Hello Berlin Hospitals

Life throws us curveballs – and Russ has had a difficult few days with his breathing – enough is enough, with the help of our Airbnb host we found the name of the hospital to go to.

Only a short Uber ride away. No long wait and with the ease of our Maltese ID and emergency medical cards, we were in the Triage within 30 minutes. The doctor was really great, but not a lung specialist, however he got all the necessary tests done; xrays, bloods etc and gave Russ a hit of oxygen and relaxants so that he could entertain everyone with his tractor snores while snoozing.

While all this was happening George and I took a walk –

Along the river, and graffitied streets of the local area, which our taxi driver had told us was very popular with tourists and students.

Evidence of the good times are these beer bottle tops embedded in the tar on the cobbled streets.

Into the town area, and graffiti and…

More graffiti and…

More graffiti, it sort of grows on you and becomes quite a part of the urbanscape.

We stumbled on a Turkish street market, which was fun, full of food aromas, George had to sample some of the local cuisine.

Fabric and sewing accessories were certainly the popular stalls, the Berliners must still sew a lot.

Dogs (waiting patiently) and their owners (and bikes) all out in the crowds.

And not to be forgotten there was more street art…

And truck art…

Even the vehicles are decorated with local talent.

We returned to the hospital after the designed 90 minutes allocated to find out Russ was being transferred to a specialist hospital to be assessed by a pulmonologist….which, to look at the positives, we can have a new set of eyes on the situation…

I travelled with Russ in the ambulance(only one passenger allowed)…miles away from where we are staying…George headed home to collect some supplies for Russ and navigate the train system to Russ’s new abode for the next couple of nights. (drunks and homeless people keeping him entertained)

Never get a bloke to do a women’s job! George duly appeared with all the supplies – undies/socks/t-shirt – but the dirty ones that need washing! Oops.

Russ has just seen a specialist – and she has a plan – in the meantime Russ has his en-suite room with a view and George and I are baching in the slums.