I'm alive!

Apologies for the extended absence - internet access is less than reliable in campgrounds, I've learned. We spent the past couple of weeks living in a tent, tooling around Scandinavia and having a great time! European campgrounds are very liveable - clean showers, kitchens where you can wash up your dishes, courteous co-campers. I was expecting it to be like Australian campgrounds, full of drunk backpackers and people with TVs and stereos up loud all night, but it was nothing like that. Dead quiet after 10pm, and lovely neighbours everywhere we went. It's a great way to travel! And economical - I couldn't believe the prices in Norway. The week we spent there would have broken the bank if we had stayed in hotels and eaten in restaurants. And why would you go to the most beautiful place on earth (sorry Sydney and Colorado!) to sleep inside?

After this post, I'll go back in time and post pics from our travels, in chronological order. It's so much fun, looking through them again, and I can't believe we're already a month into our adventure!

But here we are, happily ensconced in our flat in Berlin. We arrived last Friday, and I'm only just getting used to the fact that I don't have to pack up our tent every morning.:) I'm loving being in one place - it's nice to figure out a public transport system knowing that I'll use that knowledge again very soon (as opposed to making my brain learn something it won't ever need again). Mark says that all this thinking and learning new stuff is making my brain sturdier and less prone to dementia - so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I'm not entirely certain why every place I go is in the middle of a heat wave, but I'm getting quite a tan (as you'll see from the pictures, when I post them!). It was nice in Norway, where we had sunny days, cool nights, and no rain. We were talking to people at the places we camped, many of whom were heading home without having seen a single sunny day. Until they met me, of course.:)

So here we are in our lovely, unairconditioned flat, and we haven't seen a day with temperatures under 30 degrees yet (and some 35 or 36 degree days!). I should be grateful and soak up the sun, because I'm told that when the weather turns I'll be kicking myself for wishing for coolth.

We're on the fifth floor of our building, with no elevator. I knew that when I took the place - I thought, we're already on the fourth floor at home in Sydney, what's one more? I didn't take into account that high ceilings make for a longer climb! I should be skinny by now, with all the walking and sweating and climbing stairs. But I suppose the beer, potatoes and sausage cancel out the exercise. I guess I'm breaking even...

Anyway, we've been getting out and about a lot, and I'm already in love with Berlin. It's a beautiful, walkable city (heatwave notwithstanding), we're in a great, central location, and all is good. More posts to come very soon!