By now many of you know that I pick places based off of flight deals and Germany was no different. I wanted to go somewhere for my birthday but this particular deal wasn’t valid on my birthday but a week from my birthday so, I decided to book a trip to Germany. Now I usually share my flight deals at the end of my trip but I will go ahead and share how I found this deal now. I received an email from Going.com in my inbox and it was a $243 round-trip non – stop flight to Berlin,Germany from JFK in New York on Norse. I had never seen a flight to Germany that cheap before so, I bought it and at first I only booked it for a week but within an hour I went back and added another week. I figured if I was going to be in Germany, I might as well city hop and check out a few other cities aside from Berlin and then since Prague is so close by I would go to Prague and even though I don’t know much about Poland since it’s right there as well why not go to Poland. The flight got booked 8 months out leaving plenty of time to plan.

     I decided that in Germany I would visit Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich.From Munich, I’ll go to Prague, then to Warsaw, Poland and then back to Berlin to fly out. Throughout the month I planned activities for different places and the time has come. Norse changed some of their ticketing allowances so now I was able to bring a carry on. Since I’m going from city to city I figured backpacking would probably be the easiest thing (for me so far it is not). I really didn’t want to overpack but I think I did anyway. I took the train from DC to New York and caught my flight out of JFK. Being in the middle seat for the entire flight was not ideal but I managed.
    
     Finally, we landed in Berlin and by now my back was already hurting from lugging around my backpack. With
Berlin being six hours ahead of New York I decided not to plan anything on my day of arrival. All I wanted to do was clear through passport control and take the train from the airport to the hotel. I managed to find my way and was relieved by the time I reached the hotel because I was ready to lay down and take a nap and I did just that.

     I was so worn out from traveling that I didn’t want to wake up from my nap but I managed to get up and go to the grocery store and to a restaurant nearby to get some food. My body was exhausted and I needed to rest so back in the room I did just that and caught up on a few Netflix shows. And that was that day in a nutshell. Today, considering the fact that my body was probably trying to regain energy from yesterday, I decided to wake up a bit early to get ready for my Explore Berlin: Walking Tour of All The Iconic Sites. Thankfully, I woke up feeling okay and in good shape.

     If you’re used to taking public transportation utilizing it here is easy (it’s actually a lot like Paris with a wide variety of trains and buses). I actually made it to the meeting point ahead of time and met up with the group for the tour. Since
it was a big group through Get Your Guide they broke us up into 2 groups. My tour guide was Hannah and she is originally from Los Angeles, CA. She’s lived in Berlin for a few years now and her father is German. People were there from all over like the UK, Philipines, Australia, Dallas, San Francisco and Missouri.

     Hannah proved to be a wealth of knowledge as she led us around the city. Here are some key highlights:

• When Germany was founded it was called Prussia
• 1237 was the founding year of the city of Berlin
• At both the end of 1918 and 1945 Germany was destroyed
• The Nazi Empire was from 1933-1945
• The Nazis killed around 11 million people (not including in wars)
• In 1949 east and west Germany were divided
• In 1961 the Berlin Wall began being built to divide east Berlin from west Berlin (the east was cheaper to live in but the west offered more possibilities and better pay so to keep people from leaving the east side the wall was built)
• People in the west were able to travel over to the east but people in the east couldn’t travel to the west
• The fall of the Berlin Wall was in 1989
• Berlin has it’s own flag and is a city and a state
• Berlin is also known as “the bear city” with different bear statues around the city
• Opera is popular in Berlin
• In 1961 the Berlin Wall began being built and within 56 hours you couldn’t travel from east Berlin to west Berlin
• Berlin is 9 times the size of Paris

     There were a few memorials around town that we saw along our walk as well. About 3/4 into our tour the cobbled sidewalks and streets began taking a toll on my anlkes (I have recently been having ankle issues) so my pace slowed down. After the tou I got a recommendation for a good English bookstore so I went to Dussmans (but not before stopping for some souvenirs and a snack on the way). After I found what I was looking for I hopped on the bus and went back to my hotel. I was so happy to get a break even though it was a small break before my next tour.

     By now my ankles seemed swollen and they were hurting and I wondered if I would be able to make my 2nd tour which was Taste Your Way Through African History in Berlin. Because I had a feeling this might happen, I bought my ankle compression sleeves and wore those with my sandals to give my feet a little bit more space. It seemed to do ok enough to where I was able to continue onward with the tour. By now I just had to pace myself and take my time. I met up with the AirBnb experience host Justice and there were 4 more people on the tour as well.

     Now what I didn’t realize is how much walking I was going to be doing on this tour and I wsn’t ready for it or in shape for it but I managed as best as I could. Throughout the tour we went to different places and tried different things all while learning some interesting facts like did you know coffee originated in Ethiopia? And guess what they have with it…popcorn. Along the route we had Sudanese, Ethiopian, German and West African dishes (ie. samosas, fufu, different rice and bean dishes and etc.). I enjoyed meeting and getting to know the other people on the tour (who I believe all live in Berlin) and we are now connected via Instagram.

     By the end of the tour I was wishing I could teleport back to the hotel but thankfully the route was minimal with just taking 2 buses and a very short walk. I got in bed quickly upon entering the room because now not only were my ankles hurting but my back was too. I gave myself a moment to rest, checked in with my mom and began writing my 1st post, (this post) for Berlin. Send some prayers my way that the pain I’m experiencing don’t linger on for that would make it quite a challenge. Until tomorrow…