I know I’ve been behind on posting, but I have midterms today and tomorrow, so I’ve been preparing myself for those. Along the way though I have discovered something about Germany that makes me never want to leave: every corner I round, every street I cross and every building I come across seems to have been taken out of a fairytale. 

 I’ve been to two places specifically that appear as though designed for a fairytale: Sans Souci (literally French for “without worries”) and the town that surrounds it, Potsdam. 

So Potsdam has a loooooong history of being the royal getaway for the Kings of Germany. Frederick the Great built the place as his summer home. Yep – he just spent his summers here. Don’t worry though, he never got lonely, he would house his friends in his numerous summer apartments surrounding the area, some as far as about a mile away. He spared no expense when building it, which resulted in a completely lavished, Versailles-inspired palatial complex fit for numerous Kings; although only used by one. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside of the palaces, so pictures of the outside will have to fuel your imagination… 

My favorite spot in Berlin is one that I’ve visited numerous times already, but had yet to properly photograph it. Its a little patch of grass sandwiched in between the Altes Museum and the Berliner Dom on Museum Island called the Lustgarten. 

 Here is the perfect expanse of grass that locals and tourists alike gather on to play games, drink, people watch and be around others. I was lucky enough to get to climb the Berliner Dom (way higher than I’d imagine from looking up at it all those times before) and try to conquer my fear of heights. While I am not completely cured of my fear, I was rewarded with a completely breath-taking panorama of Berlin from a very different vantage point.

The marrying of old and new, tourists and locals and the quiet roar that I hear in Berlin everyday are just a few of the things that will make this city hard to leave at the end of this month…but as always…

Until Next Time, 

Casey R