On one of my days in Berlin, I had signed up to visit a concentration camp: Sachsenhausen. While far from a "fun" tour, I felt that, as the Nazi history is so prominent in Germany's history, it would be a very interesting visit. Sachsenhausen was the first concentration camp built, just outside of Berlin, to house political prisoners. It later served as a camp for both Jewish and gay prisoners. As Sachsenhausen is in Germany, it was considered a work camp, rather than a death camp, although many deaths still occurred within the walls. The visit was quite incredible, bringing us as close to what it must have been like in those years despite the fact that we will never quite understand how it felt without having gone through it.

On my second full day in the city I went on the Free Berlin Walking tour, more focused on the city itself and its tourist spots and less so on its Nazi history. We visited many more squares, libraries, churches, and some of Berlin's most touristy spots. Some interesting facts that I still remember from the tours:

Berlin was amazing, let's just start with that. Despite having five days in the city, by the end I wished I'd stayed longer. On my first day there though, I had the complete opposite feeling. I flew in from Frankfurt, which should have been a quick flight. But because it was delayed by more than an hour, I didn't get into Berlin until the late afternoon, so that by the end of the day I really didn't have the opportunity to see much. I stayed in East Berlin by Alexaderplatz, where many of the buildings are reminiscent of soviet architecture, practical and ugly, many of which are abandoned. However, because I took the bus from the airport, we had passed through Museum Island, and I got my first glimpse of the Berliner Dom. 

It's a little surreal to think that I've started on a two month trek across Europe. I've been planning and dreaming of this for so long, that I know it will just fly by. It feels like I'm still in planning mode, even though the first city has already come and gone! Since I've been terrible at sharing lately, and still haven't finished posting about my Australia trip, I figured I'd try to record what I do in Europe as I wrap up each city. So, for the first one, Frankfurt!

One of the experiences I was most looking forward to in Australia was diving in the Great Barrier Reef. As I wouldn't be spending too many days in Cairns, and would be both flying in and out of the city, I was unable to actually dive with an oxygen tank, but chose to snorkel instead. I signed up for the Cruise and Fly Reef Tour through Expedia, and it was an incredible experience.

To kickstart my Australia trip, I wasted no time hanging around. My first flight was from NYC to Vancouver, Canada. I left NYC on 1/1 at 7PM and arrived in Vancouver 6 hours later, or 9:40PM local time. It's funny thinking that was the short leg of the trip. Whenever I fly from NYC to Seattle, or my family comes to visit, I always think it's such a long flight and how crappy it feels. But, since I was flying halfway around the world to Australia, this first leg felt like no big deal.

As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I recently traveled to Australia and New Zealand for 3 weeks. It was an incredible and very packed vacation. We did so much in those 3 weeks that it would be impossible to try and fit it all into just one post. I will break down all the adventures into multiple posts and upload those over the following weeks. A quick run down of all the activities:

As NYU gives us the whole month of January off to pursue recruiting, I spent the past week in San Francisco through a school tech trek. We visited twelve companies in four days, so lots to take in. Here's my take on the recent trip:

Like I'd mentioned in my previous post, in order to get Zoey to New York from Seattle, we had to drive cross-country. It was an incredible experience. We'd complained in the past about how long the 4-5 hour drive from Seattle to Spokane WA was, twice a year for four years while I did my undergrad at Gonzaga. Preparing to move to New York, we knew we had at least 40 hours to go! Let that sink in for a minute.

At the end of 2013, just before the holidays, I started thinking of returning to school, debating between an MBA or a Masters in Statistics. I started thinking of why I wanted to change industries, where I'd like to be, and the possibility of moving from Seattle, where I've lived for the last 15 years. I've greatly enjoyed my time at Amazon and the opportunity I had to work with incredible people. But I knew it was time to move on, and chase an industry I was much more passionate about, sports.

This past weekend I got to take a break from studying and enjoy a beautiful venue with an awesome artist. The Gorge is an absolutely beautiful, natural amphitheater in the middle of Washington near the Columbia River. Not only are the views breathtaking while you're waiting for the show to start, but the acoustics can't be beat.