My Year in Deutschland: Berlin and Brandenburg

The day I post this, I will have 3 months and 10 days left in Germany. It may seem like a lot, I mean, it's approximately 1/3 of my entire stay here. Then I take in a look in my planner, which contains plans of everything I have done and will do, and I realize that I don't actually have much time left. When I also check my planner, though, I get excited for all the things I still have planned to do in the next three months.

My year here is going to start winding down soon, which is sad for me. I can still remember, though, back in October when my host dad told me, "Shannon, next week you're going to Brussels, then we're going to the Baltic Sea, then you're off to Turkey, then comes Christmas. Before you know it, you'll be wondering where the time has gone." Obviously, he was so right.

Enough of the sentimentality, for I still have quite a few more adventures that I am extremely excited for.

*Hint* festivities to celebrate and countries and cities to visit *Hint* ...More of those things coming in the next few months.

In other news, last weekend my brother was in Berlin. That Saturday my host family and I brought him along with us on our trip to Brandenburg. We had actually had this excursion planned for over a month to visit my host mom's father and his wife there, and of course the more the merrier. We went to the Brandenburg Cathedral and St. Catherine's church. We had previously been inside the church, but we had never gone up to the tower. It wasn't open that day, but my host mom's dad has some connections and he got someone to unlock it and take us up to the top. Now I understand why it isn't always open to the public and you have to call in advance because it's a bit sketchy and scary getting up and going down. However, it was completely worth the fright because we were able to see the city from high up. There were three different doors from the tower where you could out onto a balcony and look out. It was also a beautiful day outside. We went out to this Italian restaurant for lunch, walked around the city and bit, and back to my host grandparents house my favorite part of any day: Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) before going back home.

On Monday, I went to Berlin to see my brother and do some site seeing. We went up to the Fernseherturm (TV Tower) where you can get a panoramic view of Berlin. I had been meaning to do this for a while, but it only makes sense to do it when the weather it good. Luckily, we have had some great weather recently. Anyways, it is more than just looking out to the city, but on the edge under the huge windows, there are descriptions of the main building you see when you look out. It also explains the 12 districts of Berlin and gives overviews of each. I really enjoyed it because I was able to learn more about the city, the layout, and the history of each part.

Another highlight was the DDR museum. (German Democratic Republic or simply Former East Germany in English). I would highly recommend this museum to anyone who visits Berlin and wants to learn a little about what daily life was like in the DDR. It's an interactive museum and definitely not boring. You even get to drive in a Trabi car to see how terrible of cars they were. You sit in the actual car and what looks like an old video game is projected on the windshield and then you can drive. There are tons of items and photographs in the museum, and there isn't actually that much reading to do either. I thought the whole museum was informative and well put together!

We also went to the Neus Museum on the Museum Island. This museum houses Egyptian, Prehistory, and Early History collections. It would have been a bit boring without the audio guide, to be honest, because you would just be looking at stuff (artifacts) without knowing really what it is. It's main two "selling points" are the bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, which was beautiful as promised, and the Golden Hat. I didn't even know what this Golden Hat thing was, but it is actually very intriguing. The story and the information about the hat is better than the actual hat itself. It is definitely worth the google and a read on Wikipedia.

Sorry for boring you people who aren't fond of museums, but I got to make sure I'm getting my dose of culture and history while I'm here! :)

I do have a bit of a goal, though... And that is to try and visit everything there is to visit in Berlin, because why the heck not? It's a quite attainable goal for me at this point.

And of course, it was nice to see my brother again since it has been a while, and I won't be able to go to his college graduation in May. It seemed like he and my host family got along very well, which made life easy for me.