We won't be taken down

It was Monday. A usual Monday in December. Cold. Cloudy.
My life has been flat for the last years, I didn't find it interesting enough to be written in the blog.

It was that Monday. I went to work in the morning. Nothing special happened except me discovering some mistakes on the experiment data. Never. trust. your. computer.
Who likes Monday, anyway?

Whoosh. Fast forward to the afternoon. After my saxophone class I went to have dinner with Mr. Neighbour at the Christmas market not far from where I live. Well, Christmas market is one of the highlights of December. It made the cold winter bearable. Glühwein and potato puffs (with apple mousse) are things you must buy from the market, at least once.

Because I planned to leave Berlin for several days and by the time I was back, the market would be closed, Mr. Neighbour suggested that we had potato puffs there.  So, our favourite place was this particular stand with a little kitsch decoration. It looked like a night club in the 70s. They also played oldies and Christmas songs, which would stay in your ears for hours after leaving the place.

With potato puffs and glühwein on the table, the Christmas in Berlin was complete. It was a normal dinner, really, until several minutes later. We heard quite disturbing sound. Boom! The light chains were moving like crazy as if somebody was pulling and waving them. I told myself, "Maybe a Christmas tree fell down". The lights of the stand across the street was out.

I continued my dinner, although the urge to find out what really happened was there. One thing I learned is that to always stay away from any incident site. We never know what would happened. Two old women behind me walked outside to find out what happened. One came back and said that a truck ran into the market. I didn't take it seriously and told Mr. Neighbour that the two women were being paranoid by associating the incident with the one that had happened in Nice, France. Sirene was heard. Police or ambulance was arriving.

We finished the dinner as if nothing happened. While waiting on the line to return the glasses and plates, one security guy came in and ordered the stand to be closed. The owner didn't like it. The security guy kind of screamed, "What the heck? Some people are dead and you still want to continue opening this stand?"

We walked out the stand. Policemen were outside, asking people to leave and setting police line. I looked around, tables were broken. One stand which sold Christmas decorations wasn't in a good shape. It didn't stand straight anymore. I just wanted to go home. I had a bad feeling. I checked the Internet. Nothing about the incident has been reported yet.

Fifteen minutes later I was home. I turned the TV on. There it was. It was claimed as terrorist attack. Ten people were dead, around 40 were injured. Berlin was in emergency state. I got a goosebumps. My days would never be the same again.

* * *

Two months after the incident. Flowers and candles are still there to remember those who lost their lives. Walking through that place gives you different feeling now. That place will always be the witness that we won't be taken down by such a terror attack.