Just made it into Berlin: City of Arts and Culture.
Hostel Rating:
Staying at the Generator Hostel. Not bad, but it was very noisy, and the rooms were quite ordinary.. The breakfast was sufficient (not tasty but filling). Biggest draw: Located next to the Tube. The biggest downside: The WiFi was very slow and expensive.
I've been up for nearly 40 hours straight, and believe it or not, I'm ready to hit the town.
During the marathon-long hours on the Deutsche Bahn, reflecting on my life, I thought about how as a young boy from 4 to 8, I traveled extensively throughout southeast Asia.
No, it wasn't the same conditions, but it was the same life applications.
Born in Hong Kong, my family and I traveled on a sailboat throughout several exotic ports of call in pristine places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia. I have personally seen world markets and capitalism operate hand and foot from street vendors and hawkers in open-air markets caught in a rut and living day-by-day, hoping to make enough to bring home food for the family of four.
When I was 12-years old, my family and I immigrated to the US. I was shocked and unadjusted when we settled in a small town in Southeast Georgia.
Since then we have become US citizens and upon graduation from high school, I decided I needed to return to traveling around the world.
I joined the Navy when I was 17, fresh out of high school and risen from the far, hidden reaches of a small, country town named Darien, GA., where the biggest industry was shrimping and crabbing and even that was dying away. I wanted to join the Navy because it was my way out and also because after being raised on the sea and living on a 40-foot yawl for most of childhood existence, I was naturally drawn to it and its calm solitude.
That's when I joined the Navy, and now I am on the cusp of retirement.
Within a month, I would be an MBA student at George Washington University.
