I'm trying to ride my vacation buzz for as long as I can, which is one reason I've been quiet lately. The catalyst was a week-long, honest-to-god vacation in Berlin with no internet access and no cell phone, quite possibly a first for me in the 21st century (I've always had one or the other).

I enjoyed this trip much more than I thought I would (pictures here if you're interested). I think my generation was the last to grow up with the cold war, so my expectations were straight out of my high school textbooks. Reality turned out to be the exact opposite. The city is beautiful, schizophrenic, very green (at least at this time of the year), and interesting at every turn.

I highly recommend Berlin, even more so Berliners. Very nice people, so you can imagine that the librarians are even nicer. A big shout-out to our hosts, who were beyond kind and generous with their time and efforts. We hope to be back soon!