The first part of my trip is over. I’m back in Germany. It feels strange because I didn’t expect to be back so soon.

Like so many other things in this trip me visiting Germany again so soon was not part of the plan. But I am very happy I did.I had to leave the U.S. because my 90-day visa waiver expired. I hoped to extend it by going to Canada and re-entering the U.S. bus as I learned going to Canada doesn’t count as ‘leaving the U.S.’ in terms of visa issues. Interesting. Instead of cutting my trip short (skipping the West coast) and flying directly to Mexico, I decided to fly back to Germany for a little vacation.

And what can I say? It was a great decision. Sometimes you need to relax for a bit from all that tiresome traveling 🙂 After all the chaos of the past weeks (expiring visa, the freezing cold, canceled credit cards, Sony’s customer service from hell) all I needed was a proper bed to sleep in for a change and to warm up a little. It felt as if some part of me was still frozen stiff from that Canadian/Bostonian winter. But the nicest part of course was to see my friends and family again.
The first week I spent with my parents in my home town. I experienced the worst jet lag so far which affected me for well over a week. Seems like I also got a little sick. But I had time to finish a fun SciStyle project for a professor in Florida. Also, it was nice to meet my former school teachers Daniela & Tom as well as my aunt again.

Atari Lover in a Berlin café

Afterwards I went to Berlin, also for one week which I spent at Michael’s place (Dan had already left for Lisbon). Berlin is my favorite city in Germany by far. I found quite a few similarities between New York and Berin (Yes yes, I know New York is (a) much bigger and (b) the self-proclaimed center of the universe). I kept comparing the hipsters of Williamsburg & Bushwick in New York with those in Mitte & Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. I wonder if anyone else is interested in that comparison and wrote about it…Besides hipster-watching, I enjoyed spending time with Michael, discussing politics while cleaning all the mirrors in the flat. I caught up with Tobias during a 4-h coffee & cake session in Friedrichshain and of course also met Anja & Benoit. We had Burgers at a supposedly ‘in’ place but it turned out the place Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie dined was next door… When I realized that I wouldn’t be able to take the flight lesson Anja & Benoit generously sponsored me, I moved on to Heidelberg.
 

Neckarwiese – the perfect place to chill in summer.

With its perfect sunny weather Heidelberg was a blast. I stayed with Mai in Altstadt before moving to Wolle’s place for the last two days. I believe I have never before met so many people for coffee in such a short time. Coffeine overdose. Besides meeting the French gang from lab, Paul, Baybars, Dario, Olli, the mysterious K, Bogdan, Wolle and others (in this order) I also had the chance to catch up with several clients of mine and my tax advisor. The taxes have been a major worry for me for some time. So, I was very happy to have that sorted out. I went to two parties and – not all that surprising – fell asleep for several hours at one of them (it’s always important to live up to your reputation…). To complete the Heidelberg experience I managed to lose my debit card. But as usual it miraculously came back to me because the nice people from Studentenwerk who found it, contacted me through my still-valid email address which they had in their file from 9 years ago when I was registered there because I lived in one of their student dorms.
Finally I came back to my parents place, met my grand dad and left for Berlin. Tomorrow, I fly back to Boston and so the journey continues…