Until Next Time

After Berlin, I met up with a friend, and we stayed another week in Europe. Back to Amsterdam we went, then we spent a few days in London. That’s part of the reason why I am just writing this blog. Berlin trumped all the other cities in terms of history. Especially modern history. One can learn so much about WWII and the Cold War just by walking through the city. There are monuments everywhere. The last night we spent together in Berlin was bitter sweet. It was bitter because we had to say goodbye, and it was sweet because we danced with a belly dancer.

              Ryan, our tour guide for the first few days, was in my top 3 tour guides of the trip. He was always engaging, and he knows how to ride a bike in Berlin. His accent always forced me to listen harder, so in a way it kept me more focused. The bike tour was a bit more stressful than riding bikes in Norderney. Surprising, isn’t it? Our shepherd Ryan kept us all in check throughout the tour, though. Of all the stops we made during the bike tour, the most interesting was the Holocaust Monument. I did not even know it existed before the trip, and I am surprised that I didn’t. It was truly amazing. A grid-like maze constructed of prisms of varying heights on varying elevations is how I would describe it. But everything was gray, and it gave a feeling of severe bleakness. The artist achieved what he tried to portray in the monument because I felt it. Almost ineffable was the feeling, but I felt it.              

              The last night in Berlin was the most fun I have had on the entire trip. I did not know I was going to have so much fun because the belly dancers were a surprise. The Lebanese restaurant Dr. Wasser decided to take us to was great. The buffet style increased the efficiency immensely because no one waiter had to walk around a table of 17 people and individually take orders. The food and the wine were essentially bottomless which definitely helped everybody to dance with the belly dancer. With a couple of glasses of wine, the chances I am going to attempt to belly dance in a room full of people increases from 0% to around 20%. And those are generous odds. Anyways, I ended up dancing, and so did everyone else from what I could tell. Including Dr. Wasser. I do not want to write too much about the entire experience because I want to save a little bit of it just for me. I was sorry to see all of my classmates go our different ways, but I know I will see them again in this life or the next. But I will probably see them in this life because we have a scheduled get-together on Facebook.

              That’s all for my experiences in Europe. I will miss the continent, but I will miss the people I shared it with more.