For those of you who don't know, I have been in Europe for the past 2 weeks.

My mom and sister surprised me with this trip of a lifetime just a mere week and a half before we left. Here is the story as to how they did it: they placed my plane ticket confirmation paper on my face while I was sleeping, and then played a German children's song called "Schnappi" a little too loud to actually wake me up from a deep and glorious sleep. (If you feel so inclined, here is the link for the song, it's quite cute.) It was an awesome surprise, but I honestly didn't understand what was happening at first; I was extremely confused and knew that the song they were playing was in German, but what the heck was this piece of paper? As I began getting more and more awake, I slowly realized that it was the confirmation email that they got for buying an airplane ticket, but my destination said TXL. Where is TXL? Am I going to Texas? I kept staring at the paper, and my mom and sister were just sitting there, waiting for it to click in my brain. They lost patience, so they had to tell me, "You're going to Germany, Reagan."

Hey, apparently TXL is the airport code for the Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany. We're all supposed to learn something new each and every day, so I fulfilled my quota pretty early on in the morning.

As you may have guessed, I brought books:

Thanks to my sister and her miraculous packing skills, I managed to only bring a light backpack and a small suitcase. Organization, am I right? She told me to limit my books, so I brought... 3. In my defense, one was a mass-market paperback. Just like she thought, I partly read only 2 of them. But in my defense, you never know what kind of mood you'll be in, and which books you'll actually want to read. I brought: Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), Blue Shoe (Lamott), and Between the Lines (Piccoult). Needless to say, I was not bored on the plane.

Day 1

It rained during our first day in Berlin. It rained hard. I'm one of those people that like to write and read when it's all gloomy outside, but when you need to actually be outside to get from point a to point b... I'm not as big of a fan of the rain anymore. We visited the Reichstag building + dome (pictured below), but like I said, it was raining quite profusely. Thankfully, it only rained on the latter half of our outing, so we were only partially soaked on the walk back to the place we were staying.

The first picture is of the Reichstag building. We went inside, to the dome (picture 2), and received a little cassette-player-sized device with headphones. We each put in our headphones, listened to the audio tour, and walked up the ramp at our own pace. It was really interesting to hear the history behind this building and the other significant buildings neighboring this one.

Day 2

We had the pleasure of walking past this scene (pictured above) many times during our trip. Guys, Berlin is beautiful.

This is a picture of the coffee beverages and pie that my mom, sister, and I got at a coffee shop we stumbled upon. The café was called La Tazza (thank you for reminding me, cup), and we all ordered Americanos. (Americans ordering Americanos. Ironic, I know.) The drinks were served with these tiny biscotti bites, and we also got what we thought was a piece of fig pie, but turned out to be a surprisingly delicious plum pie. I highly recommend it.

Day 3

Reader, before I show you this next picture and you worry about my health and how much caffeine I consume on a daily basis, let me share this with you: I have tried weaning myself off of coffee before. But, I simply discovered that it's not the caffeine that I enjoy, it's the taste and the experience you get when you drink a cup of coffee. Also, the migraines that I got from being coffee-less were excruciating. So, here we are! I am also currently at Starbucks, sipping a latte, and writing about coffee. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Sunday before church, we went to this coffee shop called Bonanza Coffee. You may remember my picture (below) that I posted on Instagram. It was taken inside this very coffee shop... I really love her haircut.

Never have I ever had a better iced flat white before in my life. There were moments where I almost lost all the contents in my cup (due to the lack of lids present in that establishment), but every sip was worth the risk.

After our 3rd day in Berlin, we went to Venice, Rome, then Florence. My next post will be about those adventures.

Till next time,

Reagan Fleming.