Berlin!

 The sign is true! I was, in fact, in Berlin this past weekend, and despite the freezing weather, I really enjoyed it. I got to meet up with Julia for the weekend and that was just about the best thing ever. There is something so wonderfully comforting about seeing a friend that you have known for so long.

 We spent the better portion of two days just wandering around the center of the city, and not doing much else. Except eating, we did a fair amount of that too.

I guess I had the wrong impression of Berlin to begin with. I had just naturally assumed that it would have been much like Paris or the other cities in Europe I had been to, but it was so distinct. The architecture really set it apart for me. It had some of the stunning old architecture that I've seen plenty of in Paris, but it was nicely dichotomized by very modern buildings as well. I had definitely not expected this.

 On the left is a church that we climbed the stairs of and it lead to a beautiful view of Berlin. We climbed all 254 stairs, and counted each and every one.

Other things to note from our trip was our slight obsession with the Berlin bears. I don't honestly know the history or value of them, but for some reason they have bear statues all over Berlin. They were rather like the cow statues they have in Calgary, but either way we made it our mission to take pictures with all the ones we encountered. Which turned out to be many.

Besides eating and bear photos we also tried to do the occasional historical thing. We went to the Holocaust memorial which turned out to be pretty close to our Hostel (which was an awesome place to stay). The memorial seemed pretty simple to begin with but turned out to be pretty incredible and quite overwhelming.

 Additionally, we spent quite a while walking down the East Berlin Gallery. This is a portion of the Berlin wall that is still intact, but has now been covered in murals, artwork, and incredible sayings.

 Overall, I really enjoyed Berlin and would certainly love to go back, but preferably during summer. The 9 degree F weather was a little ridiculous....