In Germany The Tours Start On Time

21 August - Well, plans for doing one of the walking tours of Berlin fell through when I rocked up at Freidrichstrasse at 1pm to find that the tour wasn't there. Wasn't sure which direction they'd gone and after waiting for a bit realised that my best bet was to try again on the morrow. Did manage to squeeze in a bit of antique shopping (which may have contributed to me missing the tour) - but was defnitely there. After waiting an estimable amount of time tried to guess which way they'd be going in order to intercept them but they weren't at the Reichstag and I had no idea where they might be going so decided to skip it for a day - cruised around a little bit and was having a coffee at Keirin Café when along rolled Maka, a Melburnian i'd met in Dublin and had also heard about over the years who was just starting his first day working in Berlin - having nothing else to pressing for the next few hours I accepted his invitation to join him and I ended up doing some courier work in Berlin - over the four hours or so we were riding we only did two deliveries but they were deliveries the likes of which are not seen in Sydney or Vancouver - small documents but the distances were tremendous - completely off the map, in and out of the old boundaries and through heavily cobbled streets - if I'd been given jobs like that when I first started in Van I don't think i'd be where I am today (but philosophically speaking, destiny has delivered me a mixed lot in this business). Came home to more Italian cooking (those Italians) where we were joined by an American with a Russian name and also had another reunion in the evening from the incredibly friendly if somewhat incomprehensible Olly (not sure what his plans were in the evening but apparently I might be seeing him tomorrow night was the deduction that me and my sharp tongued host came to). Met some ex-pats in the park for a beer afterwards all of whom seemed most pleasant but they reminded me of, well, ex-pats. A breed unto themselves.