Berlin

We arrived at our hostel, Plus Berlin, at 10:00 pm, so we basically had enough time to eat dinner at the hostel bar and head off to bed. One thing that we have LOVED about staying in hostels is all of the support and socializing available to you. At the front desk there were coupons for local vendors, maps to the city, and an advertisement for a free walking tour of the city. We decided to join our hostel mates in the tour the following morning. We all went to Brandeburg Gate to meet up with the other travelers. This square was full of historical events, fancy hotels and foreign embassies. Of course our tour guide spoke about Napoleon and his armies conquering the city, but made sure to point out the window of the Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled his son, Blanket, out of.  

So much history, so much land. What had an incredible 2 (ish) days in Berlin!

The tour progressed around the corner to the concrete blocks of the Holocaust Memorial. At this point, neither of us have prepared ourselves for the unsuspected walk through this memorial. We took a deep breath and started the walk through the very emotional street block. The explanation of this monument has never been released. We were told the architect wanted to leave the meaning up to each individual. Throughout the memorial we felt disoriented and claustrophobic, and most of all we felt overwhelmed by the sadness of what this beautiful memorial represents.

Next was a stop at what our tour guide called a “surprise.” Only about half a block away from the Holocaust Museum lies what remains of the Fuhrerbunker, Adolf Hitler’s main bunker and living space during his time as Chancellor. This space was also [the surprise of it all] the spot where he was said to have committed suicide. It was an eerie out of body experience, where we honestly didn't know how to feel.

What remains of the original Berlin Wall was the next sight on our list. We ate at a nearby cafe and took photos of the Wall. This was another experience that we were unsure what to feel. It was all just so overwhelming. After completing our tour we exchanged numbers with the friends we met, and headed back to the hostel.

Our second night in Berlin consisted of Radlers (beer + Fanta) and house music. We joined a pub crawl with our new friends which started at cool local bars and ended in a club that was what seemed to be 6 different mini clubs. Different music was played in each room, but the one consistent characteristic was the lack of women out and about. Both clubs that we went to had mainly males present, which was different from what we've seen back in the states especially when you're not at a gay bar.

Since none of us felt like dancing for a bunch of staring men, we left and got falafel [priorities.] Happy and no longer hungry, we went to bed and actually got some solid, deep sleep.

The next morning we slept through breakfast, and hopped right on the S-bahr to make our way to the Brandeburg Gate for another tour. This day would end up being even more heartbreaking than the previous. We should have gotten off near Brandeburg, but we didn't. However, we hopped off and ran straight into the Berlin Dom, which was incredible. Everyone said you find the most beautiful things when you don't even try, and we most definitely did. We got to the meeting place for the tour right in time, and rode the U-Bahr 45 minutes to Oraneinburg, a city just north of Berlin. This afternoon tour would take us through the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. As soon as we stepped on the property, we could FEEL the evil that happened there. Our tour took us through the grounds and gave us insight to what life would be like in this hell of a labor camp. The first stop was Tower A, the entryway and main watch tower of  the triangle shaped property. It was no coincidence that the extermination site, Building Z, would be the final destination for some 35,000 people who would be murdered in its walls. Because, after the camp’s liberation in 1945, the Soviets took over control and didn't see use for the extermination site, the building was demolished. Now all that is left is the foundation, pipes, and 4 cremation ovens.

There are no word to describe the horrific and evil feelings we felt throughout this trip. It was absolutely depressing to have stepped foot in the terrible places we have heard so much about. Leaving the walls of the Sachsenhausen Memorial was an emotional experience that more than 35,000 of the nearly 200,000 people didn't have the opportunity to experience. And of those 200,000, most weren't leaving to ride a train back to the city to continue a European dream vacation with their best friend. They were being transferred to other camps, and were most likely killed.

Our visit to Sachsenhausen was absolutely humbling. There is so much we take for granted living in a free country. This experience also left us with all of the time in the world to reflect of the terrible history of this world and present day events alike. Our tour guide was constantly repeating to us, “we must learn from these terrible events because [the senseless crimes committed throughout WWII] is the destination where hate and judgement and racism lead.”

If we could go back in time and change anything about this leg of our adventure, we would try to stay on the west end of Berlin. The east side of the massive city is much more run down and urban than the west side. We loved our hostel [mainly because we had our own room and there was a sauna and a bar] and we were excited about the people we met, but just like Amsterdam, east Berlin just wasn't our cup of tea.

Overall, our visit to Berlin was a life-changing experience. Our first tour guide mentioned that Berlin has really only had 27 years to develop as its own city [because of all of the wars and destruction throughout the 1900’s.] This adds a certain uniqueness and potential to this city. You can just feel that the people are passionate about making the city they loved the best city they could. With the rich historical influence, this city brought a strong presence of importance and desire for progression,

Although it was impossible to remove the thought of the horrors that happened in this city from our heads, we have seen beautiful sights and met passionate people who LOVED their city. It's impossible for that love not to rub off on you.

Amsterdam

In our minds, there are two Amsterdams; the Red Light District and the rest of the city.

The Red Light District, only 1 block down from us, was much more urban (our nice way of saying dirty and loud) than we had expected. Our American themed hostel, the Bulldog, had many desired qualities for young people visiting Amsterdam. This gave us plenty of opportunities to socialize and meet new people. The lobby was connected to a dive bar and lounge, and had a separate entrance to an energy and coffee shop (Amsterdam’s way of saying we sell weed here.) The pair of us went to the bar for dinner one night, but even though the food was great, outside of this meal and one breakfast, we didn't return. Even though weed and other hallucinogens were decriminalized, we hardly ever noticed people under the influence. We could tell that the new laws regulating these drugs didn't seem to bring attention to their use. No judgement at all though for those who come to Amsterdam seeking this aspect of the city. We were happy to be able to observe this part of their culture. It wouldn’t have been a complete trip to Amsterdam without experiencing the Red Light District and the surrounding area!

During our first day in the Netherlands, we trekked down the streets (with our 40 pound packs on) through Dam Square and to the Bulldog. This was the quickest way to get to where we needed to go, but man was it worth it. Dam Square housed the Palace of Amsterdam (which we later toured), the church where Royalty are inaugurated, and the National Monument. What a view to have during your first 20 minutes in the city! We spent the rest of the night wandering around the canals, gawking at the buildings lining them. We tried cones of french fries with cheese and ate at one of the most delicious Thai restaurant. Our favorite part of the day was looking out our window and seeing the iconic canals and buildings. At this point, we liked Amsterdam, but didn't love it as much as we felt we should.

The next couple of days were spent in the other clean and quaint parts of the Amsterdam. Tuesday we went to the Anne Frank House and strolled through the surrounding streets of Jordan. It's safe to say that we fell in LOVE with this area. All we kept saying was, “we would live here”. The first floors of the buildings were filled with tea shops and boutiques and the other 4 floors were the most perfect apartments. If and when we go back to Amsterdam, we will stay in this perfect-for-us area.

The Anne Frank House was definitely a “bucketlist” thing we planned on this trip, and it was all we had hoped it would be. We spent Monday night attempting to prepare ourselves emotionally for this sight, but found that the tour was more informational than emotional. Though we found ourselves caught up in the facts for most of the audio guided tour, we each had our moments of emotion. Hearing Anne’s friends and family speak of the last time they saw her shook us, and looking at her actual diary brought a sense of realization to us both. It is surreal that such an evil series of events occurred not that long ago. Visiting the Anne Frank House humbled us, and made us realize just how blessed we are.

Like the previous night, we left the Anne Frank House and wandered down streets, window shopped and tried to imagine what our lives would be like if we up and moved to Jordan.

Our last day in Amsterdam was filled with museums. Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum, which was incredible. It was unreal to see the famous works of such a talented artist. Our favorite works, Sunflowers and Almond Blossom, were even more beautiful in real life.

Our second stop of the day, the Rijksmuseum, was filled with beautiful artifacts from 1400-1900. It was surprising how little we were able to see in the short amount of time we had.

We hurried over to the Heineken Brewery and were able to see how the Amsterdam based beer was made. At first we weren’t sold on this experience, but this changed as soon as we passed through the educational part of the tour and drank our first sample. After the tutorial on how to drink a beer properly, we made our way to the “lively” part of the tour. We danced and learned how to pour the perfect pint. We ended up having a lot of fun in the Heineken Brewery. We walked to what our hostel receptionist called a “local” eating spot and had incredible Italian food.

Because this was our last of 3 days, we piled our clothes together and ran a load of laundry. While we waited for that to finish we explored the rooftop terrace, enjoyed another cone of cheese fries, and tried to imagine leaving this diverse and lively city.

The travel books always say that the people you meet while staying in hostels will somehow stay apart of your life. We believe this, and hope that we can stay in touch with the kind souls we have encountered.

We are now on the ICE headed to Cologne and Berlin feeling more blessed than ever. What a wonderful life to live!

Sleep with the angels friends.

16 Hours in Copenhagen

We are here!

After 11 sleepless hours in a 747, we have finally touched down in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first stop on our European adventure.

We took the metro to the stop nearest our hostel, and walked out to a trickle of rain. Without even thinking we just started walking in the direction of where we thought our hostel was. Lost and confused, we found our way to the corner store and asked the clerk for help. The woman in line behind us offered to walk us to our hostel, and the second we started the trek, it started pouring. Exhausted and sore, the two of us followed the woman through the twisted roads to what became our home base for the night.

While on our way to the main attractions, we passed by huge gardens and brick buildings and soooo many bikers (who nearly hit us more than once.) The streets were pretty empty, given it was a Sunday evening that was followed by a holiday. The lack of congestion made it easy to get to see all we had hoped to!

Nyhavn Harbor was all that Pinterest made it seem. The colorful buildings and quaint restaurants lined the thin harbor where huge sail boats sat waiting. Even though we needed warmer clothes and rain jackets, we couldn't even believe how beautiful it was.

Next on our bucket list was the Little Mermaid statue. We walked from the harbor on a trail the lined the water to the quaint statue in the water. About 30 people were climbing down the rocks to get a picture. With the wet conditions, we had to be careful not to slip! The last landmark we visited was the castle in the center of the city. The grounds and gardens surrounding were perfectly kept, which made the stone walls and turquoise steeples look even more beautiful.

So far the language barrier has been pretty easy to deal with (big thanks to the many people who spoke English and for the translations on most signs!) The 3 characteristics of Denmark that stood out the most to us were the turquoise accents on buildings, the cleanliness of the roads, and the many friendly people who were willing to help!

If we were to come back again, we would love to see the city in full bloom, with open shops and crowds of people.

We have overcome a few hiccups, but so far we are hanging in and trekking on.

We are now on a train to Amsterdam, stop two on our list!

"the hills are alive with the sound of music..." ♬

SURPRISE!

We will be adding another country to our list... 

We can't even handle our feels for this unexpected day trip.

Thank the lord for the internet, and for crazy cheap inter-European travel. Kim and I were stalking our favorite day tour website, Viator, about a week ago looking for a decent priced day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle from Munich, Germany. While sifting through the different opportunities and services that Munich had available, we came across a beautiful picture of the Lake District in Austria. This picture led us to glorious news. A day trip to Austria was well within our budget, and would fit (tightly) in our available time in Munich. Via Viator day tour, we will be able to see not only the Lake District, but also Salzburg and some of the Sound of Music sights. The reviews were great and the price was right, so we took the leap and booked ourselves an 11-hour stop in the Mozart's home country.

Kimberly had expressed earlier in our planning that she would KILL to be able to see where the Sound of Music was filmed. Even though we didn't plan to make this happen, we are stoked beyond belief that we get to cross another thing off our bucket lists. 

Expect to see many photos of Kimmy and I frolicking through the Mirabell Gardens singing "Do Re Mi"or twirling like Julie Andrews in the Austrian countryside.

Auf wiedersehen!

♥

Photo

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♥ ♥ ♥

thank goodness for rick steves

Although it would have been much more spontaneous to just book a flight across the Atlantic and go where ever the wind takes us, we decided to reference a travel expert to plan our adventure. We have watched plenty of episodes of Rick Steves' Europe so we figured any resource graced with his name would be reliable.  Europe Through the Back Door 2017 covered everything we needed (and wanted) to know about how to travel Europe. As first time travelers to this part of the world, we felt that we needed to gain a higher understanding of the logistics details. This book of absolute gold includes information on everything from how to order coffee in other languages (one of our largest concerns) to how to stay connected to family and friends while you're away. The most interesting part to read was the "Back Doors" section. These chapters have in depth information about each country including where to eat, where to stay, and what to see. The most helpful pages in this section prioritized the different cities of interest. It rated the destinations in each country on how high they should be on your wishlist, and listed how many days Rick suggests you would need to see the sights. These maps were extremely helpful in identifying what you NEED to see and what you SHOULD see if time permits.
This resource may or may not have been one of three books I have read in nearly two years, but I couldn't put this one down.
There is something about planning a trip of this magnitude that has made Kim and I so thrilled we could burst into tears at any moment, and at the same time, given us anxiety that we can only manage by pinning all of the Europe for Beginners posts on Pinterest and reading the reassuring words of Rick Steves.

If you're considering traveling through Europe, I would highly recommend purchasing this book.

BUY FROM RICK STEVES

Rick Steves, you may have saved our lives.

♥

the friendship behind it all

With 759 miles and 2 years between us, we were a very unlikely duo. I was a freshman in college from an incredibly conservative town in Utah, and she was a transfer student from just outside of San Francisco. We met during our first few weeks at Utah State University after we accepted bids from the same sorority. Like any young people would, we exchanged phone numbers and Instagram handles. Little did we know that for the next two semesters, we would spend every single day together. From sorority meetings and movie marathons, to study sessions and dance parties, we were the perfect match. We shared celebrity crushes, favorite movies and food, clothing styles (and sizes what up...), a crazy desire to travel the world, and most importantly, the willingness to fight for the
                           friendship we shared.

That next school year Kimberly ended up moving back to Northern California, while I stayed at USU and finished my degree. It was quite the transition, going from spending hours with someone everyday to only talking on fleeting phone conversations in between classes and work, but I knew that our friendship was too important to let it slip by. Since those long college nights that we wished would never end, our friendship has only grown stronger. We now spend most of out time together on FaceTime, chatting about our new romances and work struggles. We have witnessed each other's best days and worst days; both the heartbreaks and triumphs. Kimberly has been the light at the end of my darkest tunnels and my partner in crime on my craziest nights. We have drained endless bottles of wine and eaten way too many McDoubles, and now, almost four years later, were planning our dream vacation to EUROPE. 

My Kimmy is my soulmate, and there is no one else I could spend 45 days in 12 foreign countries with. 

For the next few months you will be reading all about our planning and preparing for the trip of a lifetime. We hope you enjoy our little story about our BIG adventure. 

Cheerfully, 

McKenzie