neighbourhood

The back street is lined with people smuggling vans and all sorts of possibly shifty behaviour. Virtually any hour you can go there and if its not raining someone will be standing around with beer. Staring at you as you pass.

The locals are certainly not afraid to stare you down unmercilessly, especially on the train... we got dragged off one yesterday by the train polizei for not validating our tickets correctly, I'm such a law-abiding citizen at heart. I hated it. Though we didn't get a fine.

It got cold proper yesterday with howling wind and a high of five, which the weatherman helpfully noted 'feels like minus one'. We also have little snowflakes appearing as early as tomorrow and delightful sleet.

We are having fun, despite our brushes with authority and hard as nails real-estate ladies. We have seen a few flats, had a couple of ridiculous german phone-calls and have high hopes for next week...