Nostalgic, nostalgic, nostalgic

This is self-indulgent, if you dont feel like indulging me then wait for more Armenia or Portugal in the coming days depending on how the mood takes me.

If you're still with me now to really tear up an already shredded time-line. It is a year to the day since this photo was taken of a jetlagged person in the sun pointing:

Im not the only one blogging "This time last year in Berlin" this week but .... I arrived in Berlin with no idea what I would find. Spending the first couple of hours circling Zoo Station trying to find my cousin didn't exactly clarify matters (we assumed we'd recognise each other after 17 years - after all we're related!). I found a great city, a lot of "wow" moments and a lot of fun. Somehow I connected to it in a way I shouldnt have. Nothing will quite match that first sunny spring evening wandering round Kreuzberg cafe- and bar-hopping, trying to work out what exactly all those shops sold, loving all the 4-storey apartment buildings, communicating despite not speaking German at all, writing drunken and excited postcards to Paraburdoo, talking a million miles an hour over sushi and beer.

I think that week is one of the reasons Im here now, while I maintain (feebly) my overseas trip last year didnt change me as a person it certainly reminded me of a lot of things I am, and that I wanted to do or be. In that time I also recreated bonds to my cousins in this hemisphere, two very special people who I had lost a connection with in the 17 years since I left London (despite staying in semi-contact). This week contains another anniversary - its 10 months since I was in Carnegies eyeing up a girl - and when all is said and done this year hasnt ended up anything like I thought it would when I flew out of Perth with a belly full of curry and wishing Id taken it easy the previous Saturday night. It certainly hasn't turned out badly.

As if on cue this lobbed in my inbox last week from an online booking company to spark nostalgia:
Berlin is boom city, wildly energetic, creative and happening, the New York of the New Europe. Bombed to rubble after WWII and split by the wall for years, that blank hole at its heart has exploded into a shiny jangle of wild new buildings and life. Unter den Linden is once again the elegant boulevard of cafes it once was when Berlin was the arts and fun capital of the world, and suddenly is again. Everybody is going to Berlin, for every good reason, from the hippest DJs to the edgiest new art, theatre, fashion, architecture and nightlife. It buzzes. But there are also more parks, lakes, woodlands and museums to unwind in than you'll ever have time to enjoy. We have every kind of hotel for you, businessman or beer-lover, from cheap and cheerful to super slick, all at the lowest rates. Berlin rocks. Jump in.

Its all true. Berlin rocks. Jump in.