Berlin

Berlin is one of the cities that I was really excited to go to. As beautiful as it was, it was just a bit underwhelming compared to the other places we have been. From all of the damage done in World War 2, this was the most modern, which, oddly enough, I wasn't expecting. This was also one of the most confusing cities for transportation. For some reason, even with the aid of maps in subways and phones, we always tended to get lost. I will say, being sick for the entire time while there probably made my experience harder because of how I was feeling every day.

One part that I enjoyed quite a lot was our city tour. It was done by a historian, I'm pretty sure, and he took us around the city giving us a small history lesson about Germany, and the two world wars. He was captivating and made everything clear and easy to understand for people who didn't know anything about the city. He took us to monuments, showed us where the museums were, and thoroughly gave us an amazing tour. Even with how cold it was, the four hours we spent just walking and listening to him speak was still completely worth it.

On the last night in Berlin we saw an absolutely phenomenal performance by the Berlin Philharmonic. They played only one piece, which was 90 minutes long, four movements, and involved a massive wooden mallet being hit on a block of wood, you know, for symbolism. It was Mahler's 6th symphony and the Philharmonic played it and made a home run. It was captivating, immaculate, well performed, and the conductor was able to control the 100 or so instrumentalists to play with so much emotion and grace as they did that night. Up to that point, this was my absolute favorite performance, however, there are still many performances left to go to. Especially with Mozart week in Salzburg being out next destination.