change of pace in berlin

If someone had told me before I left New Zealand that the most relaxing part of my trip would be a 10-day visit to Berlin, I would have thought they were crazy, but that's exactly what my trip to Berlin was!

After spending nearly two months with essentially strangers (all very nice strangers, and ones who didn't stay strangers for long, but still) it was something of a relief to visit an old friend from New Zealand (well, she's not from New Zealand but I met her in NZ... Anyway...)

I'd decided a month or so earlier to make this trip of a couple of reasons - 1. Rhea is a great friend who I hadn't seen in nearly two years and 2. After spending the previous two months travelling every week or two weeks to a different place with a different host family, different colleagues and different students, I was pretty much exhausted. I loved the idea of being able to relax, sleep in, chill out, watch TV in English, and spend some quality time with great friend Rhea (and Anke).

I was greeted warmly at the airport by Anke which I really appreciated, to be honest I had always taken airport greetings for granted until recently, as a lot of my previous travel was to visit friends or family. After walking through arrivals gate after arrivals gate after arrivals gate with no one to greet me, it was so good to see a friendly face!

Having a beer on the balcony on my first night in Berlin

Rhea had made sure to stock the kitchen with Jo-friendly foods (CHICKEN HOW I MISSED YOU!!). We may have eaten chicken every night (sorry guys) and I was also super stoked with the English muffins and eggs which I made for breakfast every day.... It's the little things! Breakfast in Italy was always sweet, with biscuits and cakes on the breakfast table every day. Don't get me wrong, it was great but it was good to have something savoury.

I loved the food in Italy, but after nearly two months it was great to take a temporary break from pasta.

The next three days were spent sleeping late, watching TV (Orange is the New Black - great show) and just generally chilling out with Rhea and Anke and it was bliss! On my third day, I ventured out of the apartment with Rhea (she took the day off work) and we went for a bike ride / shopping / cheesecake hunting, tapas for dinner (very un-German but very, very good). I was still in chill-out mode for sure.

Photobooth fun in Berlin