Berlin!

It's a wonderful city. I arrived on Friday night, a little tired from waking up at 5:30am (ugh). I flew into Frankfurt and then took an ICE train (high speed long distance train) to Berlin. The train ride was very pleasant. It's quiet, you can get pretty good food, and look out the window at the rolling green hillside. I was very surprised to see that it reminded me of California! Maybe that's just my homesickness though. But really, it reminded me of taking long drives in Northern California to my cousins' place in the woods. All of the houses, however, are a lot different. Europe has a typical farm house or structure - cream or bright white with red rooftops.

The S- and U-bahns (main subway and metro trains) are amazing here. Most of the day they run every 3 minutes, and at night and sundays every 10. Normally, I feel I have no sense of direction, but in Berlin, I have found it very easy to get around by train or by walking. In many respects I feel like I am in San Francisco, but it's bigger and with much better public transportation. There are all sorts of colorful people here, many of them friendly, and every building is different.

Last night I met with a knitting group that meets regularly at a cafe in Berlin. It was pretty nice to go and meet, even if I don't speak German. A few of the people there spoke english, however, so I was at least able to chat with them and get some names of a couple yarn shops. We all shared our knitting projects (I showed off my gloves and hat that I'd made a while ago) and gave feedback - one woman called my fuzzy turquoise gloves crazy! But I think this was a compliment. I was invited by Kim, who is a friend of Fabienne, who I'm going to stay with for the rest of my time here. Fabienne is a friend of my friend Matt, who met here at CCC in Berlin around August. Fun stuff - it's great to make foreign connections.

I've met quite a few cool people on this trip, given out my e-mail a few times, gotten a few more - I hope I can at least remember to keep contact when I get back, as at times I'm so bad at it. I think I will need to make better effort in the future.