So does traveling to Europe in November and December! There are no shortage of festive events wherever you go, and I feel like Germany is particularly on top of the game in this area.

The Festival of Lights is a yearly event in Berlin where images and lights are shown onto buildings all over the city. I figured it would be fun to see, but it was actually more beautiful and more fun than I imagined. Waiting to see the next image was exciting–and so was trying to take pictures of each!

We arrived to Berlin in the dark, but we just had to see the famous Brandenburg Gate right away, especially as it was almost walking distance from our hostel. Seeing the gate during the light festival made the experience even more beautiful and unique! I might even prefer the gate this way?

On our walk back, we saw buildings lit up near pieces of the Berlin Wall as we moved through Potsdamer Platz.

As we wandered through the busy square and I took a thousand pictures attempting to get some good night-shots, John Lennon’s “Let It Be” started playing in the background. That song can make even technicolor light feel meaningful, I learned. It’s hard not to feel like your heart is full when, even in a strange land, everyone is singing “Let It Be” together.

Have you been to Berlin? Or a light festival? 

Linking up with Travel Tuesday. 

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Three weeks ago, we spent about 30 hours in Berlin for our visa interviews (you have to leave the country to apply to an embassy…nobody gets this, especially not me, but it is what it is).

I did not expect to like or enjoy Berlin very much. I was looking forward to seeing it, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice to visit for our interview. Since our interview was moved up by two weeks very suddenly (and those who apply to live in other countries know that when this happens, YOU TAKE IT), I didn’t have much chance to do research on what we should do, besides asking for your comments.  (Thank you, by the way!).

Instead of finding Berlin a charmless, giant, modern city, I was fascinated. Berlin is a vibrant, fun city full of great restaurants, art galleries, old and new buildings, and especially, history. One reason I came to Europe is the centuries of history you can find around every corner, and the fact that is some places, you can feel the history. While Berlin isn’t full of charming buildings that haven’t changed in 200 years as I am partial to (and this is mostly due to bombing from war), the history here is a living, breathing feeling in the air.

We saw the Brandenburg Gate (bright with images on the Festival of Lights),

Potsdamer Platz during the Festival of Lights with John Lennon playing in the background,

the Holocaust Memorial,

Hitler’s Bunker (which really is just a parking lot…),

and some leftover pieces of the Berlin Wall.

Before moving to Eastern Europe and seeing the Berlin Wall for myself, I never really grasped the significance of this event in history. Partly because I was very small when the Wall fell, and because I feel like it was a part of history barely addressed in my education.

Maybe it was just the area of the world where I grew up? We learned much more about the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, and World War II more than anything else. (side-eye Montana–which is celebrating 125 years today–and it’s obsession with Lewis & Clark).

Or maybe it just wasn’t an area of my interest so I didn’t pay much attention.

I found the Holocaust Memorial particularly moving, as I suspected I would, but I didn’t know I would feel the same way about the Wall.

This is one of my favorite things about travel: the exposure to real life and history is something you can’t always gain from books and the classroom. I’m not sure I would have felt so moved by touching the Berlin Wall in person if I hadn’t learned just how communism impacted Eastern Europe by living here in the Czech Republic. While it’s not necessarily a “fun” part of traveling, it is a real part of traveling.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. I wish I could be there to see the illuminated installation that is marking the anniversary, but since I can’t, here are nine surprising facts about the Wall, why it is a somber occasion, the guard who opened the barrier, East Germany today, and barriers around the world.

Linking up with Fresh Face Friday and the Sunday Traveler.

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