Vienna
I'm back in Europe! The first thing i saw getting off the plane was Ryan, and my first thought after that was "I'm going to like this city just because i get to spend time with my brother." It was a beautiful city, complete with the huge marble buildings, large parks, and gelato stands on every corner. A day later we both headed back to the airport to pick up mom who needed a vacation.
Vienna felt familiar because it seemed like a mix of other European cities all mixed together: it had the grand buildings of Paris, the public parks of London, the language of Germany and the wealth of any city in Switzerland. The food was good, i had gelato within 3 hours of getting my passprt stamped.
Mom and i toured through the Kaiser apartments on morning while Ryan slept in. The Kaiser apartments was the royal housing for Franz Joseph and his famous wife Cici. St Stephens Cathedral was the main church in the middle of the town and was beautiful on the inside and out. Ryan swam in the Danube one hot afternoon like a local (which i guess he almost qualifies as). Mom and Ryan saw live opera projected outside the opera house while i wasn't feeling well and stayed in that night. Ryan had to pack up his semester abroad because he was leaving from Berlin to go back to Seattle.
Berlin
The three of us all trained to Berlin together where Ryan was going to fly out of. We got into Berlin at about 11:00pm and there were so many people out and about just drinking and hanging out during summer.
Berlin was interesting because it has single handedly shaped modern history because of the decisions made within its walls. We went to a number of museums, my favorite was the German Film History Museum. Starting from the invention of film, which Germany claims (along with every other European country), up to just after the fall of the wall, this museum looked at the history of Germany through film. The only issue i had with the museum is that it glossed over the Nazi propaganda era of film - i think because most of those films aren't allowed to be shown in Germany still.
We saw parts of the Berlin wall and went to Checkpoint Charlie - there was a Starbucks and McDonalds direclty on the American side of the checkpoint. Brandenburg Gate was beautiful and we came accross a street fair on one side which we wandered through. The Jewish Memorial was sobering and informative while being a really well-presented museum about a horrible part of history directly tied to the city.
Overall the food was great, the people were nice, and the time was best spent with my mom and brother.
