4 different stamps (bargain deal – 4 stamps for Euro 2: East Berlin, West Berlin, People’s police and cute tiny stamp that neither I nor Jule could identify).

It was cold. It was pouring down. It was hailing. The wind was blowing hard. I was crying cold silent tears. We were strolling along the Wall and decided to go to McDonald’s (where else?) at Ostbahnhof to dry our wet-through clothes and shoes and bags.

Ostbahnhof is full of Asian restaurants – so cheap! Jule and I ended up having soup and some pasta at one of those and that’s where we met a magician… The guy (not surprisingly called Alex) came up to me and started to talk in German (I always found German incredibly sexy, and I felt all sexed-up when from his whole monologue I caught one word – sexy!) So, even without Jule’s aid I got it that the guy came up to me to tell me that I was sexy. Danke.

The three of us chatted for 5 minutes: he thought I was sexy, he wanted my email, I gave him my facebook and lied that I was in Berlin for a weekend only. As my friend S. says, I looked as if I were eating men for breakfast and did not need another Alex in my life. And then he pulled a pack of notes from his pocket (old newspaper cut into about 20 pieces shaped like banknotes). Jule looked at me, I looked at out bags, we both thought “weird” and my hands squeezed around my wallet. Alex kept talking and moving hands and then suddenly the cut newspaper pieces turned into Euro 20 banknotes! It was magic! And so Alex left, proud of himself that he had enough courage to come and talk to me. Don’t you just love German guys for this [courage]?