Berlin | April 2024

I got to take a trip out of the country for work. The EHRA conference was in Berlin, Germany and I got to attend the sessions to learn about goings on.

Friday/Saturday

I left at 8pm Friday night and was hopeful that I would sleep on the plane. That did not happen… I couldn’t get comfy at all. I read a little bit and then watched some random TV shows on the plane until landing. I had a 5ish hour layover in Amsterdam so I grabbed some lunch and walked around to kill time. I read my book and worked on a chapter I’m writing for a text book. My flight, of course, got a little delayed but finally was able to board and head to Berlin.

I got to the hotel and grabbed food at the restaurant next door. We use American Express as the business credit card… and people do not like to accept that. I was trying to check out for food to take back to my room but my card wasn’t working but the message was in German. I was in my Medtronic sweatshirt, a mess after a full day of traveling, but thankfully a sales rep from my company happened to be behind me in line and covered me.

I got to my room at the Dorint and couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on…. and set my food on the desk to figure it out and my food toppled onto the floor and I lost more than half of my dinner on the carpet. I ate and read a little and fell asleep almost instantly.

Sunday

Sunday morning, the work events started bright and early at 7am. They had a pre conference meeting and then we all headed over to the conference center for the first sessions of the day. I went to so many sessions and took so many notes. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We grabbed a drink in the hotel bar and then met with some other coworkers to Uber over to a delicious vegan restaurant called Vegang.

Monday

Monday we were up early again to head to the first sessions of the day by 830. The hotel breakfast was so good. It was such a great spread, they even had a giant honeycomb to take from… We bussed over and went to sessions, wandered around the posters and booths, and had homemade stroop waffles – SO GOOD.

There was a lunch session that I thought I was going to get trampled.. They were handing out boxed lunches but only had so many, so it was a stampede to get in the doors when it opened. It was a basic, cold cheese sandwich, and apple and a snickers… not worth that stress!

I had to head back to the hotel and miss the last session to call into a meeting for work. After my meeting, we all met downstairs and hung out for a bit until we went to a Lebanese restaurant, Spichernstr. It was wonderful. There was another vegetarian in the group so we got a bunch of vegetarian appetizers and split them.

We walked back to the hotel after dinner and the rest of the work folks were coming back from a different meeting. We all walked over to a bar and listened to some music and hung out until almost 1245 am! I got back and FaceTimed the kiddos quickly then took a bath and read for a little bit before falling asleep way too late.

Tuesday

Tuesday was the last day of the conference and I wanted to get a run in Berlin before leaving, so I woke up at 6am to get a few miles. Waking up was nooooot fun, but I figured I would be tired no matter what so might as well get some miles in and feel better. I made it to the Tiergarten and it was so lovely! I ran about 3.75 miles and then got ready to head over to the conference center. The breakfast was, once again, delicious and I loved the coffee machine!

I attended a couple sessions and then had to head over to the airport to catch my flight to the next leg of this trip!

It was a great conference. I learned a lot and made some good connections with people I work with! I would have loved to explore Berlin a little more, but maybe I’ll get to come back for vacation some day 🙂