By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
I remember Berlin very vividly, a young, but vibrant metropolitan city filled with bustling open air parties, the culture divide between east and west side and can walk around, gaily and openly drinking alcohol. I'm dubbing Berlin as one of the hippest cities ever. Even the food scene was up and becoming, bearing more options beyond just sausages and pretzels. We wouldn't have known this, had it not been for Christian, whom we met by accident, while touring the streets of Berlin. Turns out, that he was a local, but was originally from Chicago, proudly gay and Korean. He offered to hang out with us during our stay in Berlin, we felt no reservations whatsoever and immediately took him up on his offer. I was stunned by his kindness and hospitality towards four strangers that he had just met. Over cocktails, he would share the funniest and wildest stories with us, as if we were lifelong friends who were finally catching up after 10 years of not seeing each other. We hardly missed a beat. Even though we were perfect strangers, in the four days that I spent my time with him, I knew I had met somebody special. I am a travel junkie and I want to keep exploring new, foreign cities. Fast forward to 2014, I decided I wanted to come back to Berlin, so I made the exception of going back to the same city twice. Christian had made the trip so memorable, that it was time to go back and have double the fun. When I reached out to him, I was unsure whether he would remember me, but he did. The second time around, he was much more relaxed, perhaps even more intimate about his feelings, his sexuality, his past and present. We were having some deep, meaningful, yet dark conversations. It was truly in this moment that I felt this very perfect stranger who was not so perfect after all, was only human and he was baring his soul to us. Being gay in an Asian household was not so easy. His first love had passed away, captured by moments of too much drug abuse. It was evident that he was struggling with so much in his life. Till this day, I'm not sure what compelled him to share such deep and painful memories with us, but I knew out of respect, that I would treasure the moment we had forever. We are, after all, human beings. I knew, by his confessions that it was his sign of release and a way to cope with all the pain. He doesn't know it, but he gave me the gift of compassion and empathy. He gave me more than he ever will know. I knew we were going to be friends for life.