Teresa, who's really into tuberculosis, created the majority my itinerary in Berlin, where she's living and working on a Ph.D in immunology.
I was introduced to Teresa by Kuba, one of my Couchsurfers from early September. Kuba asked his friends in the city for advice on it and she was one of three that provided some. Both she and Kuba had studied at UNCC. Both are Polish. Both assumed I was as well. That's solidarity.
Teresa and I had dinner at on my second last night in town. Had I not missed my flight earlier today, we wouldn't have had the opportunity. We couldn't coordinate our schedules in the prior week. I wouldn't have been able to thank her in person for writing out a sprawling list of non-touristy things to do.
After we met up in her neighborhood, I thanked her by introducing her to somewhere I'd been she yet hadn't: W - Der Imbiss, which I'd wandered into last week, an Indian/vegetarian restaurant with an appreciably subversive logo, the McDonald's golden arches, upside down in black and white. An €11 thali here is enough for two people. The €20 version will nearly kill them. Surviving that, we went to Prater Garten for a beer.