GERMANY

I have German heritage so I love visiting Germany, plus I love German beer, must be in my genes! Links below for information on each city I have visited. Overall, Germany is a very organized and well-maintained country. There are the big concrete modern cities, natural beauty of the Alps, and also quaint Medieval villages. I am one that is a sucker for cute and historic villages and also I love nature as well. I ended up going to some larger cities just to visit them and experience them myself since there are so many historical landmarks, but big cities are not my cup of tea.

Hamburg

Overview: My dad is a huge Beatles fan, and the Beatles spent some time in their early years in Hamburg, Germany. Every Sunday morning we would listen to the Beatle Hour on our way to our Baptist Church so I would be singing songs like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". They now have a museum there of course called "Beatlemania" which I visited and loved learning about their time in Hamburg. Overall, Hamburg very much reminded me of Amsterdam as there is a red-light district there called the Reeperbahn and there are many canals.

Highlights: The Reeperbahn, Beatlemania, International Maritime Museum.

Where to stay: The Generator Hostel, see link below.

My Experience: Of course being curious, I wanted to see the Reeperbahn. I was with a guy friend, Kash, and there was a big wooden wall that had a sign saying women were prohibited past the wall into the red-light district. I thought this was very discriminatory and since it said I was not allowed to see I wanted to see it even more! So we asked some of the prostitutes outside of the wall if I actually could not enter. She said, "hunny your hair is much too pretty to get piss poured on it." She explained that the women working inside paid lots of money to rent out the spaces and that they did not want any competition to take attention away from them. They said they literally keep buckets on hand to throw on women if they come past the gate. Whether it is true or an urban legend to keep women like me out, I decided I would rather not find out and did not go past the gate. Yet, I am still curious, I WANT TO SEE BEHIND THE GATE!!

The Generator Hostel

DusselDorf

I was traveling from Holland so I decided to stop in Dusseldorf because I thought the architecture looked really quaint. While along the waterfront there is beautiful architecture, the rest of Dusseldorf is pretty modern. They have a streetcar as well as an underground metro. The St. Lambertus Church is the iconic scene when you see a photo of Dusseldorf.

BERLIN

So full of history, and probably the most interesting and emotionally provoking city I have ever been to, so I would suggest going to see these monumentally historical places and I am very glad I did as I learned a ton of history that you can never learn in history class and made me see the holocaust in a whole new light... I think it was the mix between the chilly weather, gray skies, ugly and cold concrete Nazi architecture, so many signs that communism was there only 30 years ago, holocaust museums and memorials where I cried my eyes out and my heart breaks every time I think of it, the most confusing public transportation system, which gave me an overall sad and depressed feeling the entire time I was there, which made me decide I am so glad I went and experienced it but don't think I ever want to return.