Happy New Year!

Before departing for Berlin, I dived into a sea of tabs in search of the perfect location to spend New Year's Eve. How does one even begin to design a night to welcome a YEAR? Apart from that, Berlin is quite the alluring city, especially during the holidays. 

With endless lovely suggestions, our team decided to celebrate at Brandenburg Gate. The architecture of the gate, alone, is quite impressive, being a piece of the 17th century still apart in the modern world. The gate has witnessed iconic historical events -- from being stormed by Napolean Bonaparte in triumph and visited by President Regan to his famous "Tear that Wall down" speech. The gate is recognized as an international symbol of peace. 

Though there may have been many other entrancing events our team could have enjoyed that could very well match or exceed the celebration in its glamour, none, however, match the Silvester Party in its caliber and magnitude. 

Upon entering the party, the reality easily exceeded our expectations for what might be. With thousands of individuals crowding the gates, there was some uncertainty as to whether we would actually make it in. Everyone had the aura of excitement. At first, when we entered it was disorienting. The entire street leading up to the Gate was blocked off for the celebration. Initially, the Gate wasn't even in site. Thankfully, we made it through quite a few checkpoints and had a lovely view of the stage. There were people from all walks of life -- young and old, from countries near and far. We counted the new year through smiles and laughs and welcomed in the new year with glittering fireworks and friendship. The streets home were littered with fireworks (which were going of EVERYWHERE mind you, literally fireworks off of SIDEWALKS -- ALL NIGHT!!!!) and joy. 

The next day, after filming some B-roll of the Berlin Wall, we "dumped" our files into a folder and happily wrote in titled our folder: 1/0/2019.