Skiing in Austria and (Hopefully) Saying Goodbye to Winter

Posted on March 20, 2013 by daverian

It’s been a busy few weeks here in Germany as Adrian and I have been doing a lot to prepare for our trip back to the USA this fall and of course for our wedding on October 12. It’s amazing how much work gets put into these events! But we are very lucky to have lots of help from people back home and it looks like the whole thing is starting to take shape. We are already getting excited to see everyone and to finally get married!

Meanwhile we’ve fit in some time to have some fun as well, especially me! I just got back from my second annual trip to the Zillertal Valley in Austria for a week of skiing with my friends from school. We had a great time and the trip was just as successful as last year. After a brief stopover in Prague for one night to grab some supplies and an extra car to transport all six of us and our gear we drove 7 hours down to Austria to the same exact cabin we stayed in last year. It’s always nice to return to a vacation spot that you’ve already been to because there are no surprises: No getting lost on the way, no nervousness about dealing with the ownership, no ‘extra charge’ you aren’t expecting. We were able to start relaxing and plan our ski excursions right away.

The cabin we stay at is several miles from the ski area up a long, winding, snowy road which is inconvenient in some ways, but well worth it. You’ll see why by looking at a few pictures of the place:

As you can see, it’s a cozy place that’s perfect for relaxation and it has great mountain views right outside the door. We love it!

The Zillertal Valley is a great place to go skiing because there are actually 5 different areas you can drive to in the valley to ski at and one lift ticket works for all of them. It’s not exactly cheap (200€ for 6 days) but there is a ton of variety available which keeps the place interesting for a week of skiing. In fact last year we didn’t even go to Hoch Zillertal which turned out to be our favorite ski area this year.

The best thing about skiing in the Alps I think is the amazing views you get just from riding up the lift. It’s quite an amazing back drop to have whether you are eating lunch or skiing down the mountain. Here are a few pics of some of the great views you get:

One of the worst things about skiing in the alps is the crowds: many of the trails are so crowded here that it can be difficult to turn and steer around all of the people. Luckily, most of the skiers aren’t ‘experts’, so to speak. As long as you don’t mind skiing some of the more difficult terrain, you can avoid them. Many people come to this area just because of it’s reputation as a party town, especially the village of Mayrhofen. Austria in general is famous for its Apres Ski and I think many of the the people clogging up the trails are more interested in their next Weisbier or Jagermeister than the are their next run down the mountain. Which is fine by me: whatever keeps them off of the powder snow!

We enjoyed a little of the Apres Ski our selves (of course)… it’s a little cheesy but as long as you forget your inhibitions for a moment and try to just have a good time it can be fun. One of my favorite things about Austria is the attitude of the people there. Everyone is really just there to relax and have a good time. All of the smiles you see on peoples faces are pretty genuine and ours were no different.

While I was in Austria Adrian had a good week of work and was able to go out with some of her friends a few times. Jess and Steph also stopped back for a night before heading stateside.

Once I returned to Berlin we celebrated our 1 year engagement anniversary by walking back through the Tiergarten and grabbing a beer at our favorite biergarten. We were the only people brave (or dumb) enough to sit outside in the weather, but we had fun “reliving” our engagement. Two days later it was my birthday on the 5th of March. I turned 28 and after a night out to celebrate with some friends on the 4th, Adrian took me out for a fancy and delicious dinner at a French restaurant. We don’t eat expensive meals very often, so when we do it’s a real treat. The restaurant was called Heising and it was run by a very nice and accommodating old couple. It was a little more fancy in the interior than we are used to, but the food was absolutely delicious! I especially enjoyed the oysters and Scallops (being a native Mainer, I have always had a thing for shellfish) and they surprised us with a complimentary brandy at the end of our meal.

Adrian also surprised me with a trip to Paris as a present for my Birthday! She knows I am a bit of a Francophile and have a been wanting to go France for some time and what more perfect time to go then Paris in the spring? We are renting a apartment we found on Airbnb which is quickly becoming one of our favorite ways to find rooms to stay. We also found a great place in Budapest with them and are looking forward to seeing how this Paris room works out. Any suggestions for what to do in Paris?

For the next few weeks until our Paris trip, I expect to keep fairly busy working on my Master’s Thesis. My proposal is due in early April so I am looking forwarding to handing that in and getting it approved so I can get started on the real thing. It’s amazing how time flies; I feel like I just started school, but now it’s almost over. And hopefully the snow stops soon so we can start enjoying all the great things to do in Berlin come nicer weather!

Days of Love

Posted on February 17, 2013 by daverian

I was going to start out writing that February is the month of love, but I don’t actually think it is (and a quick search of Wikipedia confirmed my suspicions). But while February may not be the month of love, it does contain the day of love as well as a lot of other reasons to show it some affection. The thing I love most about February is probably that February is Chocolate Lovers Month at Dunkin Donuts. This is the only month of the year where they bring out the mother of all muffins- the TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MUFFIN (served warmed!). The second thing I love is that my beautiful sister has her birthday this month. This year marks her golden birthday as she will be 22 on the 22nd. The third thing I love is that February is only 28 days and this means it will soon be March and the end of winter. And the last thing I love is Valentine’s Day. I loved Valentine’s Day when I was single and I love it now that I’ve found the love of my life. People might complain about how commercialized it’s gotten in recent years, but aren’t all those complainers out there missing the point. The fact of the matter is that it’s a day to celebrate all those we love and recognize love for being the most powerful force on earth. No matter who you love (or even if you only love yourself) it’s a great day to appreciate all those who matter to you.

I am lucky enough to have an amazing Valentine who made the day extra special by whipping up some homemade sangria and having bacon wrapped dates ready when I got home from my German class. We drank sangria, talked, played games and then enjoyed a nice dinner out at a restaurant around the corner we’d been meaning to hit up for awhile. He got me flowers, I bought him a backpack he’d been eyeing. Nothing too out of the ordinary for us, but still a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how our much our relationship means and the importance in expressing that to each other.

Another thing I love is visitors and we were able to host two amazing ones the first week of February. Jessie, who has been one of my best friends for more than a decade, and Steph (one of her best friends and one of my new favorite people) stopped by Berlin before heading out to travel around Eastern Europe. We had fun walking around the city, doing a bit of touristing and eating lots of delicious food!

The weekend after they left I came down with a nasty stomach flu that had me out of commission the entire weekend. I took Monday off as I needed a little more time to recover and was so happy I felt better by Tuesday because we it was the big Fasching/Karnival celebration at Phorms. Fasching is a huge party in Germany and everyone dresses up- the school celebration was reminiscent of Halloween in the US, just with more food! It was a lot of fun to try some of the traditional foods (Pfannkuchen) and see everyone decked out in costume.

This past weekend we took it pretty easy. Had a delicious dinner with Saskia, Matthieu and two of their friends from Canada on Friday and then enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood and a slice of cake yesterday. Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend and had a fantastic Valentine’s Day.

Much love from Berlin- Daverian

Budapest

Posted on January 31, 2013 by daverian

We’re always up for travel and love to check out new places, but it can be hard to pick a location when you know the weather could very well be miserable. A little of internet research kept pointing out that Budapest was a great city to see any time of year and all those blogs and trip advisor reviews weren’t wrong! We got back Monday night from a wonderful, long weekend in beautiful Budapest.

We started off our mini break the right way Thursday night by meeting our friend Saskia at MarktHalle in Moabit for dinner and then drinks. It was such a cool venue and to top everything off at the brewery located on site they offer their very own Berlin brewed IPA! As much as I love German beer there’s nothing like my favorite hop-filled IPA and now I know where to find one in this wonderful city!

We woke up late the next morning, packed up and headed to the airport for our flight to Budapest. We were immediately struck by the amazing architecture, the easy to navigate public transportation system and the fact that almost everything is posted in both Hungarian and English. We learned one word before visiting- köszönöm (thank you) and while we tried to throw it in once in a while everyone we met spoke some English. It was dark by the time we got to our apartment, but the city is almost as gorgeous at night as it is by day. We had picked out a restaurant ahead of time in an effort to avoid our most common travel related argument- where to eat. It worked out perfectly- no fighting over cuisine and the food was delicious! I ordered wild boar goulasch with gnocchi and Dave opted for beef cheek with sheep’s cheese potatoes. Dinner was a long affair- more than two and half hours, but we were in the mood to just chill, chat and soak in some local Hungarian culture- so it was perfect. After dinner we took a short walk through our neighborhood before turning in for the night.

The next day we got an early start on our touristing by heading straight to the Market Hall (Nagy Vasarcsarnok). The first level of the market consists of food booths, the lower level- fish and pickled goods and the upper level souvenirs, textiles and a few little restaurants. We had fun checking everything out and I found my Christmas ornament (I collect Christmas ornaments from all the cities we travel to). My ornament is the holy family in a nutshell…literally! I made about a 100 dorky puns over the course of the weekend. We also shared a Lángos for breakfast- basically fried dough with sweet or savory toppings. Ours had cinnamon, sugar, honey and jam- so of course it was amazing.

After the market we worked off our Lángos by crossing the Danube, moving from Pest over to Buda and then trekking up Castle Hill. We spent a few hours walking around the castle, checking out the fisherman’s bastion and learning a little bit about Hungarian history (something we’re both very poorly versed in).

From Castle Hill we headed back into the city and up the trendy Andrássy Avenue. There we stopped at the Book Cafe. Located on the top floor of a book store it’s an impressive cafe. We lucked out with some of the “comfy” chairs and warmed up with espressos, a slice of cake and a glass of wine.

From the Book Cafe we headed further east on the M1 (the world’s second oldest subway after London) to take in Heroes Square and the City Park before darkness fell. When we got up near Heroes Square there were a couple hundred people waiting in front of a building. We were curious about what was going on and upon walking closer discovered that behind the building was a huge outdoor skating area with stadium style lights and everyone was waiting to get on the ice. It was awesome to watch the empty ice fill quickly with hundreds of people excited to get in some outdoor skating. After watching a bit of skating we explored the city park and found another gorgeous castle- the city is just packed with the most beautiful buildings!

We made our way home for a snack and a rest before heading out for some drinks and and dinner. We thought about trying to go out to a club or another bar, but it turned out that we were absolutely exhausted from our long (COLD!) day of touristing and decided to head home where we fell asleep as soon as we got back to the apartment.

When we woke up Sunday morning we packed up our bathing suits and headed to a much looked forward to Budapest activity- a trip to one of the city’s famous baths. We opted to visit the Turkish Bath, Rudas, which is only co-ed on weekends. Rudas has been operating since the 16th century and the spas definitely have an old world feeling. They are dark and the main bath is located directly under a dome letting in small bits of natural light. We bought the combination ticket and enjoyed moving back and forth between the pool and the bath area- with 5 baths ranging from 28-42°, saunas and steam-rooms a plunge pool and more. We spent a relaxing morning enjoying our first experience with the “turkish baths” and were so glad we decided to visit.

Rudas Baths

After lunch we wanted to get in some additional touristing as it was already our last full day in the city. We walked over to St. Stephen’s Basilica (you can’t visit a European city without at least checking out one church!). This one was beautiful and held the added excitement of being the home of a holy relic- St. Stephen’s right hand. That’s right you can view St. Stephen’s mummified right hand for just 200 forints (about 1 US dollar)! It was actually pretty cool and Dave claims it was the highlight of his trip.

After the hand we made our way into the Buda side of the city and started a steep hike up Gellért Hill to the Liberty Statue. The sun had already set and the path was slippery from snow (which started falling again on our way up), but the view from the top was unbeatable. Since we got such a late start up the hill we were also able to enjoy it with a relatively small crowd.

Post hike we headed home for dinner before braving the snow to visit a little wine bar with free live music every night at 9:00 pm. We ended up being the first patrons to show up, but we settled in and ordered two delicious red wines. Even though we’ve been in Europe for almost a year and a half now we still are getting use to being the idea of being fashionable late. The musicians (a cute old man in slacks, a button-up and running shoes and his wife- both probably in their late 60’s/early 70s) showed up around 9:20. We didn’t harbor any ill feelings towards the late musicians, but were eager for the music to start- and when it did we forgave any lateness. The man was so energetic and an absolutely amazing piano player. A few songs in his wife joined him in singing. He had the most eclectic taste- playing everything from Bach classics, to Louis Armstrong, musical favorites and an especially awesome version of Chattanooga Choo Choo– sung in Hungarian of course! We ended up staying for more than two hours and it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. The last song we heard was a breathtaking version of a Bach piano sonata that was strangely both calming and exhilarating.

Monday we woke up extra early to fit in a few last things before heading to the airport for our 4:30pm flight. We decided the best way to spend our last morning was by taking advantage of another bath. We jumped on the train and headed out to the Szechenyi Baths. The main draw of this bath are the three large outdoor pools. They have a variety of indoor pools, saunas and steam rooms as well, but the outdoor pools were by far the highlight of this location. It was an especially romantic day to enjoy them as snow littered the ground and was continuing to fall during our visit.

After spending all morning at Szechenyi we headed back to the apartment to pick up our things, make one last stop to see the Parliament Building up close and grab some lunch before heading to the airport. We had a fantastic weekend exploring Budapest and our already itching to plan our next trip. Luckily we have a lot to look forward to this next month with my friend Jessie coming to visit for the first week of February, Valentines Day, an Eisbären game and Dave’s ski trip to Austria! Thus far 2013 is off to an amazing start!

Checking In

Posted on January 20, 2013 by daverian

2013 is officially underway in what promises to be an exciting year for us! Adrian is staying busy with work and Dave is working hard on school trying to get his Master’s Thesis ready. We are excited about everything that is coming up for us and we have so much to look forward to!

First up is our trip to Budapest, Hungary next weekend. For a Christmas gift, Adrian planned a surprise date for every month of the year and the first one is coming up at the end of January: a three night stay in Budapest- giving us a chance to see the city and to get out of Germany for a break. We’ll definitely be writing a blog post about that so look forward to it.

Once we get back, Adrian’s old friend Jess is visiting all the way from California after spending January in Ghana. Then at the end of February, Dave is heading on a ski trip to Austria with some friends from school. Next up it’s Dave’s birthday and the one year anniversary of when we got engaged! After that we have our trip to the Greek islands, which will be a great to welcome back the warmer weather.

We’ve also been taking advantage of winter in Berlin and trying to get out and be as active as possible despite the freezing temperatures! And of course throughout all these adventures we’ll both be working hard and planning for our wedding in October of this year, which will definitely be the highlight of 2013! We are trying to get everything sorted out from over here in Berlin and have made a ton of progress on what hopefully will be a fun time. We can’t wait to see everyone!

Tis the Season

Posted on December 30, 2012 by daverian

We LOVE Christmas. The music, the food, the decorations, the feeling of hope and happiness that the season brings- it’s one of the best times of the year. And no where does Christmas quite like Germany. The Christmas Markets that pop up all over the city come the end of November are one of our favorite things about living in this country. We made it to quite a few of the markets this year including Alexanderplatz, Potsdammerplatz, the Kulturbrauerei and the one down in Potsdam with it’s special Polish theme. Beautiful booths with some unique goods as well as some yummy Polish cuisine! When we were down there we also took a stroll around the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci to work off all the tasty treats.

Polish Food! Potsdam Fun in Potsdam

It’s a little sad to bid the markets “tschüss” now that the season has come to an end, but we frequented them plenty these past few weeks as well as enjoyed a variety of other Christmas parties, fests and traditions.

The conclusion of Thanksgiving means it’s Christmas music season. Dave and I both have a fondness for Amy Grant’s rendition of the Christmas classics- though we have different CDs we grew up listening to- so we heard a lot of her the past few weeks. We also spun through all the other hits via our ipods and 8Tracks playlists. These tunes are always best enjoyed with some fresh baked Christmas cookies and a glass of hot cocoa or glühwein.

Glühwein

The start of the advent season also calls for an Advent Calendar- again something Germany excels at! There are so many varieties of calendars and people get pretty creative with homemade ones as well. We went with a childhood favorite of mine- Playmobile and had a lot of fun alternating days in which we could open a new window and add some figures to our Christmas scene.

Advent Calendar

Christmas season also brought about good times with friends and we were able to celebrate on numerous occasions including a dinner party hosted by Max and Sachiko, the staff Christmas party at Phorms and a festive evening at my colleague and friend Sandra’s place. Always so nice to share in the festive spirit with good friends!

Phorms Fun

One of the major perks of working in education is the break between Christmas and New Years- always a much needed period of rest, relaxation and recharging of batteries. I finished up work on Friday the 21st and have a break until January 2nd! We decided to celebrate the holiday in Berlin this year and have been having a grand old time doing absolutely nothing!

The one big plan we came up with was to celebrate by coordinating and cooking “9 Feasts of Christmas”. Why 9? Who knows? Unfortunately I contracted a gross bacterial infection on my tonsils which put a little damper on excessive eating, but one visit to the doctor and a Penicillin prescription later we were back on track. We didn’t quite make it to 9, but did get in 7 delicious feasts. We rated and debated and decided that the top three were:

1. Christmas Day Feast- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy etc…

Christmas Day Feast

2. Americana- buffalo wings, cheese burger and fries (The burgers were so good we forgot to stop and take a picture!)

America Baby

3. Deutschland- schnitzel, spätzle and German beer (Dave’s pick)
3. Small Bites Feast- jalepeno popper dip, stuffed mushroom caps, salami, cheese, crackers and olives (Adrian’s pick)

Deutschland

Small Bites

As you can tell food plays a big role in our holiday celebrations and all of the feasts were fun to plan (and eat!).

As the big day approached we finished up last minute preparations and gift wrapping and then spent Christmas Eve enjoying a variety of Christmas movies and drinking hot tea and coffee on the couch. In the evening we headed down to the American Church in Berlin to celebrate the real reason for the season and had a great time at their beautiful candlelight service. In additional to all the wonderful songs the pastor’s sermon was particularly compelling and focused on the theme of hope. After the service concluded we headed home for fondue, champagne and our favorite film- It’s a Wonderful Life.

The next morning we woke up, made breakfast and got down to opening stockings and gifts. Santa was particularly good to us this year:) Our favorite gift would probably have to be the awesome projector from Al and Melissa. We’d been thinking about getting one for awhile and we have to say watching movies projected up on our living room wall definitely beats a computer screen! Thanks again for such a great gift! We also got a great box of baking goods you just can’t find in Germany and some sweet gifts from my parents. I love my new Packers sweatshirt!

Christmas Day Santa Came! Opening gifts!

Go Pack Go! Awesome Stocking Stuffers! Smoking Frosty

We also got some new books, movies, picture frames, a few beautiful sweaters and scarfs and much more! My big gift from Dave was a trip up north to a lakeside village called Waren. We left the on the 26th for a two night stay in a classy hotel called Hotel Harmonie. The hotel features saunas, steam rooms and spa services and a massage was included in my gift! We had a great couple of days relaxing in the saunas, playing games, walking around the old city center of Waren and hiking the surrounding lakes- completing a 10K hike Friday morning! It was wonderful to get outside the city, see another part of Germany and spend a few days in a pretty, peaceful spot.

Waren Jumping Shot Hotel Harmonie Old Town Waren Floating Fish Restaurant

Dave likes the busty mermaid Lake Scene

Dave and Adrian Yum- lake fish sampler plate

We got back to Berlin late on Friday and have been enjoying our new projector, munching on leftovers and enjoying the last few days of 2012. We’re headed to a dinner party at Saskia and Mathieu’s apartment to ring in the New Year and then will try to catch some of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl on the 1st before I have to return to work on the 2nd.

2012 has been a wonderful year. It was our first full year in Berlin and we saw and did so much. The major highlight has to be our engagement in March, but we have a lot of close seconds: our 8 week trek across the States visiting both coasts, the mid-west and attending 3 awesome weddings, the trip to Ireland for Dave’s birthday, the trip to Spain for Adrian’s birthday, family and friends visiting this Fall, exploring all the beer gardens of Berlin this past summer, Dave’s ski trip to the Alps, trips around Germany and Poland, Adrian finding a job at Phorms and many more!! We’re pretty damn lucky and quite thankful for all that 2012 brought, but are pretty sure 2013 is going to blow 2012 out of the water! Bring on the New Year!

Visitors!

Posted on December 11, 2012 by daverian

We had the pleasure of hosting a few members of Dave’s family the past several weeks: First his cousin Catherine and second his sister Cara and her Husband Will. We had a great time during both visits and thought we would share a few photos and write up the experiences (maybe to inspire some future visits???)

Catherine showed up a few weeks ago in the beginning of November .. just in time for the cold weather! We warned her to bring some warm clothes and she was lucky she did, because once she arrived the temperature in Berlin dropped at least 10 degrees. Pretty depressing!

We should mention that Catherine is spending the semester studying abroad in the UK in a small town just outside of London. She was loving her time there and was really looking forward to checking out Germany and trying some German food and beer. We did our best to show her a good time!

Once she showed up, Dave met her at the subway station and they headed down to the center of Berlin for a free walking tour. It was the same tour that we had been on before: a three hour stroll through the center of Berlin tourist district that gives a great overview of the city’s intriguing history, including the Nazi period and the Berlin wall among other cool things. The tour was really fun, but got cold very fast. Dave and Catherine were both looking forward to the break inside a cafe that came halfway through tour!

Next, Dave and Catherine met up with Adrian back at our apartment in Prenzlauer Berg and then the whole group headed to HB for dinner and drinks. We had been to HB before but it’s a great place to bring tourists because they have very traditional southern German food and, of course, Mass Beers which everyone loves. We have a great time at HB and Catherine seemed to enjoy her German food!

The next couple days we spent with Catherine traveling around the CIty, seeing sites and sampling some local fare. She loved the CHristmas markets, but wasn’t so sure about the Currywurst. Overall it was a great time!

Next, about a week later Cara and Will came for Thanksgiving! We worked hard to find all of the necessary ingredients for a real American thanksgiving, including a (small) turkey but were missing a few things and Cara and WIll came up big and brought it over from the states. We were very excited to have them here and to show them around Berlin and our neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg.

Thanksgiving dinner turned out great! We had two additional friend come over, Maxime from France and Sachi from Japan. The food was great and we had quite a few bottles of wine, but since Cara and Will had flown over that morning and were feeling quite tired at that point and decided to head back to their hotel.

The next day we took the two of them on a tour of downtown Berlin. We went to the top of the Reichstag building, but unfortunately it was a little to cloudy to get a real good view of the city. From there we walked to the Holocaust Memorial then to Potsdamer Platz for some lunch: Wurst with mustard and a beer. Will said he finally felt like he was really in Germany.

After some more touristing, we split up for an hour before meeting for dinner. We took them to a traditional German Brewpub right on the river down the street from the Berlin Cathedral. We sat down at a big table only to notice that we were completely surrounded by Chinese people. Cara and Will both speak Mandarin Chinese and the tempation to surprise the Chinese tourists with their skills was too much so they struck up a conversation. It was pretty fun to see the reaction from the 30 or so Chinese people to hear Cara and Will speaking with them. The brewpub food was just okay, but the beer was delicious so we made sure to drink plenty of it.

The next day we headed to a German history to take in some culture and then went to checkpoint charlie to look at some of the Berlin Wall and learn a bit more about the cold war. Then we headed back to Prenzlauer Berg to try some street food at the local market. That night we went to an Italian restaurant that is right downstair from our apartment. We had been their a few times before and they treated like regulars (as Italians like to do). It was pretty fun and Will and Cara were pretty impressed!

The next day, they had to fly away in the morning. It was a quick trip but we were so glad to have some family here for Thanksgiving. Will, Cara and Catherine, Thanks so much for coming!!

Falling Forward

Posted on November 13, 2012 by daverian

There’s nothing better than waking up the morning after daylight savings and realizing it’s not 10:00 am, it’s only 9:00! However, that great feeling is short lived as the day winds down with the sun setting before 5:00 and then continues to go downhill for the next 8 weeks (tonight scheduled sunset is 4:14pm)! Luckily Christmas season begins early in Berlin and we’ve been keeping busy with plenty of cozy, indoor activities and a few well bundled outdoor excursions!

The weekend after we trekked out to Dresden we joined up with a group of friends at the Parov Stelar concert down in Kreuzberg. The concert was great and we had a lot of fun dancing to the opening acts and Parov Stelar was amazing. For those who don’t know their music check out some videos from their website!

We also had a chance to check out some of the buildings around Berlin participating in the Berlin Festival of Lights. More than 40 sites feature illuminations and light projections for two weeks each October. Dave got to check them out last year, but I missed the festival while I was in Prague so I was happy to see it this year. Some really awesome displays!

The next weekend we hosted a party at our apartment in celebration of Halloween. We were able to fit about 15 people into our place and had a great time checking out costumes, consuming festive drinks and snacks and playing a couple rousing games of Cards Against Humanity! It was a great way to celebrate the holiday:)

Phorms Crew!

Dave as a Democrat

Omon, Thomas and Ira

Jenny and Daniel- Day of the Dead “calacas” & Grapes

Since Halloween day fell on a Wednesday we didn’t go too crazy- made a delicious dinner at home, watched a couple frightening movies and passed out candy to trick or treaters, who in Germany say, “Süßes oder Saures”! We only had three, but that’s three more than we ever had in D.C. or Boston so I’m considering it a victory!

The last few weeks have been pretty low-key. We met up a few times with friends for drinks, one time at a pretty swanky bar called Muschi Obermaier. The bar is a play on the name of Uschi Obermaier- a German sex symbol and a leader in the sexual revolution. She lived in Kommune 1 in Berlin- a famous politically motivated commune in the 60’s and reportedly had affairs with Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix.

We also celebrated our 6 year anniversary this past weekend- November 11th to be exact. When I got home from work on Friday Dave surprised me with a sweet set up of flowers, champagne and a bunch of homemade treats. Later that night we joined our friends Mathieu and Fred (visiting from Denmark) for a few drinks out. We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. On Sunday we took a long walk around Berlin and made our way to the Christmas Market at Potsdamer Platz (yay for the long Christmas season in Germany!) for a glass of Glühwein. That night Dave took me out to dinner at a fondue restaurant near our place that we’ve been wanting to try for ages- delicious! Plus we both won our fantasy match-ups in our “Title IX” league…perfect ending to our anniversary weekend!

Anniversary Surprise from Dave!

Anniversary Car Bombs- we are super classy!

So happy to celebrate the best six years anyone could hope for!

Berlin

First Glühwein of the Season

We’ve both been working hard in addition to all the fun and are especially excited for the next few weeks- we have visitors coming! This upcoming weekend Dave’s cousin Catherine is visiting from London, where she is studying abroad, and our friend Anthony is coming over from Bremen. Then the following week brings Thanksgiving and Cara and Will’s visit. We’re very excited to welcome family and friends to our city and show them around! Can’t wait to see everyone! ❤❤❤

Dresden and Sächsische Schweiz

Posted on October 20, 2012 by daverian

This past weekend we took a quick trip east to visit the city of Dresden and Sächsische Schweiz. We were only gone for one night, but we saw and did a lot and had a great time!

Friday night we celebrated our -1 year anniversary (we’re getting married on October 12th next year) with a very American night- cheeseburgers, buffalo wings and cake! The next morning we got up bright and early to catch a bus to Dresden. We hit some unexpected traffic and ended up detouring through the suburbs of Berlin for awhile, but the trip is only two hours, so the extra time didn’t put too much of a dent in our plans.

Once we arrived we headed directly to the Frauenkirche. The beautiful church was completely destroyed, along with most of Dresden, during Allied bombing raids in the Second World War. It was originally built in the 18th century and when it was reconstructed in the 1990s and early 2000s the original plans first created in the 1720’s were once again used. The church is suppose to be an exact replica of it’s former glory. It’s gorgeous outside and even more beautiful inside. The colors inside are unique pastel hues and the balconies are beautifully curved. The reconstruction work is pretty amazing and it was especially cool to see the old stones salved from the ruins- in the picture below you’ll see that it’s pretty obvious to identify the stones.

Frauenkirche in the year 1880

Frauenkirche in the year 1945

Frauenkirche in October 2012

After visiting the Frauenkirche we grabbed some lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just walking around Dresden and visiting the different districts. Though we didn’t venture into the Green Vault (home to the largest collection of “treasures” in Europe) we did walk around the grounds and both agreed it was the prettiest spot in the city.

Following hours of walking and taking in the sites we decided to head up to the Gothic Quarter for dinner. As usual we walked around looking at thousands of places before actually making a decision. Unfortunately the place we chose (Wenzel Prager- a Bohemian style beer hall) was packed with no tables available. We opted for our second choice- a yummy Thai/Vietnamese restaurant. And luckily as we passed Wenzel Prager on our way back to the hotel we saw that it had cleared out a bit and were able to pop in to taste the beer sampler. So basically everything worked out great:)

The next morning we woke up early, ate a delicious European style breakfast at the hotel and headed down to the train station to hop a train to Sächsische Schweiz (the Switzerland of Saxony), one of Germany’s beautiful National Parks, for a day of hiking and outdoor fun. Our first stop was the town of Rathen and our hike up to the Bastei Bridge. To reach the bridge you hike along the famous “Malerweg”, German for painter’s way. The area and the bridge are known for being the subject of many paintings over the years, most notably by German artist, Caspar David Friedrich. The trail was pretty chock full of people, but the weather was perfect and as we reached the top the sun finally broke through the morning clouds. Along the hike we were provided with various scenic viewpoints of the Elbe River, the valley and Sächsische Schweiz.

We took a different trail back down the mountain stopping to have a small snack and enjoy a bit of the gorgeous fall foliage.

After our hike up to Bastei we hopped back on the train and headed a little further east to Bad Schandau. Another ferry ride down the river and we were in the heart of the gorgeous resort town. We walked through the town up to the Kirnitzschtalbahn- a tram established in 1898 to ease the travel for visitors to the national park. The tram was old and loud, but enabled us to see more of the park and make it up to the Lichtenhain Waterfall. We were warned from the outset that the waterfall was less than impressive, but were surprised by the effort the park had taken to spruce it up. Next to the waterfall is a restaurant/mini-biergarten and as we were enjoying a couple Weißbiers dramatic music began to play and a hoard of tourists rushed to the base of the viewing area. A few seconds later massive amounts of water came down from the falls creating quite a production. We were pretty much cracking up at the corniness of the exhibit, but that could also have had to do with the 1/2 liter beers on pretty much empty stomachs. Even though it was corny it was still a lot of fun. After our beers and a slice of Apfel Kuchen we headed back to the tram to the ferry and started our trek home.

We had a great trip out east and we’re happy to get out into nature for a short time. Can’t wait to visit more cities in this beautiful country!

Back in Berlin

Posted on September 30, 2012 by daverian

We’ve been back in Berlin for a little over a month now and are settling back into our routines. Adrian started work September 1st and is really enjoying her job as a kindergarten teacher at a bilingual school in South Berlin. Dave has finally found an internship working at a non-profit called Global2015 and will be finishing his thesis in the spring. Meanwhile some of our more faithful readers have been a little disappointed with the volume of blog entries lately… sorry about that! We promise to try and pick it up from here, but those who know us well know that we don’t exactly always stick to everything.

This past weekend we enjoyed some of the last warm weather we will get here in Berlin by taking a boat ride with friends around the Spree river. Our friends Matieu and Sakia bought a coupon from a company called Grill Boat and invited us to come along so we jumped at the chance. The boat was more of a ‘float’ though with a small 10 hp motor and a huge firewood grill in the middle so we weren’t exactly speeding around the city. The trip also came with a case of beer though so the speed of the journey didn’t really matter that much.

The trip started from a part of Berlin that we hadn’t had much of an opportunity to check out: the Treptower Park area in the southeastern part of the city. Adrian got off of work at her usual time (3pm) but the boat didn’t leave til 5:30 so we took the extra time to explore some of the walking paths along the river and enjoy the nice weather. Berlin is turning cold very fast but it was actually a quite pleasant and warm at about 72 degrees.

We arrived pretty early to the launch pier but used the time to catch up some of the other people who had also arrived. All told there were eight of us along for the ride but there was plenty of room on the boat for more. We took off a few minutes late but the guy in charge was pretty easy going. He showed us how to use the boat and sent us off with a warning about the aggressive swans.

As soon as the grill got hot enough, we started feasting on a great spread of burgers, veggies, sausage, bacon and chips. Not the most healthy meal, but definetly delicious!

Sure enough, soon after we had the grill going the swans started coming after us in full force. They were pretty aggressive, but luckily not wily enough to make it on to the boat!

Anna with the swan!

The Spree was actually pretty nice for a urban river. All along the shores are different clubs and biergartens some of which we made a note to check out later. One thing you can say about Berlins: they love enjoying the outdoors while it’s still warm enough to do so.

Unfortunately, about an hour and a half into our trip it started to rain fairly hard. We didn’t let it dampen our spirits though as we continued on with the eating and drinking… but we did head straight back to the dock as fast as our little 10 hp motor would take us. We had a great time though and already can’t wait for next summer and our next boat (float) ride!

World Tour USA 2012- Part II

Posted on August 28, 2012 by daverian

Our red-eye flight from Sacramento got into Boston around 10:00am and once again we hopped the bus up to Maine. The next day we headed out to Great Spruce Head Island with most of the Hewey/Chebuske clan. Dave’s family has been traveling to this island for more than 50 years now and I’ve been lucky enough to tag along the past five years. It’s about a 45 minute boat ride from the main(e) land out in Penobscot Bay. The week’s activities consist mainly of hiking around the island, hanging out at one of the many beaches, game playing and eating delicious dinners that Melissa makes on a wood-burning stove every night. Another great thing is that it’s pretty much impossible to charge electronics and there is no internet access at the big house- it’s probably the only time of the year we’re completely “off the grid” and I love it! I also love visiting the island because it’s such a special place for Dave and his family and it’s so interesting to think about the history of island.

We had a fantastic week at Great Spruce Head, but left a couple days early so that we could make it to the second wonderful wedding of the summer- the McGrath/Fitta affair. The wedding was held on Friday night and while the weather had been holding all day, the rain started to fall just minutes before their outdoor ceremony. We weren’t sure what the bride would decide to do, but Melissa was awesome, threw up an umbrella and marched down the aisle in the downpour. They even headed to beach after to take photos! One of the groomsmen (Dan) captured this moment, which I love!

Rain couldn’t dampen the spirit of the party and we had a ton of fun at their reception. Highlights included the best man’s speech, the amazing cake bar and their awesome DJ who spun oldies and classic favorites into the night. Thanks Seamus and Melissa for inviting us to be a part of your day!!

The following days consisted of our first real down time of the vacation and we enjoyed relaxing, catching up on a few movies and pigging out on our American favorite (buffalo wings, fried pickles, Amato’s Italians etc…). On Wednesday we welcomed the first part of the Chebuske clan who drove up to Maine for Cara and Will’s wedding (our third wonderful summer wedding, which took place on August 18). I had met Dave’s uncle Greg and aunt Evette when they graciously let us stay with them on our way to DC five years prior, but it was wonderful catching up with them and Jamie and getting to meet Dave’s aunt Marguerite, uncle Chris and cousin James at a big family BBQ at the Chebuske house. Thursday I headed up to the wedding site with Mary and Anina for Cara’s bachelorette festivities (which included a cooking class that allowed us to indulge in all the delicious food we created and enjoy some wine along the way). Dave joined us Friday and we got to explore a little bit of Southwest Harbor and Acadia before the rehearsal and subsequent dinner. At the dinner I finally got to meet Dave’s grandmother, Grandy- who was wonderful to finally talk to in person. I also met the rest of Dave’s cousins, who were so much fun and I’m looking forward to seeing again at our wedding next year!

Saturday brought the big day and it was absolutely beautiful! The wedding was held on the family blueberry farm of Cara’s husband (so exciting) Will. The location provided stunning views of Blue Hill. The backdrop was beautiful as was the bride. Dave served as part of the “wedding team” and I was honored to be asked to do a reading of Cara’s favorite poem, Wild Geese by Mary Oliver. The ceremony was short and sweet, but incredibly touching.

The cocktail hour was held in the beautifully decorated barn on the property and the reception in a gorgeous tent with great views of the sunset. The food was delicious, Dave had the steak and I went with the lobster- yum! Music and merriment went long into the night and we had a absolutely wonderful time!

A brunch for all the wedding guests was held Sunday morning. After taking part in the delicious food and saying our good byes to family and friends we headed a bit more north to check out Darthia farm, where Jack has been working for the past few months. Darthia is a family-run farm on the downeast coast of Maine. The day we stopped by they were having a big party for friends and neighbors. We got to enjoy some local music and meet a number of Jack’s co-workers and he was able to show us around the property. The farm houses a number of animals plus a variety of gardens. We sampled some of the tomatoes, which were delicious!

Following our tour of the farm we drove down to Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park for a brief climb across the rocks and some swimming. The scenery was gorgeous and the park not too crowded.

After our short side trip to Acadia it was time to head back to Portland. We dropped Jack off and headed south. The next few days consisted mainly of packing and picking up a few “only in America” items (i.e. buffalo sauce, graham crackers, solid deodorant etc…). We had a fun last couple of days just soaking up the sun, spending additional time with family and getting ready to go before we took off for Deutschland.

We’re back now and trying desperately to get on Berlin time. Luckily I have a week until my job starts, so progress is slowly being made! We’re hoping this year in Germany brings more comfort with the language, more opportunities to travel and hopefully some visits from friends and family (wink, wink:)). It felt really good to get back into our apartment and start to think about the upcoming year. Last year when we arrived we had no idea what was in store. I think by now we feel much more settled and comfortable and Berlin feels a bit more like home. We’ll keep you updated!

Love- Daverian

Daverian's Travels

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

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