Departure from Berlin Central Station on a Friday morning in February 2023, with minimal luggage and a cloth bag of supplies for the following eleven-hour train journey to Budapest. There was no precise plan where to go after that, just towards the Balkans and the sea.
My luggage was light because I no longer had a job or an apartment…
In my quest for professional and personal fulfilment, the colourful hustle and bustle of the city was often a pleasure and a distraction: music, dance and a stream of different people. But I increasingly missed the quality, the lasting feelings of happiness in Berlin’s musical and cultural landscape.
Of course it still exists, the serious, beautiful art and culture of Berlin, but it is dying out and with it my attachment to my home town.