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Week 31 & 32 of 2024 (Year in Review) – On Holiday in Germany with a Two Year Old
August is nearly finished and we’ve recently returned from a two-week trip to Germany and Denmark: through Berlin for a few nights, up to the North Sea coast (North Frisia) at the German-Denmark border for over a week, and then a couple cushion days in Brandenburg to break up the long way back from our overland (train) journey. Although some friends are calling this trip “ambitious” or “courageous” because of traveling mainly without a car with our toddler and dog, we ended up choosing this destination in the end because I’ve been wanting to go to the German coast for ages. not to mention my love of Germany and getting…
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in berlin: teufelsberg
have you ever heard about a place that so captures your interest and imagination that you end up thinking about it all the time and even dreaming about it? that’s how teufelsberg in berlin was for me for years (similar to seljavallalaug, which i finally went to in 2016!) and as today’s beautiful, crisp sunny autumn weather seemed like a perfect sort of day to go to grünewald (the large swath of forest to the southwest of the city where teufelsberg is located), i thought of it today. and writing about it. but you might be wondering – what is teufelsberg? those who don’t have a knowledge of german language…
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august in berlin, week three
in the last full week in berlin, i started to get a little frazzled because we had by that point finally decided when we were going to head back to budejovice – we had to be back by the end of august to temporarily renew our visas, so the end was near, as it were, and there were still (as ever) far too many things on my wish list. there is something about this city that makes me want to be out every day, doing as much as i can, going as far as i can… but i had to learn to let it be and relax a little bit. …
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august in berlin, week two
happy september (aka “back to hogwarts” day), friends! i am relishing this anything-but-lazy saturday morning, planning to tidy a bit, do my first bake along with this year’s great british bake off which just started this week, and finally, some work continuing my german studies. in order to finish the current textbook i’m revising and working through by the time i start again with my lessons, i’ve calculated i have to do one textbook unit every three days… challenge accepted! so it is “back to books” a bit this month for me. anyone else going “back to school” somehow? continuing speaking about august in berlin experience – catch up on week one here.week…
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august, lately: the first week in berlin
phewww. what a month! i didn’t have time to write this past month (save for that one post about traveling with your dog – check it out if you missed it!) because from the beginning of august, i was immersed in a berlin-language study-do all the things whirlwind! i left my inbox almost fully unattended until i couldn’t possibly put things off any longer while we were away for most of august in berlin, i working on my studies and alex starting his next writing project on his pretty portable olivetta lettera (above) he dragged all the way from budejovice in this sweet little kollwitzkiez flat that i termed “the treehouse” because of…
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a time and a place
this time of year always gets me thinking around my time studying in berlin, incidentally, ten years ago. this time of year when it would get dark at four o’clock and the sky would turn from neon-grey to a shroud of black. it was the coldest novembers i have ever lived through. so cold and dark, but i was deeply inspired and knew full well time was of the essence to make the most of my semester. this is my berlin – the short days, the long nights. although the summers are fantastic and are like a prize for making it through the other eight months of the year, cold,…
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kitchens around the world
(add your kitchen to the list! more info at the end of the post) it’s been a quiet, sunny, winter week here. so uneventful that i was scrolling through photos i took last year and couldn’t help but notice how many photos i took of kitchens i stayed in. the thing that fascinated me the most about spending time in someone’s house is their kitchen, especially if they are from a different country than me. like most people, i only knew the kitchen in the house where i was raised and there, we do things a certain way. so it’s super interesting to see what others’ kitchens look like and…
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berlin christmas market rundown!
hey. so i know it’s january, folks are knee-deep in resolutions, self-betterment, and photos to prove you went running. but i have some serious intel about the christmas markets in berlin, seeing as i’d been doing this “research” the week of christmas, that needs to be released on the wild internet or the thought will either wither away in my mind or this post will rot in my drafts folder forever. and technically, the twelve days of christmas are still on ‘til the 6th, yo. so pin it, bookmark it, do whatever it is you gotta do if you want to know the low-down on which berlin christmas markets to visit!…
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berlin christmas
i had my first christmas in the city this year, in berlin. and it was weird… but not in a bad way. (i am not counting the time we lived in prague because we were residents then, not there as tourists) when you’re in the big city for christmas and you don’t live there, especially when you live in a smaller city for the rest of the year, and especially when that city is your FAVORITE city, there is no time for rest. it’s time to do and eat all the things. so, then… is it really christmas? (do they know it’s christmas?) that can make for a very tired…
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in berlin: ritter schoko-welt
when it comes to my favorite german chocolate, i am a total ritter gal. some big are milka or lindt fans, but i’ve always been ritter all the way. i love how in the states you can buy the bars at trader joe’s, and of course here in central europe, you’ll find them in every store. my ritter tastes go through an evolution: i used to be all about the dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts until i discovered peppermint, which initially i thought would be kind of gross but turned out to be better than an andes mint (remember those?). so when i was most recently hangin’ in berlin last…
