Have you ever been in love? If you think that you don’t know the feeling, let me try to take you through how I feel when I am in that state.

Two weeks ago, I started an article about Berlin, the first city I fell in love with, but I started this one this week because the other was not going straight to the point. The fact is I LOVE BERLIN. If at this point, you did not get that, well, I don’t know…

This summer, I went to Berlin for the second time. Before going back there, I vividly remembered how I felt on the first bus there, when I realized how awesome the holidays would be with those accessible public transports. Imagine this… you enter a room at a party, you take a drink, chose a place, and there, BAM! You are next to THE guy or girl, physically your type. Then, he or she starts to speak with you and you realize that you both are like-minded. That’s the moment, there! You are blown… a mix between joy and hope is in you now, that’s it. Love at first sight! With Berlin, it was definitely that, and the good side of it is that we will never break up.

When I went back to Berlin on the 17th of July, I was really looking forward to meeting again this city. Normally, the journey to Belin is 7 hours by train, with correspondence in Cologne. But the travel took us 34 hours. I can tell you that my love for Berlin was put to a hard test. Let me try to explain to you that journey without mixing everything.

I was traveling with one of my closest friends, and on that day, many European countries were facing important flood situations. My friend started her journey from Arlon to Brussels at 5 a.m. When she arrived at Arlon’s train station, no train was planned to leave. She had to take a bus to Liege, without knowing if she would have a train for sure, as that city hugely suffered from the consequences of the flood. While she was on the bus, the driver announced that the bus was only going to Tilff, because of the flood, a city I never heard of before. Fortunately, her brother was kind enough to pick her from there to Liege, and hope that there would be a train from there to Brussels. There was a train and she arrived at 11:15. Our departure was planned for 12:25, we left earlier. That was the beginning of the adventure. Because of the flood, there was no train leaving from Brussels to Cologne. We had to go to a Flemish city, then go to Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle) and take another train from there to Cologne and from there go to Berlin. Not that complicated right?

Except that when we arrived in Cologne after the assistant got me out of the train, my friend asked his colleague if there was any assistance to go to Berlin and the answer was clear and direct « No train to Berlin ». In my head, I was like « WHAT?! ». I went after him with one hundred things going through my mind, I was asking myself why they even let us take those trains… I explained the situation to the agent and he apologized for the insensitive answer. He advised us to go to the « information desk » to ask for assistance and a solution.

Now, I was on! Whenever I am in that mode, I am very focused and drive fast. As we were heading the « information desk », I was only concentrated on that, without looking at anything else. Then, I found it while my friend decided to ask an agent who was there, on our way and happy to help. He showed us the « info desk » wish was right in front of us.

There we were… in one of the very long queues. That could have been very long, therefore, when I saw an agent who seemed to have on him the assistants’ uniform, I asked him for assistance by using my « Bambi’s mode » eyes. He brought us to the man who showed us the « information desk » in front of us. That one took all the information and looked for solutions. Then he brought us back to the « info desk » and asked us to wait for him there. We will call him Johannes.

A few minutes after, another man came full of insurance… he asked us to follow him to take a train to Dortmund if I recall it well. We looked at each other, asked each other if we should follow him, even if we were told to wait there. We were lazy to explain everything to the man full of insurance. He seemed to know what he was doing. There we were, my friend and I, following that new guy. We took the lift to the platform and we were waiting for the train to come.

Suddenly, Johannes arrived on the platform, he was out of breath because he was running after us. We were surprised to see him again. He told us and to our man full of confidence, while catching his breath, that the train that we had to take was the one to Düsseldorf. And that was also where he was going as he was ending his service. He kindly offered to make the journey with us and make sure that we get assistance to Berlin from Düsseldorf.

During the journey, we got the pleasure to know a little about Johannes. The three of us, for different reasons, were having a complicated day and I am so grateful that we met him. When we arrived in Düsseldorf, he arranged the assistance and we parted ways. It was 6:35 p.m, we went to grab a meal. I was so stressed that I could only have few bites of my hotdog, then we went back to the info desk’s queue to ask for assistance that Johannes made a reservation for. Many trains were canceled but not ours. We went on the platform with a nice agent and we were waiting for the train to Berlin.

After fifteen minutes of waiting, the assistant came by and asked « The train still coming but it is coming late as there was an explosion on one of the lines. If it doesn’t come, would you consider spending a night in a hotel here ». The struggle was real, his question made me feel so upset… I am the type of person who loves seeing life positively and this question from this nice man was not what I needed. I asked, « Why are you saying that the train might not come even if they did not announce anything like this? We have to think positively sir ». He was kind enough not to contradict me and said « Yes, we have to think positive ». My friend was not buying my « thinking positive » thing. Around thirty minutes after, the train arrived. The stress was starting to go down.

The assistant starts to put me on the train when that guy, the train controller, seems to tell him in German that he cannot put me into that one. The agent seems to disagree with him and keeps on lifting the cage ramp. As I notice the conflict, I ask my friend to leave me there and go to Berlin alone, told her that I would follow later. She refused, I begged her, she refused. I am finally on the train with my friend. We are cheering, we are talking about our journey… Then, we notice that the train is not leaving. We started imagining things and my friend said « What if the mean guy comes and asks us to leave the train … » « We would NOT leave, we finally got here, we stay here, they would have to take me from my wheelchair », I answered. « The media might even get involved », I continued saying, « The headlines would say A BELGIAN DISABLED WOMAN WAS BRUTALLY TAKEN OFF A GERMAN TRAIN »… We were half-serious, half-joking. A few seconds later, the nice man came to ask us to leave the train, we were ready to resist, looked at each other, said « No, we are not », he said « Please »… desperate, we followed him. He was disappointed and explained that the train was canceled, therefore we might consider taking a hotel for the night.

Before finding a room in the Ibis hotel located into the station, we went to book the train assistance for the next morning. We were planning to leave at 8 a.m.

At 9:50 p.m, we were resting in a hotel in Düsseldorf. That was unexpected…

The next morning, at 5 a.m, my friend, a woman who is always calm and elegant, was running in her pajamas, to the reception, in the corridor of the hotel. Why? She needed to ask for the ambulance because I was feeling very bad. Remember, I told you that I was so stressed that I only ate few bites of my hotdog right? That was the result of that.

The ambulance man asked a few questions, made some « basic » analysis, then said that as they would have to take me to the hospital to receive the cure for the falling blood sugar. One of them said that he will take me into his arms to the car ambulance. If my mind was clear enough, I would certainly acknowledge the fact that my back was on the muscular torso of that man who I imagine being handsome. He was nice, asking me if I was alright. I could not speak, just nodded and groaned. Then, he put me on the litter and I was taken to the Marien Hospital Düsseldorf. There, they asked many questions to my friend who doesn’t know me that way, I think it wasn’t easy for her… Normally, we would expect them to ask her to leave the room, while they would proceed with a delicate action such as introducing a needle into my neck, as they were not finding veins on my arms, but they did not. That was very disturbing for her. I am sorry about that, I could have avoided putting us in that situation. While I was receiving treatment to increase the level of blood sugar, they suggested keeping me for at least three days. In my mind, I was like « Oooh nooo… Berlin is being taken away! »

Fortunately, I did not have to stay there, we went back to the hotel around 1 P.M, collected our belongings, and made the checkout.

Arround 3:15 P.M, we were on the train to Berlin-Spandau, because there was no direct train to Berlin- Hauptbahnhof.

We arrived at our final destination on the 18th July at 9 P.M.

In my head, I was like « Berlin, my love, here I am », but at the same time, I was afraid that I might have put this city on a pedestal, and that being there for the second time might make me face it.

We stayed at Novotel Suites Berlin City Potsdamer Platz, situated not far from the Checkpoint Charlie and next to the ruin of the Anhalter Bahnhof train station. When I made the choice of the hotel, my criteria, other than accessibility was: – Location: Not far from the central station, by public transport.

The rooms are spacious and I could open and close the bedroom door without help. The cardholders are at the right height for me. The chair put into the shower was a little hard to sit on for too long. As I am not able to lift my own body, with some adjustments such as an extra folding chair, it was okay to manage in this restroom, but I don’t know if that would be fine for someone who is a wheelchair user but is able to lift up their own body. On that evening we were too tired, physically and emotionally, to appréciate anything.

From day one, Berlin unveiled to me in so many ways that I can trust this city. I am finally not sure that I can find the right words to tell you how I felt there and how I feel now when I think about how I felt. I feel as if I found my « city soulmate ». I like how Berliners are, not cold neither warm, I can totally relate to that! I am that way, I even seem to be cold for some people. I find the configuration of the city, very practical and logical. It is a city that has to be felt, not described. There, I felt alive during a week, I partied on a rooftop, I could feel as being part of the world every single day, as being taken into account like anyone else. I visited museums, enter wherever I wanted to.

The only place that I did not enter was the Berliner Fernsehturm. People can get inside to have a panoramic view of Berlin. We went to another one, located in « Potsdamer Platz« . I discover local food like Schweinshaxe mit Sauerkraut und Knödel and not-so-local ones, but I ate well everywhere I went. Tell me, how can’t I fall in love again?

The journey was adventurous, but the stay worth it! Some say that you appreciate something better when it is hard to get. I usually disagree but maybe that was the case this time. Maybe Berlin was playing « hard to get ». Who knows…

I luv luuuuv Berlin and I had to share this with you.

Is there any city that you like? Tell me why and how …

I am looking forward to reading from you and I hope that life is treating you, and your loved ones, well lately.

Take care!

Petit Cyborg