Alles Gute in Berlin

I have to spend today waiting around for the gepack service to bring round those two embarrassingly large bags, so I thought I'd take the time to share some photos of mah new place:

I love how light and big my room and the kitchen are, and how much space there is for all the nick nacks I've accumulated. I also love that I have a balcony, which I'm sure I will enjoy mightily during the summer months - alas, I must keep the door shut now. And I really like everything the girl I'm renting from has left me - I sorta feel like I'm living in an indie Anthropologie. I already really feel at home and am looking forward to the other bags arriving so I can really put everything in its place (fingers crossed they actually come...you never know with Deutsche Bahn or its services gahhh).

I'm living in Wedding, a neighborhood just north of Berlin central that is heavily Turkish (= lots of good food opportunities). My apartment is just a five minutes walk from the Gesundbrunnen Center, a large shopping mall with a Kaufland (see the megastore entry), an Aldi (grocery store owned by the same company as Trader Joes!) and...gasp...the German version of Wal-Mart! Plus there is a U-bahn and S-bahn stop right there. So alles gute.


Update: My bags just came! Weeeeeeee

Packing it all up and moving it out (with some help)

I’m writing this entry from a train currently travailing between Erfurt and Berlin. I would say that I feel a mix of emotions right now if that were true, but it’s not. Mostly I’m just excited to be on my way to Berlin and rid of my über critical Erfurt roommate! (Some Germans fit that stereotype too well, and she most certainly was one of those people).

Yesterday I happily watched as a buff German guy from the gepack service came to take my two embarrassingly large suitcases from my apartment. I felt a pang of remorse for him as even he struggled to lug them down the stairs. Oh how will I get my stuff back to the US? Don’t even want to think about it!

I arrived home in Erfurt on Friday after a fun but exhausting mid-year seminar week in Cologne. The week included probably too many late nights and long days of information and excursions, but it was a blast to see my Bremen family and friends from other places again.  Cologne isn’t really a pretty city but it’s definitely a fun city, so we made the most of that.

A highlight of the week was getting to see my first coal mine! A Unesco-recognized World Heritage coal mine, to be exact (otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have cared). We learned about how the miners faced really rough conditions, including being forced to bathe in black swimming pool water every day that “kept their delicate parts inWisible!” (The tour guide was a hilarious German chap whose English was even more hilarious). The coal mine also featured the escalator voted “World’s Best Escalator of 2007.” Random, much? But other than some orange lights it didn’t really rock my world the way I would expect the world’s best escalator to do so.

Oh, and I am now happily a GIZ tote bag richer! (To be used here and then probably tossed before I return to the US).

I’m really looking forward to what awaits me in Berlin, even the mundane stuff that comes with moving to a new place. The next time I update I will for sure be able to tell where the closest Deutsche Bank is, where the best place is to buy my groceries, and naturally also the best places for some German imbiss (although I’m off the sausage for awhile).

Pictures of my new wohnung to come!

Hungary, where the goulash flowed

I didn’t go hungry in Hungary, that’s for sure! (Sorry, I just had to do it).

While I am now a bit relieved to be back in a land where I do not have to use so much charades communication, my tour of the East was enlightening and very enjoyable. I pretty spontaneously took a pleasant flight from Berlin to Budapest, where I met up with Chrissy for some Hungarian fun.

Upon arrival at my hostel I received some excellent news (especially since I get excited when I get anything as small as a bag of popcorn free). The hostel had overbooked my small budget room, and would I mind being upgraded fo free to a full size apartment with living room and kitchen? NO. Vegas-style upgrade and the digs were awesome.

We pulled ourselves away from the place of our good fortune to have dinner at an amazing- and cheap – Hungarian all-you-can-eat and drink buffet. The goulash and Hungarian wine were flowing for the next 3.5 hours.

The next morning we awoke early for the must-sees: the chain bridge, Castle Hill, the parliament building, St. Stephen’s Basilica, etc. Budapest is separated into Buda and Pest by the Danube River and in addition to being a lively city it is also a beautiful one. And I really got the sense – unlike in some other European capitals – that it is a breathing city where real people work and live.  For lunch we visited the huge Market Hall, with vendors showcasing lots of paprika, and had Hungary’s version of fried bread called Langos. It reminded me of Navajo fry bread, so I was happy.

Then it was time to take in a beloved Hungarian tradition: the thermal bath. I had especially been looking forward to this, as the picture of one of the big spas in my Europe on a Shoestring book suggested I should be. No one going to Budapest should miss out on the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath.

The theme of my Hungarian vacay was confusion, and this spa was probably the most confusing experience we had. How to pay? Where to go? Does this labyrinthine hall lead to anything? We had no idea, but once we figured it out we were able to spend three hours enjoying the copious indoor and outdoor baths. The outdoor was my favorite for sure: See pic below and notice steam coming out of water that just gave the whole thing an unreal feel.

That night dinner at HUMMUS BAR, a recommendation from a USC friend, lived up to expectations with delicious hummus and all the trimmings. Darn I miss Trader Joes hummus now. 

The next morning we trained to Eger, a smaller town that is known to be the capital of the Hungarian wine region. Budapest is such a world city that I didn’t necessarily feel different than I would in say Vienna, but in venturing outside the city I really felt I was seeing a different part of the world.  Things appeared pretty desolate outside my train window – in some cases there just seemed to be nothing.

In Eger we stayed at a lovely pension above the city with a German-speaking owner (the communication, we had it!) and used our short time there wisely to see the town and the wine area, of course.

 As one might expect, mid-January is not peak wine tasting season.  What that meant for us was that the entire place (called the Valley of the Beautiful Women) was completely lacking of tourists - a bit eerie but also a bit refreshing.  The area is known for a type of red wine called “Bull’s Blood” that is supposed to have magical qualities? We traipsed to three wine caverns deep underground, tried lots of delicious and cheap wine (they will fill any plastic container you bring for about $2), and attempted to communicate with the owners - English hasn’t really made it to those parts. Then we happily went to the local thermal baths, where we stuck out like we Americans tend to do and were easily the youngest bathers by 40 years.

Chrissy bid me adieu the next morning and I trained it to Tokaj, a wee wee town further into the wine region known for its whites. With only 8,000 residents and not a tourist in sight I walked around the small town without seeing anyone until I popped into a wine cavern to taste. Definitely an interesting feeling. I enjoyed my day of solitude, though, only interrupted by a drunken man who stopped by my table to give me a sloppy hand kiss. Ewww.

On my solo walk through Tokaj I came upon a sight that made me giddy and I sketchily took a picture: A local man was walking through a park with a huge dog in one hand and a weenie dog in the other! I think he has a good idea – the best of both worlds. And they seemed to be good friends.

The next day after a train fail (involving me being incredibly confused by all the fast Hungarian and standing out on a track like a lost puppy waiting for a train that wasn’t coming) I made it back to Budapest for one more night. The absolute highlight was discovering the Hungarian version of Chipotle, which, surprisingly, was really good. Fresh guacamole? Heck yes. With a stomach full of Mexican – finally – I flew back to Cologne for a week of PPP shenanigans. 

* Danke to Chrissy for some of the photos in this post!

There's no place like the megastore

I'm the type of person who keeps trying different varieties of things until I find something I really like and then I'll talk about it for two years. Hot chocolate from the BQuick gas station in Baton Rouge, those delicious strawberry gummy candies in Taiwan, Percy Pigs in Scotland...the list goes on. Probably for that reason grocery shopping is one of my favorite activities in the US. I relish going up and down the aisles, scanning all the choices, and then making my selection. And I especially love grocery shopping in new countries...you can tell alot about a country from its groceries.

I've now gotten pretty good at distinguishing what most things are in German supermarkets (although today I bought a type of meat thinking it was salmon...schadeee) but shopping just hasn't been fun. (Apart from the time I made a complete fool of myself at a promotion outside a grocery store in Bremen: Scavenger me went up and grabbed what I thought was a free bag of popcorn, making the MC get on the mic to call me out in front of everyone to spin some wheel. Oops! I thought it was pretty funny, but a friend turned around and walked away completely mortified LOL).

I think part of it is that most German grocery stores are much smaller than the ones I'm used to in the US. Most products have between one and three options to try...the cereal aisle is a bit bigger but still blahhh. There's some economic theory that talks about how too many choices can lead to paralysis and unhappiness...the idea goes that having too many options leads inevitably to second thoughts and regret. I'm still not sure where I fall on this issue, but I sure love my big grocery stores.

So yes, my einkaufen gehen experience in Germany has only been so-so...until today! Turns out the megastore exists in Germany, and I'm still giddy from my afternoon field trip there.

The place: Kaufland, a mere five minute strassenbahn ride from my nearest stop. It's not as big as Wal-Mart, but it's close, and it even has the same jarring fluorescent lights. I could have spent half an hour in the mustard aisle alone...I was even carded for beer, not exactly something to shout from the rooftops...or a public blog...since the legal age here is 16, but it's keeping with big store protocol, right?

I find it's the little things I miss the most here, and this afternoon's taste of Americana made me feel a bit more connected to my homeland. I almost could have been in the US, I thought, had I not left Kaufland with reusable bags in hand and traveled back home with public transportation. But I'll take it.

In other news, I love the freedom of my life here (at least until I start the daily grind in February). I love being able to say "I want to go to Hungary next week" and then just pick up and go. And that's what I'm doing. I leave Wednesday for Budapest and two smaller towns in eastern Hungary before going directly to our PPP mid-year seminar in Cologne the next week. If the Rick Steves' episode on Hungary I just watched on Hulu is an indication, I'm in for a culturally enriching (and fun) time.

Part 5: Watching out for fireworks in weird Berlin

FROHES NEUES JAHR!

(Happy New Year!)

Now I've almost reached the end of rehashing my epic winter Euro trip, and that brings me to Berlin. I wanted to celebrate the start of 2011 in this country, and fortunately many friends had the same idea. We had a great three days exploring more of Berlin and taking advantage of the largest outdoor NYE celebration in the world.

After a long day of traveling from Paris, we arrived in Berlin Thursday night and met up with other PPPers at a fun bar cranking 80s music. I requested some favorites and crooned along to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Summer Nights." There are lots of theme places like that all over Berlin, and I'm eagerly anticipating checking out more come February...any chance to sing some Cyndi Lauper and I'm there.

Berlin is a really weird place. So was explained to us on Friday's "Alternative Culture" tour. Our enthusiastic guide took us to see some really cool graffiti, abandoned buildings, a house built around a tree, and a squatting artist's hangout. He was bursting with really interesting facts about Berlin: The city  is built to hold 7.5 million people, but only 3.5 million live in Berlin now, hence all the abandoned buildings. Craziness. Berlin also has a 17% unemployment rate and a very high birth rate. Looks like I'm gonna be watching out for lots of strollers on the metro. But luckily I already have a job lined up.

I am SO, SO EXCITED to move to Berlin, and spending the weekend there confirmed that even more. I just love so much about the city. Especially all the really diverse neighborhoods and the abundance of excellent ethnic food. Our hostel was right next to what is claimed to be the best döner in Berlin, so you know we hit that up. And I have heard good things about a burrito place that I'm hoping will help to curb my Mexican food withdrawal. Now I just have to get that metro map down...

Our NYE festing started with a pre-pre-party at our very full hostel room, followed by pre-party at a fellow PPPers apartment. It was great fun to see so many of my friends from around Germany. Then, around 11, we set off on foot to check out the open air celebration near the Brandenburg Gate. Now we didn't exactly make it to the gate, but from our vantage point we adequately took in the atmosphere and all the renegade fireworks.

Fireworks: Berlin allows fireworks to be set off anywhere in the city for a period of 72 hours, and people really take advantage. I'm from legally loose Louisiana so I know fireworks, but I'm not the biggest fan. Some fools even set off fireworks in a metro station, causing me to jump and scream like a baby. Not my proudest moment. I did like seeing all the street fireworks, though, probably because I did not become a victim like so many do.

Saturday was a pretty quiet resting day, although we did make a nice walking tour around the gate, the Holocaust memorial, and the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall. The Wall has been repainted since the last time I was there, with many old images recreated by their artists. Very cool. On Saturday night I watched the Rose Bowl game starting at 11 PM Berlin time. Unfortunately my beloved Trojans couldn't make it this year, but it was still fun to watch and see what's going down in sunny Los Angeles. We will fight on to another day!

I arrived home on Sunday exhausted but with great memories of my Euro trip 2010/2011. Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post...I wasn't exactly camera happy in Berlin, but when friends put up pictures from New Year's I'll grab some and give it some color. Hopefully for now my words suffice :)

Now I've already caught the travel bug again...should I make a trip to Hungary? I just really want to go to another thermal bath.

Part 4: France, where the trains are annoying but the crepes are good

Holding true to the tenet that spontaneity is the spice of life, I decided to add a French leg to my travels and meet up with a friend in Paris and Normandy. If I knew any French words I would interject a positive one here, but alas I cannot communicate with the Frenchies. Their country is sure something special, though.

French trains aren't my favorite: Something about a screaming orange and vibrant fuchsia color scheme doesn't really connote comfort, nor does the annoyingly seductive "da da da da" that is played on repeat throughout all the stations. They're also overly strict about reservations. But I put these minor qualms aside and hopped on a train to the city of lights and love. I was able to stroll around the romantic streets a bit amidst a drizzle before taking another train to Caen, a city in northwestern France to meet my friend and spend the night.

The next day we bussed to Deauville (or Trouville? not really sure), a town on the sea! I've been having water withdrawals, so it was so nice to see the ocean (does the channel count?) again, smell salt air, and see seafood being hawked at a market. We had a very nice time walking around, sitting on the beach, and buying some authentic apple cider (so authentic that the bottle was covered in dirt). I also had crepe #1 from a market vendor, nutella-filled of course.

I'd been to Mont St. Michele before, but this was my only other visit to that region in France, and I remarked it was exactly as I imagined: A bit sadly and mutedly beautiful. I really would like to go back and see the D-Day beaches one day.

In the early afternoon we headed back to Paris and put our too-heavy bags down before metro-ing back into the city to eat and stroll. We first saw the lovely Eiffel in its lit-up glory and then dined at an Indian restaurant where the food was so spicy I literally cried. Next we walked all the way to the Notre Dame along the Seine, taking in the Louvre and other sights in between. It was a wunderschön evening - maybe it's cliche to love Paris, but I do. Oh and crepe # 2 came from the Latin Quarter. So good.

And after this brief rendezvous in France it was back to Germany to celebrate the New Year...

Part 3: The Swiss make some tasty hash browns (and chocolate and cheese)

After Austria we thought it would be fun to go to a place where the German is even more difficult to understand...die Schweiz! But even though I could only comprehend maybe 20% of Swiss-German,  I was quite giddy to return to my Opa's homeland. Fun fact: I have Swiss citizenship, but I don't really use it very much. I'm very proud to come from the country of delicious chocolate, beautiful alpine views, and some very efficient trains, though.

Our first stop (after a day-long train ride) was Interlaken. Neither Chrissy nor I had ever been skiing before, so naturally we decided a good place to learn was the Swiss Alps. We bid adieu to our other two more-experienced-with-snow-matters friends, donned some fierce-looking ski gear, and left for an all-day total beginners ski lesson. 

Not a bad view, eh? Our instructor drove us high up into the Alps, to a place that translates roughly to "kiddy playground," where there were, in fact, many kiddos who could show me many things or two. There we learned the basics and then did a bunch of runs down the hill. I wasn't completely unsaveable, but I did wipe out about five times. OK so I won't be the next Picabo Street, but I bet I could become a really great ski lodge hot chocolate drinker.

We stayed in Interlaken two very pleasant nights at a great hostel with a full kitchen and a ping pong table - you know I showed off mah skills! (Although they are admittedly a bit rusty.) Then I headed to Zurich for some wonderful Christmas festing with my grandfather's sister and family. I stayed with my lovely Aunt Berthe and had the benefit this time of being able to communicate in German - she was nice and spoke high German with me, because, again, Swiss-German really may as well be Greek. Most days we would go to my cousin Doris' house and spend time with her brother Stefan and his family. My cute 8-year-old cousin turned out to be the perfect snowman-building partner...although we ended up with a one-eyed snow monster. I was told by my family that Zurich had more snow on Christmas this year than it has in over 20 years - lucky me! My first Sinatra-style white Christmas :)

On Christmas Eve I helped to decorate the tree and make the traditional meal, of which this is the centerpiece:

Lustig, ja? It's a ham baked in dough formed to look like a pig. I was the "ear expert."

So pig and all we had a wonderful Christmas celebration (the Swiss, like the Germans, have their traditional dinner on the night before Christmas). I'm so happy that even though I was not able to celebrate with my immediate family, I did celebrate with family. And we skyped in with the Baton Rougeans on Christmas Day, great fun. The hilarious chaos comes across even from 5000 miles away.

On the 25th we had another dinner for some more family members, and on the 26th Doris and I hiked up to the top of Zurich's mountain, the Uetliberg. Some great views. That evening Aunt Berthe and I walked around Zurich's old town at twilight and had a nommable rösti dinner. Rösti is one of my favorite Swiss dishes (think of more delicious hash browns).

On Monday we visited the Cloister at Einsiedeln and then drove up into the mountains to a pretty spot with a view of some legit skiiers in action. And that night we embarked on maybe my favorite activity of the visit, checking out Zurich's new thermal baths, housed in a renovated beer factory. So nice and relaxing. Oh, to wear a swim suit again!

Reasons I love Switzerland (maybe a bit more than Germany right now):

- every train I took was on time and a pleasant journey (take that Deutsche Bahn!)
- less fatty meat in the diet
- more delicious cheese and chocolate to compensate
- Rivella
- spending lots of a time in a car (hey, I've been deprived!)
- very nice people, even though I cannot understand them
- seeing my last name lots of places
- getting to hear lots of stories about my lovely grandfather Fritz

I hope I will be able to return later in the year with my grandparents...and I hope I have enough Swiss chocolate to last me until then.

Part 2: Austria, where those boys can sing

I wasn't able to make it to Vienna the last time I was in Europe, so this time around it was especially important for me to go...partly so I could see the inspiration for my favorite Billy Joel song. The city was almost just as I had imagined, and I'm so glad it waited for me :)

Vienna has a regal feel - grandiose buildings and elegant coffee houses - but also a vibrant energy that pulses with the many feet stomping on its streets and sidewalks. Had it not been so cold I would have walked and walked without stopping, but frigid hands meant I had to duck inside somewhere frequently for coffee, wine, schnitzel, or art. Vienna is the ring city, meaning that its main town is egg-shaped. Making a tram ride around the ring a great way to get an introduction.

Our first day we made a beeline for a schnitzel restaurant and then took advantage of the super short days (sarcasm, much?) to catch the main sights and Weihnachtsmarkt by night. Very lovely. Later we met friends at a typical wine heuringer, best described as a deep wine cellar lit by candlelight.

The next morning I awoke very early to hightail it to the palace compound to get a free standing room ticket to hear the Vienna Boys Choir. The boys performed from above during the mass, and then came to the front as a special treat to sing some Christmas songs. They're so young (some looked no older than 7!), but they can really sing. See an excerpt here:

That day we met at the coffee house frequented by Freud to nom on a traditional Viennese breakfast, and then I spent the day solo walking around and checking out the Belvedere Art museum to see my lieblings painting. I'm not usually an art museum type of girl, but many friends and I have the print, and it radiated in person.  The rest of the day entailed more walking about and trying to get a good feel for what is Vienna. I will definitely be back in the spring to see some Viennese gardens in bloom.

We finished our time in Vienna by getting very cheap standing room tickets to see an opera at the huge opera house. The 3 Euro price was worth it just to see the inside of the building, and good thing because like typical uncultured 20-somethings we left after the first act. Bravo!

Onward in Austria to Salzburg we went, and those who know me know why I love that city so darn much...Hint: It has something to do with a very famous musical involving a governess and 7 children who can sing. My last visit brought clover-filled fields and sun and this one snow-filled streets and alps covered in white. The city had a completely different feel, but it still felt like going home.

First stop was the Mirabell Gardens, where I attempted to recreate Maria's joyous romp while singing "Do Re Mi." The four of us cruised around the old town and hiked up near the fortress with stunning views of the alps. We finished the day with a trip to a really cool beer hall with a very special way of ordering: pick up stein from shelf, wash stein in fountain, get ticket from woman, give ticket to beer pourer, receive freshly-made beer. Lots of fun.

Salzburg, I love thee!