first day.. relearning my Berlin

It seems in the two months I was away, my city has changed - alot!

The weather has turned and I am now required to wear three layers to go outdoors, the sky is an angry grey and the leaves don't have long left on their branches.
My kids have grown up and have developed entirely new characters. Jakob started school and is now a 'big boy' and my little paulina is speaking so much more but is feeling a little left out and wants to start school too.. wait until she becomes the middle child in a few days!

Berlin is on alert... (but isn't the whole world??) A change is that on all the boards at the U-bahn stations, there is a constant alert warning everyone to look out for suspicious packages, to not let a single owner-less bag go unannounced. There are new 'anti-terror' numbers to call and new ways to make us all the more scared...

So on my first day back, hunting for a kettle and a pillow, I head back to my old stomping ground of Kreuzberg. I am currently reading a really interesting book.. and was happily reading it in the train on the way there until I realised people were looking at the cover... I guess I really should have considered it a little better before I held up a book with the word "ARABS and MUSLIMS" in big red letters on the cover :) I will surely get used to being here again soon!

I am happy in my apartment, am happy back with my family, am happy back in this insane city.