TEDx: How Adventure Makes You Smarter, Stronger, and Attractive: Tyler Tervooren

Hello! It's been a while! While I'm not adventuring, I'm usually busy getting inspired or fundraising for my travels (some people call this a day job). Just wanted to pop in and share something that made me smile and reminisce a bit about what I've gone through. Hopefully I'll share some more of these tales soon! Until then, take a gander at this:

Can I get an amen?

Summiting Mt. Doom - New Zealand (North Island)

There are certain trips you embark on that leave you dumbfounded. You are never the same again. When you get home you're not quite sure how to go on with life; how you understand your routine, your friends, your habits, and choices are viewed through the new lens you've picked up.

Two of my best friends and I zipped off to New Zealand's North Island for two weeks (if you're wondering, we're saving South Island for the next trip). We didn't pick New Zealand just because we'd already seen Europe, or Southeast Asia, Africa, the U.S., or South America (between the three of us, we've covered much of the world though). Needless to say,  having been around the world a bit, I am really impressed by "Australia's little brother" (words from a local, not me!). We bought our tickets to kiwi-land because we heard about and saw photos of the land's unparalleled beauty. We're also huge Lord of the Rings nerds. Huge. And we were hankering for a trip where we could traverse the outdoors.

Ngauruhoe summit with the tip of Ruapehu, in the distance!
At a 30º grade, the slope of Ngauruhoe is covered in loose
volcanic rock, which will scuttle down at a brush from a
gust of wind. The summit sits 2200km above sea level and
one should allow at least 3 hours for this hike.

New Zealand is called home by one of the best hikes in the world: the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It's so jam-packed with wonder that I could devote a handful of blogposts to the Crossing alone. It's best to be well-equipped with the right gear and under the right conditions. Locals warned us that unprepared people have expired on this hike so we made sure to bring twice as much water as the recommended amount per person. Good thing too! We used it all by spontaneously adding Mt. Ngauruhoe to our hike. Famously, Ngauruhoe, the most active of the many resident volcanos, is known for being Mount Doom in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

A third of my hike up Mt. Ngauruhoe was glamorously done on all fours, just like the plight of Frodo and Sam in Return of the King--unlike them we had plenty of water and snacks on the way up and down and 0 orcs to fight. Needless to say, going "up the hill" was a challenging trek, and for me, one of the most difficult physical feats I may have accomplished in my entire life. (If you're a mountain climber though, I'm sure this is a walk in the park for you.) "I'm going to go home and eat those hikes in Malibu for breakfast!" I thought after huffing and puffing to the summit. I'm pretty sure someone was playing "Eye of the Tiger" in my last 20 meters up too.

So why do I see my life differently after returning to the States? What has kept me up at night or silent in thought in my reunion with friends? I'm not 100% sure, but I think this volcano may have something to do with it. I didn't expect myself to be capable of hiking Mt. Ngauruhoe. We all surprise ourselves here and there when our cooking comes out fairly edible or when we get hired for a job we didn't think we deserved. Grace is sometimes the only explanation you have for these types of situations!

When you outdo yourself in hindsight like I did, your mind keeps wandering back to that sobbing young woman you passed on the ridge, her on her way down, and you less than half way up, not-quite-sobbing but questioning the potentially-bad life choice you may be making with every step up. Maybe you think about the very second you sat down at the crater's edge, very much alive, dumbstruck & breathless, both from being in awe of the magnificent view and from being pathetically out of shape compared to all the Shawn-T's chest-bumping all around you. Or the moments you were sliding down the loose scree turning back every minute or so to check for small bumbling boulders aiming to bop you on the melon!

The Emerald Lakes (Tongariro Alpine Crossing)

Besides those flashbacks, the things I think to myself now ask me how I can create more stories like this one. What am I actually capable of? How can I challenge myself to push my limits and what could I achieve if I tried passing my comfort zone? A whole new world of possibilities opens up when you're reminded that you don't know everything about yourself. The mountains you once thought were insurmountable seem smaller. Certainties don't seem so certain.

Traveling has the purpose of never leaving you the same, and I think we sometimes forget and get more than we bargained for. Traveling leaves you vulnerable and unsure of how to proceed with your "normal" life, because you can't! After pushing your limits, you simply can't go back to the way you were before. The return is emotionally terrifying and exhilarating, which is why many of us sink back into our routines, forgetting why we came home so shaken up, instead of letting our experiences change us from the inside out.

To me, this is about getting closer to learning what sorts of things make me come alive. My challenge to you for your next adventure is to open yourself up to the inner processing that goes on during and after the trip. Take note of the scenery and people around you, but also take note of every emotion you have and every mental box that gets broken along the way and do the daring thing: take what you learned about yourself and the new experiences you've gleaned and figure out how to weave it all back into the beautifully messy tapestry that is your life!

Want to hike Ngaurahoe/Tongariro? 

Get yourself on the North Island of New Zealand and you can stay in Turangi (we stayed at Extreme Backpackers--say hello to John for us!), Taupo, or Tongariro to be near the national park for an early start. Check the weather regularly (a week before, a few days in advance, the night before, and the morning of). The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a one-day 19.4km adventure; it's not a round trip walk, so park your car and hire a shuttle in advance to truck you to the other end of the trail (I recommend starting from the Mangatepopo trail head). Pack food and 2L of water minimum and be prepared to take your trash with you. There are no rubbish bins along the way and only 2 restroom areas. Hiking shoes are recommended, but you can get along with good cross-trainers (you want hiking boots and gloves for Ngauruhoe however). Dress in layers. Visit the government site for more info. Cheers for reading and enjoy!

This blog post first appeared on Adventures of American Julie.

The Big Apple

Ah, New York City. The place where you can feel like a honcho and cross the street with balls made of steel, but also feel completely insignificant among the teeming schools of bodies, each entering and exiting the subway on their various paths to and from oblivion. The sights! The sounds! The tastes!

Last week, my family and I jumped onto a plane to visit my brother, who is partaking in a summer fellowship at one of the medical schools in Manhattan. This plane was having trouble with one of its cargo doors, so I was tragically torn away from the seat that I took 2 hours to get acquainted with to board yet another trusty jet. During the announcement in which the captain was asking us to deplane, I was musing academically about how we, in a large metal capsule of steel and various engine parts, could possibly be afloat in the air. Funny enough, there was a woman one row back who was screaming the ears off of her poor 20-something year old son that didn't have so much as a clue about how to fix the cargo door of a commercial airplane. I imagine his mother was wondering the opposite. And by "opposite" I mean the absolute injustice that the crew would dare keep us waiting. The poor son looked about as flushed as the big apple we were meant to fly to. 

Not to keep you in suspense, but we got there, 7 hours and two cups of Minute Maid OJs later... 

Having spent a year abroad hopping from European city to European city exposed me to about as much cosmopolitan atmosphere as one really needs to get a grasp of navigating subways and landmarks, so being in NYC wasn't a sensory overload as I imagine it would be for some. I felt more at home, in fact. I love the towering skyscrapers looming over one way avenues, making four lane streets look narrow. The nonchalance of jaywalkers dodging equally-determined cars to get home brings a busy disorder to the strategically-designed grid.

Planning my trip at the butt-end of June meant facing the start of the notorious heat of the City. Though not comparable to the sweltering humidity in areas of East Asia, the temperature in New York City combined with the close quarters of your fellow sardines marching about in a can of sweat, loosed neckties and tourists was slightly less than comfortable. Hydrating is of the essence and the key to good travel in this season.

As many of you know, I strongly believe that tasting the city you're experiencing is equally as important as seeing or hearing it, so my brother obliged to taking me to partake in his favourite street food: halal chicken and lamb over rice.

Halal food is food that is considered palatable by people of muslim faith, and boy, is it tasty. Unlike the food carts that I'm used to seeing in San Diego, these carts actually differed in the way their fare tasted. One of the carts on Ave of the Americas was simpler than another closer to 2nd and 65th, which was far more aromatic and packed with earthy spices. The former, I would argue, is more tourist friendly, or westernised. Still very amazing. Possibly one of my favourite foods that I sampled in the Big Apple. 

My other food cart experience started with me trying to relive the quintessential patronage of the hot dog cart. I probably visited the wrong cart because it turned out to be a wrong decision. Or I suppose NYC has moved on to bigger and better things other than the American wurst. Bland and disappointing, the unexciting hot dog sadly stared me in the face as I regretted using precious stomach space and moved on to set my eyes on bigger and better things...

Meet Ippudo's ramen! Just looking at the broth here is making me salivate. The noodle house had a line outside the door before it even opened, but we happily jumped in, anticipating our taste buds to be floored. I was referred to this place by some friends, and seeing the queue just made the hype even more real. The ambiance of the restaurant was modern with Japanese flair, as appropriate: ramen is not just the name for the dehydrated instant noodles you can pick up from your local market or 99 Cents store-- ramen is a Japanese take on Chinese noodles and is frequently served with generous toppings of pork belly, green onions, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, etc... Sometimes the broth, which is made from luxuriously stewing the pork belly, is simmered for 60 hours, beckoning the richest of flavours. Topped with various accoutrements and steeped in a classic miso tinted broth, the homemade noodles makes Ippudo's ramen worthy of a bow.

My only bone to pick with the place is the price. Maybe Manhattan is just getting used to having the luxury of ramen houses. Maybe I'm just spoiled in SoCal that getting an expensive bowl of ramen will cost you $9. Spending $15 on a bowl is a splurge. 

On to dessert!

To satisfy the sweets-sectors of our taste palettes, we bounced around the notorious haunts: Amorino for spectacular gelato, Magnolia's to take a whack at the cupcakes and lemonbars, Veneiro's for their house cannoli, Milk to sample their famous crack pie, Quickly's to partake in Taiwanese boba and Laudrée for the colourful little miracles known as macarons. 

I like macarons. Enough to have gone on a quest to make them myself and Laudrée, the original macaroner, of course, is going to be the best I've ever had. Not only that, but it was a way for me to check my own cookies against the original. Result? I'm not doing bad...

I do have to warn the casual foodie, however... expect to drop around $70 for a box of two dozen macs. They are the most pretentious little cookies on the face of the planet. Every time I make a batch, I stare at them as if I'd just birthed a baking tray full of little children, each meticulously carried and had their guts piped into them. 

In the middle of our trip, we were fortunate enough to swing by Hillsong's Salvation Army Theatre for a Sunday evening service. So was the rest of NYC. The queue to get into the building stretched down the street and wrapped around the block! To my good luck, Banning Liebscher of Jesus Culture was speaking that night. Contain myself, I could not. That, and the great worship, completely made it worth it. 

Ah, the shopping in the Big Apple... not that I'm not constantly surrounded by shopping centres, markets and malls wherever I go (come to think of it, it would be a MASSIVE challenge to travel somewhere and not be faced with commercial commerce). Madison, Fifth, Union... all areas loaded with flagship stores. From Japan's Uniqlo to Britain's TopShop to H&M to Gucci to Chloé, your senses and wallets will be absolutely bombarded with summer "sales," and this is all outside of Sak's Fifth. Do note, however, that these shopping districts aren't your basic indulgences. Manhattan is Manhattan. Unless you're dressed the part with your Louboutins and Hermes handbag, don't expect to be paid a terrible lot of attention to. Frankly, I'm alright with this. I don't need someone to tell me what I can afford and what I need to sell my Civic to buy. Nonetheless, still a more comfortable experience than in China where my friends and I nearly got punched out for haggling. 

For those not interested in looking like a tourist whatsoever, you can take on the disposition of a flaneur, or more casually, a people-watcher. Central Park is ideal for that type of travel, as it stretches on forever, contains both tourists and locals, and is a moderate escape from the heat that's neither a store nor a museum.

Like London's Hyde Park, Central Park boasts many statues, that of the whimsical and the memorial type. From Alice in Wonderland to Balto to European royalty, the Park's got it all. Not to mention the zoo, a castle and various bodies of water in which radio-controlled sailboats, ducks, and algae can be found. 

You might ask about Times Square, and to that I would say, only for a quick picture and a thousand dollars would I ever go there again. The Square is a cocktail of electronic billboards advertising, well... advertisements. Everything from plays to vodka to banking. Krakauer would be proud of how far the spectacle has come. It's the Genghis Khan of nightmarish constipations of tourists in their socks and sandals, waving sad and beaten city maps in vain efforts to brush the humidity from their sunburnt sarcophaguses. You may be surprised at how small or how big it actually is, depending on your ability to be fooled by cameras, but that astonishment will wane quickly to be replaced by your frustration of the crowds, milling about like armies of blind ants going in every which way they please, or don't please. (I honestly think the trouble is that people walking around the area realise that every direction they head in is one they don't want to be going in, but in frustration they change their route, making yet the same mistake again.) Nonetheless, it is a frustrating site, topped with cheesy costumed characters whose trademarks are about as real as maraschino cherries.

A tourist site that I could sponsor more than a trip to Times Square would be the NBC tour at 30 Rockefeller Center. Not entirely sure of how popular the tours were, I was able to reserve tickets for an afternoon that very morning via phone. The tour is led by NBC pages, who have gone through a notoriously competitive process to land the most thankless job in the company. Despite how strenuous various articles and interviews make the job sound, I believe there's much more glory at the end of the tunnel for these hardworking pages. The tour takes you through various studios, depending on the day and season during which you visit and at the end, you're privileged to a special surprise in which the pages select two volunteers from among your group. I will leave the surprise for you to discover, but my youngest brother and I were picked from among the bunch. If you're not familiar with tv/film production, it will be quite the experience. Even if you are, it's still a fun activity to partake in, so when the page asks for volunteers, raise your hand. If you're shy, all the better!

I'd like to end the entry with something I applaud NYC for: their subway system. Being from LA, where the public transit system has much room for improvement, the subway is a breath of freshly circulated and exhausted air (as bad as that sounds, it was actually meant as a compliment). The convenience at which I was allowed through the subway transit wasn't as much as that of London, but the wee bit of extra walking never killed anyone... I think. I missed having a person at every single tube entrance and exit directing and redirecting tourists towards the correct line, but NYC, I suppose, expects everyone to be wearing their big boy and big girl pants to man up and figure it out. Nonetheless, the lines are simple enough to figure out--the one aspect that may take getting used to is figuring out which lines are local and which skip stops. Regardless of this, subway maps are still a mountainous feat of design expertise. Truly. 

Could I live in Manhattan? Short answer, yes. I love the cityscape. And being in my younger years, I think I'd be able to handle it better now than later (physically yes, financially no). There's something to be said about being able to pat yourself on the back for making it in such a fast-paced rhythm, and feeling how small you actually are amongst the world's population is easy, as long as you're not given to feeling too insignificant. Living and breathing around that many people every day is humbling, but dangerous in some ways, as you have no choice but to somehow forget that the bodies around you are significant. Rationalising the existence of others allows our minds to cope with how small we are, but it has proved to be one of the most destructive and lethal defaults in the history of humanity. That being said, the fact that NYC, among other enormous metropolitan cities, thrives in light of this just demonstrates that there is goodness in the world. 

Vienna, Austria

::Blogging Location: San Diego, a couple years after study abroad::

Even though it's been a while since these trips, that hasn't changed my love for writing nor has it changed my love for travel. I'm also damn determined to finish these accounts of my trip; gonna make study abroad worth every dollar/euro/pound.

Vienna: it seems to be the place where culture is just part of normal, everyday life. The wide tree-lined cobblestone streets with cable cars running alongside horse-drawn carriages. Statues of famous figures at parks, plaques of where notable individuals used to live, Roman ruins in the middle of town squares. You know, your standard European capital with a certain vivacity for the performing arts. There's no extra effort needed to incorporate culture into your daily grind. But that's probably just how it is when there are opera houses, museums and theatres on every street. And if there isn't one, you're probably in a residential area... where your favourite classical composer used to live. No big deal. 

The Gloriette: freaking beautiful. A bit jealous of the girl whose man built this for her. A bit jealous of his bank account as well. 

Really though, it seems as though people leave work during the weekday, sit down at a restaurant for a leisurely dinner and then pop over to the nearest play, ballet or opera for less than 5€ for a ticket! I could be completely wrong about this, but that is what my schedule would be like if I lived in Vienna. I'd also spend my Sunday afternoons at the Schönbrunn palace on the enormous grounds (the photo above is just part of the massive estate) and my other days off at one of the many art museums or galleries. Of course Vienna is chock full of touristy gimmicks like their full old-timey-dress orchestras that is sold by some dude in a bright red jacket with a powdered wig and a sign, but if anyone's gonna do it right, it'd be Vienna, right?

Vienna: doin' it right

The food highlights in Vienna for me were chocolate and of course, the wiener-schnitzel, which is nothing like a hot dog, mind you. It seriously is closer to a Japanese katsu than it is to a German brat. Didn't expect that? Neither did I.

Schnitzelwirt in the city centre served up an apologetically delicious schnitzel

After lots of Google searches and review-readings, my travel buddy, Tatiana, determined that Schnitzelwirt would be worthy of a spot in our (sadly) limited stomach space and our (also sadly limited) euros and it definitely was! Made of tenderized boneless veal and dipped in an egg batter & breadcrumbs, the cutlets were a far cry from your typical fried food. Served with a slice of lemon for an extra zing, schnitzel is meant to be a tasty and moist experience coated in a crispy layer of golden-fried batter. Wow.

Okay, back out into the world--let me dazzle you with some photos:

Stephenskirche in Stephensplat

The 'kirche' or church in Sigmund Freud park

The Viennese Parliament

Mozart's piano--the museum folk let you transform from enthusiast into creepy fan by gradually introducing you to progressively less-important items. One second you're looking at original sheet music from Hadyn, Schubert's glasses, and then gaping at Beethoven's door, which they've removed from it's hinges and put behind glass. You know you've gone too far when you're trying to sniff the old handkerchiefs of the masters of old. But it's okay because they're all dead.

Eggs. It's a seasonal thing...

Oh, Tots and I were in town for Easter! Did I mention that? They're really into their decorated eggs. There were markets all over the city, up to that Sunday, selling painted eggs, animals made from pinecones and raffia, baked goodies and of course chocolate.

... Perhaps more than other cultures are...

"Excuse me, sir. Your backpack looks heavy. You should eat some carbs before you faint from exhaustion."

Really though, I had such a hard time choosing from the gamut of pretzels, covered in chocolate, with almonds, with fruit... the list goes on. I ended up gorging myself on two different kinds that morning because 1) I couldn't decide and 2) I'd already had breakfast, but second breakfast was really coming up on my watch. I hate being late for anything. It's just rude.

Nothin' more legit than an opera in Vienna!

Tatiana and I met up with two of our friends on separate occasions in Vienna. We met with our friend Michael to catch dinner and on another day, we ran into Kayla to catch an opera (Parsifal). Michael had just been traveling with a group of his acquaintances and he expressed to us how happy he was to be on our routine. These acquaintances weren't very accommodated to traveling. Or spending money. This is one of the worst crimes of traveling. Or just living. Let me explain...

Let's say you spend $600 on a roundtrip somewhere. You get penny-pinchy over meals and decide to eat bread and milk instead of feasting on the local fare. You save a ton of money to see a couple things recommended by a guidebook. For the most part, you take in the "free sights." In all, you spend $700 and have a "pretty good" time, instead of spending $800 and having a fantastic time--that first $600 is a lot happier with you if you spend a little more having a fantastic time than a good one. (However, that being said, diminishing returns still applies $1,000 later). Your first problem is not experiencing one of the quintessential aspects of the local culture: food. Food transcends all nations and backgrounds in that EVERYONE gathers over food. Parties, funerals, meetings, nights out, events. All garnished with food. All improved with food! Best of all, food is different EVERYWHERE. Your next problem is that you're holding onto your money tighter than life itself. That paper note/bill in your hand won't make you happy. It's what you spend it on that will bring you memories. Unless you tuck your crinkled up "presidential flashcards" into bed every night and go on merry-go-rounds with them after sharing your ice cream with them, money is not going to improve your life. You have to trade your cash for it to mean anything to you. I understand saving money and being frugal, but if you are that type of person, this is for you: when you're traveling, you need to be a little more liberal. If you really need to save, why the hell did you spend that $600 in the first place? If you need to "just get away" turn on the telly and let Anthony Bourdain narrate you elsewhere. Or if you want to go really far, I know a couple named absinthe and wormwood that can take you farrrrrr away for a while, but from reading reviews like that of Lattepiu in the LA Times, I don't recommend it. Still, it's less than $600, you cheapwad. ;) /endrant

Back to culture!

Tots and I got to see Faust; though it was all in Austrian-German, it was freaking entertaining and the set design/lighting was fantastic. It also helped to roughly know the story. Parsifal was my first opera ever. It was really lengthy and I'm not ashamed to say that I nodded off once or twice. after a busy day of walking all over Vienna's city centre. The opera wasn't boring--there were even subtitles, but traveling does take a ton out of ya.

Kayla and I were stalking Beethoven: we actually got into his home and started going through his things.

One of my favourite (nerdy) things was visiting Beethoven's home with Kayla. My piano teacher's teacher's teacher's teacher was taught by Beethoven. I might be missing a few teachers in between, but all of them are/were great pianists (that explains the piano lesson bill, I suppose), until the line got to me. I have no plans to get famous, compete or teach piano any time soon. :-/ Anyways, great-grandteacher Beethoven was kind enough to let us in and let us scope out his stuff, including piano, old letters, original sheet music, paintings and whatnot.

Planning a trip to Vienna sometime soon? Definitely hit the Schönbrunn (go on the tour inside the palace as well), the Belvedere, the Manner chocolatiers (you can pass up on the outside-of-town Schoko-museum, it wasn't much), Stephenplatz and the Catacombs, and definitely catch some live performances (for cheaper tickets, buy them the day of the performance)! Are you a classical music buff? Yes? Well, hit up Haus der Musik because apart from it being really fun to say, it's a pretty comprehensive exploration of the artists that lived in Vienna. Mozart's and Haydn's homes are also up for touring and are all within the city centre.

If you're especially classical music-smitten, go to Zentralfriedhof Cemetery just outside of the city centre, where greats like Beethoven, Strauss and Schubert are buried. It costs less than a few Euros to take a tram there.   

If you have extra time in Austria, Kayla recommends Salzburg where you can hit up a Sound of Music tour. Sounds lovely, no? Thanks for reading!

Wien Staats-Oper (State Opera House)

Back and in Action!

Hey Readers!

A lot of you know I arrived back home safely and in one piece! Though my Europe travels are over for now, I will continue to blog about my travels this past year. These locations include:
-Berlin
-Vienna
-Lucerne
-Zurich
-Portugal
-Sevilla
-Cordoba
-Granada
-Nottingham
-Newcastle
-Paris
-Nice
-Florence
-Pisa

I hope I haven't dug myself into a huge hole, ha. Well, in any case, along with writing this blog, my food blog and a personal scrapbook in addition to sorting out how I will continue my life and how to make back some money I spent, I still plan to have a summer! Hopefully.
Keep sending me questions if you have any. :) Cheers!

-Back-Again Village Idiot

A Trip Down History Lane...

So we finally arrived in Berlin at 11:00 at night, just enough time to take the U-bahn (Berlin's version of the metro/underground) half way to our destination. Tragic. At midnight we got kicked off the U-bahn. Luckily we figured out how to catch a cab to our hostel, St. Christopher's (which is a really good one, if you ever are looking for a place to stay in Berlin).

In the morning, we had the hostel-provided breakfast and went to hunt for a free walking tour (these tours are ACTUALLY free and can be found is most major tourist-attracting cities; the guides are trained and very passionate historians and are paid by tips collected at the end of the tour). We stopped at the Brandenburg gate to scope out the tour.


There were quite a few people waiting for the tour so they split us up among several tourguides, some that spoke in Spanish others in French, others in German, etc... I was really impressed that they were so well prepared and organised for a free service!

The free tour was incredibly extensive and lasted a good couple hours. Not only that, it was incredibly well-led and interesting! Our tourguide, George, took us all over the main city (be warned, a lot of walking is done, but it's worth it!)

One of our first stops was this stunning memorial:

The tour also takes you to part of the remains of the Berlin wall, Hotel Adlon (where many presidents have stayed and where Michael Jackson held his baby out of a window), Checkpoint Charlie, the university, various monuments and memorials, the old Nazi headquarters, where Hitler is actually buried (what a surprise!) and other pieces of history. The stops are brief, but the tourguides are thorough and well-educated to tell you what you need.

Hotel Adlon (and our guide, George, with crazy-cool facial hair!)

Checkpoint Charlie, the most well-known crossing point through the Berlin Wall

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

Nazi Headquarters

Nazi Party mural: crazy stuff, eh?

Everything you need to know about the city was basically covered on the tour; it's an excellent way to whet your appetite if you're a history nerd like me. After getting a dose of the city's past while looking at the places where these things actually occurred, even the map started to look different to me.

Trying to understand the history of WWII in relation to the city and the German people was something I'd also wondered about and even that was covered in the tour. It wasn't just the Jews and the Roma people that lived in fear of the Nazi regime; normal German civilians did too! They were forced to join or become the enemy of the party. It was amazing to see the city become a symbol of good's triumph over evil (even though the good comes with kitschy gift shops and parades of fat tourists, it's still a much better step forward that what could have been). Little did I know that a few months later I would be stepping into Austria's Auschwitz, an area of Europe that received tenfold the amount of collateral damage from the holocaust. The free tour was a priceless introduction to the tour I took in the concentration camp at Auschwitz and Birkenau. So much emotional and spiritual dimension was added to my study abroad experience thanks to a few hours lent to history. It made my trip to Europe worth much more.

Oh... you were probably wondering what that last picture was... let's have a look at it again:

Hitler is buried there... yes, underneath a parking lot. George, our guide, told us that nazi-loyalists have tried to recover his remains; the UN knew this would be happening, so they decided to rest Hitler in an inconspicuous and rather unglorified area. Speaking of unglorified, locals walk their dogs to this lot to let their canines do their business.

Following our tour, we hit the city for some foodventures! I'll let my fellow foodies have a look at my documentation here, and spare everyone else the delicious details. ;)

Berlin, like other major cities, is home to tons of awesome museums! I got my fix of Sandro Botticelli and really eclectic musical instruments in the museum districts. There's even an "island" in the middle of the city called "Museum Island," home to the Pergamon, Bode-Museum and Altes Museum.

I was a fan of the Gemäldegalerie because they had this and other Botticellis:

The Musikinstrumenten was quite the interesting place. Filled with crazy pianos, guitars, see-through violins, it's an Eden for the musical nerd.

How would you even begin to play that?!

In a more obscure part of the main city is another great museum, the Jüdisches Museum. This one's about Jewish culture and the people; there are details about the holocaust, but the exhibits choose to focus on the entire history of Jewish people as well as what life is like today for them. Observe one of my favourite parts of the museum: the assorted yarmulkes!

Yes, they have a Friends yarmulke... WIN.

Now, no trip to Germany is complete without sampling some of the country's beer, right?

This wheat beer is frequently mixed with lemonade (or what we in the U.S. would call lemon Minute Maid) and that's probably why I liked it so much. (Want more about German food?) It was light in body, but had an excellent wheat taste, not too heavily tasting of alcohol either.

And of course, what is a visit to a European city without hitting up their chocolate shops?

Fassbender and Rauch was the main chocolatier in Berlin, claiming to be the "World's Largest Chocolate House." For the scoop on the different wursts/sausages, you'll have to hit my food blog. :)

Stay tuned for more Europe!

A Day in Milan, Italy

As far as I knew, there wasn't an incredible amount to see in Milan in terms of being a tourist so we decided to make it a relatively chill day. Landing in the airport after an early flight from the Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Rome, we took a coach to the Milan city centre and left our luggage in the train station storage. First thing's first: we went off to look for a cup of delicious Italian coffee in the still-sleeping city. To go with our anticipated coffee, Tatiana and I bought some chocolate croissants at a baker's market just outside the train station. The weather was a bit chilly (I was wearing both my pleather jacket and my coat) and the sky sprinkled a tad during the day. The grey sky wasn't doing developing Milan a favor, but when we finally got in the city centre, things turned up. I found the buildings with narrow windows and wooden shutters charming on their colorful facades.


It felt quite European going from coffee shop to coffee shop with espressos, cappuccinos, lattes, melanges and the occasional Americano. Okay, so maybe we had about three cups each, but we hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, okay? Also, coffees in Europe are a bit different than our talls and ventis in the States (although Starbucks is everywhere now and they keep their American sizes). Espressos and cappuccinos are small and dainty, but strong.

I'm a huge fan of markets: outdoor markets, covered markets, farmer's markets, antique markets and especially flea markets. After a lounge in a cafe, we stumbled across a sign pointing to a market, so we made a beeline for it. Being Italy, naturally there were plenty of leather goods and plenty of designer goods (whether they were real or not, I wasn't sure, but I fell in love with a pair of Valentinos that I simply couldn't afford or fit into my suitcase).


The market was a great combo of clothing and food so we bought some great abate pears and really yummy grilled chicken skewers for lunch. :) Time for another cup of coffee! Besides, if we get coffee we can sit in the outdoor cafe and eat lunch while people watching. :)

So what is there to see in Milan in terms of tourism? Well, the Duomo for one!


It's a beautiful cathedral as you can see. :) And a great place for people watching as the shopping centre is really close to it. I do love looking at peoples' outfits!




That shopping centre is packed to the brim with Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, etc...

There is also the Santa Maria delle Grazie that holds the Last Supper however! But on the downside, one needs reservations practically months in advance to see it. But regardless, we were in Milan on a Monday and the Santa Maria was closed. Sad day! And we walked all the way over! At least it was a nice walk. And we got to grab some Pocket Coffee candies (coffee candy filled with a liquid centre). Here's a photo of the church:


The courtyard of the church was actually open and it was recommended, so we went for a look-see:


Afterwards, we kept on exploring the city, looking for a place to grab a bite before catching our next flight to Berlin. When the time came, we grabbed our luggage and bussed back to the Milan airport only to be greeted by a canceled flight to Berlin. This caused quite some drama amongst all the passengers and we ended up spending the night in a hotel lobby due to easyJet's poor service (they were supposed to pick us up from the fully booked hotel and transport us to another for free). Luckily for us, we were able to catch a flight 24 hours after our original one and off to Berlin we went! At last!