After leaving dreary London to spend a some time in different parts of Germany, I was delighted to be welcomed to Berlin by a wonderful heatwave! My two days in the city were blessed with sunshine, creating a perfect summer atmosphere for locals and tourists alike.

The German capital is truly a city that never sleeps. As I wandered through suburban streets, every corner was heavily populated by punters of bars, cafes and coffeehouses which never seemed to close! Wherever you are in Berlin there is a prominent sense of liveliness and activity and the summer weather was the perfect catalyst for this.

One of the best things I did was to take a boat tour of the river Spree. It was a great day for such an excursion and hugely interesting to see parts of the city from a diffferent angle. Unfortunately, my rusty German didn't really manage to hold up and I had difficulty understanding many parts of the guide's commentary, but the day was so nice and the views so beautiful that it was still a great experience.

Moving onto Leipzig, I came here for the wedding of a close family friend. Although, again, I had trouble understanding the marriage service, it was still a lovely occasion and I could really feel the happiness from everyone there. At the party afterwards the selection of cakes and desserts was excellent - it had been organised so that people brought their own home-made dishes, definitely a cost-effective way to run things!

And then onto Bonn the next day for the final part of my trip. This city, the former capital, provided a stark contrast to Berlin. Although busy at times and in some places during the day, my nighttime wanderings were like walking in a ghost town. I wasn't staying in the centre, so that's probably why things seemed so sleepy, but it was nevertheless surprising to see how quiet everything was.

The main purpose of making this visit was to meet up with many international friends I had made at a German language learning course last summer; they were attending another similar programme, which because of the WYC I hadn't been able to join them on. However, it soon emerged that I was quite relieved to be able to sleep late while everyone else had to rise early in the mornings for class! In order to avoid the attentions of course 'Betreuers', many people were directed to my small room for evening entertainment after the harsh curfew for students of 7pm. This became a bit of a squeeze on space at times, but was still highly enjoyable.

These few days (and nights!) in Germany were a fantastic time. I am incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful, diverse group of people I can count as friends. The fact they come from so many different places is both positive and negative - on the good side, it's great to learn about how they live and discover other cultures; the bad thing is that my opportunities to meet with them are somewhat restricted because of location.