From Barcelona to Berlin, Winter 2013

After my first visit to Berlin, just before Christmas I was eager to get back. I felt I had found somewhere I might be able to call a second home and was already thinking of ways to split my time between there and Barcelona.

The second visit tempered my zeal a little just because I was all fired  up only to arrive and find the city hibernating, the only people doing anything, were mostly like myself, newly arrived or visiting.

I too was torn between trying to network and exploring, and the latter probably won out. I was walking 20-30 km a day in the snow taking pictures, exploring, completely content and oblivious to the cold.

I was staying in Neukölln and discovered Templehof, a vast expanse in the centre of the city, that entering made me feel slightly agoraphobic. I could not believe it was permitted to walk around what looked like a functioning airport and could not believe that an aircraft might not try to land as I did so.

I eventually go to meet some locals and my last Saturday evening with them was the best night out I have this year, a long evening that saw a small group of us going to a secretive basement club that played swing and jive music, where the crowd of hipsters and the beautiful, dropped their poses, gave into fun and even cracked a few smiles.