Weekend Trip – Yoojin Cho

Why I Miss Traveling…

Of course there are hundreds (or thousands) of perks of being home – home-cooked meals, easy communication, cozy bed, lovely friends and just the comfort of knowing that you’re close to people and place you love.

But then…Why do I miss traveling so much?

After spending four months away from familiar buildings, faces, food and culture, I was initially happy to be back in my comfort zone. Now that I have resumed an endless cycle of work-eat-sleep, however, I would love love love to return to unfamiliar territories.

First and foremost, I miss exploring. I am not the type to just take off one day and venture out to mysterious neighborhoods, but as long as I have my map, I’m more than happy to take the winding narrow sidestreets.

Oh, I don’t know. How else would you find Waffle-bob Squarepants in the middle of Brussels?

Or these mega-cool Star Wars & Star Trek postage stamps in Madrid?

Besides discovering unique antique stores or tiny family-run restaurants with only three tables, meeting great people and making new friends also make me happy, fulfilled and content.

I may or may not stay friends with everyone I meet on the road, but at least for the brief few days you’re stuck with them in small hostels or extreme-euro dance clubs, everyone is simply BFF(aeaeaeae…).

Aside from incredibly friendly and wonderful hostel owners – Giuseppe, Andrea and Mabri, etc. – I remember having great conversations with and sometimes having awkward/hilarious encounters on streets with a Dutch kid, a Norwegian couple, girls from Wisconsin, crazy Brits on a bar crawl in Berlin, a couple from Texas… Oh, and of course, a BU ALUM! What a small world.

Regardless, transitioning from having nothing in common except for being in foreign countries together to being friends even for just 10 minutes. I miss that kind of interaction with people. The one where strangers just stare at you and bump into you on the T is no fun.

I also missing walking down the street and simply admiring the gorgeous architecture. Granted Europe is certainly a lot older than North America, the beauty of its buildings, churches, houses and schools is incomparable.

London Eye… (I know it’s not Gothic or romantic or whatever, but it’s pretty!)

Vatican City…

Trevi Fountain…

Notre Dame…

And of course, the scenery beats everything, too. The beaches, the river, the park…

The view from Sacre Coer…

Cefalu…

Nonetheless, something MORE beautiful than the coastline and architecture is food. Seriously, one of the best parts about traveling to new cities was trying out new dishes.

I had the opportunity to devour, er, I mean, savor, the best Bratwurst, the Currywurst, the freshest clams, the best pasta, the most delicious prosciutto, the white Sicilian pizza, the English breakfast, the richest Guinness pie… Ah, the list goes on.

Additionally, these fresh ingredients are all available at amazingly low price at markets – even including high-quality wine, cheese and meat.

Often I could have a full 3-course dinner for under 5 euros. Of course, it’s nothing fancy. It’s rather delicious sandwiches from a stand run by two brothers, then gelato and a glass of sangria. But those affordable items from friendly owners and chefs were so much better than five-star, $50 per dish food.

For example, a loaf of baguette, a big wheel of cheese and a huge basket of strawberries cost me 3 euros total in Paris, and don’t you worry, they were DELICIOUS.

Arancine, a fried rice ball with cheese or ham or even curry, is Sicily’s signature food. Big enough to serve as a whole meal, Arancine definitely counted as one of Sicily’s charms. And the best part… Only 2 euros. What? I know.

I would certainly hop on the plane and travel around if given a chance. I mean, why not? All these great food, architecture and people await.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, in the next five years or so, I’ll be able to afford (both time and money) to embark on a brand new adventure. Australia sounds just fine. Or the Middle East.

Frohe Ostern von Berlin!

How did I let this happen? Seriously? HOW COME I STILL HAVEN’T WRITTEN ABOUT MY FAVORITE WEEKEND TRIP? I blame it on the madness that was April – moving out, packing for Italy and studying for final exams – and May – pigging out on home-cooked meals, shopping with mom and enjoying the Texas sun.

Well, anywho… I did go to Berlin, Deutschland for the long weekend in April, the Easter weekend, and to this day, I love love love telling the story of how we almost ended up in Dresden, instead. Lesson learned: Always double check train’s destination before you hop on it, especially in a foreign country after you’ve been up since 2 a.m. to catch the 6 a.m. flight.

Leaving whatever happened at the Berlin Shoenefield Airport train station behind, Jack and I eventually made it to our hostel, located right next to Berlin Haupbahnhof station. Meininger was the biggest and the most modern hostel we stayed at the entire semester. While small hostels, such as the ones we found in Dublin and Sicily, have their own perks of cozyness, comfort and personal attention, big hostels are well-maintained and offer more big-group activities.

After we dropped off our backpacks, we began our German adventures with…THE FREE TOUR! The same deal as the ones in Dublin and Paris. I quickly found Berlin was full of interesting ironies. Brandenburg Gate, at least 300-year-old historic monument, stood right next to the all-glass, extremely modern Parliament building. The Holocaust Memorial, with no clear sign of what it’s supposed to represent, simply sat in the middle of the city. All in all, we saw numerous historic sights, ate almost too many sausages and fell in love with the German culture.

(Brandenburg Gate)

(Holocaust Memorial)

Since close to two months have already flown by since my trip to Berlin, I will actually make categories and lists of places I visited, food I ate, things I loved, etc. – with lots of pictures, of course!

First things first, FOOD & DRINKS. (I mean, are you surprised?)

1. Bratwurst: Yes, sausages. Why else would you ever visit Germany? Grilled perfectly – burnt a little outside but still tender and juicy inside. Moreover, I discovered something absolutely amazing called CURRYWURST. Jack was daring enough to try it first, but basically, it is perfectly grilled bratwurst cut into small pieces with curry sauce and curry powder on top. I know, sounds a bit weird. The taste, however, is superb. By far my favorite food discovery in Europe.

2. Berliner Pilsner: Great German beer. Regardless of what size beer you ask for, you will most likely end up with a huge stein.

3. Cheap Thai/Vietnamese Food: For only 3 euro, I had a big bowls of Vietnamese noodle for lunch. Then for only about 10 euro, I had a huge plate of Thai noodle for dinner. Yum!

(Sightseeing) ACTIVITIES:

1. Climbing to the top of the Parliament building for a gorgeous city view: One downside is you have to start lining up at around 7:45 a.m. for its 8 a.m. opening time. Multiple upside factors are amazing view and no need to pay to enjoy the view.

2. Pub Crawls: Truth – Berlin S-Bahn and U-Bahn operate 24 hours a day on weekends. Need I say more? Great night life – we went to all sorts of pubs/bars during our pub crawl. We started off at Zapata, an outdoor hangout place, went to Die Fisch (Yes, The Fish!), a hip dance-y bar, then moved on to a bro-ish club and finally, sorta Euro-trash club. So. Much. Fun. We also made friends from NY and Norway. Sweet deal.

3. Picnic at Museuminsel: By Museuminsel, I mean The Museum Island where all the major museums in Berlin surround a gorgeous green. By picnic, I actually mean Currywursts. On a warm afternoon, just try it. Couple of Currywursts and a couple cans of Berliner Pilsner!

[Sidenote: At the Museum Island, you can also visit Pergammon Museum, which houses ancient Greek statues and Babylonian architecture. You can also get student discounts!]

4. Oranianburg Daytrip: About an hour away on the U-Bahn, this site of former concentration camp is definitely worth a visit. We ended up spending an entire afternoon there. Not sure how to describe it in words, but you just learn so much and realize how wonderful it is to have your freedom, happiness and simply, joyful life.

Oh Berlin! What a fun city! Throughout the weekend, I also noticed Berlin was full of tourists – almost more than London! I was a bit thrown off by how many people spoke French and complicated Eastern European languages around me, but nevertheless, blended in just fine and had a great time.

If I ever get a chance, I definitely want to visit Frankfurt, Dresden (not accidentally this time) and Hamburg. And also, practice my German skills!

Ciao Bella! (A lovely week in Italy) Pt. 1

Just a couple days after the volcanic ash ban lifted, Jack and I hopped on an afternoon flight to Palermo, Sicily. Despite the crazy couple of days filled with packing, studying and cleaning, we successfully moved out of our BU housing in South Kensington and embarked on our vacation in Italy.

We landed in Palermo at around 9 p.m. and my first impression? Gorgeous, Warm, Pretty, so many Sicilians, small, crowded. We struggled just a little to find our hostel, but we eventually made it to a small place called Ai Quattro Canti. At first, walking up to the 3rd floor in a building such as this worried me.

When we finally arrived in our room, I quickly realized Ai Quattro Canti actually is a welcoming place for travelers with a friendly owner named Giuseppe. After three days at Giuseppe’s hostel, I highly recommend this place if you ever find yourself in Palermo.

Thanks to Giuseppe’s suggestions, we ate to our hearts’ content, took a daytrip out to Cefalu, visited the Catacomb and simply relaxed in the sun.

One of our nights there, Giuseppe personally took us out to dinner where we enjoyed a huge plate of pasta with mixed seafood, grilled fish, swordfish, prawns, tomato/olives/mozzarella salad and most importantly, an UNLIMITED supply of wine. Honestly, my mouth still waters just thinking about it.

Then who knew… Sicilians love their karaoke machines!

During the day, walking around Palermo gave us this strange feeling that we have not experience before. We have traveled to major cities Europe, such as Berlin, Paris and Brussels, and in all those cities, English helped us survive and order the right food just fine. In Palermo, however, Jack and I were total strangers to the locals. Too bad we didn’t know ANY Italian, whatsoever!

Even when we visited a gorgeous coastal town called Cefalu – about an hour away on the train from Palermo, sandy beaches served as a relaxing home to the locals, not tourists.

Clearly tourism hasn’t invaded Sicily too terribly. Subsequently, we did receive some elongated, yet curious, gaze from dark-haired Sicilians, but nevertheless, being complete foreigners taught us Sicily’s culture, cuisine and attitude quite effectively.

Speaking of unique Sicilian cuisine… Arancine was my personal favorite. How to describe it… A fried ball of rice with sometimes curry or sometimes cheese and prosciutto? All I can say is, DELICIOUS.

After a relaxing stay in Palermo, we took an early flight up to Rome, a bigger city, extremely different than Palermo. I still giggle when I say this, but we stayed at a hostel near Roma Termini, named FUNNY PALACE. I mean… how can you not chuckle just a little? Mabri, the owner, almost as cool as Giuseppe, told us absolutely everything about Rome, and upon learning we only had 1.5 days in that fabulous city, he mapped out a nice little tour route for us.

More importantly, he said, “Free breakfast tomorrow at a Cafe around the corner, just say you’re staying with Mabri.” Then he said, “The Pizzeria on the left, say you know me, 10% discount!” And when we looked at him in amazement, he topped it off with, “The restaurant right here, 15% discount!” Oh Mabri…

So we started our tour of Rome with a bus ride to the Vatican:

Gorgeous building. But just wait till you see the chapel… Not just a chapel, but the SISTINE CHAPEL. The ceiling boasts awesome artworks just like they say in books, articles and journals.

And I may or may not have taken a picture of this… Felt a bit rebellious since the guard there gave me such a hard time about my not-so-short shorts while letting in girls in skimpy dresses without a problem. FINE. BE THAT WAY. (Still angry? Use your own judgment).

Then we moved onto Pantheon…

Then my FAVORITE, Trevi Fountain. Probably the coolest fountain I will ever see. Kind of want it for my backyard. Is that a possibility? Rome, can we negotiate something?

Afterward, a wonderful picnic dinner at Spanish Steps! While watching the gorgeous sunset, we sat on the steps with wine, cheese, bread and prosciutto. Surely people walking by gave us funny, curious, approving looks, but we regardless loved our budget-friendly romantic dinner.

Walking around Rome for about eight hours nonstop did require quite a bit of energy because when we finally got back to our hostel at around 11 p.m., I’m pretty sure I was sound asleep at about 11:05 p.m. The next day, we woke up early to go see the Colosseum, Caesar’s gate, etc.

Ancient ruins and remnants of Roman architecture attracted so many tourist groups bright and early. We walked around, absorbed the sights, ate a gelato (obviously…) and hopped on our train to Florence.

Ahh Firenze… Much to say about that beautiful city, but for now, to be continued.

Paris Je T'aime

Even the second time around, Paris successfully won me over. The city of fashion, love, art, romance, lights… You name it. I spent the last weekend of March wandering around the capital of France, basically absorbing everything that is French – baguette, cheese, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and most importantly, the crêpes! (Does that surprise you at all?)

The first time I went to Paris was about two years ago, my freshman year spring break. I had spent three days in Amsterdam and three in Paris. Indeed it was a week jam-packed with sightseeing, eating and uh, a lot of typical college spring break characteristics. But I must say, I gained a bit more out of this second visit.

Instead of doing a bus tour, we did a 3+ hour walking tour – the same company that ran free tours in Dublin. We walked around everywhere. We wandered. We bought food from street stands. All in all, I feel we sufficiently experienced everything that is French.

First things first. The market. We arrived at our hotel a bit earlier than expected, which meant about 30 minutes of waiting time before we could check into our room. The nice lady at the hotel reception suggested we go walk around the nearby market for a bit, and of course, us hungry sleep-deprived tourists took her advice and headed out to the market. Maybe she read our minds because we definitely stumbled upon one of the best street markets I have ever visited. We found baguettes, cheese and fresh strawberries. Yum!

After enjoying our impromptu, yet delicious, breakfast/lunch, we headed out for St. Michel metro stop, the meeting point for the walking tour. I found the Paris metro to be fast, efficient, but smelly. Not sure why, but Paris streets and metro stops seemed to be infected to trash and stink… More so than London, Boston or Madrid.

Anyway… Our walking tour basically highlighted all the major sights of Paris and provided a bit of history as well. Not too surprisingly the tour took more than three hours, but simply walking around the city for that long made me fall in love with Paris even more. (But don’t you worry, still in love with London… and Berlin as well – You’ll see in my later post about my Easter weekend).

After St. Michel, we walked along the river until we reached Notre Dame. From there, we could see the Shakespeare book store and the police headquarters. Currently under renovation, the police headquarters building has a big screen with pictures of all sorts of people working there. My favorite, the Rollerblade guy.

With determination and focus as intense as that of that Roller-cop, we walked toward the Louvre. On our way, we walked past the very first stone bridge in Paris constructed under the direction of Henry IV and the narcotics control building, which contains the only wounds from World War II.

(the random black indented spots on the building are bullet holes from WWII)

Next up, the Louvre. Ah, the Louvre. The biggest museum ever. After walking through the plaza with the “invisible” pyramid, we strolled around the Tuileries Garden where we followed the Axis of Paris or Axis Historique (an imaginary line that contains all the major monuments and sights of Paris) that eventually led us to Obelisk, a big monument basically stolen by Napoleon from Egypt (it’s really… NBD). From there, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and begin walking along Champs d’Elysee.

Simply, what a gorgeous walk! By the end of the tour, we had walked by or seen the Little Palace, the Big Palace, the Invalides, Joan of Arc and many more. Afterward, we spoiled ourselves even more by well, first, stopping by an Irish pub for refreshments and heading up to Sacre Coeur for this:

From there not only can you indulge in this view of Paris but also enjoy impromptu dance or music performances put on by the locals. Honestly I’m not exactly sure where in the world we conjured up energy to continue on to Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, but we did it.

I have to say the way to conclude a day in Paris is definitely going to the top of the Eiffel Tower – despite it being extremely windy due to its height and scary altogether – and walking around the Bastille area for some good Shwarma and people-watching. While the first day was filled with romantic and historic sights, the second day was rather different and unique – THE CATACOMBS. When Jack first tried to explain to me what visiting the Catacombs entailed, I couldn’t exactly get the complete picture of it. The exhibit, located about 100 steps below the ground, contains a mass grave. Hmm… a mass grave? Under Paris? Yes. You enter the exhibit near one metro stop, and you come out about 2-3 metro stops south of your original entrance.

During your journey underground, you walk through something like this:

A bit spooky. A bit cool. A bit weird. Thousands, no millions, possibly billions of skulls and bones are stacked up quite nicely on both sides of the hall away that intertwines in the darkness for about 45 minutes. Some are even arranged in heart shapes or cross!

Naturally, after the Catacombs visit, we went straight for some delicious crêpes. Yum. Then stopped by the Louvre for some Mona Lisa viewing and headed toward Gare du Nord for dinner with our friend Devon, which finally concluded our short weekend in Paris. I honestly couldn’t have asked for better company and a better city for this lovely weekend trip! Take me back soon? 😉