Relocating to Berlin: Goodbyeee

When you add up all of the sleepless nights, the panic attacks, the upset stomachs, the moments when you believe that you are making the biggest mistake of your entire life, you get to the point when almost everything you own - including your house - has been sold, you have quit your job, you have withdrawn your child from school.  All you have left in the world is your family, your life's savings, and a plane ticket. 

On July 23, 2013, that is all I had left.

To be overly dramatic, I was reminded of my own ancestors who came to the United States under similar circumstances.  They too were leaving behind all they knew; their home; all their friends; most of their family; to start a new life in a new country where they didn't know the culture and they didn't know the language.  Of course, we have certain advantages now that my ancestors did not.  We had been to Berlin before many times.  We have ample professional skills and enough money to live comfortably until we get settled in.  And best of all, we have a really top-notch relocation adviser.  That, and our voyage wouldn't last several weeks confined to Steerage.

Although, we were booked to fly coach through Newark.  So that is the rough modern equivalent.

And so, with one suitcase and one carry-on bag each - one of which containing the heavily sedated cat - we locked up our house for the last time and hit the road to Baltimore, where we would begin the first leg of our journey.

Of course, any time a trip goes through Newark, you can rely on something going wrong.  And we were not disappointed.  Immediately upon checking in, we were informed that our flight from Baltimore to Newark would be delayed by at least one hour.  We had a two hour layover in Newark, so we were already cutting things pretty fine.  And if prior experience was any guide, this one hour delay could turn into a cancelled flight in the blink of an eye.  We would have nowhere to go if we could not make our connection in Newark, and with a cat in tow, we could not be assured of finding a hotel that would take us in.

Visions of running for the Acela train from Baltimore to Newark ran through our heads as we tried to come up with alternatives.  If we left the airport right now, we might just make it in time.  But we would have to leave all of our luggage behind.  It was not an appealing option.

But fate smiled on us that day.  The weather briefly cleared.  Our flight to Newark was assigned a very small window through which to fly.  And, after six months of planning, we were finally off.

Baltimore to Newark was otherwise fairly ordinary.  We had adequate time in Newark to find our departing gate to Berlin, and to use the restrooms, although not to get a drink to help calm us down for the next leg of the journey.  Newark to Berlin was similarly uneventful, although sleep on the red-eye flight was fitful at best.  Even the cat, whose kitty Valium had worn off long ago, seemed surprisingly mellow and content with her new adventure.

And on the morning of July 24, 2013, we finally touched down at Berlin's Tegel Airport.

We quickly retrieved our bags and passed through Tegel's remarkably casual Customs and immigration line.  Our cat's paperwork, painstakingly assembled and certified by my wife, was barely glanced at.  Ellis Island, it certainly wasn't.  But at least it was quick, relatively tuberculosis free (as far as we could tell), and we didn't have to change our names.

We were met at the airport by our relocation adviser, who immediately whisked us to her office to sign several dozen forms relating to banking, schools for our daughter, immigration, residency, work permits, and health care.  And from there we were dropped off at our hotel, where we would stay until our apartment would become available on July 27.

And through all of this, what was our first impression upon arriving in Berlin?  My God, it's hot!!!!  We arrived just at the beginning of over a week of 90+ degree temperatures (that's 32+ degrees to my non-American readers), with temperatures hitting almost 100 (38!!!!) for a couple of days, and almost nobody here has air conditioning.

But after all we had gone through, we weren't complaining. . . well, not much anyway.

Relocating to Berlin: Getting There

Berlin is a surprisingly difficult city to fly to.  I know this because today I booked the final flight to Berlin for me, my wife, my daughter, and our cat. 

The main thing that makes Berlin difficult to fly to is that it has really crappy airports that can't handle large intercontinental aircraft.  They have been building a massive international airport that would live up to Berlin's status as a major world capital since 2006.  It was originally supposed to have opened in 2010.  Because of a wide burning swath of engineering and bureaucratic incompetence, Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt  International Airport will be lucky if it opens some time in 2014.  In the meantime, Berlin is left with two ancient airports, Tegel (opened in 1948 for the Berlin Airlift) and Schönefeld (opened in 1934) that together struggle to keep up with the demands of European travelers - never mind intercontinental travelers.  The most typical way of getting to Berlin from the United States is to fly to a major European hub city (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Copenhagen, etc.), and then to fly a small or medium sized commuter plane into Berlin.

I will be flying between my present home in Washington, DC and my future home in Berlin twice in July.  The first flight was originally going through Moscow.  That is approximately 1,140 miles out of my way.  Fortunately, I was able to find a flight through Brussels, which is more or less between my origin and my destination.  The second flight had a few more interesting options.  The first option was to fly from Washington to Istanbul, Turkey, and then on to Berlin.  That is approximately 1,370 miles out of my way.  The second option was to go through Copenhagen, Denmark, which is only a stone's throw from Berlin.  Things were looking better.

The final option, and the one that I chose, was that rarest of rarities: a direct non-stop flight from the United States to Berlin - albeit on a relatively small plane flying at the furthest extent of its operational range. 

"Why Peter, it's a miracle!"  I hear you saying.  And indeed you would be right, if it weren't for one thing.

This rare direct non-stop flight to Berlin leaves out of Newark Liberty International Airport.

Newark Liberty International Airport and I have something of a history.  Twice in my life, I have completely given up on flying and have rented a car instead to get to my destination.  The first time was when I was threatened with being snowed into Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport, and so I drove to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in order to get home.  The second time was on a return trip from Berlin that had the misfortune of stopping in Newark on the way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

An interesting thing they don't tell you about Newark's airport when you schedule flights through there is that only the truly lucky leave from there within a day or two of their originally scheduled departure time.  As I understand it, this is because the airlines have scheduled their arrivals and departures so densely that if a flight somehow misses its slot to take off, it has to go to the end of a very long and always increasing queue of other planes that have also missed their takeoff slots.  Of course, arriving planes can't circle the airport forever, so they receive priority for any open slots that may appear over departing planes.  On this particular layover in Newark from Berlin to Pittsburgh, we sat through more than half a dozen delays that added up to more than six hours, before we finally gave up and drove the rest of the way.

And so, despite my previous blood oath to avoid Newark at any cost, our final trip from the United States leaves from there.  I suppose there must be some sort of perverse poetry in that.