Wednesday December 1

Mark:

I have one job today. One really easy job, then I can chill for the rest of the day. Maybe get some writing done. And then see Maja tonight as I welcome her to Berlin. Three weeks after we said goodbye at Dublin airport. This job is to go out and find a free parking space for her to drive to. I’ve researched this and have seen that where we’re staying is right at the edge of paid parking. We can’t assume she can just find a parking space outside the zone as they might be really busy. So all I have to do is walk down the road and find areas that aren’t used so much, then it’s job done. It’s pretty cold so I really want to just nip out, confirm all is good then quickly retreat to the hostel. Possibly even back to bed for a while before lazily getting round to some writing when I feel like it. Maja’s due here around 7-8pm so I have absolutely loads of time.

This is how it actually plays out. I quickly find ‘free’ parking but it seems to be residents’s parking because I soon see a few cars have been clamped. And closer inspection shows me that all the unclamped cars are displaying some kind of green sticker. Oh. Not here then. Let’s walk a little further. Yep. I just keep seeing the same thing. So I guess these areas are free, so to speak, but only for residents who have this special green permit. Not at all what we’re looking for. I’ve heard about free parking lots so I decide I now have to ditch the street idea and go looking for them. 

I get on google maps and find a few and make myself a little route of them. It’s raining now. The temperature has dropped considerably and I’m starting to feel just a little chill through my three layers but I’m kinda OK. It’s all well and good knowing these areas exist. But again, I really do need to go there just to make sure they’re not wildly oversubscribed, or anything else. I brace myself and set off on the walk to the first one, a few kilometres away from where I am now. I get there and this ‘free’ parking space is a supermarket carpark, free as long as you’re doing your shopping. Balls. Let’s go to the next one. Another few kilometres away. Balls. The same thing. And again. And again. By this time, I’ve been walking five or six hours and Maja’s going to arrive soon. I have time to check out one more. There is another place I knew about this morning but it’s way out and I never really had it as an option, but it might have to be now but there’s no time to get out there and back by the time Maja arrives. Not even on the public transport. Or at least, I’m not going to risk that as I have no idea how it works yet, or even if it will go anywhere near the place in question. So I go and check this one last place out, thinking I really could do with this one working. And yep. Another supermarket. Balls, balls and balls. Sorry Maja. I couldn’t possibly have done more and I’ve failed. So now to call the hostel, which I know has parking available at a tenner a night. But no answer. So I have to get myself back there as quickly as possible and hope they can accommodate us. For this I manage to work out how the trams work and am mercifully able to save my legs for the journey back. Once on a tram, and so sitting in a warm place for the first time in eight hours, I check my route on an app which I know is always a few kilometres short for long walks. Damn. It’s clocked me at 18 kilometres which means I’ve done at least 20, and most likely one or two more. For no result. Not at all what I was planning for today. On the way back Maja calls, sympathises with my fruitless, heartbreaking quest, although she’s got problems of her own in destructively snowy Poland right now. I’m really glad that she’s not too put out by what I haven’t found and says yeah, sure. Let’s pay for the hostel and sort this out in a day or two. Then she makes a request that she’d really like to get on. She was talking about Wiener Schnitzel while we were still both in Ireland and now she’d really like to find such a place where we could have dinner together tonight. OK. I’ll get on it. 

Maja:

At 12 sharp the cars are able to leave the ferry. And I’m off on my own driving in a country I’ve never ever been to. I have my phone GPS on and follow the route going directly west almost reaching the shoreline of Poland and then it’ll go almost directly south. It’s supposed to take 6 hours and 38 minutes. Perfect. My mum’s been warning me about a snowstorm that’s been in southern Sweden, where it apparently snowed about 50 cm in the matter of only a couple of hours. I’ll have to watch out so I don’t get snowed in somewhere. As I drive through the Polish countryside, for the first time in my life I receive a text message from a number that I don’t recognise warning me about strong winds and snowfall possibly disrupting traffic. It’s unusual and quite impressive that they send out those things on text messages nowadays. I need to stop after a while and use the restroom, so I park at a little village in the middle of nowhere, and walk into the supermarket and ask one of the staff, ‘Excuse me, can I use the restroom?’ I’m met with total incomprehension. She starts talking to someone else, looking at me and it’s clear to see that they don’t speak any English at all. I gesture that I need to pee and say ‘Toilet.’ That seems to have done the trick. I get the harsh answer ‘Nyet.’ Balls. But they’re still talking and one girl seems to type something on her phone. She then shows me google translate that says ‘There’s a restroom next to the church,’ and points in a direction. OK, thank you very much. I buy some drinks and snacks and start walking in that direction. There is a huge church there, which I run around, but there’s no toilet or doors that look possible to open. Balls again. I’m in a hurry since I want to finish as much of the drive as possible before nightfall, and that’s about 4pm. I’d better continue on my way. I drive another three hours before I stop by a rest area by the highway. It’s pitch dark outside and the wind is so strong it feels like I’m going to blow away. It’s icy, cold and dark and I’m alone in the middle of nowhere far from home. Oh well, I guess that’s just how it is on the road. There’s going to be a lot of this. Well, back in the car and I finish the drive, arriving at the hostel in Berlin at 8 PM sharp. I call Mark and in a couple of minutes he comes outside. What strikes me is how short he is. I can forget these things. And how blond he is. He is BLONDE now, which feels so unfamiliar. I don’t know why I react so strongly, but it is amazing to meet him as we both explode in the happiest of smiles. Oh how I’ve missed him.

I’ve asked him to find us a good wienerschnitzel place for our celebratory dinner and after leaving my bags at the hostel we go to a really nice restaurant ordering wienerschnitzel. ‘Cheers, Mark. To our European tour, and to us!’

Mark:

Yes I am blonde now and Maja saw me through the process from Sweden so I have no idea what that’s all about. I guess that’s what an eight hour drive through the snow in Poland with no toilet breaks can do to a person. And yes, it is amazing and actually a tiny bit surreal to see her after three weeks apart. But we actually don’t have too much time to dwell in the street because her running car is right in the middle of the road and Maja makes it very clear she wants to be totally finished with the car and out of it as soon as possible so can we please go to the car park space. We do that, then back to the hostel for a quick bit of acclimatisation, then yes, it’s off to the wonderful restaurant I found which absolutely matches Maja’s requirements to the letter. She’s mystified as to how the hell I found it. Well, I google-mapped wienerschnitzel places, then went out and visited the few I found that were within walking distance and decided this was the best one. The walking part wasn’t the best fun, and I really hesitated, given my mildly wrecked state after 20 or so kilometres looking for a parking space. But then I thought of Maja struggling through the Polish snow for so long to get here, and thought I really had to, literally, go the extra mile. As a result, I was able to confirm and be totally confident in the wonderful place I introduced her to. It was absolutely worth it and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. For the record, it was Cafe Restaurant Jolesch in Freidrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Maja:

I am very happy you went the extra mile for me. That’s adorable. Thank you.

Mark:

As we talk, it becomes clear that all those other miles before that last extra one one weren’t at all necessary. Maja did actually tell me last week about the low emissions car sticker she had acquired – a green thing with a big number 4 printed in it – that allowed us to park in so many of the places that I walked right past thinking they were a no-no. She also sent me a picture of it, along with a document detailing parking rights contained within ownership. It dawns on me now that my dismissal of all those parking spaces was mostly based on assumption; in any area, as soon as I saw clamped vehicles, my two plus two equalled these spaces being for residents rather than simply free spaces for anyone with the low emissions permission. It’s also true that we were both dealing with a lot of little jobs and details last week and I’m making the defence that I didn’t quite put two and two together and that also, this one piece of information, along with all the other things running around my head at the time, simply slipped off the radar. I trust this is all completely understandable to Your Honour and esteemed members of the jury.