The 66th thing I love about living in Berlin…

A little bit of home a continent away.

While out shopping for new shoes at the mall only a few miles from our Berlin apartment, I happened to look at the window display at Hollister.

And smiled. There, right in front of me, was a (supposedly) live feed of the ocean in Huntington Beach, California–otherwise known as my hometown.

While I doubted the feed was actually live (it would still have been dark back in CA at that time) or even actually of Huntington Beach (it showed only water, not coastline), just standing there for a few moments to watch the undulation of the ocean was enough of a connection to keep that smile on my face the whole rest of the day.

And as a bonus, I even found the exact style of short black boots I was looking for at another store the next floor up.

Advertisement

The 65th thing I love about living in Berlin…

Berlin books and Berlin authors

One of the most wonderful things about moving to Berlin has been reading books written about the city and by writers from the city.

One of my absolute favorites so far is My Berlin Kitchen by German-Italian-American author Luisa Weiss (aka The Wednesday Chef). I was so lucky to hear her speak (and get my book signed!) at a Dialogue Books Literary Lounge Event at the legendary Soho House Berlin, and I instantly fell in love with her words and her style as she read to the overfilled room.

The 64th thing I love about living in Berlin…

Do you see what I hear?

An answer to my Tuesday morning musical mystery!

I’ll save you the suspense right now and say that none — that’s right, not a single one — of my theories was anywhere close to  correct. I’ll save you even more suspense by telling you that I found the answer to my question as soon as I stepped out of our courtyard gate the following Tuesday morning. It turns out I didn’t need to walk down the block to investigate after all!

While a small part of me was disappointed that the quest I’d been anticipating all week was over mere seconds after it began, the rest of me was at first gobsmacked (how obvious!) and then delighted by the truth I at last found.

Have you guessed what I was unable to figure out on my own, even after posts like this?