Maybe not during the ride, but taking a 

train

requires more effort in my opinion. You have to plan ahead and sometimes you might arrive between a trough when there are no trains for awhile and you have to sit there waiting.

You also have to be considerate of other people, like you may need to give up a seat for a older person or a pregnant woman. You might be sharing a standing-pole and have to make sure you're close enough to grab it but not too close to the other people. You need to make sure you don't stare at someone and make them feel uncomfortable.

But perhaps i'm describing more of the local train rather than a longer commute one that you seem to be describing.

But i do believe the effort I listed above makes the train enjoyable in a different way than the car. It makes you feel connected to something larger because you have to integrate yourself into it.

WIth the car it's just get in and go when you want. That has it's advantages too but if i were to have to pick just one I'd pick the train so long as it was as accessible as it is in a place like 

Berlin

. Of course that's not the case in much of the states.

Sweet to hear that you are in Berlin. Do you have a long term lease there or is this a temporary stay? I know about the betahouse remotely. I remember when i was in Berlin -- before i was an "actual" developer and suffered from imposter syndrome -- i wanted to go to that

coworking space

so bad. But i thought it would be filled with real developers and designers and they would intimidate me so i never went. 

I actually have much fond memories tied to Prenzlauerberg. 

I'm almost certain that's where a restaurant called 

Zucker Fee

was that was one of my and my girlfriend's favorites. I wonder if it's still there.

So which metro stop do you live near by?

When i stayed there in the 

summer

of 

2016

it was by 

Thielplatz

 


you should consider meeting up with 

jack

. he's also in 

Berlin

 

"Be careful where you let your roots grow" or "a rolling stone gathers no moss"?

Both.

I've had discussions about how often some midwesterner college grads move post school, driven by job/school destinations.

In a way you get to think that maybe you aren't even moving... because moving requires you to have lived somewhere. In a way when i read this i imagine you as someone who has moved seven times but someone who has settled down and rooted zero.

I for the first time after post-graduation feel like I have rooted.  

And you're completely right when you say no place has it all and it's not the place that makes the man. I reckon in 

Berlin

right now there are plenty of made-men who feel at ease with who they are. It doesn't matter if their neighborhood might not have the best x, y, or z. It's more about them.

Now there's limits to this. When i stop along some gas station towns on my drives to 

Michigan

I often think that although the place doesn't make the man, it can neglect to nurture him. I wouldn't thrive in such places.

I look forward to the day you and 

drewbaca_

might visit me and my new life in 

Bloomington, IN

. 

I once was able to tell you my favorite memory or even memories. But lately I've grown to think of memories more as weather and terrain.

As in I used to think that the perfect terrain was mountains in the sun. And then I thought it was mountains in the snow while being huddled inside a quaint cabin.

Once I thought the perfect terrain was coastal, dry beaches. 

The list goes on and on, but since then I've come to just think that I couldn't pick one as my favorite. I like them all. I love the space like desert of 

Utah

and I am blown away by the green urban scape of 

Berlin

. 

These days such great memories come from so many different wellsprings. And I can't point down to where they happen. Although you are right that they always are connected to people. 

Pinging 

keni

  cause I wonder what her thoughts are on this. 

As I write this I'm starting to realize that the best memories in hindsight are always connected to people. But sometimes I get thinking that the phase I'm currently in in the moment are best when I'm alone. I think my 30s will be based on figuring out this dichotomy. Maybe not figuring, but exploring.

Do grocery stores close on Sundays? I remember that being a thing in many parts of

Germany

so long as you weren't in an ultra major city like 

Berlin