Berlin teems with a lot of things — nightclubs, Turkish food, Communist architecture. For me, Berlin teemed with history. Every street seemed to hold information about the city’s often painful past. Much of this is conscious preservation in the form of public parks and landmarks, but there are a few subtle aspects of the city that speak volumes about, specifically, its 20th century history. The architecture changes when you move between the former West and East Berlins. In East Berlin, the buildings are pragmatic, functional, ugly in that classic Soviet style. The TV Tower, now the phallic symbol of all Berlin, was once a prominent expression of the power of…
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On having a friend in Berlin
Normally, when I start blogging about a new place, I write a post of my first impressions. However, my first impressions upon arriving in Berlin were colored by the fact that I was meeting up with a friend I hadn’t seen in four years. In my reflection on one month of travel I wrote about, among other things, feeling lonely traveling by myself and how seeing my friend Brittney was a welcome respite from solo travel. When I visited Berlin, I had a German-speaking local showing me around. She took me to her favorite restaurant, introduced me to her friends, and we spent hours walking around the city, good company…
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Copenhagen: Last Look
Copenhagen is a cool city, but I made a few mistakes there, and so, for this last look at my visit, I want to impart a little advice. (When am I not imparting at least a little advice?) 5 Things to Keep in Mind When Visiting Copenhagen 1. It rains… a lot. Copenhagen suffers from bad weather in much the same way that London does, just without the reputation, and with buckets of snow in the winter. I visited during the first week in October, and I spent seven days in Copenhagen. It rained on five of those days. Actually it rained six of those days, but on the 6th…
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A Perfect Sunday in Copenhagen
A recipe for a truly lovely Sunday in Copenhagen: Assuming it is sunny, begin your day at Rundetaarn — the Round Tower. This is a tourist attraction in Copenhagen’s Latin Quarter that offers spectacular views out over the city; plus it’s an interesting building in and of its own right. Rundetaarn was built between 1637 and 1642 and is 114 feet tall (34.8 meters). In order to climb to the top, you won’t take the stairs; instead, you will follow the tower’s unique spiral walkway. The tower was built to serve three functions for the scholars of the era: it housed a student’s church, a university library, and an astronomical…
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Statues of Copenhagen: A Photo Essay
The Little Mermaid is Copenhagen’s most famous statue. It has become an iconic symbol of the city and a major tourist attraction. Sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and unveiled in 1913, the statue is based on the fairytale The Little Mermaid, which was originally written by the Danish author and poet, Hans Christian Andersen. It’s a lovely statue of a wistful mermaid, but it’s hard to say why it became so famous. It’s certainly not because of its size — the mermaid is just over 4 ft tall (1.25 meters). And it’s not as if it’s the only statue in Copenhagen. In fact, as I wandered the city, I was struck…
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Copenhagen: First Impressions
I left Amsterdam at 11:00pm on an overnight bus bound for Copenhagen. The ride took 15 hours with a transfer in Hamburg. It was to be the first of many such travel experiences in Europe–in total, I rode two overnight buses and 4 overnight trains over the course of my trip. When I arrived in Copenhagen at 2:00 in the afternoon, it was sunny and I was exhausted. The bus dropped us on a random side street around the corner from the train station and it was some consolation that my fellow travelers looked as weary and confused as me. I hefted my backpack onto my back and started walking…
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Weekly Travel Inspiration: The Fault in Our Stars
“It happened all at once: We exited the highway and there were the row houses of my imagination leaning precariously toward canals, ubiquitous bicycles, and coffeeshops advertising LARGE SMOKING ROOM. We drove over a canal and from atop the bridge I could see dozens of houseboats moored along the water. It looked nothing like America. It looked like an old painting, but real–everything achingly idyllic in the morning light” —The Fault in Our Stars, page 156 The Fault in Our Stars is a bestselling novel by the author John Green, which was published on January 10, 2012, and celebrated its one year anniversary yesterday. It is a heartbreaking and humorous…
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Amsterdam: Last Look
Amsterdam and I had our ups and downs, but as soon as I bought a bus ticket to Copenhagen, I felt a pang of sadness at having to leave such a lovely city that I was really just beginning to get a feel for. Regardless, here are a few final photos from my trip to Amsterdam. Perhaps I’ve been a bit redundant in my posts about this city, but I’ll say one more time that the architecture and the canals were just stunning. When Amsterdam wasn’t wowing me with its beauty, it was making me laugh. The next photo encompasses beautiful architecture and questionable water sports. Plus, sometimes a city…
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What I Learned in Amsterdam
or, I Visited Amsterdam and Didn’t Get High I went to Amsterdam for Vincent van Gogh, and Anne Frank. I went because friends had been and spoke highly of this fun, cultural city. And I listened when people told me that Amsterdam was an amazing place to party. That’s where I went wrong. Amsterdam was the first place that I traveled to by myself, and although I had one contact in the city, he was in the midst of studying abroad and busy with classes and his own life. I stayed at hostels that didn’t facilitate meeting other travelers (no common room!), and I was new to this, so I…
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Tea Tuesday: Dobrá Čajovna
I first fell in love with teahouses in Barcelona, at a teahouse called Čaj Chai, which was founded by some Czech immigrants to the city. I have written, and waxed poetic, and gushed about this teahouse before, and I will do so again, but for now I want to tell you about a teahouse in Prague called Dobrá Čajovna, which I was pleased to stumble upon. It was so good, I went twice over the course of my five days in Prague. When I found it, I was surprised–an Asian-style teahouse in the Czech Republic? Apparently this isn’t at all an unusual thing. The teahouse in Barcelona that I so…
