Osterferien – also known as SPRING BREAK!

So, in NRW, school gets out for two weeks for the Easter Holidays.  And mine were EPIC.  Susanna and I started out in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I met up with my friend Chad, who went to Korbel with me.  Two of our other friends from Korbel, Alex (who I visited in Belgium and who came for Carnival) and Sarah (doing Peace Corps in Georgia), also happened to be there at the same time.  It was a party.  Then, we went on to Croatia, where Julia, my very best friend since our cradles were next to each other in day care, met up with us for a week-long exploration of the country.  After that, Susanna and I went on to Istanbul, Turkey.  Here’s a breakdown of the cities we visited:

• Thursday, March 26 – spent the night in the Belgrade, Serbia airport
• Friday, March 27 – Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Saturday, March 28 – Lake Bled, Slovenia
• Sunday, March 29 – Zagreb, Croatia
• Monday, March 30 – Zagreb, Croatia
• Tuesday, March 31 – Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
• Wednesday, April 1 – Split, Croatia
• Thursday, April 2 – Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Friday, April 3 – Zagreb, Croatia
• Saturday, April 4 – Zagreb, Croatia
• Sunday, April 5 through Wednesday, April 8 – Istanbul, Turkey

Since our schedule was INSANE and it would take too long (and frankly, too much gushing) to describe everything, I’ll give you my highlights.

Biggest (and best) surprise: Slovenia and Zagreb
I expected to enjoy every part of my trip, but these two places are probably the most underhyped.  Slovenia is like a less-expensive version of Austria.  It is completely in the Alps, so everywhere you look you have a beautiful view of either architecture or mountains.  Ljubljana is a chill capital city that reminded me of a hipper, grungier version of Salzburg.  Lake Bled is one of the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.  It’s the only Balkan country that peacefully gained its independence, so the scars of war that touch the other Balkan states aren’t present here.
Croatia is known for its coastal cities, but Zagreb is definitely worth a visit.  The best way to describe it – super weird. quirky. eccentric.  We fit in well here.  There’s the Museum of Broken Relationships (must-see), a free mushroom museum (we had a lot of fun here), streets packed with cute (and definitely hipster) cafes, and lots of things that stopped working in the 18th or 19th century that no one ever fixed.  They also shoot a cannon from one of the central towers at noon every day.  If you can watch them shoot the cannon, watch them shoot the cannon.
Bonus: Air Serbia is one of the best airlines I’ve ever flown on.  You’re gonna have a connection in Belgrade, but that’s okay, because their airport is nice, and on every flight we got free food and beverages (that includes the booze).

Mushroom Museum – notice the edible suggestions

This is the side of a cute cafe. They gave us our checks in old romance novels #nextlevelhipster

Best dining experience: Zagreb, Split, and Istanbul
Authentic Croatian Food in Zagreb – We asked our hostel where to get Croatian food, and he told us to go here.  What to order?  MEAT.  We got three plates of meat that were SO GOOD. Sausage, steak with gravy, and ham and cheese that had been deep fried in a log.  Y’ALL.
Villa Spizia in Split – We found this great place on our Use-It map of Split (I love these maps. They’re made by locals and give great insider tips).  Not only was the food ah-mazing (they have daily specials as well as seaside staples such as a plate HEAPED with grilled sardines), our experience was one-of-a-kind.  A local guy (who had actually moved to Split from Brazil) bought us and an Austria couple liters of wine and provided us with entertainment until we were asked by the staff to leave, because they’d already been closed for 30 minutes.  Even without “Antonio’s gracious gift of wine”, this place would still be a highlight.  We got so much delicious food for a very cheap price.
Random Turkish dive in Asian Istanbul – Here’s the deal, when it’s mealtime in Istanbul, guys will stand outside restaurants and yell at you, asking you to come into their restaurant.  Most of this food will all be the same.  You will do better to get street food (Wet Burgers, especially those up around Taksim Square, will not ever ever disappoint you).  But our best culinary experience was when we took a Bosphorous cruise and spent some time on the Asian side.  We walked into a random place.  Pointed to what looked good (there was no English here) and had a hearty, flavorful, warm meal.  Off the beaten path was the best decision we made in this case.
Other Istanbul side notes – Turkish breakfast, when done right, is out of this world.  Turkish delight is also wonderful when it actually made in Turkey.

Croatian noms

Split Special – Lamb meatballs with [free] bread, chickpeas, and grilled sardines

Wet Burger on a Wet Night

Baklava, tea, and coffee

Best Hostels: Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Dubrovnik
Hostel Vrba – This hostel is quiet, clean, and close to the center.  Security is ok (no locks), but the workers are there all the time.  She even gave us house shoes when we showed up drenched from the rain and made us tea and coffee.
Swanky Mint Hostel – Great amenities.  The kitchen is brand new.  They give you a welcome shot at the bar.  Breakfast was good.  The staff is super awesome and friendly.  And the bar was packed with locals at night.
Old Town Hostel – This is probably the best hostel experience I’ve ever had.  We walked in, checked in, and were immediately invited to partake in the party happening in the kitchen.  The free tour of the city was great, the staff are like your friends, and everyone staying there was friendly and fun.  Dubrovnik was a nonstop party and good time because of this hostel.  Seriously fantastic.

Hat night at Old Town Hostel

General Favorites: Museums, Walls, Lakes, Waterfalls, and Tulips
Lake Bled, Slovenia. It’s a little resort town nestled in the Alps.  Monastery in the middle of a lake.  Rowboats.  Ice cream.  Blue skies and mountain vistas everywhere you look.  It was paradise.
Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia.  It’s funny. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking. It’s fantastic. The exhibits are submissions from all over the world, and they are changed out regularly.
Museum of Croatian War of Independence in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  You can do a two-hour hike to the top of the mountain or take the funicular. It’s a very powerful exhibit that explains a lot of the tensions that still exist in the Balkans. It was fascinating to see what the city of Dubrovnik went through.
Dubrovnik Old City Walls in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Even if you’re not a Game of Thrones fan, it’s fun to run around the ancient walls!
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.  Waterfalls everywhere.  If you’re up for a hike, this is one of the best places to take one.  We went on the last day of the off-season, so hours and bus connections to Split weren’t as good, but it was still a major highlight of the trip.
Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.  I fell in love with this place when I studied it as a sophomore in college, and I’ve wanted to see it ever since.  Built first as a church and then converted into a mosque, it was designed to have maximum natural light coming in from the windows, and the effect is magical.  Both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are beautiful, overwhelming, and even better in person.
The Istanbul Tulip Festival, Emirgan Park, Istanbul, Turkey.  When most people think tulips, they think Holland.  But Istanbul is better.  For one, you aren’t there with millions of other people crowding to see the tulips.  Susana and I cruised the park in solitude.  For another thing, tulips originated in Turkey, so why not see them in their natural habitat?

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Korbel Friends in Ljubljana

Plitvice Lakes

Dubrovnik from the Croatian War Museum

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul Tulip Festival

The only way it could’ve been better: more time  
Scroll back up and look at that schedule.  It was hectic.  It was crazy.  I was exhausted by the end.  Our itinerary honestly deserved a full month.  It was so much rush and travel.  But worth it.

En realidad no hablo español, solamente me gusta la comida

I arrived back in Germany after my weekend in Belgium prepared to chill for a couple of weeks.  Carnival was coming up, to be followed by the Fulbright Winterball in Munich, the Fulbright Berlin Conference in March, meeting up with a couple of my friends from college in France, and then the extravaganza that will be Spring Break (I’m so excited bout it, y’all!).  All these things would require not only energy, but also money, so I was ready to save up.  But then my friend Susanna (y’all know all about her by now and her last minute trip-enabling schemes) was like, my cousin is in a choir and they’re performing in Malaga this weekend, WANNA GO?!? Like an idiot, I agonized over this decision for about 12 hours (honestly all the time I had, because we had to book flights and stuff for like, four days from then.  Ultimately, I ended up going, and trust me it was not a mistake.

The view from my kitchen the day we left for Spain. You can imagine how awesome my decision to go to the Mediterranean looked after waking up to this.

We arrived in Malaga and immediately I felt like the warm, dry air was sweeping cobwebs out of my brain.  Absolutely amazing.  Susanna and I set out for some grub and ate our first tapas of the trip.  After snacking, we explored the old town a bit and went down to the beach before meeting up with her cousin and the choir.

One of my favorites. The Med at sunset.

We went on a little tour of the old town with the choir, and then we headed to eat!  Rachel, a friend from college, studied abroad in Malaga and recommended we try El Pimpi, which is probably the most famous restaurant in all of Malaga and moderately priced.  Usually, we stick to a backpacker’s budget, but this splurge wasn’t even that much (4 people split a bottle of wine, 1 salad, and 3 large tapas and it was about 20 euro per person).  SO GOOD Y’ALL.

El Pimpi Tapas: the Pimpi Platter (Pepper, cured ham & fried egg, chorizo, croquettes, Iberian pork), fried Rosada pieces, and oxtail with pepper and creamed potatoes. WE DON’T MESS AROUND.

After that we grabbed a couple more bottles of Malaga wine and headed down to the beach.  We spent the rest of the night sitting on the beach, watching the waves, and chatting.

Beachin’. Is this January or July? I don’t know.

We began the next day at the Picasso Museum.  Picasso was born in Malaga, and they are super proud of him (although he left when he was like 19 and never went back).  The museum is small and doesn’t have any big works, but I thought it was very well done for what they had and well worth the trip.  We grabbed some hot tea at a place near the cathedral (if you’re in this area of Spain definitely try their tea – it has Arabian influences from the Caliphate that ruled there in the Middle Ages and it’s absolutely amazing).  Afterwards, we luckily stumbled upon El Piyayo and ordered plates of paella for only 6 euro!  and it was muy delicioso!  So delicioso that Susanna at lunch there again on Sunday after mass at the cathedral.  On Saturday we also tried it with a weird soup that S’s cousin and friends said they’d had everywhere they went in Spain.  It was cold, made of tomatoes, bread, and some more stuff that I couldn’t identify.  It was very strange.

Yummy paella and weird cold tomato bread soup.

After we were filled with seafood and carbs, we climbed up the hill to spend the afternoon climbing around two Arab fortresses, Castillo de Gibralfaro and Alcazaba.  With student IDs, entrance was only 60 cents each.  Talk about a bargain!

Malaga’s cathedral peeking out over the castle walls.

Costa del Sol.

After roaming around the castles, we went to the choir concert at the Church of the Martyrs, which was just around the corner from the hostel.  Dinner, drinks, and then I went to bed early so Susanna could catch up some more with her cousin.  She and the choir were flying out of Malaga Sunday morning, so the next day Susanna and I had all to ourselves.

We started it off with mass in the cathedral, which made use of the HUGE organ.  It was quite beautiful.  As I said before, we went back to El Piyayo for more paella and then spent the afternoon on the beach.  It was a bit chilly, but I wasn’t complaining.  That much sun on my face did me a whole lot of good!

Our last cultural excursion was to Carmen Thyssen Museum, which focuses on Spanish art from the 17th-19th centuries.  Definitely things I had never seen before, and Susanna and I had probably way too much fun going through this museum.

Last stop was dinner, and as with all of our meals, it was unbelievably delicous.  A log of fried ham and cheese, more paella, and grilled sardines.  It was delicious!  And cheap!  You guys, Spanish food is wonderful.

Our food this night stared at us a lot.

The restaurant’s front window. Bonita, no?

Sardines. I was skeptical at first, but am now a believer.

 

Weekend in Belgium

January started off as a pretty low-key month.  Everyone got back from their Christmas adventures, and we spent a few evenings in Dortmund hanging out, as well as making little Ruhrpott day trips to places like Arnsberg.  I started getting a little restless, and lucky for me my friend Alex, who I worked and studied with at Korbel, moved to Brussels to start an internship with the European Parliament.  So, we arranged on Monday to do a little Belgium tour for the weekend (how lucky am I that I can seriously email someone saying “want to go to Bruges this weekend?  Like how is this real?).  Fun fact: if you’re under 26, you can go from the German border anywhere in Belgium for 7.80 euro.  And once you’re there, you can travel from city to city for 6 euro.  It’s a GoPass 1 and it is awesome.

So anyway, I met Alex on Friday afternoon by the Bourse, and we grabbed a waffle and meandered through Brussels and took in all the sights: Grand Place, Manneken Pis and Jeanneke Pis (statues of children peeing that are major tourist attractions – humans are strange, you guys), the Musical Instrument Museum (awesome), Parc du Cinquantenaire (Brussels’ version of the Arc de Triomphe; we climbed the top and there were pretty good views of the city despite the clouds).  From the arc, we meandered back to Alex’s apartment, naturally stopping along the way to pick up some Belgian beers and some frites from a stand outside his apartment.

The next day we stopped at the market outside Alex’s place before we got on the bus in order to make the train to Ghent! We actually ran into a slight hiccup here, when the bus driver unceremoniously kicked everyone off of the bus at a random stop, and then the bus following that one drove away without letting anybody on.  So that was fun and also horrible.  One thing that made us feel slightly better about ourselves was that all the Belgian people around us were yelling “pourquoi” and shaking their fists at the bus.  So we just walked the 20 minutes to the train station and had another problem with the kiosk taking our money without printing our tickets.  But eventually we had the tickets, ran to the train, and made it just in time.  It was quite the morning.

Pro of the cold, snowy walk: we caught this view of Brussels’ city center

 

Anyway, we made it to Ghent and the skies were sunny and the city was super cool.  We were only there for a couple of hours.  Long enough to see the big church with the Ghent altarpiece (pretty cool) and mosey around the old town for a bit.  There’s a castle and lots of churches. It was a quirky little town, and I’m glad we stopped through on our way to Bruges.

Ghent

 

Bruges was AWESOME! We spent the afternoon orienting ourselves by just walking around the city, going to the main churches, and walking along the canals.  We had an amazing dinner at Bocca, which is a takeaway pasta place that was perfect and full of carbs and delicious. After dinner we kept walking around, seeing the pretty sights lit up at night.  We stopped at Le Trappiste just off the main square before heading back to our hostel for their happy hour!  The bar was actually quite hoppin with locals as well as poor backpackers trying to get wifi reception.

A view of the bridge in front of The Begijnhof, or the convent in Bruges. We learned for a tour guide that we just happened to overhear that it wasn’t really a convent, it’s just where a lot of unmarried/widowed women who didn’t have anywhere else to go. People accused them of being witches.

 

We started bright and early Sunday morning with breakfast at the hostel and then set off into the town.  We went to the Grote Markt and climbed up to the top of the Belfry to get some awesome views of the city.

Grote Markt

Artsy Belfry Views

After that we bought some waffles and fries and then went on a tour of the Halve Maan, which is the only brewery that’s still operating within the old town.  The tour was great, and after it was over we got a free fresh glass to enjoy the restaurant, where the food smelled amazing (however, we just stuck to the drinks).  We did some shopping, and made sure to stop by The Chocolate Line to get some snacks for the train ride home.  Noms.

Fresh from the tap

 

 

Dark chocolate with mixed berries. Y’ALL.

Out and About

Early November was crazy busy for us.  The week after Berlin we went to Hamburg for a German Fulbright Alumni Association event, which included things like wine receptions at the US Consulate and “networking” – AKA hanging out with current Fulbrighters from the US and past Fulbrighters who had recently come back to Germany after their Fulbright year.  It was a really fun weekend, and we got to meet so many new people, but we spent a lot of time conferencing, so I’d love to go back to Hamburg sometime and see more of the city itself.

Gabby, Breanna, and I all dressed up for the reception at the consulate for the German Fulbright Alumni Association

The next weekend and the following week most of us decided to stay around the Ruhrpott to recuperate from all the galavanting across the country we’d been doing.  We hung out in Bochum and enjoyed some sunny weather, and Susanna, Gabby, Claire, and I spent the day cooking tasty food (because it is everything) and having a Lord of the Rings movie marathon.

Sunny days in Bochum

 

The next week the Christmas markets officially opened in all of their glory (they’d been open before, but the festivities really got underway after Totensonntag (Dead Sunday – an old Prussian holiday where you remember all of your dead loved ones on a day where you’re not allowed to play music or dance.  Afterwards you can celebrate Christmas!).  We saw the world’s largest Christmas tree lit up in Dortmund.  Jess and I went to the market in Herne, which was actually extremely sad… so sad we just got on the train and went to the one in Bochum.  We’ve spent a good few nights after class at the market in Bochum.  On my birthday, I went to the Essen market after class, where the crew bestowed me with one of those adorable little gingerbread hearts.  They’re the best.

Dortmund Christmas Market

Dortmund Christmas Market

Roommates made me a birthday cookie cake! “The best thing to come out of America. I mean, besides you, of course.”

My roommates also gave me a homemade advent calendar hanging above my bed. Too cool!

 

Birthday in Essen!

 

Looking for Freedom

This year is a big year in Germany for many reasons (Weltmeisters!  Whaddup!), one of the biggest reasons being the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Originally I didn’t really think anything of it as far as celebrating, but then the Tuesday before the anniversary Susanna texted me and was like, would you want to come to Berlin with me and Gabby this weekend?  It was a whirlwind spontaneous trip, but probably one of the most fun and memorable weekends I’ve had so far.

When someone who says this invites you to go to Berlin with them for the weekend (or to do anything with them ever), you don’t say no.

 

We left Dortmund at 8 am on Saturday morning, and due to lots of traffic jams didn’t make it there until 3 pm.  But we were greeted by sunshine and a city filled with really fantastic energy.  We stored our luggage in the Alexanderplatz Bahnhof and off we went.

How we feel about Deutsche Bahn strikes, insane traffic, and questionable music choices

 

After lunch/dinner in Nikolaiviertel we walked down Unter den Linden to the center of the action: the Brandenburg Gate.  The city had giant screens posted along the old border showing scenes from the building of the wall and those from the night of November 9, 1989.  They also set up a “Lichtgrenze” – a huge light-up balloon installation – to show where the Berlin wall used to stand.  At the Brandenburg Gate, different organizations were giving out a ton of free swag, and the west side of the gate had a huge stage with musical acts going.  We walked along the Grenze past the Holocaust memorial toward Checkpoint Charlie.

Source (this page has a couple of nice videos showing different parts of the Lichtgrenze)

Party Time at Brandenburg Gate

Other side of the gate, and our first glimpse at the Lichtgrenze

Holocaust Memorial

First Gluhwein of the season at Potsdamer Platz

Checkpoint Charlie

 

We were insanely lucky that our hostel was only a block away from the East Side Gallery, so day two of our Berlin weekend began at 9 as we cruised along the east side of the wall.  I’d never been there before, and I’d never been particularly keen to see it, but I’m so glad we went!  It’s such a cool art installation, and we were very lucky that we went so early in the day, because there were minimal crowds that we had to navigate through!

One of my favorite murals

It’s famous

These two…

Shenanigans

After the East Side Gallery we had breakfast in the Kreuzberg district (seeing any repeat patterns from my last Berlin trip?).  No longer hangry, we went back to Unter den Linden to visit the Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle’s temporary Contemporary African Art exhibit.  It was a small exhibit that mostly dealt with cultural perceptions and differences that the artist encountered moving from Benin to the Netherlands.   It was relateable and interactive, and I’m glad we were able to catch the exhibit before it left Germany.

Breakfast at Bateau Ivre

The Meschac Gaba exhibit included a library

 

Our last stop was Angry Chicken in Kreuzberg.  Some Aussies we met in the hostel Saturday night recommended it, and they definitely knew what they were talking about.  It’s a tiny little joint on Oranienstrasse but their food is outta this world.  Noms.

By the time we were done eating, it was time to head back west to the Ruhrgebiet.  We spent just a little over 24 hours in Berlin, but it was amazing to see how much the country has changed since reunification.  It was also amazing to see how abrupt and disruptive the wall was (not to mention the oppression it represented).  Usually you’re kind of conscious of where the wall stood, but seeing the lichtgrenze in places like the middle of the road helped to put a few things in perspective.  Not to mention the lichtgrenze was totally fluid; you could just jump from one side of the balloons to the other like people two decades ago could’ve only imagined.

---

 

For further reading, here are a few articles on Germany 25 years after the fall:
Washington Post on the continuing divide between East and West
Time: Germany’s Wall that Didn’t Fall
Washington Post: Walls still standing
Washington Post: Three Generations Reflect on the Wall
Buzzfeed: Germans who love the Hoff (NRW makes an impressive showing, and my own beloved Bochum is represented at number 13!)