I’ve never lived anywhere else except Los Angeles. The San Fernando Valley, for the first twenty six years of my life, and then onward south where I now currently reside. Coastal, sunny. Comforted by the presence of either mountains or the Pacific, either close by or farther away, always in view.
In Germany, the world is mostly flat and verdant and without a large body of water to affect cloud movements. Clouds as far as the eye can see, which I can no longer trust, because I have no context for that kind of visible distance. These clouds start to layer into a pastiche, giving rich textures and layers to every time of day, and continually changing as you drive towards them. One summer morning specifically, when the sun was already high in the air and continued to loiter throughout the day, its reflection peeked through the troposphere, adding warm complementary tones to the beautiful, multilayered grey that was omnipresent.
I’ve never seen anything like it. After being used to sunsets and islands and clouds that move swiftly over the ocean, these clouds with no urgency were a welcome change of pace.