I have call Heiko Erdmann, another friend of Jean-Paul Bottin's of Ghent, from Andres' bedroom. Heiko lives in Dresden. I introduce myself. Apparently, Jean-Paul told him I might call and he has been half-expecting me. How Jean-Paul knows him I have no idea, but JP told me Heiko is very kind and would definitely try to put me up if I pass through Dresden. Heiko invites me to stay with him. I decide to take the train there to save two days of riding. The afternoon train leaves at 3:15.
After breakfast, I pack my bags and stack them by the door for later. Andres dusts off his bicycle and goes riding with me through some of the parks. We pass the Berlin Zoo on our way back and I almost run over a tourist, just I was almost run over at the same place on my second day in town. Andres leaves me here to continue onto the hospital to begin his afternoon shift. I have one last meal at a sandwich shop before returning to Andres flat to load up my bags and leave Berlin for the last time.
Everything goes as planned until I return to Andres and find that I no longer have his spare key. I had it this morning when I left but at some point, perhaps while paying for my sandwich, I must have pulled the key out with it. Travel arrangements, bus, train or plane, make me anxious in the simplest situations, and when something like this happens I go into panic mode.
I hurry back to the sandwich shop as my time is running short, but I cannot find it there. I realize I must have dropped while pulling my camera out of my pocket to take a picture somewhere in the 17 km of cycling we did this morning. There is no way of finding it now. I once learned that the difference between crisis and despair is with crisis there is still hope. Well there is no hope in finding the key now and plans to catch the 3:35 to Dresden are out now out the window. I feel my heart sinking through the floor.
So I am back at Andres, slumped on the floor outside his door. I can see my bags stacked inside his door through the mail slot but there is no way to get to them, not until Andres comes home. Heiko’s phone number is in my bags so I cannot even call him to say I won’t be showing up. I feel like an ass.
It isn’t raining tonight and I have no reason to sit here for hours. I don’t have my guide books either, but I return to the tourist office to get ideas of what to do.
I decide to see the Berlin Museum with its famous treasures of antiquity including the Egyptian bust of Nefertiti and the recreated Istar Gate of ancient Babylon. I actually only have an hour and a half to view the attractions after I got there but it is an excellent distraction. I make a last visit to Mann-o-Meter that evening, a good place for passing the time watching men. I can’t quite get it out of my head that I shouldn’t be here tonight though, which spoils it a bit for me. I am also worried about Andres’ reaction when he gets home and finds me waiting yet again. For that reason, I don’t seem to have the same appeal with the men as I did three weeks ago. I chat briefly with a couple visitors but they obviously had other plans later in the evening and I don’t try to look for deeper connections.
I am waiting for Andres when he arrives home around 11:30. He is taken aback a little to see me waiting there for him. He looks more confused than upset. I apologize profusely, more than last night. I am watching to see if he is annoyed but I cannot really tell. He says he had not made any other plans, but he makes a phone call to a friend shortly after we get in. My embarrassment is hard to let go of and it makes our time together less intimate than last night. He suggests we go out for a drink and I agree. That helps me relax and back to his apartment we are affectionate again.
PHOTO 1: Istar Gate of ancient Babylon, Berlin Museum
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