Adventures between UG and G

Budapest June 30th - July 3rd

8/30/2016

June 30th 2016

I landed in Budapest and before I even knew it, I was hugging Bettina! I believe it was the fastest airplane pick-up ever! In only 15 minutes after the wheels hit the ground, I was in the car with Bettina and her mom. I'm so excited to see Bettina again. I came to Budapest to spend time with her and enjoy a few summer days there.
Also, her family is always so welcoming to me. I love spending time with them and getting to talk with them as well.
We got in, caught up for a bit, had a snack and then went to bed. We have a lot of exciting adventures ahead of us!

July 1st 2016

On our first full day, Bettina and I met up with her God-mother, who was giving us a tour of the city. She is a reporter, so she has inside access to a few things. Our first stop was the Budapest Google office. Every Google office decorates their building slightly differently to identify with the city that it is in. This was nautical themed. The big conference room looked like an Olympic swimming pool and arena. There were two smaller conference rooms that looked like a wet and dry spa. The main area had a swing and a cool grassy set up. It was certainly a unique thing to see in Budapest.

From there we walked around the city! We saw Olympic Park and the Parliament. I was at the Parliament a year and a half ago when I was last here, but that was the middle of the winter, so now in summer it was quite different. There were some flowers and everything shined a bit more. Bettina's Godmother also walked us around to a few Holocaust memorials in the city. The first is one that has statues of shoes on the side of the riverway. This is supposed to represent how the Nazis (or the Hungarian government) lined Jews up by the river and shot them right out of their shoes. It was very emotional and I thought the memorial was a very real and honest way to display the horrors. This was a big contradiction to the second memorial that we saw. This one displayed the Hungarian government as innocent in the Holocaust and barely mentions the victims. This monument is actually being protested by a lot of people in Budapest. They have been putting up their own living memorial about people who were victims of the Holocaust and are having events multiple times a week to remember the Holocaust. It is very clear that the history of the Holocaust has not been settled in Hungary.

We then went to the oldest theater in Budapest and got a backstage tour! The whole theater was beautiful and we had a blast playing on the stage!

We were very hungry, so we went to an Israeli restaurant for lunch (funny, right). The owner brought us out a whole array of food to taste, and it was delicious. The food certainly had a mixture of influence from different countries, which was fun. The food was delicious and it was a really fun time.

Oh! We also had dessert. We went to a fancy bakery to get dessert and it was incredible. I got something with a seaberry sauce. Seaberry is a fruit I had never heard of, and that was the best translation that we could come up with. They are very tart, unless of course they are made into a delicious sauce. And this dessert was delicious. It was a layered cake with poppy seeds and mmmm it was so good.

In the afternoon we went to Margarite Island, a place that I'd been the last time we were there. However, on my first visit it was so cold that we walked down, took a picture and left. This time, it was gorgeous! We made it there in perfect time for a water show. There was a fountain show with colors to music in the park and it was really fun!

January 2015

Today!

To finish to trip, we took a picture in the exact same spot that we did last time I was here. To make it back, we took a boat ferry up the river! It was so beautiful, we sat on the top of the boat and enjoyed the view. It was very nice.

It was such a long day that we were exhausted by the time we got back.

July 2nd 2016

Today we went on an adventure with Bettina and her mom and siblings. In the morning, we went to the hospital in the rock. This was a hospital used in WW2 along with during other points of history. The most interesting thing was seeing the Cold War, WW2 and the Hungarian independence war from a completely new perspective. For a snack, we stopped into a bakery and had a capuchino and some ice cream! But this wasn't any ice cream, this had so many special flavors. I had two traditional flavors, a sweet cottage cheese and poppyseed. It was so delicious I was very happy. We then walked around the Budapest Castle grounds. This is another place that I'd been before, but it was completely different. Instead of hot wine there was lemonade, and all of the fountains were on. It was beautiful and enjoyable.

We then went on a tour of the mountains. We went up the hill, went on the children's railroad and then down a chair lift. It gave us an incredibly beautiful view of Budapest. It was such a fun afternoon.

We rushed home, because we had tickets, curtsy of Bettina's Godmother, to recirque, which was like a circus soleil in Hungary. We got all dressed up and went to the theater. The show was incredible! The had elements that I'd never seen before! Like a tight rope... that wasn't tight. So it was like a thin slac line, but he had two of them to use! It was incredible. My favorite act was the simple one with two people doing acrobatics. Overall the show was so incredible and I'm so thankful that her Godmother got us the tickets and I had the opportunity to go with Bettina. It was very memorable.

After the show, it was still light out! So we took the opportunity to go outside and take pictures. We did a whole photo shoot! We enjoyed setting up different shots and taking beautiful pictures. It was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed each other's company. I couldn't have asked for a more special evening with Bettina.

July 3rd 2016

For our last day, we decided to spend some time just hanging out. My mom likes to say that Bettina is the girly girl friend that I never had, cause we lived so far apart. So, what did we do? We went shopping! I loved having a personal stylist! Bettina is quite a shopper and we found so many fun things. I got a new romper and a dress. I was a very fun afternoon.

Every time we are together, we like to exchange recipes to learn a little more about each other's culture. I taught her how to make my mom's pasta and cheese. She and her family loved it! Bettina taught me how to make apple pie. However, this apple pie is not like the American apple pie, this is a Hungarian pastry and it was delicious.

We spent the end of the evening drinking Palinkak and wine and gossiping and sharing stories in her hot tub. It was the perfect way to end the fantastic few days.

I can not express in words how special this friendship is to me. Having the opportunity to stay connected to Bettina and be fortunate to see her three times within the last two years. We have such a special opportunity to get to learn and stay in contact with each other. I hope one day she can come visit me in America and that we stay in touch for a long time.

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Dubrovnik June 29-30

8/10/2016

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Very early the next morning, we gathered our things and drove back to Croatia.

We stopped right before Dubrovnik to climb to see a bird's eye view of the city. From up there, we enjoyed our bakery breakfast. We shared a meat bureka, a nut pastry and a cherry pastry. I loved the bureka and really enjoyed the nut pastry. It's a shame the US hasn't figured out how to do bakeries well. Or at least affordable, common and simple.
After our breakfast with a view we made our way into the old town. We were very annoyed at the extremely high parking prices and were debating what to do, and just kept getting more frustrated. But as I drive back out, I drive past a hotel that had parking for 1/3 the price of the cheapest one we had seen!! I stop on a pin and somehow manage to back the car up the hill and park. This find mage the day so much better!

We then walked into the old walled city and I made my way to the Jewish quarter. The Jewish ghetto is a tiny street in the city. Jews came to Dubrovnik from Spain and Portugal in the 14 and 15 hundreds because they were kicked out of their respective countries. In Dubrovnik has the second oldest synagogue in Europe still existing (second to Prague, which I have also seen). In the museum next to the synagogue, they had torahs from as early as the 13th century! I really liked seeing the old torahs, it shows how far back my culture goes, and while society and technology change, there are some things that connect us to our ancestry. I went into the old synagogue and thought it was beautiful! It has a nice arc, with a bimah in the middle because it's Sephardic. The ceiling was blue with Star of Davids. I thought it looks great but also distinctively like a synagogue and not a church. I'm the synagogue, I met a nice younger lady who is a part of the current Jewish community in Dubrovnik. We talked for a long time about what it's like to be in the community there and I found it so interesting. 1/3 of the community in WW2 was killed because Yugoslavia was conspiring with the Nazis. Currently the community is 10 families, 55 people. It is a tight community but very liberal. They don't have a rabbi, but are visited by a traveling rabbi from Zagreb that comes and teaches the kids. This weekend, a family is coming from the states to have a Bar Mitzvah in the old synagogue! I was quite inspired by this visit.

We then went on a great city tour where we were walked around the old town and taught history and culture. This area is one not often taught about in schools, so I appreciated the lesson and was particularly interested in the recent war. We visited a few churches and i found it interesting to learn how Orthodox Christians differ from Catholics. During the tour we went into an orthodox church, learning about this sect, and afterwards went into a needful Catholic Church. After the tour, we went to a memorial about the recent homeland war that had photos of those who dedicated their lives. We also saw many buildings with bullet or shrapnel dents and the new versus old roofs based on if they were destroyed.

For lunch, we tried some Croatian specialties, including a pasta with beef that was a circular tubes homemade noodle with a delicious tasting sauce. We also had a capon risotto and mussels. Yum!

After lunch we went under the city to visit an archaeological site that archaeologists only found recently (2005 - 2008). The remains are of a metal factory and we learned all about how they made cannon balls and other metal items. The employee gave us a personal tour of the site. He really knew his stuff! I think for the first time in my life I truly understood what each thing in an archaeological site was for. We saw the furnaces, the molds and the casting sand. He taught us about how they conserved the sand and how the put a cannon ball together. The details were so interesting, the tour was certainly worthwhile. We ended the tour with seeing the pottery and other items found in the site.

After the tour we got ice cream! It wasn't my favorite flavor but had an amazing texture. We brought our ice cream out of the city walls and ran into a movie filming. They were in the middle of filming Knights Walls and I could even hear the director yelling action and watch the actors in the scene. There were quite a few explosions, both in the water and near the walls of the city. It was very cool to be near the scenes, and I'll have to see the movie when it comes out!

We ended the day by walking around the old port. We had a beautiful view of the island and walked by the water. It was a great way to end an amazing week with Nicole and Dan. Because now they took off on a ferry.

After our goodbyes I went to my hostel for the night. The hostel had an amazing view of the city, so I enjoyed some leftover brandy with a few girls from the hostel while watching the sun set. It was picturesque and lovely.

For a quick sidenote, it's a very interesting time to be in Europe because just a few days ago, a British referendum was voted on to leave the EU, and it passed! Meeting people from England has been interesting because most of them are so upset to be leaving. There has also been a few terror attacks while I've been in Europe, including one in Orlando at a gay club, one in the Istanbul airport and then of course the one in Tel Aviv while I was there.

For my last day in Croatia, I had met a girl in the hostel who was going to the airport at a similar time, so we decided to spend the morning together. She does so many amazing things, currently she's on her way to teaching English in the Czech Republic. We started very early and went to a natural spring. It was at the top of one of the shortest rivers (fact check anyone?). It was next to an abandoned winery. It was beautiful as there was a waterfall but the source was underground. It was such a peaceful place and wonderful. We drank water from a spout that connected directly to the spring and it tasted so delicious and fresh. Truly natural spring water.

From there, we drove to Lapad and walked down a pedestrian mall with lots of little cafes. We then walked around the waters edge along a trail. I must say, we got along so well! It was so fortunate to have met her! We even stuck our feet in the water because I couldn't resist. There is a famous cave bar that we went into for a coffee and hot chocolate. The cave was so interesting. I loved seeing the bar in there and it was nice and cool. There was a room that you could look both up and down and see cave! It's so hard to explain. It was a great morning and hopefully I'll stay in touch with Sarah!
We then headed off to the airport. I'm so excited to see Bettina! Next stop, Budapest!!!!

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Montenegro June 28th

8/10/2016

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We got to our hostel in Montenegro very late, but Mile, a hostel employee was waiting for us. We walk in and he immediately pours welcome shots of rakija, the National drink of Montenegro and a very popular way to welcome someone into your home. We had to take the shot with a straight face. I think Nicole and Dan were a bit in shock with this type of welcome into a hostel, as they don't as often choose the hostels with a bit more of a party vibe. I, of course, found it quite welcoming and great. After our warm welcome, we went to bed for a great nights rest.

The next morning we headed to the old town Kotor, which is a walled city on the bay. We started the day by climbing up the walls that surround the old city on a large hill (see picture!). I must say, there were a lot of stairs, but I have to get my exercise somehow while traveling! Three quarters up the hill, we broke off of the normal path and walked towards ruins of an abandoned church. From there we took a path up the hill to a small cafe that overlooks the entire city. There, we enjoyed fresh goat cheese and honey all made locally for breakfast. And not too mention the beautiful view of the city and the bay. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.

We finished the climb and explored the fortress ruins. On the way down we took a bit of an adventurous route. I felt a little like a soldier climbing down from the fortress in medieval times as I go down uneven paths and push through thorn bushes.

We took some time to wander around the city. I, of course, enjoyed the earrings and found a pair of porcelain earrings to represent Montenegro.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant on the bay. We were welcomed with Sljiva, or plum brandy. Dad has been talking about this drink a lot as he drank a lot of it when he visited Yugoslavia in the 80s (every place he went welcomed him with Sljiva, but he knows it as Slivowitz, because they were showing a different language then).

We ordered a mix grill for lunch, which seems to be the usual meal in Montenegro. It was a plate of many different types of meat grilled served on fries. I must say, it was very tasty. I really liked the cheese and pepper breaded thing we got, as well as the kebab and chicken. We also ordered breaded pancakes, which is like crepes that have cheese and meat in them, rolled up, breaded and fried. It was actually very tasty. It was a delicious meal.

Since we were on the bay, we tried to kayak on it. We piled three of us into a double kayak and went out on an adventure. It was good exercise and a good time, but wow the wind was strong! We would be paddling as hard as we could and were barely moving forward. I must say, a bit frustrating. But, it was nice to see some of the views from the water, which for the record were incredible. The bay is surrounded by mountains and small pockets of towns.

For an evening stroll, we went to the town Perast and walked around the water. Off of Perast, there are two islands with monasteries on them, which was nice to look at in the setting sun.

Back at the hostel, I spent the night meeting people and enjoying the hostel atmosphere. I love meeting new people while traveling hostels. People come from many different places that it's so interesting to meet them. I ate a traditional cake that has a vanilla cream filling. I loved it!

Nicole and I did a small brandy tasting before the night ended, since as you know, Montenegro is known for their brandy. We tried quince, pear and apricot. They were very strong! However, apricot was by far our favorite. It was fruity and delicious!

Because we liked the hostel so much, we decided to stay an extra night. We were very glad we made the choice to come to Montenegro, it was certainly different from Croatia!

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Ferry Hopping June 27th

8/8/2016

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After a healthy kefir breakfast, we climbed onto a ferry to Vela Luka, an island quite a distance off the coast of Split. We used the ferry as our own island tour because instead of taking a trip around all the islands, we went to the furthest and got to see all the others on the way. The small towns on the island all look very similar. Red roofed buildings on a cliff near the water. All of these islands are quite mountainous, which made for beautiful views while on the ferry. I must say, I quite enjoyed my ride in the sun and breeze with the nice views.

When we arrived, we parked and climbed up to the top of the hill. When we got there, we found a cave that dates back to 7000 BC!!! I must say, they had a very pretty view back then. Jokes aside, the island was not actually an island back then and was connected by land. It only look 30-40 years for it to become an island! We found the cave really unique to see, stepping back into history. After enjoying the view, we climbed down the mountain and found a cafe on the water. We ordered a jumbo frutti de mare pizza... and it was jumbo! It was also very tasty. The pizza had lots of seafood on it.

Quite full, we start to drive across the island. The scenery was amazing. As we drove across the cliffs we alternated which side of the island that we could see the water from. We stopped a few times to admire the views, because it was so incredible. We reached the other side and went right for the water. Swimming in the water was literally incredible. The water was so clear and blue that you could see your feet and the bottom. I was truly blown away. We swam to a sandy beach, which are hard to come by in these areas. The swim was refreshing, a nice exercise and absolutely beautiful.

The day finished by going to a wine tasting, as this town is known for their wine production. They have two special local wine types, grk and posip. At the first winery, we tried a rose and the grk and I must say, the grk was very tasty. The winery also looked very nice and I really liked the environment. It felt like a rustic wine cellar.

We went to a second winery and enjoyed the wonderful weather on a patio. They gave us four wines to try, two red and two white and I greatly enjoyed it all. The flavor of one of the reds was incredibly complex. We ate an octopus salad with the wine and it was delicious! I've really enjoyed the fresh food here. We truly felt like we were on vacation, it was so enjoyable.

This ended one of the most amazing days on the entire trip. Between the hiking, the swimming, the views and the wine, I couldn't have asked for a better day. We got onto a ferry and started the long drive to Montenegro.

Much later, I was driving and we took our final ferry across the bay of Kotor. To get to our hostel, I had to drive on this very thin and windy road that was right on the edge of the water! It was incredibly dark, people were walking on it and cars sometimes also came from the other direction. It was pretty and terrifying!! We made it alright, but it was an experience.

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Split June 25-26

8/8/2016

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We finally arrived in Split in the evening and had to deal with some check-in issues. But eventually we showered and made our way to the old town. Everything is right on the water, so it's incredibly gorgeous. We raced into town because the Europcup football game between Croatia and Portugal was on. For the first half we sat in a restaurant called Fife and ate dinner. Nicole and I shared pan fried squid with gnocchi and a squid ink cuttlefish risotto and it was amazing. It all tasted so good and incredibly fresh. One of my favorite meals this trip for sure. To watch the second half of the football game, we walked up to a local bar and grabbed some drinks. The crowd was very invested in the game mode the game went into overtime and it looked like Croatia scored, but we were all fooled, including the team, and Portugal scored on a counter attack. It was sad ending but a very fun game to watch. To get back to the hostel we climbed up so many stairs to a beautiful park with an incredible view of the city. Of course it was dark, so we couldn't see the water well, but although it was an exhausting amount of steps, it was very beautiful.

The next morning, we headed into the old town of split. It was very crowded but we found some interesting things to look at. There was an accapella group that sang very traditional songs and they were very good and fun to watch. We wandered around what remained of a palace, including the very circular room that the group was singing in. We found an art market with some very nice artists and an arrangement of flea markets. I found some shell earrings made from local shells to be my new Croatia earrings. We also rubbed the toe of a statue to get some good luck! We even walked by the synagogue and old Jewish section, but there wasn't much there and it was locked.

After a very delicious scoop of ice cream, we made our way back to the hostel to change into our bathing suits. We then drove towards a peninsula with lots of beaches on it. But we decided to be adventurous and climb down the cliff to find some rocks to sit on and swim around. The water was so immaculately clear it was unbelievable. We swam for a very long time. I loved just floating on my back and enjoying the water, which was so warm! It was a wonderful afternoon.

On a sidenote, this area was not a tourist destination and was mostly filled with locals. Which means we saw quite a few naked tushes, of people who I wouldn't particularly want to see. This was one instance that we didn't follow the lead of the locals and kept our suits on.

Since we were driving a manual car around the country, I wanted to teach Dan how to drive it, so that I didn't have to be the only driver. I'm teaching him in a parking lot and two policeman come to the area. As we drive by, of course very slowly, they look at us and ask "does he have a driver's license?". I said yes and we nicely went away. They certainly looked quite confused.

After a nice shower, I walked up to the viewpoint that I saw yesterday to enjoy the skyline on the city and the view of the water. It was so beautiful. Nearby there was also an old Jewish cemetery and the restaurant building had Hebrew writing on it. I wondered what type of Jewish population Croatia had, because as far as I know, there is not much left. Nicole and Dan met me there after they finished calling their families.

We ended up going to the exact same restaurant for dinner. How could you not when you find a place serving very good local food for a cheap price in a pretty location. We tried three new dishes that we all split. One was a local beef dish on a thick sauce. The second was a pan fried fish. Which was only slightly my second favorite to the lamb with green peas. It was all very tasty and I was quite full afterwards. To walk off the food, we strolled down the promenade, in one direction was walked along the water and then we walked back on the street. The clouds made the most gorgeous colors over the water. It was truly unbelievable. We climbed up the hill to our hostel for the last time, as tomorrow is our ferry day!

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Budapest Round 2: June 30-July 3

7/27/2016

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I stepped off my airplane in Budapest and in no time at all, was hugging Bettina at International entryway. In fact, it took less than 15 minutes from when the wheels hit the ground to when we were sitting in the car. I'll call that a new record. She was so surprised by how light I was traveling!

We got home and spent some time catching up! While it had only been a little over a year since I last saw Bettina, there was so much to catch up on and talk about. I came to Budapest to spend time with Betti and hang out with her and her family. I know, this is a friendships that I plan on doing everything I can to maintain, because it is so special and unique.

June 1st 2016

On the first day, I met her godmother. Her godmother has been so nice to me, even before I ever met her (if you remember, last time I was in Budapest, she sent us out to lunch). This time, she gave us a wonderful tour of the city. To start, she is a journalist, so she has connections all over the city. So, our first stop was at the Google Office in Budapest. Every Google office is decorated in a theme about the place that it is in. This one was nautical themed, because of the saunas and baths in Budapest. We enjoyed the swings, the unique seating locations and the cool decorations. Certainly a unique thing to do in the city.

We then took some time to walk around the city. We walked past Parliament, which was quite different to see in the summer versus the middle of January (which was the last time I was here in Budapest). There were flowers everywhere! It was beautiful. We also toured the multiple Holocaust memorials in the city. The first one that we went to was on the edge of the water and was statues of shoes. It was incredibly meaningful, to me because it was like freezing history. There were shoes because the Nazis lined up the Jews on the edge of the river and shot them, and often the fell right out of their shoes. Hence, the shoes that are now left there in a statue. We also walked by a more controversial memorial. The community in Budapest has actually started to protest it, as it makes the Hungarian government seem innocent even though they colluded with the Nazis. The memorial barely even speaks about the victims. They are creating a live memorial around, showing what a good memorial would be.

Controversial Holocaust memorial

We then got a behind the scenes tour of one of the oldest theaters in Budapest. We could stand on the stage like we were actresses performing infront of a huge crowd and look at the ways the stage can move to create different scenes. It was quite cool. And, we of course couldn't help but doing a photo-shoot while we were up there! For lunch we went to a Hungarian Israeli restaurant, which was quite fun. I got to teach Bettina about the different things we were eating. And it was delicious. We also got fancy desserts at a nearby bakery that were unbelievable! It was so delicious. Mine was a layered cake with poppyseeds and seaberries. I had never heard of seaberries before, but supposedly they are very good for you, but very tart, unless of course they are cooked into a delicious sauce with sugar.

On the way back, we went to Margarite Island. We had been there on my first trip to Budapest. And while it was a nice day for January, it was still cold that we just walked onto the island, took a picture and left. This time, we got to see a water fountain show to music. It was actually really good! We also took a picture in the exact same space a year and a half later.

Margarite Island Jan 2015

Margarite Island July 2016

To get back to Bettina's house, we took a boat ferry. It weaved back and forth on the River Danube while we looked at the Parliament and the castle and the statues from the boat deck. It was quite an enjoyable and relaxing evening.

June 2nd 2016

On the second day, we went out with her entire family. The first thing that we did was go to a hospital under the mountain to learn about how it played a role in history. It was quite interesting and I learned a lot about Budapest in both the cold war and WWII. We then went and explored the castle grounds, which we were at a year and a half ago, but was much less sunny and now there were flowers! We found some absolutely gorgeous views! Oh and had amazing ice cream! I had a cherery poppyseed flavor and a cottage cheese flavor. YUM!!

In the afternoon we traveled around the mountains of Budapest. We took a train that was worked by children, almost like a camp. And then climbed up to a chairlift that we took down the mountain and got to see incredible views of the city. It was gorgeous!

However, after all of this excitement, the most incredible thing that we did was also a gift from her godmother. She got us tickets to Recirque, which is a version of a cirque du soleil show, and it was incredible! The acts were beautifully done and blew us away. Some of them were things I'd seen before, like silks, but others were acts that I'd never seen, one was two high ropes that had slack in the line. My personal favorite act was the partner acrobatics without any aids. It was beautiful. I enjoyed the show so much, it was a great evening. Afterwards, we went outside and explored the area around the theater and took some beautiful pictures, as shown below:

June 3rd 2016

After two crazy busy days, we decided to relax and spend some quality time together. So, we did nothing other then spend the morning shopping! This does make sense, as I consider Bettina the girly-girly friend that I never had growing up. We found this awesome playsuit and a really pretty dress for me. It was certainly a blast. That night, I taught her how to make my mom's famous pasta and cheese! Her family loved it! She then taught me how to make a Hungarian pastry that they call an apple pie, but doesn't really resemble apple pie. It was very tasty! To end the evening, we tasted some frutty Hungarian liquor and wine and enjoyed the hot tub. We girl talked for bit and enjoyed each others company.

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Zagreb & Plitvice Lakes June 24-25

7/19/2016

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Good morning Croatia!! After my train back to Munich, I stopped at the hostel bar for one last Ausutiner Dark Wheat beer, which was amazing! I then walked to the bus station and got on an overnight bus from Munich to Croatia. I fell asleep and was woken up to go through customs on the side of the road! I climbed back on the bus and it was around 6:30 in the morning when I arrived in Zagreb. So I walked towards the train station and found a coffee shop where I charged my phone, drank a cappuccino and read a book for two hours. It was wonderful. Actually. It was a great was to freshen up after the long ride and get ready for my day. Just after 8:30, I meet Nicole and Dan (Nicole is a friend from olin and Dan is her boyfriend) at the train station. After their own morning drink and freshening, we enjoyed the day wandering around Zagreb. We enjoyed beautiful gardens and some great architecture. In our loop, we found a great market! It was incredibly inexpensive and the fruit looked great. So we tried a fig and collected other fruit and veggies for tomorrow's hike. We continued to climb up the hill and found a great view of the whole city. Of course we also saw few more cathedrals.

We decided to go into one of Zagreb's recommended attractions, the Museum of Broken relationships. The museum is about marking the end of relationships, not just the ones that succeed. So people send in mementos with stories of relationships or breakups. It was a very interesting museum. They had contributions from all around the world. We certainly enjoyed it.

We made our way back into the city and found a local pub for lunch. Nicole and I shared an amazing salad and a stuffed chicken leg with mushrooms. It was all amazing! I really enjoyed it.
After a little stroll, we headed to the airport to pick up our rental car. We are driving around Croatia! However, automatic cars are much more expensive to rent in Europe... So we are driving a manual car, and I'm the most experienced stick shift driver of the group. For the record, I hadn't driven a manual car in at least two years! I was so nervous that I would embarrass myself in front of the rental car people or not even get out of the parking lot! But, there was nothing to worry about! While maybe it took a bit of time to get used to, I had little trouble driving the car! It was amazing. We drove to Plitvice Lakes, which is a famous national park in Croatia and found our small and adorable hostel. These small hostels are the best. You get to know the people around you and the owners. That night, we got food at the market and cooked at the hostel on a wood grill. I don't think I've ever cooked dinner with a better view. We are quite excellent cooks. The view from the hostel was also very nice. I enjoyed being out in nature and the peace and quiet. We went to bed early for a early day tomorrow.

The next day was spent exploring the national park Plitvice Lakes. We were out there quite early to beat the crowds, and may I sat, it was well worth it. We hiked up a path that brought us past many lakes and waterfalls. The water was so clear and incredibly gorgeous. The paths were on this wooden walkway that went over the water. We had a fantastic time! We enjoyed our packed lunch on the side of the path in a tree with a gorgeous view of the lake. Much of the day, we were enjoying taking beautiful pictures of our surroundings. It was incredible.

We then made our way past a huge canyon to a very big waterfall. It was spectacular!
But at that moment, a storm rolled in. We saw the ominous clouds and knew it was about to pour. I spotted a cave and we made a run for it. Somehow, we made it there quite dry and got to watch an incredible thunderstorm from the safety of a cave. The rain poured down and it was pretty to watch. There were lighting strikes that I could see dip clearly it was incredible and the thunder boomed. Eventually, the storm settled and we took off in a much quieter park. As we walked back, the clouds looked incredibly cool. Some were like marshmallows! After the long day in the park, we made it back to our cart to head to Split.

The drive to split was gorgeous. We took a bit of a scenic route through the mountains and it was incredible. We must have stopped at least 3 times to look at the view and take pictures. I've really enjoyed this rental car. It gives us so much flexibility and we get to go on little adventures like this.

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Landau June 21-23

7/11/2016

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I climbed onto the train from Munich with my gulash soup and sliced bread in hand, ready for my adventure. I also got to try this rhubarb tart, since rhubarb seems to be very common here. They were both quite delicious! I was also, however, fighting the train with my bouquet of flowers. It's very traditional to bring a host flowers, so I found a bunch of beautiful flowers at the market to bring to Sophia's grandmother. For those of you who don't know, I'm currently on a train, well actually a set of three trains, to Landau, Germany. Landau is a small town not too far from Frankfurt, and I will be joining Sophia, her boyfriend Justin and her grandmother there.

When I arrived, Justin and Sophia were standing on the platform to greet me! It was so exciting to see them. I hadn't seen either of them since graduation! Sophia's grandmother lives very close to the train station, so we walked over to her house and got acquainted. And, I did some laundry! It was very nice of Sophia's grandmother, and I especially appreciated not smelling!

Sophia's grandma (I'm going to start referring to her as Oma, which is German for grandma), Oma made gulash and spatzle for dinner! Even though your first reaction may be: Oh no! She also had that for lunch, it is not a worry. I've learned that wherever you go, gulash can mean many different things as long as it has beef in it. So for lunch it was a beef and vegetable soup essentially, and this was slow cooked beef in a gravy sauce. I have to say, it was delicious! The spatzle is so good! It is very simple, just flour and eggs put through a press and then boiled, but somehow it's very delicious. It's also served with crispy breadcrumbs on top. I must say, I'll need to try to make this one at home one day, cause it's way better then boxed pasta.

Dinner was served during half time of the Eurocup game that Germany was playing it. It was quite fun to watch with Oma and Justin. And excitingly, Germany won! So when we went on our after-dinner stroll, the streets were lively and exciting. People were honking their horns in excitement and cheering down the streets. We ran into one beer garden that had exploded into the street where one person was playing the guitar, another with a harmonica and another with drums. Everything felt so organic and happy. I really enjoyed it. And to make this walk even better, we picked up a scoop of ice cream on the way home! This place makes delicious ice cream, and I loved my hazelnut scoop.

However, we forgot that Oma had made dessert for us!! She had prepared strawberries with two types of ice cream. So, what choice did we have but to enjoy a second dessert!? I must say, I didn't do much complaining. We had a lovely evening and I slept incredibly well that night.

I woke up the next morning very refreshed. I ate the customary breakfast of a roll with homemade marmalades, butter and local honey. It was very tasty. Before heading out for the day, we went the local cheese shop to gather some cheese for our dinner. Parts of me really wishes that we could shop like this, with a store for each thing. The products are just so much better (and well, a whole lot cheaper here too). Today we are going to climb to ruins of a castle! So we took a bus through the beautiful German countryside to a tiny wine town. From there, we found our hiking path, which happened to be much more difficult than I expected. It was steep uphill and muddy, but the view from the top was well worth it. On one side of the hill you could see lots of rolling mountains, which was a large contrast to the other side of the hill where you could see German countryside with lots of farms. On each side you could see these pockets of tiny towns that broke through the mountains or farms. Sophia said that towns here are so tightly packed because it was easier to protect and took away less of the farmland. I think it's great because it creates these great small towns that have a feel to them because there are people in a tightly packed area, but they are still small and quaint and have their own individuality and identity.

The castle itself was truly in ruins, but we were able to explore around it quite a bit. Castles in these small towns also have little restaurants. While maybe not this one, because it's more of a rigorous hike, it's very common for outings of elderly people to walk up to a castle on a hill and have lunch up there. While we aren't elderly, we did truly earn our lunch on the mountain. I got a wine spritzer (because believe it or not, Oma calls this area the wine gate because we are very close to France and this leave has gone back and forth between France often) made from local wine and liverknudle which is a liver dumpling in a soup. It was quite tasty, as you know, I've never exactly had a problem with enjoying liver. Justin and Sophia had the German version of pizza (which I remember eating when I was studying abroad) which is a thin crust with cheese spread and toppings. Also yum! We enjoyed the great view with our lunch and rested before climbing down. We explored a town before making our way to the bus stop. We were there with plenty of time, so we waited and waited and waited for a bus to come, but it never did. Which to me is quite surprising as Germany is known for their promptness. We got tired of waiting, and decided to stay walking back. It wasn't too far right? Or at least make it to the next station. The German countryside is pretty... but as we start walking, we get about two blocks away and i turned back to take a picture. Just as I looked, the bus came!! So I waved it down and it was so kind to stop and let us on. I must say, we were relieved. We were very happy to be back and rest in the apartment! We didn't stay too long though, because there were some errands to run! We enjoyed a stroll around town going to different shops. For example, we went to the bookstore to find Sophia a cookbook, and to a gummy bear store where they had these hilarious beer cups filled with gummy bears to look like beer. We stopped by the bakery to get pretzels for dinner and even went to a pharmacy, paper store and kitchen store. And how could I forget, we couldn't skip our midafternoon ice cream. Since we were very relaxed today and has lots of time, we decided to sit at the shop and order fancier ice creams. Sophia and I split a Giotto sundae and it was amazing. Can't you tell by our huge smiles!?

That night we had cold cuts for dinner, which is a very common meal here. But unlike America, they put it all out on the table and you arrange it yourself. Also the meats and cheeses are just so delicious and interesting. I enjoyed the cheese that we got in the morning on my pretzel. Also, Oma makes an incredible salad. It's very simple, but the products are so fresh that it tastes great. Her dressing, however, if the secret touch. It's oil and vinegar with salt and sugar! How smart. I again found myself enjoying liver, as I was showing the liverwurst onto my pretzel as well. I have say Oma actually doesn't buy much pork, and you can get these interesting and tasty spreads and cold cuts made out of poultry and beef. Like poultry salami. We also spent the evening watching the football game (soccer) and enjoying each other's company.

In my last day in Landau, Oma gave me a tour of the town. We saw the bank and the post office, even where Anne Frank's grandfather once lived with a synagogue. We stopped by her butcher, and I must say, it looks very different then the deli section of our supermarkets. We ran a few errands before coming home.

For lunch, Oma was making a special German dish called daumfknudle. This dish is a yeast dough that is fried on one side and steamed on the other. It is here served with a vanilla pudding. And yes this was for lunch! I got to watch her make the daumfknudle, which is something I always enjoy, especially while traveling.

This afternoon we enjoyed relaxing and a few card games. Language barriers didn't get in the way of our Skip-bo (did I mention that Oma only speaks German, which made it difficult for Justin and I, buy through little pieces of language, some charades, and some help translating from Sophia, we could talk just fine). We ended our trip with a walk to the nearby fort. It was a beautiful park to walk through, and even though the sun was intensely beating down, the shared park was nice. There was also a funny arm cooling pool in the middle of the park. You put your forearms into the cool water so that the water, and it evaporating off of your skin, cools you off.

I had to say goodbye to Sophia and Justin. I was so glad that they welcomed me into their family time. I truly enjoyed their company and small town Germany and appreciated a more restful two days. Now off on a train to another train (which I sprinted to make the connection. I really didn't want to miss that one), to an overnight bus to meet my friend Nicole and her boyfriend in Croatia!!

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Munich! June 18-21

7/9/2016

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Munich also started with a very rainy beginning. But, we had planned to do a WW2 walking tour first thing in the morning, so we went along with it anyways. I learned a lot on the tour and saw lots of great things, but it was pretty cold and rainy. I also thought that the tour guide didn't quite match what we were seeing to the stories well. However, there was a huge city party and going on the walking tour forced us to see the festival even though it was raining. I also liked hearing about the WW2 events that I had seen pictures of and standing in those places. After the tour, we went to the Deutches museum, which is their science and technology museum. The museum was impressively high level. I learned a lot there, but there was a lot of reading! I think this is a theme in German museums, that they teach a lot more traditionally. Thinking about this was very interesting for me because of my upcoming PhD research.

We walked back to the hotel with the intention of going on a beer tour that night. But, while we were sitting in the hostel bar drinking our first included beer (side note: it was a Augustiner Dark Wheat and it was so good. The description said it tastes like bananas! I really like it!), the company said it had to be canceled due to too few sign ups. Fortunately, we had met a new friend in the bar and decided to go out anyways. I invited the tour guide to join us, and he actually decided to come along! So, he took us to one of his favorite restaurants to try the Weissbeir there and get some traditional food. We enjoyed a veal schnitzel with a red current sauce and a meatball/salisberg steak dish. They were both delicious! Our tour guide was also very interesting. He was from South Africa and really helped us learn more about Munich and the beer there. I think I learned more from him then our morning tour guide, and he was just there for fun! He even taught us about the dancing royal family that there are statues of in the town hall.

After the first restaurant, we stopped by the famous Hofbrauhaus to see they craziness that was going on there. We couldn't get in because it was near closing time, but it was even fun to just see from the window. It was a great night and I was certainly ready to sleep afterwards.

My last full day in Munich was action packed. I left the hostel at 10AM and didn't stop until around 1AM the next day! It started with a beautiful stroll in Nyphenburg Palace with a German soft pretzel. The palace was very beautiful and the grounds were lovely. There were lots of lakes to walk around and see and the flowers were lovely. I saw some of the small residences around the grounds and they were immaculate. One of the cooler things that I saw was a water pump that had been working since the 1800s and still pumping the fountains now! The maintenance worker went into the pump house while I was there, and invited me in to look at the pumps. It was very cool.

After a wonderful morning walk, I made my way to Olympic Park. There was a lto to see at the Olympic park because everything is still there! I am always interested in Olympics, because I love how the world comes together to recognize amazing talent and have great competition. This Olympics is particularly scary though because of the terrorist attacks that killed the Israeli team. So in the search of history, I found the houses that they stayed in in Olympic Village and did a small study as to how Munich is presenting this information. Unfortunately, it seems like the city is unsure how to approach the Olympics because they don't want to downplay or celebrate the terrorist attacks, but they also want to be proud of the sporting events that did occur. I went into the Olympic Stadium and saw where the opening ceremonies occurred. I then climbed to the top of a hill that overlooked all of Olympic park! It was exhausting hike, but a very beautiful view. After exploring around the memorials and the Olympic buildings, I took a ride to the top of the Olympic tower to see Munich from a birds eye view. It was an incredible view and I could see so much of the city!

After coming down, I stopped into BMW World to check out the cars. I have to say, I did find some pretty neat cars. Even some blue ones :)

My next stop was the English Gardens. It is a beautiful park in Munich, but has one big attraction. There is a permanent wave there which people surf on! It was kinda like the Flow Riders on the cruise ships, but this was in a river and occurred naturally. I loved watching it, even very tempted to just hop in! It was amazing that this was happening directly in the city.

For my last morning in Munich, I got up bright and early to walk through the old part of the city to the farmers market! On the way, I saw a TKMaxx, which was just like TJMaxx, which I found entertaining. The farmers market was amazing. So much fresh foods and products, I loved it! I tried lots of dips and apple chips and everything tasted great! I got myself goulash soup to eat on the train along with their sauerkraut spiced bread, a nectarine and a rhubarb tart. It was all delicious and made for the perfect breakfast and lunch.

This is where Shane and I split. It was great traveling with Shane, and now I'm off to more adventures!

On the way back to the hostel, I stopped by a market to grab a veal bratwurst, and it was delicious! (As you can see from my smile).
We did end up going on the beer tour this night! Our same tour guide friend took us to three different beer gardens and taught us all about the beer culture in Munich. I was very interested in it, and actually got to learn a lot. I think it is so cool where this type of community culture comes from. And then they make very tasty beer. But, they only serve it in 1 liter increments! CRAZY! Good thing I had people to share with! I have to say, the beer gardens were very nice and fun. I thought it was a great atmosphere and wish the culture was just as fun in America.

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A Festival in Dresden June 16-18

7/3/2016

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We arrived on the train just in time to see the second half of the Germany Poland Eurocup game. Even though we were just getting off of the train, we wanted to find somewhere to watch it! So on our way to the hostel, we found a Kebab place that had set up a projector for people to watch the game. It was pretty great! Everyone bought beers from the place and was sitting on these picnic tables to watch. Unfortunately, Germany didn't win, so it wasn't very exciting, but at least we got to watch a good game.

The next morning in Dresden was very gloomy. It was raining pretty constantly, so we went to the military museum. I learned quite a bit there, particularly about the post world war two east Germany, but it was a lot of reading. The coolest section was one about how war has effected fashion! Fortunately, by lunch the rain had subsided a bit. Shane and I decided to try the anti-culture that exists in the larger cities in Germany and get some good vegan food. I tried a seitan kebab, which was hilariously similar to shwarma. They put seitan on a spindle like the shwarma meat and scape it off and then put it in a pita-like bread with salad and spreads. It was actually pretty tasty. I then took the bike that I borrowed from the hostel and made my way through the old part of the city. It was cool to see, but don't let these cities fool you! Dresden was fire bombed in WW2, so almost all of the buildings have been rebuilt. Either way, I loved the palace! It was quite beautiful, including the moat. The other areas were also nice, including a very nice tile mosaic. I rode around there for the majority of the day before heading back to the hostel for a quick rest.

Starting tonight, there is a festival in Dresden called the Bunte Republik Neustadt. It is celebrating a government that formed from 1990-1993. The symbol is a Mickey Mouse! So we saw lots of flags with Mickey Mouse on them or other places around the city. Since this government has been in existence, there is now a big festival. Before the festival started, I met the other members of our hostel room. They were all very nice, so we decided to go as a room! It was actually so fun and very cute. We had members from Australia, Scotland and Czech Republic. And, as the night went on the group kept growing.

The festival itself was so great. The whole community really comes out to just have fun. Some of my favorite moments were seeing what the people living in the neighborhood did. For example, one person had opened their bathroom. However, it was .5 Euros to use the bathroom, or 1 Euro to get a shot of schnapps and also use the bathroom. Another person was selling shots from the second floor! They would send down a bag to collect money, and then use a pulley to send down the schnapps! It was so funny. We found a person selling spatzle out of the window, and it was delicious! It is noodles that are handmade and small pieces with a cheesy sauce and fried onions. Yum!!

We then found an awesome band that was playing some traditional music. People were dancing and it was fantastic! I loved listening to them. Our group enjoyed lots of different music and strutted down the streets together with beer in hand. It was an amazing night. For dinner, I enjoyed a stead kebab with onions on a roll. It was very messy, but I couldn't have asked for a better German dinner. As the night went on, there were more djs and it became quite a crazy party right on the streets!

The next day, I woke up early to walk around the festival grounds. It was quiet, but amazing clean after the crazy party. I then went to Cafe Komisch to get soft serve ice cream. It is a very well known ice cream parlor because it has been making the soft serve the same way for a long time and it is delicious! I got a large vanilla chocolate swirl for only 1.80 euros and it was larger then my head! I don't even think I need to say it, but I was a very happy camper. I took my ice cream to the park to watch a Kubb tournament. Kubb is Dresden's popular lawn game and it involves throwing wooden dowels and blocks at wooden blocks. I think I almost figured it out in my time sitting there. It was very relaxing and quite fun to watch!

Shane and I then took our bikes and headed back into Old Town. I showed him some of the places that I had found the day before and enjoyed biking around and seeing the artists in the main town square. As we biked towards the castle, we found a beach volleyball tournament in a main square! It was so much fun. The sport was intense and the crowd was awesome. Even though it wasn't huge, they were loud and very invested in the tournament. They had these cardstock fans that made so much noise! Shane and I joined right in with the cheering and truly enjoyed the game.

After the volleyball tournament, I biked around the castle one more time before heading back to the festival. I decided to spend my afternoon enjoying the culture of the festival, enjoy great food, beer and music. I had a vegetarian kebap, which was like a wrap with salad, hallomi cheese, eggplant, and peppers. It was so good! I also had a nice local amber beer (I had the local dark beer last night) and listened to some great music. One of the bands was an Irish band that was, like all other bands drinking beer onstage, but also the guitarist was drinking whisky straight from the bottle! Overall, the festival was a great time and I was glad to get to spend my trip there. Next, off to Munich!

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