December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

I cannot promise that it is the moment I felt most alive this year, but I do promise that I felt alive in the moment I am about to describe to you.

Arriving in Prague. In September I traveled to Prague for a few days with my mom. It was the first trip I had gone on in over a year. And I love traveling. So going on this trip after such a long time of not traveling at all? Meant a lot to me.

I love that moment after you have dropped off your luggage at the hotel, have grabbed your purse and camera, and step out of the hotel into the city.

A city that’s hustling and bustling with people, a city that is completely new to you. Walking around downtown Prague, not really sure where we were going nor knowing where to go first.

Going for a walk just to get a feel for the foreign place that this city is. Not following a map, just going where you want to go.

Looking around and taking in all the new impressions. Seeing people you have never met before and will never meet again. Admiring the architecture, all the tiny details in the buildings that give the city its face.

Hearing a language that is completely foreign to you, that you don’t understand a word of. People speaking to you in accented English or German to make themselves understood. Hearing street musicians, people yell, children laugh.

Appreciating all the beauty around you. Relishing in the newness of it all. Enjoying the process of first getting to know this city that you will discover bit by bit in the following days.

I find that moments like these, the ones when I am out of my element, in an unknown environment, are the ones my senses are most sharpened in, that I feel the most alive. They are the moments when I truly notice all the little miracles that our world is made of. They’re the moments I am thankful for being alive and for getting to see the beauty of what humankind has accomplished. And they are humbling moments, making me feel small in the face of everything the world has to offer.

Remember how last month I went on a trip to Prague? No? Well, I guess I can’t blame you seeing how it’s been five weeks since I came back and I have still not blogged about the trip, with the exception of that unfortunate accident that cost me my camera. Let me refresh your memory. Be warned, this post will be long & picture-heavy, but they’re all of beautiful places, so bear with me.

In early September, I went to Prague for a few days with my mom. It was a sort of graduation-type present; my mom had expressed the wish to go on a trip somewhere with me this summer as a mother-daughter thing. Now, our relationship is not quite picture-perfect, and as expected, there were a couple of fights, but all in all, it went well. I am probably not the only daughter who has issues with on the one hand being the daughter but on the other hand being an adult, not a child.

But that’s not what I wanted to blog about. So, back to Prague. I loved it there. Honestly, everywhere you look in that city, you’ll find yourself staring at gorgeous architecture and clicking away on your camera like there’s no tomorrow. In fact, that is how I broke my camera. I was so distracted looking up at this gorgeous building that I didn’t look where I was stepping. The rest is history.

We were really lucky with the weather. It was rainy the day we got there, and still cloudy the next day, but every day after that was absolutely gorgeous with not a cloud in the sky. It was a new experience for me to travel to a place where I do not understand a word of the local language. With the exception of Turkey in 2005, all the places I have been to, they either spoke a language I speak very well, or one that I understand a little, despite not speaking it very well (such as French and Italian). But Czech is neither a Germanic nor a Romance language (all of which I can at least read a few words of due to knowing German, English, and Spanish) so I didn’t understand one word. Luckily, many people there speak English and/or German, so with the exception of a few situations we got by just fine with those two languages. And on the occasion that we didn’t, we just resorted to gestures to make ourselves understood.

I took so many pictures on this trip, and while they took forever to sort through, it is an indication for how much I loved Prague; I don’t think I’d ever taken so many pictures on a trip before.

We were also so lucky to be there at the time of the wine harvest festival, where we had some young wine and typical Czech snacks.

Our hotel was right downtown, in walking-distance from many of the sights there, and I cannot tell you how nice it was to be staying at a 4* hotel instead of a hostel for a change. Not to mention the breakfast buffet. I probably ate enough for two meals for breakfast and we actually did end up skipping either lunch or dinner a few times.

I loved this old library at Strahov Monastery. Unfortunately the other room of the library was under reconstruction, so you couldn’t see any of that room’s beauty. Isn’t it amazing? I have a penchant for all things books, so it was really breathtaking to see all these old books and the beautiful room they’re kept in.

Unfortunately, in a lot of the places that you had to pay to see, they either didn’t allow you to take pictures at all and quite frequently, they would charge you extra for a permission to take pictures. I was quite surprised at that. I had never come across this practice anywhere else and thought it was a little outrageous to charge extra for photos when you already paid for admission. I may or may not simply have sneaked in a few pictures here any there anyway. I had heard that Prague is not as cheap anymore as it used to be, but I was surprised at how expensive it was.

This is the picture I was trying to take when I missed a step, fell, and broke my camera. My mom took this one for me. Can you see why I wasn’t looking at the ground? (And I actually had a couple more near-encounters with the pavement in Prague after this accident.)

I loved this garden. There were peacocks walking around the entire garden among the tourists and the atmosphere was just really lovely. Such a peaceful place away from the hustle and bustle of Prague, and it’s right in the city. This was also where I decided that no, I cannot wait till I get home to buy a new camera.

One of the things that actually disappointed me a little about Prague was Charles Bridge. I know! It’s probably the most famous sight there. And don’t get me wrong, I did love seeing it from afar. But when you are on the bridge itself, it is so incredibly crowded with tourists that it’s hard to really enjoy being there.

On my last day in Prague, after visiting the garden, I went to see the synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetary. As I spent roughly two hours on buying and charging my new camera, I spent the day by myself (my mom didn’t really approve of my buying a new camera, you see). Unfortunately, I had to make a choice between buying the camera and doing a boat tour but in the end I wasn’t too sad to have missed that. I do wish I would have had a little more time to look at the synagogues but it is what it is. The synagogues were all really beautiful, as was the cemetary. It was really interesting to see all these really old gravestones, and to think of how many people, how many generations are buried there.

On our last night in Prague, my mom and I went to see a black light theater performance of Aspects of Alice which was really a unique and amazing experience. If you ever get to Prague, I can absolutely recommend this. If you are curious, or just cannot imagine what black light theater might be, you can watch some excerpts from the show here (video is NSFW!).

Afterwards we went to the Charles Bridge again (the theater was right beside it) to take some photos of Prague by night. As you can imagine, the bridge was nearly as crowded at night as during the day. But I did get this lovely shot and a few more and that made it worth it. Aren’t shots of cities by night always a little magical? I love all the lights and how they reflect in the river Vltava.

If you want to see more of my pictures from Prague, you can find a bunch more here. It was so hard to select the photos to put on Flickr, and then narrow those down for this post. It is really a beautiful city to visit for anyone who is into European history and architecture.

I was so happy that I got to go on a short vacation this year after all, and on this trip I absolutely caught the travel bug again. I cannot wait for my next trip, wherever it may take me.

I actually enjoyed Wissembourg so much that I decided to go back on Friday. I mostly went to peruse the grocery stores and take my time but also snapped a few more photos as I was there. The weather was even better than on Thursday, not a cloud in the sky. I ended up buying a few things, some wine, a fresh baguette (that I ate for dinner on Thursday), and some odds and ends. If I lived closer to the border and had a car so I could buy refrigerated food, I’d probably go to France for grocery shopping a lot more frequently. As it is I live about 60mi from the border and it takes two hours on the train to get there.

While Wissembourg is in France, it is right on the border to Germany, and it was actually part of Germany several times in the course of history. As a result, it’s not really a typical French town but a mixture of the two cultures. While people there speak French, I also did not come across a single one who did not speak at least a little German. In fact, all except one waitress spoke fluent German. I took French for three years in high school, and while I still understand some, speaking it is very hard for me, so it was really helpful that I didn’t have to speak it.

As I had mentioned in part I, we stopped at the window of the Patisserie Rebert which had amazing little pastries on display. Aren’t they mouthwatering? I didn’t buy one, though they all looked amazing. (Almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.)

This is the Maison du Sel and I think its pitched roof just looks amazing. It’s from the 15th century, and looking at that roof it makes you wonder how it hasn’t caved in already.

Of course my friend and I had to have the typical Alsatian dish tarte flambée and some red wine. It was a really good (and inexpensive!) dinner. Lovely way to end the day there.

So tasty!

I caught the reflection of the house we were sitting at in my wine glass. I thought it made for an interesting shot. There is also an idiom we have in German, ‘to look into the glass too deeply,’ which means you’ve had too much to drink.

Well, I will end this post with a picture I took on Friday. We had walked past this house on Thursday as well but not really noticed how beautiful it was. Isn’t it great how you can still find new beautiful things in a place after you’ve already visited it? It makes me wish I had taken the opportunity to go to Wissembourg sooner (years ago) because then I would have probably tried to go back every now and then.

I had heard about Wissembourg from others who had recommended the trip but I had no idea just how pretty it would be. I took so many pictures I actually ran out of space on my camera and kept having to select pictures to delete so I could take more. Maybe that will make you understand why I am splitting the trip review/photos up into two parts. I don’t want to swamp you with too many pictures in one post. I’ve narrowed it down to 19 pictures and believe me, that was hard enough. I really hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed my day there. It was so lovely.

I loved all the flowers on the houses and the colorful shutters. And check out the clip on the shutter in the first picture, it’s a little person! Isn’t the detail amazing?

Look at that turret. The entire town is decorated with flowers on most houses and bridges.

We walked around the town for hours and I took nearly 400 pictures. No, that’s not a typo. Nearly four hundred.

This is a patisserie that made the most amazing pastries. (Picture of said amazing pastries will follow in part II of this post.)

Isn’t Wissembourg breathtaking? I loved it so much. It was really great to get out of town, even if it was just for a day. And I am so glad that I did this before leaving Heidelberg (in just 10 days!). It is places as beautiful as Wissembourg that really make me grateful for living in Europe. I love Europe for all its history and architecture. Yesterday’s trip made me so excited about my trip to Prague in just two weeks!

As I said, I’ve split up this post into two parts, so check back for part II of this post on Monday.

Have you ever been to a town like Wissembourg? Isn’t it an absolute gem of architecture?

Unfortunately my mom refused to spend a day at Disneyland were we to go to Paris, so Paris was off the list. I absolutely want to visit Paris, but when I do, I want to go to Disneyland. I have never been to Disney-anything (can you believe it?), and I know that once I have been to Paris, it is a lot less likely that I will go there again any time soon just to go to Disneyland. However, this has made me want to go to Paris all the more. I want to go next year, provided that I find a decently-paying job.

So which city did we finally settle on you ask? A beautiful one. A city that is roughly 230 miles from Munich. Outside Germany.  To the east. Got it?

Photo by Trent Strohm.

Prague.

I absolutely cannot wait for this trip. We will be going for five days in the first week of September, just a few days after I move back to Munich. I already did all the planning last week & booked a nice 4* hotel and the train & bus to get to Prague from Munich for us. That’s right, this girl will be staying at a 4* hotel! Definitely an upgrade from the hostels I usually stay in when I travel by myself.

I have already bought the Lonely Planet guide for Prague and will be reading up on Prague and its sights in the next few weeks to make sure I won’t be missing out on anything. I cannot wait to visit this gorgeous city and take pictures of it.

And it is so amazing that I will get to go on a vacation this year after all, something I had already given up on. My last one was to New York City last year in March (and that was technically an excursion with the English Department). It has been way too long since the last time I left the country.

Are you going on vacation this year? Or did you already? Where to?

This post is inspired by Stefanie’s recent post which made me think of all of the moves I have done since starting college. I have a move coming up in just a little over two months, and I just know that time will be flying by and the day (sometime in late August) will be here before I know it.

Not all moves required moving all of my possessions (and I own very little furniture as it is, as I have always lived in furnished apartments), so saying that I have moved seven times in the past 7.5 years makes it sound worse than it is, though whenever I send an email to my friends saying that my address has changed once again, I feel like this may just be the time they grow tired of them. I have lived in seven different houses/apartments since the fall of 2002: one in Munich, three in Heidelberg, one in the US, and two in Spain.

When I moved to Oklahoma, my parents moved most of my stuff to Munich for me. What an ordeal that was for them! I started packing way too late, and ended up having to leave some of the packing and pretty much all of the cleaning to them. Definitely a rookie mistake I learned from. When I moved to Spain, I was able to leave a lot of stuff in the basement of my old house in Heidelberg, though I had to move everything from the old house to the new one in 2008 which my brother and a friend helped me with.

All the moves abroad involved taking very few of my possessions due to the baggage limitations on airlines. When I moved to the States, I had thought that being limited to two suitcases was tough, and that was in the times when you were still allowed two suitcases of 70 pounds each on transatlantic flights. Coming back to Germany I had those two suitcases, a carry-on bag, a purse, a laptop bag, and a bag with a pillow in it. And no, no one said anything about it. I also had to ship a few packages back to Germany containing my books and a few clothes.

After an awful run around Gatwick Airport at 7am after two equally awful flights, I decided I would never buy another carry-on bag without wheels (another rookie mistake!). My route was OKC – DFW – LGW – MUC (two layovers, never again if I can avoid it). The first flight was three hours delayed, making me miss my next flight. That got me a very unlucky middle middle seat instead of a window seat on the previous flight – like OO OOXOO OO – where the X would be me, for a 9 hour flight, I know, don’t be jealous! And that flight two hours after the one I was originally booked on, in turn, left me with 30 minutes to make my flight to MUC instead of the 2.5 hours I was supposed to have. I barely made the flight, but I made it. The alternative was a six-hour wait, which? I don’t think so. My parents were told by BA that there was no way I was going to make it, as the flight from DFW was delayed and I was still waiting to get off the plane 10 minutes after boarding had started for the flight to MUC, so they decided to go to the grocery store. Luckily my best friend managed to get to the airport just in time to pick me up, and my mom baked a strawberry cake for me in the meantime, so something good did come of it. Needless to say, my checked-in baggage did not make it on that flight, but you know what? That was a good thing. That way I got it delivered to my house on the next flight instead of having to deal with it myself. I have since learned to appreciate temporarily lost baggage, because why carry it yourself, if you can have someone else carry it for you to your very doorstep (I’ll even accept a delay of a few hours for that). Worst travel experience ever, but it does make for a good story.

Little did I know how spoiled I was with those two suitcases of 70 pounds each until I moved to Spain. Turns out it is possible to move abroad for a year with one suitcase weighing a maximum of 50 pounds. I limited myself to the very basics and abused the coat rule shamelessly, packing all of my jackets in a bag. When the airline employee said I had three carry-on items instead of two (carry-on bag and laptop), I said all the third bag contained was my jacket (which it did, well, three of them, but she didn’t know that), and I could put it on if she wanted me to. Luckily she said that was not necessary, because I would have hated having to wear a pink spring coat, a black winter coat and a green summer jacket (or was it the blue rain jacket?) all at once. In August.

My moves from and to Munich were not quite as exciting, and I certainly hope the one coming up in just a little over two months will happen without any major issues. I have already canceled my landline and my gym membership here, and it is odd for me to think about leaving this city that has been my home (off and on) for so many years. Just a few months later I am hoping to move again. It is no secret that my parents and I get along better if I don’t live with them, so I am hoping that I won’t have to live in their house for very long and that I will be able to find a job within a few months that will allow me to move out (and maybe away from Munich).

Do you have any fun moving stories to share? Any nightmare experiences? I’d love to hear them.

P.S. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in my upcoming vlog, drop me a comment on Wednesday’s post.

As you may know, I lived in the States for a year, and while I did go on a few trips, there are so many more places that I have yet to see.

I did spend a week in San Francisco, a place I loved, as well as three weeks on the east coast (Boston, New York City, Philadelphia & Washington, D.C.), which I enjoyed as well. Though I’d pick the west coast or the South to live (better weather and friendlier people).

I also spent a few days in Dallas, where I spent two weekends at a friend’s house (and subsequently didn’t see anything of Dallas), and a week in Kansas City.

And a year ago, I finally got the chance to go back to the States and spent another week in NYC. While I loved that trip, I had been there before, and my list has yet to get any shorter.

Las Vegas

Photo by Roadsidepictures.

Who wouldn’t want to go to Las Vegas? I’m not big on gambling but I’d love to see the city, all the lights, and buildings, and the atmosphere.

Colorado

Photo by stevewhis.

I am not an outdoors type of person, and I’ve lived in the city all my life, but I think for Colorado I’d make an exception. Colorado and the …

Grand Canyon

Photo by James Marvin Phelps.

The Grand Canyon looks absolutely breathtaking in pictures, I cannot imagine how amazing it would be to see it in person, with my own eyes.

San Diego

Photo by slack12.

San Francisco

Photo by SF Brit.

I’ve been to San Francisco before but I’d love to go again, as I truly enjoyed my last trip there. I would also like to visit the surrounding area and maybe visit Yosemite on one day.

Dallas

Photo by ragingwire.

While I didn’t see much of Dallas on my two visits there, the main reason for my wanting to go there is that essentially all the friends I made at OU now live there, and I would love to see them again. It’s five years in June that I left. I would also like to drive up to Norman to visit my old stomping grounds there and to see what has changed around the city and university.

New Orleans

Photo by ohad*.

I wish I had visited New Orleans when I lived in the States (pre-Katrina), but I didn’t. Back then, who would have thought that the city would be devastated by hurricane Katrina only three short months later? But I reckon that by the time I can afford a trip to NOLA, there will be little to remind a visitor of the damages caused by the flooding.

Florida

Photo by Express Monorail.

Not only do I want to visit Florida for the beaches and alligators Everglades, I also want to go to Disney World. I have never been to Disney World or Disneyland (in California or Paris, heck I’m not picky, though I’d prefer Mickey Mouse and Cinderella to speak English and not French), and even though I am 26 years old now, I’d still love to go and be a kid for one day.

Georgia

Photo by ceejayoz.

I would really love doing a road trip, from Florida up to Georgia, to …

South Carolina

Photo by Kyle Kesselring.

… and from South Carolina to …

North Carolina

Photo by Martin LaBar.

I do not have any specific places or cities in mind, I’d just really like to see the southeastern US. And a road trip would be perfect for that. Not to mention fun.

Hawaii

Photo by David Winnie.

Do I really need to explain why I want to visit Hawaii? Hello, gorgeous beaches, landscape, weather. What’s not to like?

I know, that’s several weeks of vacation right there. Not to mention how much it would cost to see all these places. Maybe I should start playing the lottery.

But just looking at all these amazing places that you can find all in one country (granted, a big one) reminds me of one reason I love the US. How anyone could not be interested in traveling there (*cough*my parents*cough*) is beyond me.

How about you, which places in the US do you want to travel to? And which places you have traveled to did you enjoy most?

I do hope that I will have the opportunity to do one or two of the trips on my list this year, and visit the others in the coming years. After all, all it takes is a few hundred bucks (if only those were easy to obtain) and an extended weekend. Flights within Europe are so cheap nowadays, and some of the cities are distances that would even be manageable by train.

While I have been to London, Dublin (though that was nearly ten years ago, and I definitely want to revisit, what with how little I remember except that I loved it), the Tuscany, a couple of towns in France, and many cities in Spain, I have yet to visit …

Paris

Photo by Al Ianni.

Prague

Photo by szeke.

Stockholm

Photo by Hector Melo A..

Rome

Photo by Giampaolo Macoriq.

Vienna

Photo by MorBCN.

Aren’t these stunning photos of beautiful places? If you gave me the option to travel to one of these cities tomorrow, all expenses paid, I wouldn’t hesitate to go. And soak up the impressions of foreign places. And take beautiful photos of my own.

I cannot wait for my next trip. I am missing traveling so much. I hope it will be soon.

If you had the opportunity to go on a trip somewhere, anywhere you want, tomorrow, which place would you pick?

Stuttgart was really nice. It’s not that big a city, and we only spent a few hours there so I didn’t see everything but I did like what I saw. While it is nowhere near as picturesque as Heidelberg or Munich, it does have a few lovely places to offer to its visitors. One of which being this gazebo that I absolutely fell in love with. I want a gazebo like that in my backyard! Okay, I’d be happy if whichever city I move to has one! The fact that I love it so much may or may not be related to the fact that Stars Hollow (that Stars Hollow, and yes, I do realize it’s a fictional town) has one and I always thought it was absolutely beautiful.

Though the one in Stuttgart is even more beautiful, if you ask me. By the way, if you are not as enamoured with the cross process option on Flickr as I am, you can see the original version of each picture by clicking on it.

We also saw the most delicious-looking chocolates at the market hall, and a guy playing the saxophone with a parrot on top of his head. No really. A real, living parrot.

It was a really fun day, even though my feet were so sore after all these hours of walking around cold and snowy Stuttgart. And did I mention it was cold? So very cold. Which was not helpful that time when we got a little lost in the woods looking for a subway or bus stop after a visit to the TV tower. We did find one after a half hour of walking through the snow, though, and we even got to ride the Stuttgart “Zacke” – Germany’s only rack railway, so it was good for something, after all. And while it was cold, we did get lucky with the weather because, at least for a few hours in the afternoon, the sun came out and the sky was bright blue.

Other than that, the day involved lots of good food (that may not all have been so healthy, but we walked so much I hope it didn’t do any “damage”), spending more time in stores than planned (it was oh-so-tempting to do some “big city shopping” but I didn’t end up buying much), oh, and my finding a girl’s public transport ID in the snow, only to lose it again before we made it to the Lost & Found. Not one of my brightest moments!

All in all a great day with my friend whom I hadn’t seen since last summer. I am so happy I finally got to use my camera again. I haven’t had many opportunities to use it lately, and I have been missing it so much!

The weekend ended with a Sunday mostly spent in bed, sleeping or reading. Perfect way to spend Sunday, but the weekend went by way too quickly. How was yours?