Berlin - Day 2

A lot of things happened before I woke up today and found myself lying in a bunk bed. I looked around and needed a minute to realise where I was. There was my bag, and there was my jacket. And over there, my shoes. Right, I was in a hostel in the middle of Berlin. I looked at my watch and saw enough time to fall back into unconsciousness. Just for a bit. It wasn't a very good sleep, but considering that it was an unfamiliar mattress in a foreign place, I was thankful for every minute.

Then came breakfast. Dry bread and thin coffee. And I remembered why I was here. You know, it's been a while since I've posted something that was labelled 'travels'. Last time was in December when I visited my family over Christmas. This journey was different, though. Very different. Not every trip is for leisure, not every voyage for fun. Some trips are for business, others for holiday. And this one had yet another reason. It all began with an email, by an old friend of mine, Mina.

We met a long time ago, introduced by a mutual friend named Anna. We met a couple of times after that. One day, when I was living in Bonn, she even came to visit me. At some point though, we kind of lost track of each other. I moved to Seoul for a while, came back home, moved somewhere else, you know how it goes. That time in Bonn was the last time we'd seen each other. That was around five years ago. Man, five years. Today we met again, and we were both wearing black.

It was a sunny day, perhaps a bit windy, but there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. We were seated in seperate cars, mine was driven by Anna's mother, and we met at the parking lot. When we got there we saw a group of people, people I've never seen before. Some were wearing hats, some were smoking cigarettes. People I've never seen before, and they were all dressed in black. We shook hands, shared nods and handshakes. Nobody smiled. Even though it was a sunny day. No clouds in the sky.