Berlin has been an exciting experience for my study abroad group and I!! We arrived on Jan. 9th(most of the day was spent traveling by plane) and departed on Jan. 13th. Personally, I have never traveled outside of the U.S, therefore I didn't exactly know what to expect. However, as soon as I saw all of the gorgeous buildings/churches/museums that our bus passed by on the first night, I immediately wanted to go explore. The four days we spent there were packed with group activities!
Tuesday consisted of a tour of the center of Berlin (provided by Jessie-a previous resident of the U.S, now living in Berlin) & a visit to the Topography of terror, a museum dedicated to World War 2. Most of the locations that we visited for the tour were memorials from World War 2, the Berlin cathedral, the city limit, and the parliament building for Berlin. At each stop, Jessie provided a brief history of the significance of location and explained how the operations of each one changed overtime during & after WW2.
On Wednesday, most of our group spent the afternoon at the Pergamon museum and I was fortunate to have the rest of the day to visit most of the museum island! My favorite exhibit was the one dedicated to Nerfertiti, the Egyptian queen. In the evening we attended a performance of the opera called Oceane. This was my very first time seeing an opera and I found the story to be unique, yet powerfully tragic.
Thursday was our last full day in Berlin and we had most of the day to ourselves to do as we wished. My choice of activity was to go to the Berlin Zoo. My professor informed me that it was highly rated, and I quickly learned of the reason. The zoo was massive and there seemed to be every kind of animal you could think of! We were lucky enough to get there during many of the animal's feeding times and it wasn't busy at all due to it being a weekday. In the evening, our group was able to see a performance by the iconic Berlin Philharmonic. I was absolutely blown away by the talents of the musicians & vocalists! Every song was beautiful and the sound filled the entire concert hall with a perfect blend of the instrumental & vocal talents of the orchestra.
The next day, we packed our things and traveled to Leipzig. I look forward to what we will experience next!
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