My favourite moments in London were those in between the sights I had researched and planned for:
a) wandering down lanes of high-contrast townhouses, noticing the decor people had chosen to make their homes stand out (a Buddha here, a line of large ants there), spying signs warning of prosecuting the humans that let their dogs ‘foul the pavement’ (such fancy language, yet so punitive).
b) having a brief chat with an elderly, white man who mused that the exhibition he had just attended at Victoria & Albert had been less well attended than the exhibitions of his past, although the quality was still high.
c) I discovered Kave, a café that advertised artisanal coffee in Shepherd’s Bush, full-length windows giving it an open, airy feel, while warm, gold lights facing the eclectic artworks on the walls ladled on cosiness and charisma. My Toffee Latte here was delicious.
My stay in Berlin was unexpectedly social, what with an old friend meeting me for dinner. Susi, the nomad, was spending a year in the capital of her home country, and she was still discovering new sights among the museums, galleries, and other cultural hubs on offer. It was lovely to talk travel and international living with someone who had been all around the world, and was alive to the beauty of Europe.
I have long admired the caps on rent in places like Berlin and Hamburg, but to my surprise, a recent government had lifted Berlin’s, and now rents are comparable to Sydney’s: highly expensive.
Susi also taught me that pet-sitting was not the done thing in Botswana. The locals laughed at her (good-naturedly, I assume) when she described what she was doing there, because animals are seen as communal and wild there, only loosely kept by humans.
According to Susi, Danish people are protective of their social groups to the extent that they’re not open to new arrivals. She anticipated getting involved in a nomadic or immigrants’ group if she and her husband spend some time in Copenhagen. She felt that hygge was the secret of the Danes’ happiness, and I’m open to this insight as I don’t have enough experience with the country to know which ingredients decisively sway the Danes that way.
