hangin' in hamburg

This weekend Nick & I decided to stay in Hamburg and do some exploring. Nick had taken a free walking tour in Berlin and really enjoyed it so we decided to do the same in Hamburg. I'm so glad we took the opportunity! We started close to the Rathaus (government building & first picture below) where we learned about the history of Hamburg and how it got its name, why there are so many geese around, and why there are so many churches. We went on to 3 of the 5 major churches, to the place where the great fire of 1842 started [and destroyed most of the city], and to the new "hip" part of town that has caused a lot of controversy. I can definitely say I've learned a lot about Hamburg in just a few short days. It is crazy to think that over 80% of the city was destroyed in the bombings during WWII. [if you're curious about the geese: the city passed some law where no one could mess with the geese or even insult them... they've been around for a millennium]. I've included a bunch of pictures below that I took around town on Saturday - I cannot wait to explore even more of the city!

 where couples used to do their marriage vows so naturally nick & i took a picture :)

 where the fire of 1842 started that destroyed much of Hamburg

One of the ex-pats here that Nick and I have gotten to know is moving away from Germany so he had a going away party on Saturday afternoon/evening. We played lasertag (hello 11-year old self) and Nick dominated (shockingly). We played England (there were four British lads & lasses we were with) vs. the world (3 Americans & an Irish). The World dominated three games in a row... safe to say we are still dominating. After we finished our intense games...we went to Jungfernstieg and had a nice cold drink while sitting at the lake. It's really beautiful, except for the 5 gentleman that kept trying to collect our bottles for money; therefore, completely ruining the moment. After all the day's activities {we walked 12 miles} my legs were pretty sore but we persevered and met back up with everyone later that night to celebrate Alex's last night. It was a lot of fun [picture of the whole group below!!]

Yesterday, Nick and I had a very chill day. We spent several hours skyping / face timing our families and wishing Happy Father's Days. It was great to be able to speak with both my family and his. Nick then took me to his favorite burrito place. It ain't no Tex-Mex from America, that's for sure, but while we are here it will just have to do! We spent the rest of the day planning our next two weekends - it is pretty insane how long it takes just to plan a 2.5 day trip!

Well that's that folks. Nick and I are headed to Cologne {Germany} this weekend then Krakow for July 4th weekend... because it totally makes sense to celebrate a US holiday in Poland [in other news about the US I'll leave you guys with this awesome napkin from a local diner called "Doris Diner" - and they have onion rings + you can actually eat your burger with your hands!!] Before the next few weekends though we are hosting one of our good pals Max for a few days. I'm about to head to the train station to pick him up now! Until next time.... xo

kicking it in københavn

Sorry for the delay in my Copenhagen post...I was totally wiped out yesterday and had my first Deutschkurs (aka German class!) so let's recap this past weekend in Denmark...Copenhagen was an amazing trip. It's hard to believe it's my fifth country I'm been to in just three weeks **including US and Dominican Republic ;)

On Friday, Nick & I headed to the airport and met up with Matt (another P66 ex-pat here from the UK). Our flight was delayed a bit but we were able to just hang out for awhile and wait on our flight. Nick had to try this hilarious beer called "Old Speckled Hen" when we got on the flight (see picture below!) The flight attendant chuckled when Nick inquired about it... apparently no one ever orders it, ha! Then, he had to take a classic picture when we de-boarded in front of our very fancy EasyJet plane. We met up with Matt's hometown friend David and headed to the AirB&B house Matt had rented. It was so nice and we really enjoyed staying there. The super nice owner had left us wine & beer. Matt's friends from Hamburg that now live in Copenhagen came over to the house and we just hung out there for the night and prepared plans for the next day.

On Saturday, we woke up and rode a bus into the city. We picked up our bikes and went to this awesome place on the water set up with a warehouse full of food trucks. The place just has beach chairs in an abandoned railroad car that you can just pick up and use - it was quite the experience! Nick got a delectable Danish hotdog & I got Mexican food (shocking, I know, but it was delicious!) See a ton of pictures below from this place - it was super trendy/hipster or "yuccie" is the new term apparently. We then proceeded to bike around the entire city of Copenhagen... which was fun... but let's be honest...it was the third time I've biked in three years. So, needless to say after six hours of biking I was pretty much done and so was my booty/thighs. We got the best icecream I've ever had (refer to the Chokolade sign)! After we got back to the house we were staying at, we just had some pizza and wine for dinner and hung out for awhile before going out. Nick rocked back one too many times on his plastic garden chair & it ended up breaking it (see cute face below). We left the nice family €20 and called it a day... they got back to us saying it was completely fine, which was rather nice.

On Sunday, we packed up and re-boarded our bikes with our backpacks. I was promised by Nicholas that we would be dropping our bags off somewhere but psych we didn't. I don't think he understood when I explained that even sitting on a comfortable bed hurt my booty after riding for so long the day before. Luckily, we hit up an awesome place for brunch (with a cute heart and tree in our lattes) then took the bikes back to drop them off. We also found a locker at the central train station for our bags (yay!). We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the rest of the city (see a lot of pictures below!) We went to Nyhavn Port which apparently is just super touristy and too expensive but I loved it! :) I thought the colorful houses were beautiful + all the lovely ships. We then went to Tivoli which is the second oldest amusement park in the world - so that was an awesome experience. We did not pay for rides but elected to just walk around the grounds. We saw a beautiful peacock and saw a traditional march. Then we headed to the airport and back to Hamburg :)

Nick in his natural habitat (taking pictures!!!)

Well that's it, folks! Looks like we are sticking around Hamburg this weekend and trying to figure out plans for the next two! Nick plans to show me around this weekend. My BFF from Houston, Brandon Monroe, may be able to get us Wimbledon tickets so hopefully that pans out on July 4th! Love you all! xo

hammin' it up in hamburg

Hi all!

So.. I was going to wait and write until we got back from Copenhagen but I just have so much to share about this week! I've been finding various ways to keep myself busy with Nick working and I've been exploring different options on how I'm going to be spending my time for the next 1.5 years. As some of you may know, my original plan was to transfer with Accenture but things just have not worked out with the work permits here (boo!) so I have had to move on to other things and decide exactly what I'm going to do! The below things are examples of things I've been looking in to.. I plan to hopefully do a combination of all of these options!

• Option 1: Study for GMAT
• Option 2: Volunteer at Ronald McDonald House
• Option 3: Explore other charities / volunteering opportunities
• Option 4: Take German language classes
• Option 5: Become a body builder
• Option 6: Become a gourmet chef
• Option 7: Become a professional traveller

Let's be honest... Options 1-4 seem a bit more plausible... but I'll keep all my options open!

I'd also like to reminisce about the moment yesterday when a tourist asked ME how to get somewhere. Proudest moment of my life and I was actually able to tell them exactly where we were on his map then point him in the right direction. Pretty good if I say so myself!

Nick and I have been exploring some restaurants he has not been to as well as him showing me the hot spots (complete with TWO salad and soup places) - yay for not gaining 200 lbs (errrrr... I meant 90 kg) while I'm here :) We also went to a Mexican place last Sunday night I forgot to mention... It was no El Tiempo but it was much better than I would have thought. It's also across the street from our apartment, haha! Speaking of which... check out the view from our apartment (see pic below!) We live so close to downtown and next to everything you'd ever need! We went back to the Portuguese tapas place with a bunch of friends Nick has made over here and four of the boys got all you can eat tapas for €25! See that picture below too.. the food kept coming for about 3 hours.

I joined the gym on Tuesday and had my first meeting on Wednesday with my trainer. He told me I had .2% too much body fat... so I guess that means it is time to get working. I kind of started laughing and when I told Nick he told me not to worry too much because Germans are just direct... but hey at least I'm now inspired thinking the body builder at my gym thinks I'm a chubster. I went to the gym this morning as well and then met Nick for lunch. We signed me up for German language classes that I'll start next week. I'm VERY excited about this...as some of you may know I took German in high school so I'm really ready to get back into it and immerse myself in the culture. I spent some of this morning exploring places close to the gym.. Hamburg is VERY pretty & it has more bridges than Amsterdam!

With that I'll wrap this up as I'm sure I will have a long post on Monday or Tuesday about Copenhagen. Hope you & your own have a fabulous weekend! xo