Busted in Berlin

These two. My dad and my daughter. Makes my heart happy.

My dad arrived for a visit in early December. After spending some time here at the Chateau and then a weekend in Bordeaux, we all hopped on a flight headed for Berlin. Unfortunately, we didn’t know what was headed for us: multiple trips daily to pharmacies, a middle-of-the-night house call from a doctor, and an eventual trip to the Emergency Room. As you can tell, this Berlin blog entry is going to be a real blast.

First, let me start by saying that I realize my last travel blog entry was all about being sick. And here we are again, talking about being sick. I promise that we are normally a very healthy little family. But there were a few months in the beginning of winter over here that really got us down. We were constantly passing around the gunk virus. We would be healthy in spurts and sick in spurts. But, that said, I promise we were all healthy when we set out on our travel adventure with my dad. It was only once we arrived that things went south.

Our first day in Berlin, we were all fine. We checked in late afternoon, which in Berlin in December apparently means at dusk. Y’all, let me tell you, it was definitely something getting used to the sun setting at 4:00 in the afternoon. Our apartment was decent but the neighborhood wasn’t exactly giving us a thrilling vibe. In retrospect, I think for tourism it was a good area. We ended up being very close to (one stop on the subway) Alexanderplatz, which was the host of several Christmas markets and lots of touristy things to do. But, for actual living and playing, the apartment was a bit of a downer. Regardless, we walked to an early dinner at Marinehause, which is described online as a rustic, maritime themed tavern and I would say that’s just about right. That said, it was actually a really good dinner. I wasn’t sure German food was going to be my jam, but I enjoyed it very much. Turns out I’m definitely a meat and potatoes kind of girl.

The calm before the storm. Look how happy we all are (German beer helps).

The next morning Paul and I got to take a run together, something that rarely happens nowadays. It was a bit cold and drizzly out, but we made the best of it trying to take in some sites before breakfast.

Once we got home, we started to notice that Nora was starting to sound pretty congested. Which is going to make this next part sound like we are the worst parents ever, but we decided to go out for a long family walk to see the East Side Gallery (the longest contiguous section of the Berlin Wall still standing). Nothing says brilliant like taking a congested kid out for a long walk in the cold rain, but nevertheless, it’s what we did. I have to say, seeing the Berlin Wall was something I will never forget. It was somber and inspiring at the same time. Knowing the dark history of the wall and the damage it caused was directly contrasted with the inspiring, whimsical, and light art that now decorates the wall. We had a good time walking and exploring.

East/West of the wall.

No more wars, no more walls, a united world.

It was that night that things fell apart. In the middle of the night Nora woke up coughing uncontrollably to the point of vomiting, but more worrying was the fever that was up close to 103, which for her is extremely high. THANK SWEET GOODNESS for our AirBnB host company. When we weren’t able to figure out the German doctor/pharmacy situation, we reached out to them well after midnight and one sweet angel arranged for a taxi and helped guide Paul to the pharmacy (more on German pharmacies in a bit) and when her condition worsened this angel of ours arranged to have a doctor come to the apartment and check Nora AT 2:00 IN THE MORNING! The doctor gave us the German form of ibuprofen and Nora was immediately calmed and able to go to sleep and I even managed to catch an hour or two of rest too.

The next day we were all dragging and opted to stay in for the day to watch and see how Nora was doing. She seemed to be significantly better. That is to say that her fever was gone and while she was still coughing quite a bit, she seemed to have energy and be on the upswing. So we decided to get out and explore in the evening. First we had an early dinner at the revolving restaurant atop the Berliner Fernsehturm, a TV tower standing as the tallest structure in Germany. As you can probably guess after reading this blog, this was a stretch for my fear of heights, but the fact that it was pretty foggy out and I couldn’t see that far down was helpful.

From there we walked around a bit and found ourselves a proper German Christmas market. Nora was dying to try ice skating, so off we went. Spoiler alert: she’s pretty terrible. But don’t tell her that. She thinks she has mastered the sport.

We had a great time Christmas-marketing it up. And then things went south again. Nora was up all night (ALL night) coughing. She just could not catch her breath. I sent Paul on his umpteenth pharmacy run of the trip. Rant time: pharmacies in Berlin SUCK. They carry nothing of any consequence. You want to get your fever down? Try a cold rag. You have sore throat? How about some honey? You have a cough? Here is some thyme. Thyme! My kid can’t breath and all you’ve got is herbs?!? Look, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we need to be pumping ourselves with antibiotics at every turn, but surely in this day and age can do better than freaking thyme. Over our few days in Berlin we visited countless pharmacies trying to plead with the pharmacists for something that might do the trick and the best we got was honey and thyme. On a side note, I now believe Nora has some sort of allergy or at least sensitivity to thyme. Every time I’d give her one of the thyme pills, she’d end up puking. Which really added to the fun we were having. Ugh.

A small sample of the stuff that didn’t do any good.

After hours of watching her cough without stop, unable to catch a real breath we decided to try to find an urgent care center. Which was no easy task considering it was a Sunday and we were in a foreign country where we couldn’t speak the language. We ended up at an Emergency Room. I know that sounds dramatic, and it was, but we just didn’t know what else to do. We knew we had to do something and couldn’t wait another day, especially since we were scheduled to travel to Prague on Monday. So, we showed up at the emergency room and I had to put on some theatrics to get her seen, but it was worth it. Luckily, the doctor was a little more willing to help than the pharmacists. He was actually really good with us and was willing to err on the side of caution and prescribe us some pretty strong antibiotics. I will always be in debt to that doctor for his kindness, thoroughness, and openness. Especially considering all they were facing with a big spike in Covid hitting. We were lucky to get seen and treated so well.

Luckily, the antibiotics did the trick and Nora started perking up pretty quickly.

So, Berlin was a bit of a bust. When I look back, even though we were able to do and see some pretty cool things, all I remember is the constant stress I was feeling the whole time. Nothing will make you second guess yourself and your ability to parent like a sick kid. Does anyone else feel that way? When Nora is sick I feel like I am incapable of making the right decision? Is it nothing? Is it something? Am I overreacting? Am I underreacting? Do I medicate or not medicate? And over and over, round and round. It’s tough being a parent and when they don’t feel well, it’s just plain hard.

I don’t know if we’ll make it back to Berlin again before this adventure is over. I think I would like to give it another try. But next time, I’ll bring my own meds!

Here are a few pictures of Nora actually having a great time in Berlin, because even though I’ve written about the worst of it, it wasn’t all bad.