Well, I’ve officially been back in Germany for a month now! Spent the past weeks wracking up highlights of returning to Berlin, like the Halloween celebration — although is there really a big difference between Berlin’s normal weirdness vs holiday weirdness? In both cases, the subways are full of impressive costumes and walking thriftstore advertisements.

Also of note, Berlin is easily the most vegan-friendly city I’ve ever visited. Even the infamous German fastfood, döner kebab, has a vegan version — and yes, it’s called a “vöner.” Did I seek out a delicious vöner recently? Why yes, I did. And it was amazing.

Coming from the US (particularly the our-states-are-enormous Western side), it’s always a surprise to remember that Europe is so close together. One of my classes had an excursion to Kassel recently, and looking at a map later, I realized we had travelled over halfway across the entire country. I could have just kept going and ended up in Belgium. Coming from the US, where you can drive for eight hours without crossing any state borders, it’s a shock to realized how close everything is here.

Cue the reminder that I could fly for a weekend getaway to Naples. Land o’ pizza, sunshine, and picturesque seaside towns.

Cats and scoots, is there any duo more iconic of island life.

Unexpected: an entire room of vending machines, aka Poseidon’s lair of machine coffee and paninis.

Meanwhile, walking across the island of Procida…

Sunset and ciao’s all around as we returned to the city, where we promptly found an enormous, elaborate, and beautiful…….shopping mall.

After the weekend filled with sunshine and friends, it was hard to motivate a return to Berlin. But there are more highlights coming up, including American Thanksgiving next week and a short return to Italy at the end of the month. TBC…

Heyyyy PS: Do you live in the US and/or follow any amount of news? If so, you’ve probably heard about the terrible fire in California. My kickass cousins had recently begun renovating their new homestead in Paradise, CA. Krista is a midwife, and Claudio is building a DIY YouTube channel.

They made it out safely from the Camp Fire along with their dogs and cat, but they lost their new home and Claudio’s entire workshop. Anything you can donate will help them get back on their feet and move forward: https://www.gofundme.com/homestead-hopefuls-fire-relief

Tons of love and stay safe, team!