We rolled back into Germany after our two-month trip to America euphoric and cracked out. Someone, it seems, had stolen the entire night from us. When we’d left Newark, New Jersey, it had been late afternoon. When we arrived in Germany again just seven hours later, it was already late afternoon again.

So we cracked a few of what we’d been missing most—cheap, delicious German beers—and I went across the street to see if the trash had missed me. It had. So much in fact, that it had a little present waiting for me.