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