I was meeting Sofia again after a year. I had first run into her in Vienna. I had been sad when she moved to Berlin to be with her girlfriend and ditch the eight-hour-long train ride she had to take almost every month. We were seated in a café called Diskreet, where most of the staff were Australian. The café was full and noisy – it was rush hour for an early brunch. As I talked with Sofia about her fears and her hopes, we had to lean toward each other to hear our own conversation. It is one of...