Righto, final day in Berlin...
This got a bit eventful! I was due to leave on the Friday but I'd caught wind of the fact that there was a carnival on over the weekend and I fancied checking it out so I managed to book an extra night at the hostel. I'd grouped up with these two Brazilian guys and a rather outspoken lesbian from Sydney. I'd just heard that someone at the hostel had been scammed out of €200 on a street game, so everyone was on edge a little more than normal, especially as it was a carnival with hundreds of people around. Needless to say, it was a really cool experience. Lots of different cultures in a big melting pot. There was some Capoira going on in one part, a funky reggae band somewhere else and countless stalls and interesting food. I checked out this one little stall that had some cool bits and bobs, including a particularly nice wallet, which I bought. We carried on enjoying and eventually made our way back to the hostel. There's a cash machine about 200m from the hostel entrance and I needed I get some cash to pay someone back as I'd needed to borrow some to buy the wallet. Somewhere in the 200m walk back to the hostel the wallet managed to jump from my pocket... Having just taken €150 out. I hadn't felt it drop because of course I had the other new wallet in my pocket and could feel that. I think it was about 10 minutes of having been back when I noticed. Fair play, almost everyone that was at the hostel came out with me, checking under bushes and in drains etc, but it was nowhere to be seen. I was really humbled and people were even offering to lend me money and just hand it back whenever - people who I'd met just hours before. I was convinced I'd have to head back to the uk to sort it all out.
So anyway, I sat quietly in a corner for the next few hours, people buying me drinks and trying to cheer me up but it was all just too much,I couldn't believe I'd been so daft, especially having been so conscious of everything up until now.
The hostel owners were really sympathetic aswell, offering me to stay to try and sort it out, but I'd already got the next few destinations booked and didn't want to waste the deposits. You know when you lost ability of rational thought...? Yeah... That.
I was just about coming to terms with it when the guy behind the bar ran up to me, phone in hand, asking for my name. I duly told him and he just smiled "we've found it". The whole place erupted. Literally everyone came and hugged me, high fives, smiles, cheers. I was nearly in tears! I literally couldn't believe it. I had to jump in a taxi to the other side of town to a police station, where the officer couldn't have had a smile any bigger himself. He could see what it meant. Then it twigged... I'd had a key card for the hostel in the wallet and they'd put two and two together and decided to try and ring... There must've been half a dozen people in the chain from me losing it to that phone call... Everyone just trying to help. By the time I'd got back to the hostel everyone was still in full swing. I bought pretty much everyone a drink and made some amazing friends in the process. The whole thing had taken about 5 years off my life but what a story...
I couldn't find out who, or where it had been found, but someone out there was kind enough to do the right thing. Absolutely nothing had moved, and the cash was still just sat there.
I know it sounds like I've lost a lot, what with the keys I mentioned in yesterday's blog, but in my defence someone had picked mine up by mistake so technically I didn't lose them, per se. :-)That's at least one of my lives used up for this trip though and I don't intend to lose anymore! Phew!
On to Dresden!