Growing as a Person

This week was very eventful. I ventured away from the group and went to Berlin, Germany. I have not had an opportunity to visit any city in Germany before. Going across the continent by myself for 3 days at first made me very nervous. The trip wasn't the easiest trip. The first leg of the trip was a train from Florence to Rome, a bus to the airport, a flight, another bus then a subway ride before I made it to my hostel. I stayed at a youth hostel in hopes that I would meet other solo travelers. When I checked in, I was fortunate in meeting people. I met a girl from the US, a girl from Slovenia, and a guy from Australia. With this group of people we traveled for the first day. Unfortunately two of them last the next morning. The girl from Slovenia and I traveled the next day and I traveled my last day by myself.

I was able to see many different attractions and learn a lot while in Berlin. Some of my favorite attractions was the Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of natural history), which holds amazing mounted dinosaur skeletons, the Checkpoint Charlie Berlin Wall Museum, and the Jewish Museum. I personally enjoy natural history and I really enjoyed learning more about the history of World War II. It was very surprising to me that Germany was not trying to hide any part of there terrible history.

I was suppose to arrive back to my apartment on the third day, however, because of a delayed flight I missed my train back to Florence and ended up staying in Rome for the evening. I took full advantage of this and spent the following day in Rome exploring places that I had not been able to the last time I was there.

All in all this trip was a great trip. I learned a lot from the different museums and sites that I visited but I also learned a lot for myself. I knew that studying abroad was an opportunity to grow and expand your knowledge but I feel this trip really helped me with that. From all aspects of traveling alone, having to meet new friends in a short amount of time, and problem solving quickly late at night when I realized there were no more trains to Florence. I really enjoyed this trip and I believe it taught me much more that I was expecting it to teach me.