Befriending Berlin

Liz, this one is for you. It was wondeful to see Danilo again. It's amazing to think that really, we only knew this person for a couple of weeks during our Cuba trip two and a half years ago, but within 5 minutes of seeing him it was back to the same dynamic again. The same crazy german with his bizarre sense of humor and incredibly good nature! It was fantastic and I hope that he comes to visit me soon.

On a side note, I was expecting the standard of living to be much higher in Germany than in Poland, so it was to my surprise that I discovered what a cheap flat in the former GDR is like. A coal burning oven to heat only the bedroom. A shower that gives 7 minutes of warm water and needs to be warmed up for 30 minutes to use. And a bathroom in the hallway with no heat, the same temperature inside as the winter day outside. Needless to say I didn't shower for the 4 days I was there and I smelled like a mixture of wet cat and kurrywurst by the end of it.

Yes, it's true. Germans love chocolate.