14. Foreign Exposure: The Social Climber Abroad

As with the first book in this series, I felt that I was a bit older than the target audience. I enjoyed this one quite a bit more, though. Perhaps it was the setting of first Berlin and then London. I do love London. Like the first book, this one definitely took advantage of its European location. I also loved the descriptions of Mimi's job at a gossip newspaper.

Berlin Nightlife

The train finally pulled into our station, and [Dagmar and I] stepped out into Ostbahnhof, a succession of brightly lit streets thrumming with elegant couples and teenage girls in short, expensive-looking dresses. On every street corner, men stood behind little carts, peddling aromatic pretzels. Though Mom and the Meyerson-Cullens were still in the same city, or at least one of its unprepossessing suburbs, right then I felt very far away from them, delightfully so.

The scenery grew dingier as we neared Friedrichshain, where nineteenth-century limestone buildings gave way to tan apartment complexes and shabby minimarkets. We passed a few places that seemed sool, including the Lee Harvey Oswald Bar, which was painted red and white and filled with monitors playing a loop of Kennedy's assassination. "That's where all the Americans conspire," Dagmar said with a note of disgust.

A few blocks later, I flipped for the Astro-Bar, a little hole in the wall with ancient computers hanging from the ceiling. "Look!" I said, peering inside. "This is so geeky - I love it! Can we go in?"