These four weeks have gone by in a flash.

Random thoughts on pros and cons, in no particular order:

Goodbye wide, open spaces – hallo densely populated Berlin with way too many cars – but with about 180 nationalities, and an ample supply of lakes and forests within easy reach.

Goodbye Wadden Sea,  an almost garbage- and litter-free World Heritage site. Hallo Berlin, giant pigsty.

Goodbye bracing North Sea air – hallo Berliner Luft.

Goodbye to saying moin, moi-iin, moin-moin (just like in the part of southern Denmark my mother was from), constantly the minute I leave my room. Hallo to a few long-standing neighbours who always say Guten Tag, and to quite a few newcomers, young people, who would not dream of ever acknowledging anybody else’s existence in any way.

Goodbye Corona-dictated rules and regulations – daily Covid tests, having to wear a mask at all times outside one’s own room, even while exercising, and restrictive mealtimes and annoying, albeit necessary, seating arrangements. Hallo to the other extreme – Berlin, where everybody acts like retards as if Corona never was.

Goodbye fresh fish- and seafood dishes to die (in those restaurants that are still open ….) . Hallo spicy food, restaurants from a hundred countries, and probably one of the best places in the world for vegetarian and vegan food. AND hallo to my own kitchen – and garlic, ginger and co. (normally a must for me for at least one meal a day) and the general access to healthy and tasty food. I can’t remember ever having been away from all that for more than a week or max. ten days.

Goodbye cocoon where all exercise facilities are under one roof, with a daily programme determined for you, and where you can walk around in gym clothes or a bathrobe. And where nobody cares how many breasts you have, if any at all. Hallo Berlin where fitness centres are still – to me – off limits, but where – it  has to be said – when it comes to dress code and appropriate number of breasts – it is a little bit like that there too.

Goodbye aquafitness, fitness room workouts and gymnastics (“Rückenschule”) – I shall miss you all, just as much as the Marnitz therapy sessions, not to mention the walks in surrounding nature right on the doorstep. It has all done wonders for my strength and mobility. Hallo trying to find the discipline to get as much exercise – both quantitatively and qualitatively on my own initiative, even with Gabi Fastner on youtube. Walks will most likely not be a problem. I am in several walking groups, including Berliner Wanderclub, and I also like walking by myself. I have still to decide whether those walks will be with or without camera. The biggest problem will be the absence of fitness machines close by. I am not ready to go to fitness centres in Berlin – and not only because of Corona and whichever pandemics bound to follow hot on its heels. I am thinking of buying a rowing machine, and of having to go all the way to Weißensee (which is the only place I have so far been able to find physiotherapists who work with the Marnitz method) twice a week.

Goodbye blissfully dark and quiet nights. Hallo …. well …. the European equivalent of the city that never sleeps.

And perhaps also goodbye to a time where “The Big C” has been prevalent, and hallo to “it” taking more of a back seat. Here, although the place does not look like a hospital or clinic, even indoors, “it” is present everywhere, and especially the number of young people here will be forever on my retina. There is not always an answer to why some people are affected by cancer (and why others are not) but if one has to look for some logic, one could probably say that I have paid for a lifetime of overindulgence, and decades of physical inactivity. But the women in her twenties diagnosed with breast cancer – and that number seems to be rising – … what have they done?

Goodbye three meals a day prepared by someone else (at noon a choice of no less than three cooked dishes every day). Hallo food shopping and cooking (healthier meals, especially in the carb department) and hallo again intermittent fasting 16:8 (for three reasons: 1) it makes losing weight and maintaining the ideal weight much easier, and 2) it makes it easier to plan the day when it only has to be broken up by two meals, and not least 3) it is part of a by now recognised strategy to avoid recurrence of hormone-positive cancer. Although the food at the clinic is good, well prepared, varied, and nicely presented, it is not conducive to weightloss or even -maintenance, but more to fattening people up, for example loaded with (mostly the wrong) carbohydrates. (A bit strange since I did not see anybody who needed fattening up in my four weeks there). And knowing to what extent sugar is like fertiliser for cancer, I was surprised to see a dessert on the buffet every day. Many people find it difficult to not eat dessert when it is right in front of them, so I would have thought it would be better to perhaps only offer desserts on weekends.

Goodbye (for me, after a while) challenging mealtimes. I am not used to having people stare at me and comment on my every move. Hallo morning coffee in peace and quiet with no expectation of constant, boring chitchat.