And so to the next eagerly awaited instalment of my exciting Berlin adventures:

On Thursday, Em & I caught the train to Potsdam to meet Kiri at her university, which is housed in a fabulous old palace from Kaiser Friedrich's time. We went for lunch with her in the student canteen and stuffed our faces for very little money with very yummy food (grilled trout followed by lashings of semolina pudding), simply by pretending to be students there. Leaving Kiri to go to a physics lecture, we worked off some of our dinner by walking all through the palace gardens to Sanssouci Palace and then into the historic heart of Potsdam, to the Dutch quarter and the Russian quarter.

Then it started to snow in a BIG way - serious flakes and gusty winds that left me coated in white within about thirty seconds. So we ducked into a tram and then caught a bus back to the uni, from where we walked with Kiri back to the station and went back to Berlin.

The suburban trains in Berlin have the coolest, cheesiest jingle for when they're about to arrive in a station! It seems to vary according to which state of Germany you're in too; there were two similar but distinct little march tunes, one in Berlin and the other in Brandenburg (of which Potsdam is capital).

In the evening Em & I met at Caro's and we went for a massive Chinese banquet in a restaurant just south of Caro's area of town. Our company for the evening was Mireia & David, the Catalan/Swiss couple I know through dearest Lisa in Dublin and who I last saw in Ireland in 2004. We had a lovely evening, first over dinner and then over cocktails at a nearby bar.

The men's toilets in this bar were displaying a healthy level of pre-World Cup excitement: the toilet freshener balls were hung in a football net that was sat in each urinal, and punters could score goal after goal whilst relieving themselves, provided their aim was true!

The snow was not letting off, so the nighttime streets of Berlin had a Christmasy feel once more as we finally made our way home. We left Mireia & David at the underground, and then I accompanied Em back to Kiri's on the tram before making my own way by S-Bahn to Caro's.

Friday was a relaxed day, for a change! The weather was still foul, so neither Em nor I fancied going out in it. We agreed just to meet up in the evening at Caro's for dinner. Lasse & his girlfriend Jule had offered to cook dinner for us all at Caro's, seeing as Caro couldn't go out because of her gammy leg.

In the afternoon, Anton, Caro & I ate pelmeny, those Russian tortellini that I first tried in H's flat in Volgograd all those years ago. Yum! Slathered in sour cream and accompanied by a very garlicky salad, they were simply divine. And we got stuck into the beer that I bought that morning.

By six o'clock, Em & Kiri had arrived, as had Lasse & Jule, so we all sat around Caro's kitchen table and had a lovely time. We ate spaghetti with a home-made pesto with hazelnuts which Lasse was very proud of - and rightly so. After a few hours of conversation we left Anton & Caro at home and the five of us headed to a bar called Trinkteufel (drink devil) in Kreuzberg, which is a somewhat seedy area of town with a history of race riots and some truly awful architecture - but a huge pub/bar scene. Many hours of amusing conversation ensued, and I finally got home at 4.30am.

Saturday was my last day in Berlin - how the time had flown! I packed, chatted, ate a small lunch with Caro & Anton, said my goodbyes (hopefully I'll see them soon) and then headed to Kiri's, where I had another small lunch before saying my goodbyes again and assisting Emily with her humungous luggage to Schoenefeld airport, where we had an appalling coffee and then flew to Munich.

We headed straight to Michaela's house, quickly got changed, and headed straight out again to the party in Hoehenkirchen where I had arranged to meet up with my ex E.ON colleague and partner in South Africa travels crime Veronika, who is now living in Switzerland.

But a funny thing happened on the way there: I'd gone and left our bloody train ticket at home, hadn't I! Having been ticket inspected on the train from the airport, I suppose my brain just assumed I wouldn't need the ticket or something. But how wrong I was. At least the two guys who caught me were friendly. And I won't have to pay the whole EUR40 fine because I do have a ticket, it's just not on me.

Imagine my amusement when we were checked AGAIN on the train back to Perlach at one in the morning!! I just told the dude I already had the fine papers, and he didn't even bother to check them over. I get the feeling he didn't really want to be doing his job that night.

On Sunday I dropped Em at the Pinakothek gallery and headed up to see my new flat in Schwabing. Yes, folks, I've found somewhere to live! My mate Marcus is moving to Karlsruhe, so I've decided to move into his place. It's pretty central and pretty cheap, compared to other places I've seen. And there's room for guests!! (Hint!!)

Then, I met with Em and took her into the English Garden for lunch. We walked across the frozen lake to the restaurant. There were hordes of people about! It seems the weather had been hideous on Friday & Saturday, so today's calm and sunny weather was to be fully enjoyed by all.

After walking the length of the park back into town, we went for another dose of modern art at the Pinakothek der Moderne, where we saw roomfuls of Andy Warhol and a bunch of other stuff that we recognised from our time in Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof modern art gallery. Same old same old, but at least here there were some nice Impressionists on display, including some delightful Kandinskys and a few Picassos.

All cultured up again, we headed back to Michaela's and had a quiet evening of sitting & chatting. It was strange for me to see Em next to Michaela at the table. They really look similar to me, so it was almost like having two of each of them there. Freaky. But cool.

And so along came Monday. A bit of shopping here & there, and it was time to accompany Em to the airport for her to begin her long journey home to Melbourne. We gave ourselves time to check in without stress - which is a good job, because there was some sort of admin issue with her ticket that took several bouts of queueing to resolve - and still have a final coffee. And then she was gone.

There ends a fabulous week of adventure and reunion with friends.