berlin has been on our list for a while now – after hearing stories from friends that have visited and meeting locals, i was so intrigued by the mix of history, old and new architecture, art, music, food, bier, nightlife and just overall "vibes" that i'd heard so many people rave about. neither of us had ever been to germany, and after meeting julian and coco on tao philippines, they offered to let us stay in their guest room the next time we were in europe. we decided to take them up on it! and i'm so happy we did. it was so fun to not only stay with locals, but to hear more about the city from their point of view, and get a true local's tour blended in with some of the research we had done on our own. 

we arrived on a thursday and dropped our bags before having a somewhat "touristy" day seeing a lot of the historic spots. before arriving we had heavily brushed up our research on the history of berlin and were enamored with learning everything we could about WWII, hitler, prussia, nazi germany, soviet communism, the wall and well... so much more. you can just feel the history walking through the streets, and we couldn't get enough.

some of our favorite stops in central berlin include:

• brandenburg gate 
• museum island & the holocaust memorial
• berlin wall memorial
• checkpoint charlie 
• the reichstag
• tempelhof field

later we went to our home for the weekend and had a delicious home cooked meal & caught up with our friends. we also spent the evening mapping out the rest of our visit – below are just a few photos from around the city. more to come!