Unturned Stones

Perfectly rectangular blocks with tenuously crafted corners and edges sit ominously in a cluster in the centre of the city. The sun reaches its fingers down to tickle the warm, grey, rectangular slabs as I walk among them.
The ground beneath my feet descends until the blocks tower above me and I am submersed into a concrete maze.
The stones present like skyscrapers against the sun and could be a miniature city themselves. A quiet, peaceful city with no inhabitants or traffic, only observers. Tourists.
I observe with aching sadness and curiosity the burden of shame which the memorial represents. Etched into the ground not far from where I stand are the words "in memory of the six million Jewish victims"
This is the Holocaust memorial in Berlin city centre.
This is where my big adventure has reached its exhausted conclusion. In the last five days I have raced across the slugging inter-rail tracks around the spice rack that is Europe. I’ve seen more in the past five days than I have in my entire twenty years of life.
I have relished the interweaving canal ways of Amsterdam, how they trickled like blood through the veins of the city.
I have been captivated by the fairy tale turrets which spike elegantly the skies of Luxembourg, and the buildings as golden and perfect as fresh sandcastles.
I have been subject to the might of the red Cathedral of Strasbourg. The detail in the shaping and carving of the foolish virgins which adorn every ledge draw a gasp from an open jaw.
The last five days have been an adventure and a challenge, and an experience which has left me biting my nails with anticipation for more. Racing across Europe, through five countries in five days to raise £500 for charity has wound me tight as a child’s toy wishing I could trail blaze across the rest of the world.
My Journey’s end may be sombre as the concrete blocks which surround me, but the memories of a continent as varied as the many oranges of a sunset stir a feeling of eagerness and trepidation inside me. I know it will give rise to countless excursions to as of yet, rarely explored territories.