JP Comes to Visit!

It's crazy to think that our time in Berlin is winding down.  We've started arranging things for the big move back to the States (!!!!) and we hosted our last visitors this past week. My cousin JP is traveling around Europe for a month before he moves to San Diego and his girlfriend Chiara is working in Portugal for three months, so we were excited to host them as our last guests.

JP arrived on Wednesday afternoon after a few days in Munich and Prague.  It sounds like he had a blast and met a few new people, but he said he was glad to see a familiar face, so we took it easy Wednesday night and just hung out at our apartment.

The next day, JP, Finn and I got a late start to the morning, but we eventually made our way to the East Side Gallery and the German History Museum.  Finn really took in the German history ;)  That night, we went to our neighborhood bar for a drink before heading to the airport to pick up Chiara.

I waited for Chiara to arrive to do our walking tour of the city, so we set out around mid morning on Friday so that they could see the city.  Like I've said before, we can hit all of the major sights in a few hours with this tour, so it's perfect for people who haven't been to the city before. After the tour, Chiara wanted to stop by this chocolate shop that her German room mates had raved about called Rausch.  I had never heard of it before, but it was magical.  There was so much chocolate! It's probably a good thing I didn't know about it when I had my pregnancy sweet tooth because I would have been there way too frequently.


Saturday was everyone's last day in Berlin.  Chiara was heading back to Portugal, JP was checking London off his list and the Hogans were heading out for a three week road trip around the Balkans.  Since I hadn't done any sort of packing, I sent JP and Chiara out on their own to explore our neighborhood while I finished packing.  That afternoon, we headed to Tempelhof Field where the Formula E Prix races were taking place. Mike found this event online, but no one was really sure what to expect.  We ended up being there right as the final race was about to start, so we watched for about 20 minutes as the first car crossed the finish line.  It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon for sure. We bid farewell to JP and Chiara Saturday night when we all went to bed.  Mike, Finn and I had an early plane to catch, so we left JP and Chiara at our house since their flight wasn't until the afternoon.

It was so much fun having JP come to visit.  My brothers and I grew up with JP by our side since he lived nearby and was so close in age.  Since we've grown up and gone off to college, time spent together is not as common, so I'm grateful for the chance to host him and get to spend a few days with him before he leaves for the west coast!

Go Dukes!