-
best monday
about two weeks ago, i had one of the best mondays ever. i can’t say the best monday because one monday in scotland i visited the oban distillery at 10am. and another monday in scotland i went to the isle of eigg for the day, which was one of my all-time favorite days, period. but two mondays ago in berlin… that comes relatively close. finally got out of bed about 10:00 after lazing around reading for a bit. breakfast time. about 11:30, walked to volkspark hasenheide to play mini-golf! one of my absolutely favorite vacation activities: nothing says “i’m on holiday” quite like mini-golf. the weather was nice and sunny, with only…
-
mein leipzig
i spent the first half of my birthday busing to leipzig via prague and dresden. i’m not sure at what point i thought that booking 5:40am bus tickets outta ČB was a good idea, but on the morning of my twenty-eighth birthday, it did not feel like one. (fortunately a pitstop at starbucks helped!) i’d never been to leipzig before but because alex and my mutual favorite band was playing there on my birthday night, so the plans were made for us! i quickly settled into our gorgeous flat in südvorstadt near connewitz, a neighborhood that i immediately took a great liking to. it felt strange to be somewhere so like…
-
berlinale
going to the uber prestigious berlinale (berlin international film festival) has been one of those unattainable dreams of mine since about 2007. i mean, why would i ever be in germany in february? welp, when it’s only seven hours away by bus and alex has the week off for spring break, it seemed like the stars were aligning to make it happen. booking our visit over a month in advance had several advantages: the bus tickets were super cheap, a great hostel near potsdamer platz (festival headquarters) was quite vacant, and i had something to occupy my always-planning mind during long, cold january. berlinale is a generally pass-less festival, with…
-
berlin valentine
berlin for berlinale and valentines’ week was a hell of a time. i was a little unsure about returning so soon after my all-too-short weekend getaway last summer somehow rubbed me a little bit in the wrong direction, but the city’s back on my good list now and it seems that valentines’ week was the perfect time to realize that it was just a rough patch we were going through. as i was being smothered by winter monotony here in south bohemia, five days in the hauptstadt was just the thing to refresh my spirits. although i was looking forward to seeing the city in it’s snowy winter glory, the…
-
Krasný Nový Rok (2013 Recap)
happy 2014! the new year’s sun is shining through my window…. a wonderful first sight of this first morning of the year. it seems like just last week that it was january first and i was wandering around my neighborhood of mala strana in the fog. it scares me a little how fast the year passed, which is a great reminder to “live in the now” and savor every moment of life. it tends to pass at a normal and much more acceptable time when i’m doing that. 2013 has been a very exciting year for me. to blindly move away from lovely prague in january just because of the promise…
-
It’s Not Me, It’s You: The Remnants of my Berlin Dream
i love berlin. everyone who knows me knows this. everyone who knows me and doesn’t know this, should. i first visited in 2006 on a whirlwind month backpacking central europe where it was by far my favorite stop on the trip, made even more fun by the fact that i knew some locals living there at the time (uw german department professors and affiliates) and they really pulled out all the stops to show me a good time. dinner parties, city tours, an evening at a crusty prenzlauer berg bar trying different flavors of berliner weisse– i loved it all. my friends there convinced me to take german language classes…
