It was late morning, and Jordi’s housemate casually mentioned that he was going to go to a demonstration later that day. Ever curious what these things are like in countries other than my own, and with nothing better to do on my last day in Berlin, I asked if I could join him and he was happy to have me along. It was a very relaxed affair. We took our time to leave, had coffee then breakfast and even managed a spontaneous trip to a flea market while we waited for the bus. I expected a small group, a handful of protesters who felt strongly enough about a cause that had, until that morning, been completely unknown to me.

How wrong I was!

Until we reached Berlin’s main train station, it could have been the small affair we were expecting. But the moment we entered the station, there were protesters everywhere, dressed in multicolours and carrying flags and banners of varying shapes and sizes. We followed the flow to the beat of a drum until we made it outside. And what a sight it was.

Hundreds upon thousands of people, carrying so many different flags and banners in the sunshine. It was an amazing and inspiring sight, to see so many people come together for something they believed in. I was given a flag to wave and we edged our way, inch by inch through the dense crowd, in the direction we hoped to be marching in.

After an hour, we were still only a few yards away from where we had started, so Alex took us on a shortcut where instead we got the most amazing view of people everywhere, on all the bridges, the riverbanks, the square. Everywhere, people, colours and the buzz in the air.