Lost my Barbie

This entry is dedicated to my dear friend Barbara. She is funny, beautiful, intelligent, unique, a great cook, she understands me, we can talk about anything, we get on each others nerves, she's one of the few people in this world who can cheer me up when I'm in a mood, she knows not to talk to me first thing in the morning, she's an amazing roomie and travel buddy. She's Babara Dee.

I have had so much fun with her since she arrived in Vienna on July 29th. That night, I was in the Red Carpet Hostel's kitchen preparing some dinner when I hear a familiar sound. The sound of Barbie's baggage. (Our endearing term for our luggage) I opened the door to the kitchen and we saw each other, she had her J Lo hat on and I had pesto on my face, it had been at least two months since I had seen her, it was one of the best moments of my trip. We had dinner together and listened to the mix CD I had made for her before leaving on my adventure. We laughed like idiots about nothing in particular and soon Amber joined us. I was so happy at that moment to have such incredible friends in my life. Together we saw and experienced Vienna, Impulstanz, Budapest, Berlin, Potsdam and share so many wonderful things in Vancouver, Torino, and North Vancouver (our spot).

I shared an apartment with her here in Berlin, what a sweet little place it was, she threw me a birthday party even though she was sick as a dog and in a lot of pain. She made me a Happy Birthday sign out of free postcards and taped it to the wall, bought me a tart. "A tart for a tart" she said as she brought it into the dining room, I blew out the candles and thanked the world for Babe-ra and apple tarts .

She met a man named Marcus, but we can call him Ken. He loves her and she loves him. I am so happy for them both and couldn't have given up my Barbie to anyone else. We love her interesting meal combinations. Some meals to go down in history are the blueberry pancakes served medium rare, orange steamed fish with pesto pasta, and broccoli and shrimp with butternut squash soup. She told me a couple days ago that when we were living together in Zionskirche Platz, she would hear me wake up and start to read, she'd read for half an hour then come out to say good morning. She knew that I needed at least half an hour to be ok with facing the world on a new day. One day, everything we were saying to each other was horribly misunderstood and I thought we were going to have a fight, we were grumpy, we decided to go and see a movie, when the movie was over, we understood everything the other said and all was well again. Barb says Marcus and I are very similar, we judge the same way, we're grumpy in the mornings, we have similar cooking rules, we're German after all, and we both love Barbie to bits.

Yesterday we had to say goodbye, I met them both at Alexander Platz at 6:45 in the morning and rode with them to Tegel trying to distract us all from the horrible thing that was about to take place. She left on a jet plane to Vancouver to be in her sister's wedding. Marcus and I stayed here in Berlin with watery eyes, we don't know when she'll be able to come back but I just hope to hell it's as soon as possible.