Happy New Year from Berlin! Spending New Year's Eve in Berlin was truly a blessing. The group went to a huge, mile long festival which was held right in front of the Brandenburg Gate. There were probably close to about a million people, most being Germans but some being foreigners. The festival housed a ton of food and drink stands and multiple stages with DJs or artists performing, with the main stage being in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Just walking around and people watching was entertaining! Our group settled on a spot in front of a huge screen so we could watch all of the performances and the fireworks. Most of the artists covered a lot of American songs, my favorite group being The Boss Hoss, which was a group of men dressed up as cowboys singing American pop songs in a country fashion. It was pretty hilarious. Overall, it was a pretty amazing way to celebrate New Years! I don't know if I'll ever be lucky enough to spend New Years in Berlin or Europe again so it's definitely a night I'll never forget! Especially walking home after the festival was over. I think I got a glimpse of what the end of the world would look like, because the streets of Berlin were covered in trash and people were shooting of fireworks in the middle of the streets. All of it was out of good fun of course, but it's a scene I'll never forget!
The website for the festival is http://www.silvester-in-berlin.de/index.html
Before we arrived in Berlin, we spent our last day in Bonn traveling to the larger city of Cologne. Cologne is only about 25 minutes from Bonn by train and is a much larger city. Once you leave the train station, the main cathedral is towering in front of you. The size and the awesomeness of the architecture was similar to La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It's amazing to me how cities in Europe have so many ancient buildings in the middle of highly industrialized buildings. I think that might be my favorite part of Europe; the fact that history is always around you. We then went on a city tour of Cologne through the cathedral, the town hall, some Roman ruins, and the city center. After lunch at a famous beer hall, we visited the Elde Haus, which served as the headquarters for the Gestapo during World War II. Buildings like these always fascinate me while creeping me out at the same time because of what took place in those rooms. It's hard to visit a place of such sadness and terror, but this time in history was so interesting and has shaped Germany to what it is today so that it's hard not to visit these types of places. After we finished our tour at the Elde Haus, we were given free time to walk around the city, which was a lovely way to end the day. I really enjoyed visiting Cologne, but Bonn still has my heart!
I'm looking forward to the next week in Berlin! There's so much history here so I know it will be an exhausting yet interesting week ahead!
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