In Berlin

Iäm quite liking it here - the city has a very open architecture and layout, vast areas of greenspace, and the people seem pretty laidback and friendly. There have been complete strangers who smiled at me or started conversations who weren't even other tourists! (Or shopkeepers.) I'm glad I visited Prague, but Repton's comment to some other frisbee people we happened to run into that it was 'impressive but also oppressive' strikes me as pretty valid.

This place also Does public transport underground train lines, overground train lines, trams, buses, and they#re also pretty friendly to cyclists. And dogs. Iäve seen a whole bunch of dogs around, always on leads or close control of their owner, and they go on trains and buses and bicycles (the latter in carry baskets) just like anyone else. (In Prague, too - one theatre we went to had a sign saying that dogs were welcome to come into the auditorium.) Iäve yet to see a single solitary live cat that wasnät on a poster or a pottery mug - I assume they#re liked, or they wouldnät show up in advertising, but only as apartment pets, maybe?

Itäs still Hot, although a bit easier to catch a breeze. I got my first sunburn yesterday on a bike tour despite three applications of sunscreen, because I just kept sweating it off. Today has felt a bit easier, although that may have been because we went out to Potsdam, a smaller nearby and highly decorative town that used to be chocful of 'royal residences# and we hung out on a boat tour and the truely enormous park of the Sanssouci palace. My current goal is to find a swimming pool that is open in the evening and nearby, and hopefully wonät do that nude bathing thing (first place I checked, does, and Iäm shy.)

Apologies for the horrid typing, am using a European keyboard and some of the keys arenät where I expect them and messing with mz touch typing.

Take care,

Stephanie