“I still keep a suitcase in Berlin” – Marlene Dietrich

In August, we travelled to Berlin to celebrate the Journalist’s 30th birthday. Berlin. Before going, so many people told me I’d love it, that I started to worry it couldn’t possibly live up to the expectations I had. I did. And so much more. The people in Berlin are just so cool. The graffiti, the run-down buildings, the shops all ooze the kind of couldn’t-care-less that London just doesn’t manage to achieve for all its trying. And it isn’t pretentious. It’s friendly, welcoming; it allows you to feel cool, too.
We didn’t spend a lot of time seeing the sights, instead using our time to drink and eat in the company of friends, and wander the streets taking photos and pointing out those things that people who live there probably no longer see. We did, however, go along to the Jewish Museum, the architecture of which far outweighs the information you might find in there. A beautiful -awesome – building. The Garden of Exile is one which no one should miss. A spiritual experience. I wanted to sit in there for hours and write and write and write.

We rented bikes to cycle round the city. Ten of us, in a row; cars giving way, pedestrians patiently tolerating our hooligan ways. Adults should cycle with their friends more often, I was reminded of my teenage days – the freedom, the silliness, the wind in your hair as your friends do wheelies up front, hold each other’s hands as they cycle; go off road down grassy slopes near crashing into one another.

Simple fun. Life should be more full of it.