At the beginning of the summer, I really wanted to travel around Europe. I figured, since I was already on the continent, I might as well try to see as much of it as possible. For the first month and a half, I went somewhere new every single weekend—some cities in Germany, and Amsterdam. By the end of week 6, I was exhausted. The weekends are supposed to be a time of rest to recharge for the next week. Because I was traveling so much during the weekend, I didn’t get that time to actually rest. I had the last weekend of the program free (no program-excursions or class trips), but I decided against going to a new city. Instead, I invited a friend from Northwestern that was also in Germany for the summer, to come and visit Berlin. This was quite possibly the best choice I’ve made this summer.
On Friday, I made a list of all of the places I wanted to see while I was still in town, and made a goal to see every single one of them. During that last week, I saw the Berlin Wall Memorial, went to one of the largest (and best) Flea Markets in Berlin, saw the murals painted on East Side Gallery, finally went to a Biergarten, took a walk along the river to look at all the cool bridges, and walked around the city taking pictures of everything I wanted to remember. Berlin has so much to offer—from beautiful parks, historical sites, amazing food, and much much more—all within a few minutes from (my personal favorite) public transportation systems.
As I sit here writing this back home in Evanston, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t spend more time exploring the pockets of town that weren’t top tourist destinations. During the earlier weeks of the program, I kept telling myself I’d go see different Berlin neighborhoods after classes, but the reality was that I was too tired to actually go far from the dorms after a long day of class. This last week was the first week I’ve really seen Berlin, and I’m super grateful I took the time to see new parks and historical sites. Berlin, ich liebe dich.