My Parents Visit Berlin!

My parents visited Berlin! Mom and Dad were very excited upon arrival in this magnificent city. They came last Thursday and arrived while I was work. I asked my boss if I could leave early on Friday in order to spend more time with them while they were here and he suggested lunch with myself and my parents, which was great. It was really nice to see my boss taking care of me as an intern. Lunch the next day was great and I got to eat out at a nice restaurant with my parents. I showed them around the area that I live and brought them to the malls around me. They loved it! Kudam (the main street I live near) is really nice and my mom was taking a bunch of pictures of all the stores. It gave me a flashback to when I first got to Berlin and seeing all the nice stores on Kudam. It really gave me perspective on how lucky I am to be in Berlin and to live in such a prominent neighborhood.

The day after, my parents and I visited the city of Potsdam. Potsdam was great other than the fact that it rained a little bit. We visited the Neues Palais as well as the Sanssouci Palace. Both of which were great and offered an in-depth look into royalty a long time ago.

These elaborate palaces gave me inspiration to possibly travel to Italy and visit the churches and palaces in Florence or Rome, which would be really cool! In the palaces that I saw in Potsdam, both of them featured all the original décor. There were a bunch of guest rooms that housed different royalty figures. It was great to be standing in the same building that they stood in!

On the Sunday of that weekend, I decided to spend my time with a friend and check out some of the attractions that Berlin has to offer. I visited the Berliner Dom, the Egyptian Museum on Museum Island, the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburger Tor, and the Reichstag.

The Berliner Dom was a lot bigger than I thought it would be which was a great surprise. The church was beautiful and after a walk around it, I thought those were the best pictures that I would get but I was incredibly mistaken. My friend and I bought tickets to go inside and were surprised at how magnificent the inside of the church was- it was breathtaking. We also climbed the stairs to the dome and spent a good amount of time on the rooftop. It was definitely one of the best things I could have done for myself in Berlin and the Berliner Dom is now one of my favorite buildings in the world.

On the way to the Reichstag, we went to the Brandenburger Tor and saw them setting up for the big Germany vs. Portugal World Cup game. When we got to the Reichstag I was really excited to see such a large monumental building and even took some time sitting in the grass to appreciate how elaborate and nice the building was. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to go inside since it was nearing closing hours, but I still liked being outside of the building just as much.

On Monday, the Germany vs. Portugal game was on at 6PM, and the USA vs. Ghana game was on at 12 AM. I watched both games and although I was happier about the USA vs. Ghana game, the Germany vs. Portugal game was a lot more intense. Since Germany won, I figured that there would be plenty of people celebrating and therefore if I went to the gym, there would be no one there. I was very surprised to see that on my walk with my friend to the gym, Kudam (again, the main street) was flooded with people waving German flags. It seemed like a street festival! There were a lot of fancy cars out in the streets doing burnouts. Smoke was billowing into the air and police stood to the side just to watch the madness ensue and ensure that no one got hurt. There were some Turkish people that came with their drums and started singing and playing the drums to celebrate the win. There were numerous spots on the main road where crowds of people congregated to enjoy the game. Eventually, I got to the gym, but on my way out there were still plenty of celebrations to be had.

Overall it was a successful weekend and I’m really feeling settled in Berlin. I even felt like I have a little bit of German pride after Germany’s win over Portugal. However, I am still loyally cheering for the US during the Germany vs. USA game.