Steglitz

To go back home from campus, I take about 3 trains. On the last train, the stop before mine is in the center of a district of Berlin called Steglitz. It's usually bustling with shoppers and people at little cafes, and so I decided to get off there and walk around, then walk the rest of the way home. Steglitz was beautiful, and I found a cheap shoe store (although I refrained from buying more shoes...). Then I began my long journey home, which I assumed would be fairly quick and painless, just a nice 30-45 minute walk.

Well, rather shortly I noticed that the streets weren't straight as I had assumed, but curved and sort of zig-zagged around, so I started following my basic intuition as to where my house was. Mistake number 1. Then I noticed a park, and since I had been looking for parks near my house (and thinking that I was near my house) I made a "short" detour into the park. The problem with the park was, that it kept looking like it ended. I would get to a street and cross it, then realize that the park continued on the other side of the street. I cross a river twice, somewhat realizing that I didn't recall a river anywhere near my neighborhood. Then I saw the train go by and had the brilliant idea of following the train line. I kept walking, and although I recognized street names I had no idea if I was going the right direction or not. Finally I saw a bus stop. Germany is a wonderful place, in that the bus stops all have maps. Once I saw the map, I realized the following:


So, I hopped on a bus to go back to my section of Berlin. Whoops! Then, I missed my stop on the bus and had to walk back a couple of stops, but all's well that ends well! Now I know where the park is and I know that it's a monster of a park. It's a nice place to get lost in actually, as long as I go the right direction once I exit the grassy fields.