SecondWhen I came to Berlin in the summer, someone said, “Don’t you want to go to the beach?” No, I want to drink beer be late (Street shop) And marvel at the different architectures that suddenly appeared. But more and more heat waves are appearing.
If required, I can romanticize even these: everyone is carefree, dirty (even dirtier than usual) and not working (even dirtier than usual). I always ride my bike through Alexanderplatz, thinking, It’s like a desert, But I met someone I know on the bike path more than once Make the scene more psychedelic. Nevertheless, I am afraid of heat waves, as if they are worse than they are now. “They will have to use air conditioning,” I and the other Americans murmured. Unfortunately, the only real respite is to go to the beach.
A few years ago, my boyfriend Jeffrey and I tried to circumvent an offensive prediction by going to a lake near Potsdam-a prediction that produced the hottest temperature in Berlin’s history. To reach the lake, we had to ride a bicycle from Potsdam Central Station for about 25 minutes, and when we missed our turn, it became 45 minutes. (Whose fault is this? I can’t tell.) My speed on the bike, initially ecstatic, began to decline to protest the weather. When we finally arrived, I ran into a small rock. Because I walked too slowly, I fell off the bike.
Hearing that I was no longer following him, Jeffrey turned around. At first he was angry, then he was worried. The word later used to describe what happened on my knee was “crater.” “Don’t look at it,” he said, then hugged me into the shade. I have found a way to overcome the heat: create a problem that can be overcome but is more important than the heat. I hardly notice now because I am covered in blood and small rocks.
Various authorities came. When the paramedics measured my blood pressure and found that my blood pressure was disturbingly low, Jeffrey was speaking sternly to a policeman who tried to fine us because cycling is prohibited on the road where I crashed.
In the ambulance, I revealed that for whatever intent and purpose, I do not have health insurance. The nursing staff looked serious. “It will cost 300 or 400 euros.”
“Haha!” I replied. “I’m from the United States.” This is also the reason why I had to wait 7 hours in the emergency room, although there is a clear policy to give priority to European patients, who think they may have heat stroke, and not come from anyone outside the EU with any disease. People, but without any meaningful air conditioning. In the end, Jeffrey had to speak harshly to a nurse.
“What did you tell her?” I asked him when he would be back.
“I told them that you have been lying here for seven hours, the wound is very dirty, and you can’t go to the toilet, because every time you stand up, the bandage will bleed and you will almost faint.”
“How do you say open wounds in German?”
“Open wound. “
When I returned to Berlin the next day, the weather was still very hot. I limped to see the doctor, asked me to change my bandages, and begged for antibiotics. The Germans hate to prescribe this medicine. The city doctor explained that antibiotics are the reason for the very bad things in the world. When I cringed, the city doctor skillfully removed the gauze. He checked the stitches and frowned. “Did the young doctor do it?” he asked, and gave me antibiotics.
Nevertheless, I find it difficult to be depressed. I finally have a reason to go to the expensive vegetarian restaurant on the corner: this is the farthest place I can go. When I stretched my legs to the sidewalk to eat pea mousse, I looked hopefully at the weather app on my phone. Instead of trying very hard to avoid tripping the teenagers who are speeding by on electric scooters, I reflected on what I already knew about the real situation in Berlin: you should never try to leave.
