Berlin already seems like a distant memory. My time there only seems like a dream after the past 10 days of traipsing about Italy with one of my best friends and my sister.

Unlike a lot of places I’ve been I fell for Berlin instantly. It felt like a familiar mix of so many places I’ve been, lived, and loved but with a character uniquely its own. My previous visits to Germany were to visit a friend in Nürnberg; I loved it there and always had a hunch I would fall hard for Berlin and it did not disappoint.

I spent most of my time in Berlin wandering rather aimlessly through the streets exploring different neighborhoods on my walks between places. With so many things to do and eat it can be a bit overwhelming but I decided to not stress about doing everything and focus on having a leisurely good time since I knew after I departed I would be starting a 10-day dash through Italy. While I managed to see a lot of the main sights through my wanderings the places I did purposely visit were well worth it.

The first of the places I planned to visit was the Bauhaus Archiv since I love that period of art and design and while the collection is small it is very encompassing of the Bahaus periods and spirit and even had a great special exhibit of photography from Lucia Moholy, one of the Bauhaus members.

Another great activity was being able to spend a Saturday wandering around Flughafen Templehof. It was an old airport that closed down a few years ago and the runways and green strips were turned into a multi purpose park. It would have been great to have a bike to ride around the vast expanse of space, I also think if you book in advance you can take a tour of the actual airport buildings.

The final thing I made time for was the Hamburger Bahnhof museum. It is an old train station that is now a Contemporary Art Museum. I got there when it opened on Sunday and had to wait in line for at least 15 minutes as the ticketing process is surprisingly slow and unorganized compared to most places I’ve been in Germany, so either go on a week day or be prepared to wait. The current exhibit was a great retrospective of Gülsün Karamustafa’s, a Turkish Artist, work that I really enjoyed.

I already can’t wait to make a return to Berlin to spend more time seeing the art and eating all the food!