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Published: January 16th 2016
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I don’t know if you know this or not, but Deftones are my favorite musicians. They announced their European tour at the beginning of 2015 and I was so pumped to get to see them for the 10th time or so over here in Europe somewhere. Of the four shows, I decided not London, since I’d been there. I debated over Paris and the two cities in Germany, as I had not been to either country. Although I was tempted to have a romantic night in Paris with the Deftones, I opted for the show in Berlin. I purchased my ticket immediately and was the happiest girl in the world! :D This was April. When they began their tour in November, they checked out the event center in Paris where they were going to play and then went out to eat dinner. Fifteen minutes later, they got word that the event center—The Bataclan—had just been attacked and people at the site were dead. After a couple of days of lockdown in Paris, the Deftones decided to return to home to California to be with their families instead of continuing their tour. I found out days before my flight leaves for Berlin,
and although my heart was broken for a moment, I quickly understood their decision.
I liked this city from the start! I chose to hit up some of the more tourist-y sights, but missed out on a few of the parks, green spaces, hang-outs, and street art hot-spots I had planned due to the city being so freaking huge! For some reason, it’s doubly huge… hmmm… Next time I’ll stick to public transit merely to save time!
Berlin has been known for its alternative and ‘cool’ style, and I can see why. I would like to note that while Berlin used to be the underground cool spot, Budapest is the budding underground cool spot. UNESCO, in December 2015, named Budapest one of the world’s most creative cities and it’s easy to see why once you’ve been here. Also, Budapest is a romantic and decadent city that is deserving of the moniker ‘Paris of the East.’
A final note on this whole experience: While in Berlin, with it's history of the Nazi regime, I met a Muslim woman from Egypt in my hostel room. We had a great conversation about education and intelligence versus extremism and ignorance and
how there are crazies and good people both, on all sides. We laughed and learned from each other and we even had a mini head scarf fashion show with the other girls in the room since she had several and we were asking about how to wear it and why, ‘the rules.’ In case anyone isn’t sure, I’ll make it easy: some Christians like to have a cross necklace as a symbol of devotion to their faith and some Muslim women like to have a pretty head scarf as a symbol of devotion to their faith. Neither are bad or wrong or forced or symbolic of anything negative.
But I suppose that if you are actually reading my silly blog, than you are a smart human with a heart and you already know this. I am profoundly grateful to have experienced that feeling connectedness during this trip where my main objective had ultimately been thwarted by a terrorist attack. Um, thanks for reading. :D
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