berlin laundry part 2

(continued)

rather anti-climatically, i spent my last day in berlin doing laundry.

the lone instruction my host left me was to launder and replace the sheets so the next guest / the family when they're in town, would have clean bedding when they reach the apartment. he suggested that i leave 1-2h to do this.

good thing i'm hyper-efficient and a little more kiasu than i care to admit. so i thought i'd do laundry first thing in the morning and then i'd have the rest of the day to explore more of the city before my late night flight. so i wake at 0730 and do the first load. incidentally, whoever had stayed in the apartment before me didn't do laundry because the sheets were used and i'd to change them when i arrived. so i was a little miffed that i'd two loads of laundry to do and it's not that i'm charitable or anything, i just didn't want my host to think i was a slob so it was more self-interest than altruism that prompted my industry. don't mind cleaning up after myself, just don't want to clean up after random person, for free! randomly, i'd probably make a half-decent cleaning lady, if given the opportunity. ok so i loaded the machine and set it according to the recommended settings (host had been kind enough to leave an english manual out, turned to the right page and indicated which program to use etc) and waited. two hours later, it was still on rinse. three hours later, it was spinning and only after four hours did it finally transition into dryer mode. by which time, i'd run out of things to do and was anxiously pacing the apartment before resignedly sitting in front of the machine and allowing myself to be hypnotised by the spinning drum. not fun.

when the first load was finally done, it was time to put in the second load. and i snuck to the bakery on the corner to buy lunch and walked around the neighbourhood to cool off but essentially i was held hostage by the washing machine, a prisoner of my own sense of responsibility.

and i thought i'd only be plagued by laundry woes in stockholm!