Euro Trip - Berlin

Oh holy moly! We just ran our butts off to make sure we got on our train to Dresden! Thankfully our train is running late, otherwise we would've missed it. Berlin was awesome to us though, we had such a great time! 

When we got into Berlin, we were starving. The Central Station in Berlin is HUGE! 

It was ironic because we thought we were getting off in Germany, but it felt like the States. There was a McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and Pizza Hut. We ended up eating at Currywurst, which is really popular in Berlin. It is pretty much a bratwurst restaurant that offers different types of brats and puts curry sauce (ketchup and spices) over it. I ended up getting a pork/beef burger with curry sauce over it. It was so delicious! No bun, just the patty which was so juicy and flavorful. 

After we were done eating, we found the train that went to our hostel, and jumped on it. Our hostel was not where we were expecting it would be. We thought it would be near city center and it was far off. However, it ended up being a good thing for us. We stayed at Plus Berlin, which was a 15 minute train ride from Central, it was more like a hotel. We were in a 4 person room with our own bathroom. The best part is, there was never anyone else in our room, we had the room to ourselves. We did sleep in separate beds still, which made it feel like the 50's, but we had our own room and bathroom which made it worth it! 

After we checked in, we went out to explore some of Berlin and grab some dinner. We went to the Parliament Building and the Tiergarten. Both were so amazingly beautiful. The architecture here is unlike anything I've seen before. (Rome might kill me!)

We also went to an authentic German dinner at a quaint cafe where I ordered my first ever schnitzel! It was perfectly cooked, with the most amazing potatoes and side salad. I also got a piece of coconut cream cake to go. Tyler got a sausage platter with three different sausages and mash potatoes. It would've been really hard to be Vegan on this trip. They fully believe in meat here, but their meat is so much better than ours. 

We headed back to the hostel, and ended up going to a club, Matrix, that was near our hostel. It was "happy hour" which was two for the price of one! We were double fisting all night! We danced until 3 or 4 in the morning. It's funny that all of the music that the DJ played was American music. We felt so cool. Lol! But really, it was crazy. I don't think there was one song that wasn't American. Also, no one dirty dances or freak dances here. They straight up all dance. It was such an amazing time! 

We woke up early and got a move on. We had a long day ahead of us, which I had to rally for because I was completely hung over. I got a juice that was kind of like a V-8 fruit juice and a spinach cheese pastry that they heated up. That pastry was so delicious!

We then got on the train and headed to Sophie Charolette to see The Charlottenberg Palace. It was exquisite! The detail in each room was unbelievable, and the gardens were breathtaking! We did an audio tour of the inside, and walked the outside for a bit before heading back to the city center.

We headed to the Hackescher Market for lunch. It was filled with restaurants, booths, music, and tons of people! We got bratwurst sandwiches with homemade fresh sauerkraut. OH MY GOD, BEST BRAT EVER!! I'm not a bratwurst lover at all, but this was amazinggg! So different than our meats. There weren't fillers or anything, it was pure sausage and spices. 

I wore Lululemon shorts yesterday, you wouldn't believe the stares I received and looks of disgust! I didn't know shorts are not appropriate attire here. I only saw ONE other girl wearing shorts the whole day! 

Next, we headed to the Berliner Dom, Berlin Cathedral. This place was out of this world. The pictures can only show a fraction of the beauty. We saw the main church, the museuliem, and then went up to the Dom outlook which had a 360 view of the entire city of Berlin. The experience was unlike any other. To see the city that way was so cool. 

When we were done exploring the cathedral, we went across the street to a park and laid in the grass before we moved onto the Pergamum Museum. Some of the recreations they did in this museum were mind boggling! Check out the pictures below. 

Next, we went to see the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. Being in Europe makes me realize how fortunate I am to live in the land of freedom. The fact that the piece of wall I saw once divided Berlin in east and west is unfathomable to this CA girl. The art and messages on the wall gives you an idea of how people felt during that time. It seemed like they never gave up hope though, they always longed for the better days, and eventually, they came.

In all of the places we went, all the buildings we saw, one thing was clear, Berlin's city was highly affected by the bombings of WW2. They had to reconstruct so much of their city, which was either discussed on the tours, or easy to see that it had been reconstructed. The fear during those times must have been unimaginable.

We ended the night with another schnitzel dinner at Schloss Schnitzel, it had a 4.5 star trip advisor rating. Lol! This time, the schnitzel was topped with chili con carne and a piece of cheese. (So NOT healthy, but so worth it!) I also got a pastry with a nut filling that was dipped on one side in chocolate. (Also NOT healthy, and also SO worth it!) 

We went back to the hostel to go to bed a little earlier since we had to be up at 5:30am. Now we sit on the train to Dresden, a little erie outside as the fog is heavy in the trees and daylight is creeping in. 

Thank you Berlin for being so good to us! We're ready for you Dresden...

Peace & Love,

Christina

Euro Trip - Amsterdam

Hello World,

Christina here. Happy October! Just woke up from quite a nap on the train to Berlin. Our trip has been amazing so far! Sunday we took off from LAX and flew into Oslo, Norway. We flew Norwegian Airlines, on a new Dreamliner plane. It was so beautiful! 

My first glimpse of Europe was from an airplane/airport. Our layover was 6 hours, but it wasn't long enough to venture out and see anything. So instead we stayed in the airport that looked like an IKEA cafeteria! I was quite literally dying from laughter; I thought it was hilarious! We had sandwiches that were on fresh baked bread, WAY better than Subway! I got the Tikka Chicken, it did not disappoint.

 

After my sandwich I napped on a bench for a little bit, then woke up and got a beer and played rummy with Tyler. (He kicked my butt..)

Our next flight was only 2 hours, which was a breeze compared to our previous 10 hour flight. We flew into Amsterdam at 9pm, got off the plane, got our luggage, and hopped on a train to Amsterdam Central Station. We got out of the train station, and it hit me; WE'RE HERE!! The feeling was unreal! Our hostel, The Flying Pig Downtown, was right by the train station, it only took us 5 minutes to find it! We checked into our double bed hostel room, changed, and went out to explore what was near us locally. Since it was Monday night, a lot of things had closed, but it was still so nice to walk after all the sitting we had done. We ended up heading back to the hostel, getting some drinks and hanging out for a bit until we went to bed.

Tuesday was a packed day for us! It was our only day in Amsterdam since we left this morning at 8:30am to catch our train. We woke up early, ate the continental breakfast that was provided by our hostel, and headed out for a day full of walking, and a night full of bussing. 

We started off walking to Anne Frank's House and taking the tour of it. It was surreal seeing what I had read about so many years ago in middle school. At first we thought the annex was actually part of the shop, until they told us they weren't able to go in this part of the shop and they showed us the annex. So many people's lives taken for such an ungodly reason.

They had free wifi so of course we snapchatted... 

It was crazy to see a piece of that history in real life. After, we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. It was gorgeous, however we were disappointed to find out that Starry Night was not featured there, but in New York. (Looks like we will have to make a trip to New York soon! ;) 

When we got out of the Van Gogh Museum, it was already 2pm. No wonder why I was starving! We were debating where to go, when this lady stopped and asked if we needed some help. She pointed us to this amazing sandwich shop just down the street. It was an Italian meat and cheese shop, with fresh baked bread, and a variety of antipasto. Simply, freaking, amazing. My only two regrets are: one, I didn't get a sandwich to go, and two, I didn't take a picture of our sandwiches. 

We both had a Dutch Farm Cheese sandwich, on warm freshly baked chibatta bread, topped with pesto, red peppers, and arugula, and accompanied by a glass of wine of course. I'm drooling just thinking about it. It was like Italian Parmesan cheese but soooo much better! (Well at the least better than the kind of parm we find in the grocery store back home.) We were pretty full at this point, so we walked to Vondel Park to walk it off, and do some more site seeing. It was gorgeous, and kind of reminded me of Central Park. Bikers EVERYWHERE! People hanging out, relaxing, and enjoying life, so we did too. We hung out and laid down for a bit, and I got in a selfie too! ;) 

Tyler sucks at selfies...

When we we're done at the park, we walked over to the Albert Cuyp Market. I didn't know what to expect, but when we reached it, it was a huge outdoor market, kind of like the swap meet. We walked until we found the stoopwafle guy. A stoopwafle is two freshly made thin waffles, kind of like waffle cones, but flat, and glued together by warm caramel! Amazinggg!! 

(Loving the guy behind me...)

After the market we walked back to the train station to catch a bus to this old wind mill brewery. We had some beers, played some cards (I slayed Tyler), and enjoyed the afternoon in Amsterdam! 

We then headed back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. We went to Restaurant Blauw for an Indonesian food dinner. We ordered a rijstafal, as suggested by an old friend, and grilled lamb. One, so much food! Two, so good! We didn't know we had to make reservations, so we had to wait for 2 hours and eat at 9:30pm, but we wanted to experience it, so we were okay with waiting it out. We went and got an appetizer and beers in the meantime. 

Afterwards we took a tram back downtown and went to the Red Light District. It was what I had pictured, but at the same time it wasn't. I didn't take pictures of any of the women for obvious reasons, but it was definitely interesting to see women prostituting themselves in a way that was like a vending machine. Pick your flavor and they'll come down for you. It was hilarious watching guys reactions to the women tapping on the window for them. 

Since we were heading out early today, we went back to the hostel last night for a nightcap, and then headed to bed. I can't believe we did all of this in one day! Oh and for breakfast I enjoyed an amazing ham and cheese croissant. Life really can't get much better right now. SO MUCH BREAD AND CHEESE. So excited to see what Berlin is like! But for now...

Peace & Love, 

Christina