Forward Motion: Berlin

So Holy Week is a very big deal in Spain. There are somber processions and fiestas and stores close and people don't work. It is apparently crazy. I say apparently because I left the country for Holy Week. I ended up not missing out on much because it rained a lot in Granada and so there really weren't any processions. Instead, I went with my roommate, Becky, to Berlin, Prague and Munich. I really don't know why I picked any of these places but it ended up being one of my favorite trips I have taken since arriving in Europe at the end of August last year. Whoah. those words look weird..

First stop was Berlin. What a city. Absolutely incredible. The city is very modern due to the fact it was pretty much completely destroyed during WWII but I found the mix of history and new beginnings so interesting. I was literally in a walking history book. I used to not give history a second thought but when you are standing in front of stuff you have only seen in history books or heard stories about it's hard to ignore it.

We spent 3.5 days walking through the streets of Berlin and enjoying the night life and the relative safeness of the city. We stayed in a hostel that had at one point been an old warehouse. It was literally around the corner from the East Side Gallery, the part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. I wish I could describe the feeling standing next to the wall. We made friends with a guy named Jack from England and he showed us around a bit. He was interviewing for an architecture job in the city which he ended up getting while we were there. What a cool guy.

Since returning to Spain I can't stop talking about Berlin. All of it. One night somebody staying in our hostel just took Becky, Jack, and I for a midnight drive around the city. Talk about incredible.