Bye Bye Berlin!

I get the feeling that I’m definitely going to have to make it back to Berlin sometime in the future because a few days here just isn’t enough. This place definitely gets two thumbs up and a score of 10/10 because a) our hotel is fabulous, b) they have a very nice vet school (Freie Universdad), and c) we got to feed a rhinoceros – two, actually. So how do you beat that?

First off I’m glad to say I survived the bike tour, which was actually a lot of fun and a good way for us to see some of the more important places around the city we didn’t have time to see later on. The Berlin Zoo afterwards was definitely one of the main highlights of this entire trip. Like I said, we got to feed rhinos! The veterinarian who guided us through the zoo was extremely friendly and informative. He obviously remembers what it was like to be a student though because he was ready with some special treats and interesting things to show us. Not only did we get to feed rhinos up close, we also got to feed the hippos, which was hilarious. Then we all learned a lovely tidbit of random anatomical weirdness: Moray eels apparently have two complete sets of jaws. The front set feeds into a rear set that goes into the esophagus. Looks wicked cool on radiographs. Even if you don’t get to go behind the scenes, the Berlin Zoo is great. Their large cat house is crazy – you can literally get about 3 feet away from lions and leopards and all those other big scary predators to see them up close. SO much fun!

This morning was also a treat because we got to go around the clinics at the vet school here. In surgery we got to see a cruciate ligament repair on a cat and hip surgery on a very young puppy that had damaged growth plates on her femur that had to be pinned to keep from sliding around. The students there were very welcoming and interested in learning about our vet school system. They were also nice enough to take the time to translate what their professor was teaching them about the surgeries so we could have some idea of what was going on!

It’s sad to be going home tomorrow (especially because it means it’s time to figure out how to pack up everything I’ve accumulated over the trip) but I know I’ll come back to Germany and the rest of Europe sometime in the future.