Reflecting on the past year and a half

Last year I graduated from university, and since then, I’ve visited 12 countries in 3 continents.

It was quite the dream come true!

If anyone had told me that after I graduated, I would get to travel and end up living in Asia and Europe, I wouldn’t have believed them for a second.

Cuz you see, I’m not the travelling or living-abroad type. I like my structure, my comforts, and Toronto itself. I would dream of going away on some exciting adventure, but didn’t think I could execute it for more than 2-week intervals.

I was lucky to be able to do all the things I’ve done, but I also worked really hard for it.

Throughout my whole undergrad career, I held 1-4 jobs while I studied a full course load. Back then, jobs just came to me and I said Yes to them because I didn’t want to shun my luck.

So I worked a lot, and I studied a lot. After paying for tuition, rent, and food, I kept entertainment costs low by going out for coffee, study dates, and having people over instead of eating out. My frugal efforts started to add up, and before I knew it, I was graduating debt-free with some leftovers (hence the travelling!).

I don’t recommend working that much to anyone, because it was too stressful. But I’m proud of myself for creating my own unique experience, and so grateful that I even had the chance. I learned so much, saw so much, and experienced so much.

I feel it has made me a better person; I care less about material things and more about people. I became more responsible and independent. I prioritize my life a lot differently than I used to.

In short, I feel like I’m growing up and moving on. I don’t really know where my life is heading, but I’m pretty excited about what’s next!

Hello Toronto!

I’m home! As in just freshly arrived in Toronto, and it’s great to be back!

Everything went smoothly, with some unexpected happenings today:

Early this morning, I got to Köln airport and went through their security check. I breezed through the metal detector with no beeps (score!), but apparently was carrying scissors in my bag. I thought – no way, those are eyelash curlers, not scissors – and took out my toiletry bag to show them who’s right. To my surprise, there were actually a pair of sharp hair cutting scissors in my bag. Oops!

So big deal right? They can confiscate the scissors and I can be on my way. But the weird thing was, they didn’t even confiscate it. All they said was “That’s okay, just make sure next time you put it in your suitcase!” and let me me keep this dangerous weapon in my carry-on! I didn’t know they were allowed to do that. I thought of just throwing the scissors out because I was connecting through Munich, and last time I connected through Munich there was an extra security checkpoint. Then I forgot about the scissors completely because I wanted to talk to Martin on the phone instead.

An hour later I get to Munich without much fuss, and go through the customs there. I happen to chance upon the young, good looking officer ^_^, who says Hi to me as I hand him my passport. He stamps my passport but doesn’t give it back! Instead, he holds onto it, stands up, exits his booth, and walks around his booth towards me.

I start to get annoyed/nervous, because I only have 20 minutes to connect to my Toronto flight (which is at a far away gate), and don’t want him to search my bag and have to explain why I’m carrying scissors on my person!

Luckily though, all he wanted to do was hand me my passport face to face (!), which he did, and then wished me a safe and happy flight.

I was like, huh! Is this guy French, or German? Cuz he certainly acts French!

I get to my gate with lots of time to spare. The Munich airport is HUGE!

When I get to Toronto’s airport (Terminal 2), I notice there are a new set of fast moving sidewalks. No one told me!!! Like, they look like they are 2.5 times faster than the other sidewalk, and they quite impressed me. I was jealous of the people who took it, because I didn’t.

My Dad picked me up at arrivals and we made our way down the Gardiner Expressway. I’ve always loved this route, as it positions the downtown cluster right in your view as you drive towards it. It makes me feel like Toronto is welcoming me back, and is particularly pleasing after being away for so long.

Some thoughts that ran through my head while driving through Toronto:

-Billboards, yuck! After being in clean-looking, not-too-consumeristic Germany for the year, seeing ads lining the side of the highway is a huge eyesore.

- OMG everything is so spralled out! My Dad literally drove across the whole city since the airport is in the west and we live in the east. I made a mental note about trying not to expect fast European public trans on the TTC *cries!*.

- Concrete, Concrete, Concrete! Okay so Toronto is not a very pretty city afterall. I really only notice this whenever I leave North America. Otherwise it’s just how it is.

I didn’t know how I would feel to leave Germany, and thought it would be gut wrenchingly hard. But surprisingly, I was actually excited to come home and am very happy to be here again. The only thing that sucks is that now Martin and I are back to being long distance again.  Back to lots of emails and phone calls for now!

Update inspired by Martin’s phone

Right before Martin’s surgery, we made another impromtu trip out-east again, but this time to see his sister’s new flat and to visit his parents. My new header is a shot of the beautiful landscape that Martin grew up with. I also have some quick phone pics to share:

We went to the beach at the Müritz, or the biggest lake in Germany. It’s popular for Berliners to retreat to for the weekend.

It was a lot of fun! I’ll try to post more pics later in Flickr or something.

The morning after we got home, Martin had his operation. I snapped this shot of him post-op while he was still groggy and waking up.

Now he is recovering nicely. We turned his bike into a pseudo wheelchair, and make small trips to the grocery store, bank, and downtown. Otherwise, we are sitting back and enjoying our days.

Can’t get enough of Europe

I know my pictures are splattered all over the place, but this time I decided to upload them to facebook. In case you don’t have facebook, here they are:

• Vienna album
• Bratislava album
• Budapest album

The pictures don’t really flow, but we have 2,000+ pics to choose from, so I quickly selected a handful from each city.

We had a lot of fun in all places, and were glad to make the trek. What we did was book a one-way flight to Vienna, and another one-way flight out of Budapest, and all of our hotels beforehand. For travelling in-between cities, we just left it until the last minute. All it took was going to the main station and buying a train ticket. Super easy!

Vienna was our first stop and also the most expensive city out of the lot. We decided to cheap out a little on Vienna as we knew we would be heading into Eastern Europe soon where it would be more affordable. Instead of eating at Viennese restaurants, we ate at supermarkets (also because that’s what locals do for fast food). You go into the deli section of the supermarket and order the ingredients of a sandwich, and they put it together and only charge you for the ingredients. I got the classic gouda cheese and sweet gherkins on a kaiser bun, which was always less than 1.50€ and super fresh! Although this was a good way to save money (whilst staying healthy), I actually didn’t find Vienna to be prohibitively expensive like everyone says. It’s kinda like Paris, where the tourist areas are definitely expensive and if you do all the touristy things, you’ll spend some money. But if you do what the locals do, it’s pretty affordable. You can’t really tell in the pictures I selected, but Vienna was amazing and tons of fun! Beautiful city with a nice atmosphere and lots going on. I could live there.

We took the train from Vienna to Bratislava, and it was only 14 € per person for an hour ride! That is waaay cheaper than the Deutsche Bahn, which cost me more than that to travel to Martin’s place from Düsseldorf (everyone knows the DB is actually prohibitively expensive). Arriving in Bratislava was really cool to me, because it was my first time travelling to an unknown place via train. The Slovak language is also completely unfamiliar to both me and Martin, so that was an adventure in itself. Luckily most people speak English and/or German, so that’s not a huge problem. We realized pretty quickly that asking people if they knew English was somewhat offensive, so it was better to assume they spoke English and to just start speaking it. This is different in Germany, where you should preface with Sprechen Sie englisch?

So Bratislava was fun, but small. By the 3rd day we didn’t know what else to do, but that could also be due to our lack of knowledge of the city. It was definitely cheaper than Vienna and we went to a restaurant every dinner/lunch and ordered good food for around 7€ per person including drinks and tip. I liked just chilling out there. It was really nice and relaxing. Slovakian people on average, also happen to be exceptionally gorgeous! Well, I didn’t notice the men, but the women were WOW (in a conventionally stunning kind of way!). The people (men and women) are also really well dressed – like, all the time.

Getting to Budapest from Bratislava was also very easy. We bought our ticket for 15€ and it took only a 2.5 hour ride. (This is super cheap to me, since I live in Germany and travelled all over the Rhineland for work). We rode in an old train that was compartmentalized into sections seating 6. You could stand up in the hallway and open the window, and let the wind blow your hair. Martin said he travelled this way in East Germany with his Oma as a kid. It brought back memories for him, whilst instilling new ones in me. Cool!

Budapest to me, is the Paris of Eastern Europe. It’s a huge, friendly, dynamic city full of everthing and more. Or I could look at it as being a mixture of Vienna and Bratislava too. Prices were cheap in Budapest, though a little more expensive than Bratislava, but with TONS more things to do like in Vienna.  They still use old trams, buses, and trains, making it look very 1950’s and totally Old World. Actually, Budapest was very striking to me. It made me want to learn more about Hungarian politics, history, and current economy. I just think I’m in love with the city, culture, and lifestyle.

So, I won’t write too much more about it because it’s getting too long winded here, but check out my pictures for more info!

Missing in Action

Hey, I’m still alive!

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I finished my teaching job, moved back in with Martin, and then we took off to Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary for some fun! We flew back late last night, crashed hard, and now I need to unpack vacation things, move-things, and then my Toronto stuff for when I come home.

Will update you soon with pics!

Heading out east

I’ve been really busy here wrapping up my last week of work and slowly moving back to Martin’s place. Martin has been busy too, with back and forth business trips to France to finish up this project that never ends (boo!).

But despite all this, we decided WTH, and made an impromtu trip to Thüringen in East Germany.  We just got back yesterday and had LOTS of fun!

A picture-intense post if you’re interested.

Small vacation

Off to Martin’s parents’ place for the weekend!

We are planning to take a side trip to Berlin, woo hoo!

Happy Easter & Long Weekend everyone.

La cité für mich

Paris was TONS of fun!!

Here’s my favourite picture of us on Champs-Élysées, trying to pose with the Arc de Triomphe. My aim is so bad and it’s all just so silly:

I have more posted to my Facebook album, for those of you who don’t have facebook/aren’t my Facebook friend.

I loveLoveLOVE it in Paris. It has everything I want in a city – gorgeous architecture, friendly & social atmosphere, excellent public transit, major connections to other cities and the world, great food, fashion, culture… *sigh*

Maybe I am shallow but that’s all I want and need!

Every time I visit Paris I leave it vowing to live there one day. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my Cute Boy being so cute here in Germany (!), I would take off to live in Paris and learn me some French.

Speaking French was pretty easy too, especially compared to speaking German. All those years of French class were not a waste after all (!); I have the foundation for a basic vocabulary and can string together a sentence. I always thought my French was crappy (which it certainly is!) but now I have a new language to function even crappier in ^_^.

Funny thing is, I kept accidentally using German words instead of French, and Monica (who is living in Spain) kept injecting Spanish into her French. It was a great drunken time even though in those moments, we weren’t drunk at all! keke

Living in such a central part of Europe is encouraging me to take more side trips. We’ll see where I go next!

Big cities and their big connections

Woo hoo, yesterday I finished my research contract!

Now I feel like I have all the time in the world to focus on my life here in Germany.

I’ve decided to extend my flat-search back to Köln. Since Düsseldorf isn’t working out, maybe Köln is the place for me afterall. Both cities are fine, but I actually feel more comfortable in Köln. I’m just not as used to Düsseldorf yet because we always go there to flat-hunt and then leave because we are so tired. In Köln we have actually spent time hanging out so I know it a little better.

I’m excited to go back to Köln. Tonight we’re heading over to see 2 apartments, and then tomorrow I’m going back to catch a train to Paris.

It’s always a big plus when a city has direct routes to Paris.

I love living in Europe!

On the brink of an adventure

Woo hoo!

I finally picked up my visa yesterday morning!

After some freaking out about whether my visa also doubles as a work permit, my cute boy translated it for me and yes, it does allow me to work!

Phew.

Now essentially all I need to do is board the plane!

I can’t believe I’m moving to Europe. It’s like a dream come true. Eeee!!

The cute boy and I are very very excited!

He was helping me pack today (as in, giving me advice on what to bring via the phone) and laughed at me when I narrowed it down to: 7 jackets, 7 pairs of shoes, 6 purses, and 5 dresses!

He chuckled and said “Well, you’re going to have a different list when you put everything into the suitcase.” I didn’t even tell him about the 22 tops.

This packing business is truly painful. I’ve decided to bring a suitcase and a duffle bag full of clothes, plus a carry-on with other odds & ends.

All in all, I’m getting very excited and happy!!

This will be a fantastic adventure that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.