The thought struck me as I was crossing the road outside my hotel.
It returned when I was travelling around Berlin in an open-topped tourist bus.
It crystallised that evening when I was talking to my friend, M..., who had gained her licence in Germany, but did most of her early driving in Australia when touring the country soon after finishing High School.
The thing is that I was feeling as though I were living in a mirror, because everything traffic was happening the wrong way around. I would start into an empty lane, only to find it full in the other direction.
The bus would approach an impossible turn and go around on the "wrong" side of the road.
And M... asked, "How are you coping with the traffic, with everything on the wrong side?" She had experienced the same when she returned to Germany and had to change over to the right hand side again.
I think the most surprising thing was that I felt it so strongly while walking. Everything was just weird.
Still, I set out this fine morning, with general thoughts of heading for Potsdam.
However, just before I left, I received an SMS from M... so that I would have a contact number, but telling me she was in a poor reception area until after 4 pm, so there was little point in my calling. But my phone was again not sending SMSes, so I phoned just so she would know I had received her message, and e-mailed to explain. We had talked about catching up for coffee on Thursday, but I thought that this night would be better, to avoid problems with her work schedules and my departure.
As I walked towards Alexanderplatz railway station, I began thinking I might need to watch what I was doing and where I was in the late afternoon...
The little Nikon I bought at a remarkable discount at Argos was doing me a great service...
Berlin has more bridges than Venice and is certainly a city dominated by water.
I found steps to the river bank off one side of Grunerstraße, the road to Alexanderplatz.
This waterway is the Spreekanal.
Two homeless men had their matresses under the bridge.
I chatted to them briefly, and (of course) they cadged a few Euros from me.
In Sydney, I would expect homeless men to be
much more evidently sufferers of mental illness
or to be drug affected than these men were.
Entry door to the parish house and (I gather) minister's residence
for the nearby Nikolaikirche
They must have been short when this was built.
Note the umbrella hung on the door knob.
An old opening bridge over the Kanal
"Sperlingsgasse" would translate as Sparrowgate or Sparrow Lane.
I saw no sparrows, though.
Berliner Dom
Cathedral roof looming over the city...
...but dwarfed by the TV tower.
English tourists doing much the same as I was doing.
"Both inner medallions were created by Kurt Schumacher, born 6 May 1905,
murdered 22 Dec 1942, member of the antifascist resistance group,
Schulze Boysen-Harnack"
One of Schumacher's medallions
"Truth doesn't only hurt, it is worse than a life where you do not accept it."
Hmm...
Another view of the cathedral
Deutsches Historisches Museum: well worth the visit.
It was lunchtime. I decided that I didn't really have time for Potsdam as well, so I hopped onto a double-deck city tour bus.
From my vantage point, I couldn't see exactly where the edges of the bus were, but I often felt sure that we were bound to hit oncoming cars, particularly as they seemed to be on the wrong side of the road.
As I said, I felt like I was living in a mirror.
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