January 13. I have been back in the UK for exactly one month. And I've had enough. I'm leaving. Again.
I sound ungrateful and very anti-British by saying that, so let me clarify. I've had fun at home. It's great to hang out with my family and friends. It's great to be able to watch football in a pub at a decent hour. It was very nice to be back for my birthday, and great to be have turkey on Christmas. To be in Cardiff for New Year for the first time in over three years also meant a lot to me.
But after this initial happy period, things have now settled. You know your life is on the quiet side when going to the gym is the highlight of your day. People are rude, the city isn't pretty, it's expensive, and life is routine. I hate routine.
To snap out of this, three of us hotfooted it onto the continent - a great plus point of being located in Europe. i've seen a lot of my home continent, but not the capital of one of its most important countries. Hallo Berlin!
Different style of travel to the norm as well. Europe is superbly connected by trains, but also hosts very cheap airlines. Airlines that have to tell us to be quiet during the safety talk. Naughty. And airlines that inexplicably land 40 minutes early in a two hour flight. Just enough time for us to have our customary champagne on a plane. No hostels this time, either. We were living it up, having rented an apartment. Hey now.
And what an apartment. Just have a look for yourself, read that we paid €20 a night per person, and weep with jealousy. My bed was a particular high point - one of those circular ones that you sink into and never want to leave.
But leave we must, for we have Berlin's famous nightlife to explore. Not the clubs tonight - that was for the next two days. just the pubs in our area, to gently settle us in before hitting the tourist trail on Friday morning...
4am. I've just done a vodka shot provided to me by a very strange local called Malcolm, and a man is showing us some amateurish magic tricks. I managed to accidentally drop half of his card deck when his back was turned. 'What did you do' is the exclamation when he sees. My one-word reply? 'Magic'.
And a pretty magical start to our long weekend in Berlin, and a long weekend of me being back in my element as a traveller.
Love you all
Matt
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