Today...

I went to the awesome fruit and veg stall outside my regular haunt during my lunch break. Sometimes I just like to stand 2 to 3 metres away from the stall and just oggle at all the crazy colours, which I admit is a little strange, but fun nonetheless. Anyway, I fancied an apple, (you all know how much I love apples - see first ever blog post!) but in order to get a good look at the juicy specimens I had to actually get closer to the stall and that always freaks me out because I have this irrational fear that all Germans are ready to pounce on my language skills and reveal my true identity as a british wannabe (disclaimer: not a wannabe british, a British German wannabe) This fear is largely unfounded, bar a few grumpy, stuck-up individuals (who shall remain unnamed mainly because they spoke so fast  I never caught their name in the first place - yay!) So I was standing there, tentatively browsing the apple selection. I found the most colourful ones and asked the man if I could have just ONE of them. He chuckled (probably because no one buys just ONE apple in Germany) and told me to choose the one I wanted. I chose the fat, awkwardly shaped one because it reminded me of my teenage years and I sympathised with it's plight. I went to get my pennies out one by one, because in typical Ellie-fashion I was determined to pay for it all in coppers and the lovely man smiled at me and said 'als Geschenk'*

'WIRKLICH?' I replied. He grinned and nodded, then went to serve the next customer.

So I got a free apple.

As I walked away from the stall back towards the theatre with the red, shiny apple clasped firmly in my hand, the world seemed so full of sunshine. It was like a big spoonful of hope and been dolloped onto my lunchtime. I was so taken aback by this random act of kindness and completely in love with the goodness of human nature. 

*as a present/gift