Words of Advice from a Silly American

You wouldn't be able to tell from our first day in Berlin, but I've actually been to Europe before. I went to Italy three years ago, so I thought I was ready to take on this trip. WRONG. I had a pretty interesting first day in Germany, and I want to give everyone a few tips so they don't make the same mistakes I did. Please follow them. It will make your landing here so much smoother. 1. Towel Dispensers don't work like they do in America! -Or at least they don't in airports. I got off the plane in Munich with one thought on my mind: Don't make it obvious you're an American. Well, I messed that one up no more than five minutes into my time in Europe. I went to the bathroom, and naturally washed my hands afterwards, like a clean individual. The only problem was, I couldn't figure out how to dry those clean hands. The towel dispenser already had a towel hanging out of it, so I went to pull it out. Wouldn't budge. In fact, it was stuck from the front AND the back of the dispenser. Something was clearly wrong. I turned to the German man next to me, and explained to him my problem. He kindly explained to me the dispenser was not in fact broken. Except not really. He grunted, wiped his hands on that towel, and walked away as the towel rotated and a clean section appeared for me to dry my hands on. Right. A rotating towel dispenser. Germany one, Silly American 0. 2. Bring a jacket everywhere you go! -It was nice out when we arrived at our hotel. So I thought, when we were to leave 20 minutes later for a day-long bike tour, that I would be fine in my collared shirt and jeans. WRONG AGAIN. I was shivering about five minutes after we stepped out the door, and I didn't stop until 10 at night (it was like noon when we left). Berlin weather changes quickly. And most of those times, it's getting colder or rainier. Bring a jacket with you, no matter where you're going or how nice the weather may seem. Because all of that could change in an instant. You could be sweating aside a charter bus one minute, and the next riding under the Brandenburg Gate wishing for nothing but a hot shower, when you should be enjoying the busker (street performer) on your right playing Bach on an accordion. That's all I have for now. All things considered, it has been a great first few days here in Germany. That bike tour was incredible, no matter how cold I was. We got to visit the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and everything in between while enjoying a ride through the city. Today, The Four Busketeers (that's my name for our group) had the opportunity to interview a street performer who made it big, got buy-one-get-one tickets for his world-famous show, and took a tour of the Olympic Grounds from the 1930's. It has been an awesome few days, and I can't wait to see what the rest of this trip has in store for us!