Taking a grown up time out.

One full week in Thailand complete. So many beautiful sights, sounds and smells (ok, some smells not so pleasant, I'm talking about you, Bangkok). Trying to to live in the moment and appreciate where I am at instead of thinking about social media and quite frankly, I love it. I'll revive my blog and post loads of photos and stories when I'm ready, until then enjoying a beer, this view, and the hummingbird trying to nest in the thatched roof above me.
Bliss.

Hipster Shenanigans

The level of hipster nonsense in Berlin rivals that of Portland and San Francisco. 

The beards. 

While I get the long beard action most of the year -it is Northern Europe after all, and it is really, really cold for months of the year, and if I could grow more than these three hairs on my chin that I hate to admit I have, I would probably grow a beard in the winter as well- how does having that mich wool on your face in hot, muggy humid summer make sense!?

The pretentious coffee shops 

"Sorry, we don't serve milk with our pour overs, not sorry"

"we're a coffee shop, we don't seve decaf" when I wanted coffee at 1500 (that's 3:00 pm American friends ;) but also wanted to sleep that night and made the mistake of ordering decaf. 

Tattoos

Some really amazing tattoos as well as some really terrible ones (although I have to say- on average, the overall quality of the ink in Berlin is better than in Portland based on my non statistically significant and totally opinion based observations). 

Maybe it's because I am on the outside of the age range bell curve to truley be in the "hipster" demographic and I'm too old to get it? 

If I'm being totally honest I vacillate between loving and hating it on a minute by minute basis.

Getting crafty

Moving to a foreign country with three duffle bags has both advantages (I get to decorate a new place from scratch!) as well as a few challenges (oh, I have to pay for all of it? Where do I find custom frames? how do you say that in German!?) 

While furnishing my apartment I picked up a few used pieces as well as hit up IKEA to try and maintain a moderate budget to furnish this place. While I got a good deal on my original bed, I really, really didn't like it. It was too low, had a footboard that I was way too tall for, it was boring and just wasn't cutting it. 

Here's what I was dealing with as I got up this am:

I found a great diy plan for a platform bed on instructables, as well as instructions on building a fabric covered headboard and decided to give it a try. With some borrows tools and he help of google translate I headed out to the hardware store and did a bit of shopping

One thing I love about Berlin is that there is a huge DIY culture here.  Because it's a city with over 3 million people, most everyone is in apartments and while "kellers" (or little storage units) are common, most people don't have garages or space for workshops. No table saw? No worries- you buy the wood and the hardware store will cut it to your specifications. Not sure if places in the US do this? I just know I've used this service a few times and I love it- not having to cut saves loads of time and it's the scariest part for me, the cuts are more accurate than if I did them, and its just awesome. 

After a bit of help getting this stuff back to my apartment I got to it. 

My DIY crate / end table with wheels came in handy today. 

My living room/guest room/ workshop. 

In all it took less than three hours to make the bed frame (of course that was starting with pre- cut materials)

Once the bed was done it was time for the headboard. 

Thankful a colleague from work lent me a power drill, sander and staple gun so I could let my inner crafty/ handy girl out and make a platform bed and a headboard today. I have a proper big girl bed again and I am stoked.. And now I have a legitimate excuse to buy new bed linens :) 

It *may* be a bit taller than I was expecting, but i love it. 

..

Just bought my first pair of black skinny jeans. 

#becauseberlin

6 months in Berlin

.. tomorrow marks my 6 month anniversary in Berlin...

A quick recap:

September: crazy transition, visits from friends, weekend adventure to Stockholm. Beautiful weather, 

October: Trip back to SF for a wedding, moved into a new (furnished, temporary) apartment, started getting settled into the day to day at work and a flicker of realization that I live in Germany

November: Trip to NY for work, visit from a Dutch travel buddy, my first German Christmas Market and Glühwein! Started to get to know my way around the city,  found a few favorite local spots. Working on Thanksgiving sucked, but the multi national dinner the following Saturday was awesome .. um, do I really live here? 

December: Christmas Markets! Snow! mmmmmmm Glühwein! Mom visited for almost three weeks!! we explored Berlin on bikes, had a work trip to Hamburg, a weekend trip to Copenhagen and Mom's birthday in the Finnish Arctic Circle. cold, dark, amazing. OMG.. seriously, more Christmas markets... really? Back to NY for Christmas, relaxing in Brooklyn and an all day dance party on new year's day before a flight back to Berlin to kick off 2016. 

January: wretched. as in miserable, dark, cold and exhausting. What am I doing here. Seriously, what did I get myself into!? FFS WHAT HAVE I DONE?

February: colder than January, but the days started getting longer! started getting a life, going out and actually realizing that HOLY CRAP BATMAN, I LIVE IN BERLIN! This really is my life, not just a temp thing, and I LOVE IT. Decided to make the leap and get my own apartment (instead of another furnished place). The need to decorate is strong with this one.

March: BERLIN....OMG I LOVE THIS CITY! Amazing weekend in Budapest, landed an apartment, looking forward to decorating and OMG is it Spring yet!?

Loads of photos to share from the last few months.. will get posted over the next few weeks!

Achievement unlocked: ordered coffee in German

It's totally ridiculous but I'm so excited- actually had a full exchange in German this morning. While it was only ordering a large coffee to go with one sugar and milk, I did it!! 

Lazy, nesting weekend

Absolutely perfect fall weekend in Berlin! 

Saturday: clear blue skies and a light breeze blowing copious amounts of golden leaves onto cobblestone streets. Perfect day for walking around and exploring my new neighborhood and discovering adorable shops, cafes and bell ringing churches. Throw in a trip to Ikea to pick up a few things to make my mostly furnished apartment a bit more "me" (as well as a few things to help organize closets). The evening was all about getting organized- unpacked my very big bag while enjoying a really cheap but good French red wine. 

Sunday: Grey skies and a fall chill outside provide the perfect excuse for staying inside, "nesting", and being extremely lazy. Breakfast on my little patio, coffee and a book on the couch. I did runout twice to pick up a couple pieces of furniture I purchased on eBay kleinanzeigen (aka- eBay local) to help supplement my mostly furnished apartment, but otherwise I'm looking forward to an extremely chill evening. To be honest, I am really enjoying the downtime of getting settled in a new apartment/city/country while not really knowing very many people (yet). It's a great recovery from the chaos of the last seven months of my crazy life. 

Dear Stockholm, I think I love you. xo rach

One of my very good friends Amber was visiting Berlin my first few weeks in Germany. We decided to take a weekend and go explore somewhere other than Berlin.. because, you know, Europe!

Hellooooo Stockholm.. 

Top Five impressions from a weekend in Stockholm:

1: these are the nicest, warmest, most genuinely welcoming people on the planet

2: people here happy.. in a well balanced, amazing quality of life, radiate wellness and authentic contentedness in a way that my brain cannot completely grasp kind of happy

3: yes, it really is as expensive as they say. HOW MUCH IS THAT CINNAMON ROLL!? ok fine.. take my money.. it's totally worth it.

4: Stockholm is clean, beautiful, filled with museums, history and culture, and has to be one of the top three most picturesque cities in all the world. cities surrounded by water have a certain beauty about them, but there is something about Stockholm that makes it a bit more vibrant than the rest. 

5: damn the men in Stockholm can rock the man bun. and it totally works. 

A few random shots from walking around the city (I think we clocked around 24,000 steps on Saturday, maybe 22,000 steps on Sunday)..

Along the waterfront

love the architecture

Stockholm... look at my junk!

meandering around old town

funny Swedes... 

mmmm.... meatballs

I found VOD's little brother!!!

Adorable food truck court outside an amazing modern art museum.. had really good mac and cheese served by an American/Swede couple. 

Flags! Boats! Flags on Boats!

very cool display on Russian propaganda in the Moderna Museet

The Vasa

little viking troll doors!

had dinner here one night.. cool surroundings, not so great food. the Swedish meatballs tasted nothing like the ones I've had at Ikea... (and I am totally kidding by the way.. well, not really, they weren't that good but I don't eat Ikea meatballs!)

lovely

It was absolutely beautiful most of the weekend.. so thankful it wasn't pissing down rain!

So long for now... I will absolutely be back!

Viva la blog..

So... I moved to Berlin in September...

Figured this would be a good time to revive my blog and share adventures in traveling and living in Germany!

A few reminders about what this IS NOT:

Well crafted writing: I majored in Finance, failed spelling in 4th grade, and my grammar is often corrected by my non native English speaking friends. You have been warned. 

What this IS: 

Images, captions, notes and thoughts about living in Berlin, acclimating to life in another country/culture/geography/world, and bits about my travels.  

The goal is to update at least once a week.. hopefully more, but we will see how things go.. I am working and trying to travel as much as humanly possible.. so you know.. priorities :) 

rach

Granville Island, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Alas.. my last international trip of the summer, and my sabbatical, is now complete.  

I Made a VERY quick road trip up to Vancouver, BC this weekend.

Drove up (from Portland, OR) to Vancouver on Friday, spent one beautiful day milling about Granville Island and a bit of city, and then drove back down to Portland earlier today. 

The reason for this insane road trip- to see a good friend's AMAZING one man play at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.  Zeb's "Innocent When You Dream" was absolutely fantastic!!  Heartfelt, sweet, entertaining, and funny as hell!! 

Even through we were not supposed to take any photos.. I sorta snuck a couple in during the performance....

The lineup waiting to get in to his opening show

Walking in we all grabbed our seats and were greeted to Zeb, already on the stage...

And then the performance began...

I was able to snap two before getting shut down :) but it was sooooo worth it!!

Yeah!  we found one of his show's posters as we meandered about Granville Island after the show.

The Festival was held at Granville Island.. if you are ever in Vancouver, BC I HIGHLY recommend walking around this adorable little spot- the land is owned by the Canadian government and is required to be mixed use.  There is a cement factory, an art & design school, tons of retail/ work spaces for artists and very, very creative businesses, and an amazing public market that was PACKED with local farm-stands, butchers, fish mongers and even a few yummy gelato spots.