Dora and I sat across from each other, respectfully “socially distanced”. I was hungry.

“Hmm.. Can you catch??!”

“Yes! I’m good at ball sports!”

“Ok, here goes!” She tossed over a ham and cheese sandwiched in aluminum foil that she had packed. YUM. Later, some coffee in a jug, and a carton of milk. And some of her brother’s leftover chocolate birthday cake!

I caught each in turn, dropping nothing into the river that separated us.

For you see, we were on opposite banks of a tributary. A tributary which defines the border between Germany and the Czech Republic.

Dora had woken up that morning in Bavaria. She rented a car, drove three hours to a spot we had pre-picked along the border using GoogleMaps, parked as close as she could to the spot, and trudged through privately owned property with tall grasses, close to where I promised I would be. Soon she found herself lost in a forest and shouting my name again and again, “Valentina! Where are you?” No cell signal, so she couldn’t be certain I would make it. Already I was 10 minutes late. But for good reason.

That same morning I had woken up in Brno, Czech Republic. I rented a car, drove four hours to the Czech side of that same spot, and found some sketchy parking area. I embarked on a half-hour trek through some unmarked dense back woods, including averting a flooded road and crossing a putrid dammed stream (I decided my excuse for being late was pretty good). Eventually I broke free to good worn paths, gazing around, inhaling many deep breaths of strongly-scented pine forest, enjoying the lovely aromas of the fresh cuts completely alone. And yes, only mildly scared I might get abducted.

GoogleMaps didn’t fail either of us. Eventually I poked through wooded spiderwebs to identify some idiosyncratic man-made markers to prevent me getting lost on the way back, I crossed a couple more tiny streams, and starting hearing my name faintly…

“Valentina… Where are you…”

“… HHHHEEEERE I AM DORAAAA !!!!!!!!!”

This was a moment of heightened emotion, which I definitely managed to capture on my iPhone.

We hadn’t seen each other in years, I think. Yet there we were! Both covid-quarantined in different countries that weren’t our homes. Both by accident. And we proceeded to have what felt like a secretive, Soviet-style illicit meeting – this was back when borders between even EU countries were still closed.

It had been Dora’s brilliant idea to pick a day, pick a spot along the border, and see each other in person. I had not seen a single physical friend from my “real” life in literally months. I loved her idea and instantly agreed to it. She wasn’t sure we would succeeded but wanted to give it a try. Our three-hour long catch up was among the best moments of my entire shutdown.

It was also the first time Dora brought up Berlin.

She thought we should both move there! Meanwhile I had no real life in Brno, and as European countries were opening up it seemed shrewd to strategically pick a new one to make home. I mentioned my fear of turning 40, as well as an ancient idea I once noodled on — to get myself dating again by writing a blog about dating 30 men in 30 days.

Her eyes widened.

We could do it together. In Berlin. “Oh!” Her eyes widened even further. “I even have the perfect husband for you!!!”

Soooo let’s see if the readers agree: Orlando is indeed tall, handsome, extremely fit, educated, a digital nomad, loves hiking, a triathlete, a physics phd, former consultant, owns his own business, older and wiser than me… (Not to mention with a pseudonym like Orlando, he must be perfect!)

She went on further: “We should, all three of us, go vacation together somewhere in the Mediterranean to celebrate your 40th birthday! We can get an airbnb and be digital nomads together! And before that, you and I will move to Berlin together and do 30 dates in 30 days!”

What could I say? I said yes!

And so it was. Weeks later, we would commit to the idea, soon afterwards diving into our new Berlin lives. We both broke the news to our respective “home” networks, and we moved. And 30d/30d happened. And we celebrated my 40th in Zurich. And made our way quickly down to Sicily.

And there, I got my “first date” with Orlando…. Which went, well……..

Who knew all this could be sparked by a single international socially-distanced Soviet-style river-border-separated lunch among two long-time female friends from grad school?

To be continued!