Traveling solo does not always mean you’re alone. Most often, you meet marvelous people along the way and make connections that last a lifetime.

Wow what an incredible week in Germany! Germany was always one of those countries in the back of my mind in Europe that I wanted to see but I didn't think it would happen so fast! I was fortunate enough to go to Munich and Berlin for a week and had some hilarious and awesome adventures along the way. I got pretty well acquainted with the 2 cities. 149,928 steps and 59.81 miles according to my Fitbit! I was a little nervous at first about the idea of traveling on my own, but I wouldn't change a thing. When you travel on your own you learn a lot about yourself, and meet really cool people along the way.

The day that I left for Munich was a little nerve wracking. I was flying out the same day the attack on Istanbul's airport Ataturk Airport, and I had a stop in Istanbul. It was not through that airport but a smaller airport in Istanbul called Sabiha Gokcen International Airport. Fortunately my flight was not cancelled (all flights at Ataturk were). Needless to say my family was pretty concerned and wanted many updates. They were hoping they could reroute my flight (I kind of wanted this too) but I kept the same flight. It really is such a shame there is such violence and conflict in Turkey because from what I saw from my airplane window, Istanbul is a beautiful. The whole world could do with less hate and a whole lot of love am I right?

I am happy to say that after nearly 10 hours of traveling, I made it to Munich! And it was beautiful. I was overwhelmed and so happy to see all the rolling hills and an unbelievable amount of green... everywhere. My first mission when I got there was to find where I was staying. I chose to stay at Airbnbs in Munich and Berlin. Airbnb is a website that allows people to list, find, and rent housing from all over the world. Now you are probably thinking "But Kellie... you were traveling on your own, is that really the best idea? This sounds like the beginning of a Criminal Minds episode..." Trust me I was very judgmental when I was browsing through page after page of potential houses and apartments! The whole process of registering with an account on Airbnb has its difficulties too. You need to provide a scanned copy of a government issued ID such as a driving license or passport. It took me a few times because it is very nitpicky over whether your scanned copy was clear or not. When choosing my housing for Munich and Berlin I purposely picked places where I was only renting the room and the families were still at their house. This way I wasn't completely alone at the house and if I had any questions about the area then I could just ask whoever I was staying with. My advice if you are ever planning to use Airbnb? Do your research. Make sure you pick someone that has a lot of reviews. For both places I picked I also got a notification that said it was rare that this housing accommodation was available because they were usually booked. So I trusted my gut and went for it and was happy with both choices!

Hello Munich! You're looking beautiful!

Some views from around Hermannplatz, which is where I stayed in Berlin.

Right across the street from my Airbnb. Yay colors!

 The first day I got to Munich I knew I wanted to go to the BMW Museum. Trip Advisor as well as many other lists suggested that the BMW Museum should be one of your stops. So I played tourist, checked it out and it was pretty cool. The first thing you see is these silver beads floating in the air on strings that are constantly moving. It took me a few minutes to realize (and someone else pointed it out) that they were moving to create the different outlines of different cars! It was cool to see all the different vehicles BMW has created over the years.

Vroom vroom!

One of my favorites. Love the artwork!

This was really cool. This has all the labels from every BMW ever made. It was hard to get them all in one shot!

After I finished exploring the BMW museum, I still didn't feel like going back home. I wanted to explore some more! So I helped myself to a soft pretzel (the first of many!) and went through a little place called Olympiapark. It was beautiful! I think living in Doha AKA tan city just makes me appreciate color even more and makes it extra special when I visit beautiful parks. Sri Lanka took my breath away and Germany definitely did too. Olympiapark was built for the 1972 Olympics and it is absolutely gorgeous. And it had grass! And the grass was real! I literally laid in the grass for... at least a half hour. And I wasn't the only one. You look around and see other people sleeping in the grass, people taking their dogs for walks, people jogging and biking, and people just strolling and loving the view. I was a little anxious that day about tackling this big city all by myself, but relaxing in this park chilled me out.

A picture I took while laying on the grass. Such a beautiful blue sky! With lots of white fluffy clouds.

Olympic Tower

My goal was to climb to the top of the hill. Challenge accepted and completed! Words of caution: watch where you are walking because I nearly got run down by bikers at least 3 times.

View from the top! My company at the top included dogs, couples, and bikers.

Wandering back down the hill. I spent about 3-4 hours just getting lost and exploring this park. It's so beautiful.

The sun stays out so late during the summer! Way nicer than the sun setting around 6:30 in Doha.

Day 2 involved me taking a free walking tour of Munich through a company called SANDEMANs. I cannot recommend them enough I did walking tours with them in both Munich and Berlin and they were fantastic. They offer free walking tours in 18 cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, and Tel Aviv. If you are planning to go to any of these places and want to get to know the area, use them! Ben from Ireland was our tour guide for the walking tour of Munich and he was great. I also met a cool and fun group of guys and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the day. The best thing about doing tours like this on your own? You meet other people traveling on their own! And you get to hear about their adventures, where they've been, and get even more ideas for places that you want to travel.

This was my Munich squad! We stopped here for lunch. Our tour guide recommended it and I tried pork knuckle- it was amazeballs. I attempted to blend in by putting my hair in braids. 

Mary's Column. This was the meeting point for our tour! I walked right past it and ended up doing a big circle around Marienplatz (the central square in the city center). Fortunately I found an English couple and was SO HAPPY to hear English and they pointed me in the right direction!

New Town Hall or Neues Rathaus. Funny enough it looks older than the Old Town Hall.

Old Town Hall.

The front and center of New Town Hall. In the middle of it you can watch the Glockenspiel. Every day at 11 AM and also 12 PM and 5PM in the summer it chimes and reenacts two stories. The first story is the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V (founder of Hofbrauhaus!) to Renata of Lorraine. The second story is the coopers' dance AKA the beer barrel dance.

One of the unluckiest buildings in Munich- the Opera House. This building has been burnt down 3 times! They did try to learn from the fire after the first time. They took in some preventative measures by installing in a kind of sprinkler system and had a bowl of water at the top to put the fire out. However another fire occurred in January... and the water supply was completely frozen. Their next idea? Make a human chain from a nearby pub to the Opera House. Then fill up huge mugs with beer to pass down the line to put onto the fire. As you can imagine... that plan didn't work out so well either... and the opera house burnt down.

Hofbrauhaus! A very famous and popular beer hall in Munich for tourists.

A very cool piece of history. This is Dodger's Alley. In Odeonsplatz near the side of one building, there was a memorial Hitler installed. When people passed by they were required to salute the Nazis. Not everyone was in favor of the Nazi party and they would 'dodge' that route and take a detour down this road instead, which is known as Dodger's Alley. However the Nazis were clever and caught onto this and questioned people on the street when they took this route. If you didn't come up with a good enough excuse then your name was taken and you were thrown into one of the concentration camps. But the people did it anyway! Stand up for what you believe in!

Before we went to the Englischer Garten we hit up St. Peter's Church. For 2 Euro you can walk up the 300+ stairs to the top and get this amazing view!

It was very easy to get my 10k steps each day on this trip!

New Town Hall from up top

 After the tour ended we ventured into the Englischer Garten. It is the largest urban public park, even bigger than Central Park in NYC! Ben warned us about this, but there is a part of the park where you can sunbathe nude. The people who actually partake in the nude sunbathing- not the people you want to see! We happened to see a 70+ year old man proudly walking/jogging/strutting around in his birthday suit. Scarring? Yes. Was it like a bad accident because it hurts to look but you just can't turn away? Yes! You have to give him props though for having that confidence. The only one... walking around naked in the park. And then to join a yoga/exercise class in the park later on! Otherwise, the English Garden was wonderful. We even got to see river surfers on the Eisbach (Isar River) which was so cool to see. Shoutout to Nick for all the recommendations of places to visit in Munich and Berlin!

The Chinese Tower or the Chinesischer Turm. I suppose we could've climbed the stairs to the top... but we chose to have some beer instead. Because that's what you do in Munich!

River surfing!

How can you not just want to skip and frolic through all of that!? Bonus: not a naked old man in sight.

Day 3 I took a day trip to Nuremberg. I didn't know much about it besides the fact that the Nuremberg Trials were held there. It was a fun day where I got to see lots of churches and some castles. I attached myself to a family from Manchester and they welcomed me with open arms. They've been coming to Germany for years so I picked their brains for places to check out. They knew way more German than me and were able to give me some helpful tips. The rules of escalators in London apply the same way in Munich and Berlin- stay to the right! Otherwise you will get someone behind you barking in your ear 'Entschuldigung!' as they zoom past you on the left. Some say it politely, others you can tell in their tone they are saying 'get out of my way before I run you down.' I had some of the best bratwurst in Nuremberg and enjoyed the sites.

Scale model of Nuremberg. Obviously we didn't get to all of it in one day but we covered a decent chunk of it!

The King's Gate. One of the main entrances to Nuremberg.

Part of the Nuremberg castle.

Cool but slightly morbid fountain. It's a shame Nuremberg's main fountain Schoner Brunnen was under construction because it is gorgeous!

One thing you learn reaaaal fast in Nuremberg- its NOT flat. Wear good walking shoes!

Old town hall in Nuremberg

Walking over to Zeppelinfield. This was the Nazi party rally grounds.

Congress Hall. It is inspired by the Colosseum. The building remains unfinished.

This is the main site in Zeppelinfield. This is where Hitler would stand and make his speeches on the platform.

And here's me being a typical tourist and getting my picture up there. Gasp! Bare shoulders! Clearly we aren't in Doha anymore.

And my last day in Munich was spent on a bike tour with a great company called Mike's Bike Tours (thanks for the recommendation Diana!!) to see the beautiful Neuschwanstein castle AKA the Disney castle. This is the day that I fell in love with bike tours and if I ever go to a country that has bike tours then I will do it! Biking in Germany is as popular as beer and ice cream. In other words, lots of people partake. Mike's Bike Tours is a fantastic company to tour with. All of their staff is extremely friendly and accommodating, very personable. During the second half of the tour, the rain hit. The sky was looking iffy for most of the day and it's a wonder it held off for as long as it did! Ponchos definitely came in handy. It was still an awesome day and I had a blast.

If you're concerned about the idea of doing a bike tour like I was at first- they go at a very slow and leisurely pace! The point is for you to take it easy and to take in everything around you.

Neuschwanstein Castle! Ain't she a beaut? This was built by Ludwig II who was obsessed with fairy tales. And he was a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. His death remains a mystery... but there are plenty of theories out there!

My new residence!

Nice lake that we had the option of swimming in.

"Flying history!!" our tour guide Brad excitedly told us. Apparently this is one of the few that remain in operation. In the world. I think he said it was one of the Ju 52 Junkers... I could be wrong about the number though. See that sky? That'll come into play later!

Lunch time! Hello roasted pork and Bavarian pasta. And beer of course. That's my friend from Malaysia in the background.

One thing that I should have looked into a little more was how long this day tour to Neuschwanstein lasted. As we took the 2 hour bus ride towards the castle, our bus tour guide informed us we would get back to Munich around 7-7:30 PM. This is the part where my stomach clenched tightly and I had a minor panic attack. Why? My flight to Berlin was scheduled to leave at 9:30 that night! So I told myself that it would work out, I probably wouldn't need to be at the airport too early anyway since it was a domestic flight, just one city in Germany to the other! And even if I didn't make it in time for the flight there was probably another one going to Berlin shortly after that. And the memories for the day were worth it. We got back around 7-7:15 to the main train station and I booked it to the train and ran back to my Airbnb in Hermannplatz. I have never packed up so quickly in my life and amazingly did not leave anything behind. So I took the necessary bahns needed to get to the airport, trying to keep my calm, even though as I approach it's now getting to be almost 9:00 and I vaguely remember reading something when I checked in online that they would not be accepting baggage for the flight after 8:50. Then the bahn I was on decided halfway through the trip that it was NOT going to the airport and was instead going to Freising. So I had to get off and then get on the next train... finally I made it to the check in desk for Lufthansa and sure enough boarding for that flight is closed. The woman told me to wait in another line to see what they could do about getting me on another flight. I had to wait at least an hour in line because there was a flight from South Africa that was delayed and caused all kinds of delays and problems for people who had connecting flights. When it came to my turn I explained the situation. The woman informed me that the next flight to Berlin was leaving at 7 in the morning... for the lovely cost of 390 Euro. I laughed in her face to keep from crying. She told me to check out the train schedule because it might be cheaper and to make a decision about whether I was taking the train or plane because they were closing for the night in 10 minutes (it was almost 11 at night). In the end she was right and I ended up taking a train to Berlin for a much cheaper price! A cheaper price for a 6 hour train ride, which I passed out from exhaustion for the majority of it. Berlin here I come!

My first day in Berlin I spent doing some sight seeing. If you ever visit Berlin and are planning to use the bahn a lot and do sight seeing- get a welcome to Berlin card. It only cost a few extra Euro for the 4 day pass I got- and I saved money on all the tours I went on and got a nice touristy book about the different sites. My first stop was the TV tower/Berlin Fernsehturm. This is a great landmark in Berlin to help you figure out where to go and where you are... and is a great spot to just chill because it has free WiFi! Berlin is much more free WiFi friendly than Munich. From there I did some sight seeing at the Berlin Cathedral/Berliner Dom after my friend Nick recommended it. After I got to the Berlin Cathedral I realized how much of a tourist trap the TV tower was because I really liked the views from the Cathedral better. Ah well live and learn! Berlin is also where I fell in love with Bandy Brooks ice cream and ate currywurst.

Hey Berlin you look pretty good from up here!

Berlin Cathedral/Berliner Dom/Denkmalskirche

From the inside

View from the top! Only 7 Euro to check out the Berlin Cathedral- worth it!

TV Tower/Berliner Fernsehturm

Inside the cathedral. For 1 Euro of course I lit a candle!

I love seeing green in Germany!

Of course I had to sit and relax here for a bit. I think that's an art gallery in the background.

Not a bad view near Bandy Brooks while eating ice cream eh?

Currywurst! Sausage cut into pieces + ketchup + a sprinkle of curry powder = yum!

My next day in Berlin started with SANDEMANs walking tour with our guide Sam. He was hilarious, incredibly knowledgeable, entertaining, and a great storyteller. I learned a lot from him and loved that he threw in Game of Thrones and Star Wars references. One of the girls on my bike tour at Neuschwanstein was in Berlin before Munich so of course I picked her brain for what to do when I got to Berlin. She recommended Fat Tire Tours and I hit them up when I got there. They were easy to find because they were right by the TV Tower. I signed myself up for the evening food tour since I had the walking tour during the day. It was probably my favorite tour the entire time I was in Germany because we had a really good group for it. The bike ride started off at Museum Island where we made a toast (Fanta and other soft drinks for the young-ins) and then made our way to our first stop for falafel and other Middle Eastern food. We stopped at two other places- one with pork, beef, schnitzel, and that was very filling. We also got a history interlude and got to see some of the Berlin Wall. Then our last stop was dessert for some cake and coffee- yum! I think it was my favorite tour because I talked to almost, if not everyone, that was on the bike tour. It was all different families and couples... I was the only solo traveler in this group. It was so cool hearing everyone's stories about where they came from, where else they had traveled to, and where they were going after this. It was just a perfect end to the day. Never in a million years did I ever think I would be biking around different neighborhoods in Berlin and trying some of the most delicious foods from different restaurants in the area. Thank you Alex, you were a great tour guide (and easy on the eyes too)!

Brandenburg Gate! This was the meeting point of our tour. All the other buildings surrounding this are purposely meant to be boring because it is supposed to stand out and be the most memorable in the area.

...Until a man by the name of Michael Jackson stayed at this hotel. And as Sam hilariously put it "reenacted the Lion King and dangled his baby out the window of this hotel."

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Our tour guide Sam says he does not like to take tour groups through it. He says he feels it is a private area that deserves respect. You are not allowed to stand on the blocks.

Time for a bit of shopping? Eh no thanks. There's enough malls in Doha!

Really cool wall of newspapers at the cafe we stopped at on a short break during our walking tour.

Some cool artwork that we saw during the walking tour. Right before we got to Checkpoint Charlie.

Julia I could totally see some of your artwork up here!

Part of the Berlin Wall. That's our tour guide Sam. He was awesome!

Fat Tire Tours rocks!

First stop. Hellooo falafel!

Om nom nom get in my belly!

A food tour without beer would be incomplete.

Did I mention that the day I did these tours was July 4? Thanks to the couple from Texas who let me keep this awesome headband! Sometimes during the tour I forgot I had it on and wondered why people were looking at me strangely...

Part of Alex's history interlude. Those poles represent where the Berlin Wall would stand.

What's the best way to get to West Berlin if you can't climb over it because of the barbed wire? Dig a tunnel of course! These marks represent that there is a tunnel underneath that runs from East Berlin to West Berlin.

Berlin Wall

These circles represent people who tried to escape from East Berlin. This one was unfortunately someone who did not make it past the east side. Fortunately after this I did see many circles on the west side of people who made it!

This is where I had some of the most delicious cheesecake! And coffee.

My bike's name was Agnes. I purposely picked her because I have a friend named Agnes! The bikes all had different names like Walter White. Agnes Keyser was a real person. Apparently she was the longtime mistress to Edward VII of the UK. Apparently she held a close bond with Edward VII compared to his other mistresses, and she was pretty well accepted in royal circles- including Edward's WIFE Alexandra of Denmark!

My last full day in Berlin was a little less cheerful but nonetheless something that I wanted to. I visited a concentration camp north of Berlin called Sachsenhausen. Here is where another one of my funny adventures started. I was leaving my Airbnb and heading to the bahn station where we were meeting in the Berlin city center to all take a train to go to Sachsenhausen. Literally right as the bahn was pulling up to the station- I got a nosebleed. I freaked out and ran to a nearby little snack stand and gestured with my hands and asked if she had any tissues and she threw some paper towels at me. Blood is all over my hands and it got on my shirt, I looked like a mess. I managed to make the bahn (I was short on time and needed to catch it in order to meet with my Sachsenhausen group on time). If you have blood on your hands and shirt- people are definitely going to stare at you on the bahn. Some nice guy handed me the rest of his tissues. I casually stood there pinching the bridge of my nose waiting for the nosebleed to stop. People asked me if I wanted or needed to sit down but I said no that it was ok. I just wanted to be as close to the exit as possible and get off and get to a bathroom or somewhere to clean myself up! Fortunately it wasn't too bad and I got off and found where our group was meeting. I asked my tour guide where I could get a new shirt real fast because I didn't want to be known on the tour as the girl with blood on her shirt. I quickly ducked into Uniqlo, got a tank top for 8 Euro and headed on my way to Sachsenhausen! Pretty cool store by the way, reminded me of H&M. If I wasn't in such a rush I would've shopped some more!

Ysanne was our tour guide and she was fantastic. She is very well spoken and filled the tour with lots of fascinating and heart breaking historical facts. Sachsenhausen is located in Oranienburg. It was mainly used for political prisoners and was not intended as a kill camp. This camp was the administrative center for many of the camps, and it was also the training center for the SS officers. You really get a feel for the camp right from the beginning when your guide has you walk from the train station to the entrance of the camp down the same path the prisoners took. It was set up right by a neighborhood. People knew what was happening. Can you imagine something so horrific happening right outside your backyard?

The entrance to the camp. This is where you would give your name and state your crime. One man told them that there must have been some kind of mistake because he didn't commit any crimes and didn't know what he was here for. He was then kicked and beaten bloody by SS officers for his response. When they asked him again he responded, "My crime is being a Jew."

The sign at the entrance of Sachsenhausen. It means 'work sets you free.' It appears at some of the entrances to other concentration camps as well.

Sachsenhausen

2 of the only original barracks in the camp

If prisoners stepped on the gravel in this neutral zone then they were shot on sight. One of the men who attempted many escape was Jimmy James who is known for 'The Great Escape.' He survived and visited Sachsenhausen later on in life. He gave some tours and shared some of his wartime experiences.

Inside one of the barracks. In parts of the barracks and an exhibit dedicated to the Jews, there is evidence of a fire. Ysanne informed us that in 1992, shortly after the Prime Minister of Israel visited, a group of Neo-Nazis set a fire that severely damaged one of the barracks. My tour guide Sam from the other day mentioned this and said how it was one of the most offensive things he had ever heard of. Not just offensive on Facebook or somewhere on social media, but personally offensive. And it is absolutely disgusting. How could a fellow human being burn a memorial to Jews from one of the most horrific events in our history? It makes me sick to think about it. Why can't people learn that love is always better and stronger than hate?

The clothes the prisoners wore. The triangles symbolize what you were imprisoned for. Red triangles = Communists, yellow triangles = Jews, Pink triangles = Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses = Purple triangles

One thing that every single tour guide I had emphasized was how Germany is talking about and coming to terms with its past. They aren't just sweeping it under the rug and avoiding the subject. They are addressing it head on. The word for it is this (it's a long one): Vergangenheitsbewältigung. It basically sums up how they come to terms with their past, in regards to the Holocaust and the Nazis. It roughly translates to 'Overcoming the past.'

 After Sachsenhausen I spent the rest of my last full day in Berlin at Alexanderplatz. Alexanderplatz was one of my favorite spots to check out. And I also had ice cream from Bandy Brooks. Again. Their flavors are amazing! And for only 2 Euro for a cone how can you say no?

Alexanderplatz rules! Wish I had photoshop skills to take out that one pole blocking the sign!

Meet Ampelmann! This is the symbol they use for the pedestrian signals for crossing the street. I first saw it on my coworker's shirt before I even came to Germany and it reminded me of Breaking Bad and Heisenberg. Now I got to see him in person!

Really cool chalk artwork at Alexanderplatz

So basically I was the energizer bunny during my week in Germany. It was an amazing experience and I would not change a thing. I feel so privileged and fortunate that I got the chance to visit this beautiful country. I can only hope that I am fortunate enough to visit again and see other parts of it! Now I am back in Doha for a few more days until I fly home for the summer. Ramadan has ended and we are reaching the end of Eid al-Fitr, which is the festival/celebration after Ramadan has ended. For expats like me this means that the QDC is open again and we can eat and drink in public again! But all I really want is to go back to the US and see all my family and friends and hug them.

The main point of this entry is that this crazy American had a blast in Germany. And there's a silly story about these sweatpants. Feel free to ask me about it in person, I'm not sharing it on here =)

See you in September for details about year 2 in Doha! Have a great summer friends!