Berlin was a great city to finish off the program. We arrived Wednesday night and met up with Olaf who we were all very happy to see again. We made it to the hotel Alex which ended up being my favorite hotel during the trip, and then we walked the streets of Berlin to find restaurants for dinner. A group of us went to an Italian restaurant and had a tasty and filling meal before heading back to the hotel and passing out for the night.
Thursday we started out the day with a Berlin on Bike (BOB) tour. I was kind of nervous before the tour started because it’s been years since I was last on a bike, but it turned out to be no problem and I only feared for my life a couple of times, haha. Our tour guide was great and did a good job presenting the history of Germany and Berlin’s role as the capital city. The most interesting part of the tour was seeing the remains and reconstructed stretches of the Berlin Wall. I didn’t realize how wide the “death zone” was and seeing the wall in person made it clear why escaping was so difficult.
After the morning bike tour, we had lunch at the train station and proceeded to the Berlin Zoo. Our private tour of the zoo with an emphasis on the veterinary aspects of taking care of the animals was amazing. I never would have expected we would get to pet a rhino! It was really cute seeing the rhinos and hippos begging for food just like a dog. The zoo hospital was very impressive with its pharmacy, surgery room, radiology, and elevator used to bring the animals up to the second floor. It was cool seeing radiographs of different zoo animals and hearing about cases they’re faced with as zoo vets. I was also fascinated by the fact that the veterinarians are not given budget restrictions when treating animals, they can continue with treatment as long as they feel the animal has a chance at recovery. The world famous Knut was my favorite animal to visit in the zoo and seeing him covered in mud reminded me of my fluffy white (but usually more of a brown) dog at home. After the tour was over, some of us went on to visit more of the exhibits and we got to hear the male lion full out roaring which was awesome (and a little scary!).
We left the zoo and took the metro to meet up with everyone at the Brandenburg gate after stopping for a hot chocolate. We all went to the Holocaust monument together and walked through the cement blocks considering the monument and what it was trying to portray. Our last night in Germany we went to a Moroccan restaurant that had excellent food and we all enjoyed our last night together. In the morning, I took an early taxi to the airport with Jessica and flew out to my next destination, Manchester, UK.
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