Back in Berlin

A return “home” brings rest and reflection

I love to write, and I will do anything to avoid it.

In fact, needing to write something is one of the best ways I’ve found to do everything else I need to get done.

Now, two weeks after I arrived back in Berlin, everything else is done, or nearly-so. So I can’t avoid writing any longer.

Beyond that, the weather is absolutely dismal, cold and gray and wet. Summer in Berlin is unlike summer anywhere else I’ve lived. In fact, it’s just unlike summer, period. We did have one string of sunny days, including one day where the temperature reached nearly 100°F, for which Berlin is simply not prepared People were losing their minds, and also enjoying it.

I’m generally fine with the cold, however. Having spent the entire winter in very, very hot (and humid) Saigon, and after the last blistering week of my El Camino, a return to the cool, intermittently-sunny-at-best summer of Berlin has been a relief.

For the moment.