I’m now on Day 2 back in Germany. It must feel like a flashback to my solitary reader. It feels like just yesterday I was writing about Day 2 my last time here. Though that consisted of a lovely wedding, whereas this particular trip is about the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

After the obligatory staff dinner, I went to the hotel, quickly checked email, then attempted to get lost. Turns out it’s harder than one thinks. Granted I didn’t walk for miles and miles, but i took shortcuts, wandered onto streets that turned out to be relatively residential, and still… no dice. After walking for about an hour, I resigned myself to not finding anything cool to do in the neighborhood and found my way back, gathering supplies on the way. 

What a different experience this is, compared to the Frankfurt of summer. Then, I visited with friends, was entirely a tourist, and was on vacation. Now I’m attempting to squeeze in a few sights between work and getting some sleep. It’s autumn and the city is a bit quieter. It doesn’t smell so much like a city now that the heat of summer has gone; the scent of sweltering concrete has been replaced with the smell of rain on leaves as they change colour and fall to the ground. It’s a sort of freshness, but not what you’d think. Fall’s scent is the smell of things to come. It is certain and definitive. The capriciousness and liveliness are replaced with something more earthy and solid. 

Far from the romanticized Germany of summer, this is real, workaday life, but in another country. In a way I’d hoped it would be wholly disappointing by comparison. But I’m still enthralled with the type of stimulation I receive here–a new language, different culture, and lots more pork than I’m accustomed to.