Finally, we made it to sunshine and the beach in Europe! We hopped over to the Baleric Islands for Memorial Day Weekend and went to an all inclusive resort in Mallorca, Spain. It was great. We basically moved from one lounge chair to the next with cava, sangria, or a fruity drink in our hands. I even received a beach side massage for 10 Euro!!! And naturally we ate WAY too much. Can you believe the view? It was like a dream. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the same view day after day.
Main reason I chose this hotel. Plenty of cute tiki hut umbrellas for the reflective one.
Gran Camp de Mar Hotel
One thing that I have struggled with since the passing of my nephew is happiness bringing sadness. I think of him, I think of my sister and brother-in-law, my nieces and nephews, and I think about how his life was snatched away. The whole trip I imagined him being there with us and thought of him sitting in the beach chair next to us. It's simple I miss him and what his future held. I recently received my most prized possession in the mail. It's an imprint of his fingerprint. I've decided to wear it to all of our destinations, so I can have him with me exploring new cities.
The reflective one
I hope you enjoyed the view. The only tip I have for visiting this island is know what you want to do. There is a ton of hiking, caves, and beaches to explore. Taxi's are pretty pricey due to the long distance covered (our resort was 45 minutes from the Ryanair airport). We knew we didn't want to leave the resort for the vacation and needed all the sun and relaxation we could get, but if you want to be more adventurous book a rental car before you arrive. You can get cheap deals if you pre-book for the weekend. We can't wait to go back and explore the island! I'll leave you with a few more pictures in case you can't get enough like me!
As a child I always dreamed of making it to this mysterious city that was created on water where the main mode of transportation is water. How can it be? My grandparents had gone when I was younger and have pictures hanging in their house. I would always gaze at them and dream about visiting. Who knew that it would actually happen! After I got back from the states with my heart still raw with pain, I just wanted to get away. Preferably I wanted to go to the beach and relax, but in early April all of the European beaches are still iffy on the sun level. We pondered for a while and came up with Venice as a nice relaxing city to explore. And that it was. This city wasn't jammed packed with sights to see and was completely a way to get away and relax. I'll always remember Venice for its peacefulness.
I'm happy to report that I have a lot of pictures to hang around our home one day.
**How we got there** This was our first Ryanair flight. It was a complete success for our trip to Venice, and we are now on the Ryanair bandwagon. Normally we fly out of Frankfurt international airport. This includes somewhat of a trek for us: First we walk 15 minutes to the bahnhof (usually at a fast walk - run pace because we're late), then we take a 45 minute train ride to a bustling airport with packed security lines (we could drive but parking is pretty expensive at this airport, and a train ride from Wiesbaden costs around 4 Euro each way). Ryanair airlines is a 45 minute drive away, and has cheap parking (€7 a day), and wasn't a bustling airport at all. It made for a much more relaxing experience the day of our trip. The Ryanair flight to Venice lands 45 minutes away from Venice, and a shuttle bus (with A/C) for €18 round trip takes you directly there. We bought our tickets for the bus on the flight. This was so easy because they accepted a credit card. We were a bit skeptical when no one else was buying the bus tickets on the flight, but when we got off we noticed everyone standing around ticket kiosks for the same price. Oh, and flying with Ryanair means you have to pack light, but this is the whole reason we gifted ourselves backpacks before our European adventure.
Yay, it fits! Plus, now Ryanair lets you carry a small personal item like a large purse!
**Where to stay** If you've attempted to plan a vacation to Venice, you know that the hotels are ridiculously priced. We planned this trip two weeks before, and were left with either really pricey hotels or not so nice hotels. With little options left, we decided to go with a hotel that had a shared bathroom. I know, gross, right? Well, the hotel had amazing reviews, and Sam and I are minimalists, so we though what the heck we can save an extra €75 we might as well. Plus this hotel only charged a €1 Venice tax (per person per night) while others were charging €12. We decided if any trip this would be the one to go cheap on a hotels, since the city is so expensive. We stayed at Hotel Dalla Mora, and it was a fantastic experience. It was also the only hotel I could find with a canal view, and so worth it! We never came close to seeing the other couple that shared the bathroom down the hall, and it was always spotless. This hotel was also a five minute walk from where the Ryanair bus dropped us off, and not located on the touristy side of town. We probably walked 20 minutes to St. Mark's Square from here, but we took all of the travel guide books suggestions and got "lost in Venice". Also, if you book in advance they have rooms with bathrooms for only €110!
Our hotel and canal view!
Our first day out we just wandered a bit and found ourselves on the Grand Canal staring at the Rialto Bridge with our mouths open in awe.
View of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge
**Tip** This was our first trip using the TripAdvisor City Guides App. It allows you to predownload the city you are visiting and have tons of information at your fingertips while not using data/WiFi. Download it now and check it out. You can also create an itinerary of your trip by checking in at locations you visit, so you can share it with friends that visit the city later. Such a great idea!
Just a few pictures from around town. Top left to right: 1. Venice Jazz Club canal 2. Venitian flag with the lion of St. Mark. Bottom left to right: 4. Canal 5. Venice is a huge destination for Carnival, so there are elaborately decorated masks everywhere. 6. Mary statue located in a small corner along a canal.
St Mark's Cathedral is gorgeous and has a mixture of architecture. Rick Steve's says it best, "You'll see Roman style arches over the doors, Greek style columns alongside, Byzantine style mosaics, French Gothic pinnacles on the roofline, and topping the church the onion-shaped domes that hint at the Islamic world. All these plundered elements are only appropriate for a church built on the bones of a stolen saint". Amazing, right? St. Mark's remains were stolen/rescued from Alexandria, Egypt in 828, seven centuries after his death. They cleverly hid his remains in a pork barrel and brought him to Venice!
I'm sad that they were restoring the outside during our visit.
The golden Byzantine style mosaics inside were gorgeous!
Saint Mark's square is the famous square where tons of movies have been filmed: The Italian Job, Casino Royale, and Just Married to name a few. I can't imagine how much it must have cost to get them to allow tiny mini coopers running all over this square!
Sometimes between autumn and spring, the tide peaks in the Adriatic sea and St. Mark's square is covered in water.
Famous St. Mark's pigeons
My very own Casanova courtesy of a lost sunscreen bottle.
Islamic onion-domed architecture
15th Century clock tower
Next door is Dodge's (Duke) Palace (where the Venetian ruler stayed). This was the most popular half acre in all of Europe from 1150 - 1550. People couldn't believe how the Venetians could live without a king, bishop, or tyrant. Notice it's unlike any other medieval city in Germany with a castle or wall surrounding the city.
Dodge's Palace - "The Wedding Cake, " or "The Pink House"
One of our favorite things we did was people watch in St. Mark's square. Make sure you drink a few glasses of wine at a cafe and take in the sights.
I told Sam that the Bridge of Sighs was named that because so many people thought it was gorgeous and just sighed when they saw it. Not true. In reality it is the last bridge that convicts in Venice saw before their imprisonment. Prisoners would sigh at their last view of the beautiful city. It is one of the most photographed bridges in the world though. Look at it, you're sighing right now, aren't you?
Legend has it that kissing at sunset on a gondola ride while passing under the bridge with the bells from St. Mark's Campanile ringing is supposed to grant eternal love and bliss. If all of that aligns, then it has to be true!
We ate way too much food! Carb after carb after carb entered our bellies. We generally tried to eat more toward our hotel because it seemed like more locals were eating in the area, and everything around St. Mark's square seemed too touristy. Except at Alfredo's Fresh Pasta To Go (#2 restaurant on TripAdvisor!). It was so good and a great price. It isn't a sit down restaurant, but we enjoyed sitting on a bridge nearby and watching the gondolas ride by while devouring our pasta. I enjoyed tasting authentic lasagna for the first time. We noticed that the lasagna had less marinara sauce, and lots of cheese...yum! The seafood pasta was also a must. It was delicious!
Can we go back? I need more pasta, cheese, and wine!
TripAdvisor says that the Venice Jazz Club is a must see, and we wanted to try something different, so we reserved a table and were not disappointed. Well, the food is disappointing but even the staff tells you that they are not a restaurant over and over. Take some extra time and eat at a cafe in the cool and trendy area nearby. The same night we visited the club, a musician named Pete Cornell was visiting Venice and asked if he could play with the band that night. He plays the tenor-saxaphone. Coincidence? I think not. I closed my eyes and knew Trevor was playing for me that night.
Row, row, row your boat!
So much boat traffic! Exactly how I pictured Venice
I was on a mission to take all modes of water transportation while in Venice. A vaparetto is like a water bus on the Grand Canal. We took this all the way from the train station to Saint Mark's square. It took about 45 mins, and we listened to Rick Steve's audio tour of important sights along the way (If you don't have the Rick Steve's audio Europe App, Download it ASAP. You never have to lug the books with you again!). Next we took a traghetto ride. This is a gondola that you stand in and cross the Grand Canal. Mostly locals use it, so they don't have to walk all the way to Rialto Bridge to cross. This was difficult to find, and less exciting to be honest. But we had a fun adventure finding it. Last but certainly not least was the gondola ride. Every girl's dream! It was pricey but so worth it! It felt like we were gliding on the water, and it was so peaceful. We tried to get as close to the cutoff time when prices go up for sunset as we could, and we also did the ride closer to our hotel. We noticed during the day around the tourist attractions that there would be a gondola train. That's not romantic at all.
My favorite is the gondolier on his cell phone. Hahaha!
So many gorgeous canals
We passed our hotel on the gondola ride!
Smooch, because how many times in your life are you on a gondola in Venice?
Take a ride with us on the vaparetto and hear an opera singer singing for gondola riders. These tourists knew what they were doing. They had three gondolas and one opera singer. An opera singer costs around €50 on top of your €80 gondola ride (that's before sunset, prices go up after), so why not share it between your friends!
Here is a clip at the Venice Jazz Club. Close your eyes like I did and enjoy the music.
It's been ten long months of filling out job applications weekly, trying to gently hound my contact at Abbott laboratories in Wiesbaden, career fairs, and reaching out to every friend with a potential job contact (a heartfelt thanks to all of my amazing friends for your help). While I've enjoyed the vacation / sabbatical / break, this was never my intent. I miss being a contributing member of society. Plus this past Thursday I peaked as a haus Frau with my greatest accomplishment in 10 months being getting a red wine stain out of my favorite shirt of Sam's. Don't get me wrong my days filled with blogging, friend lunch dates, DIY projects, watching Sam's trials, traveling, and walking the pup have been great, and I know how lucky I am to have had this time. Especially, since God knows everything and clearly inhibited me from getting a job this whole time, so I would be able to stay for a month with my sister and her family during the loss of my sweet nephew. I will be forever grateful that I didn't have to battle with the thought of going back to Germany too early for a job.
Well, the good news is that one of those job applications finally came through. While, it's nothing close to what I really wanted to do with my Ph.D (research infectious diseases and make an impact on the world), it is a job opportunity in Germany. Not on the economy, but on the Army post. I'll be an adjunct professor for the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). For those of you who don't know what an adjunct professor is, it's basically a part time professor who teaches and receives no benefits (i.e. you make a small amount of money). I'll be teaching face-to-face at nights, twice a week, for three hours at a time. Yay, I'll still time for my friend lunches, travel, and filling out job applications (yes, I still have remnants of hope for getting a real job)!
The good new is I'll interact with soldiers and their family members, while using my brain, hallelujah! The closest I've gotten these past few months to science is making Jello (not gonna lie, I swirled it around and looked for small translucent particles floating around like you would while making an agarose gel. I almost put it in the microwave because I missed it so much...haha, don't judge me). Enough about that, I will be making a difference in people's lives and if that's not contributing to society, I don't know what is. It also opens up the potential to qualify me for teaching online through the university, which will give me a job anywhere we move in the future.
Tomorrow's my first day, so wish me luck and pray that I have three hours of material prepared, eek!
I'd like to label this post "Ich spreche Deutsch super," mostly because I love that Germans still use the word super in 2014, but it wouldn't be true. However, I can speak enough Deutsch to get me through everyday activities. I wish I could relay to you the excitement I had on my first day out shopping and not having to say the words "Sprechen sie Englisch?" While that is a Deutsch phrase it's literally feels like I'm saying, "Hi, I'm a stupid American and haven't tried to learn your language yet" insert face of shame here -->___.
The school is actually the best thing I've done with my time here in Germany. It is a must do if you are spending more than a year in Germany. Looking back on it, I wish I would have started earlier! Even if you're working all day they have classes available at night a few days a week too.
The cheapest course books I've ever bought, and my bookbag. I'm sure the non-English speakers think English is such a weird language now. Thanks Jen, Annie, and Nicole!
I'm taking the course through Volkshochschule in Mainz because my amazing new friend Colleen is on a sabbatical and said she was taking it, so I decided to join. I'm so grateful that she moved to Germany because I'm not sure I would have actually taken the course by myself. I've heard from friends that the Mainz course is a lot younger crowd because of the university nearby, and the one in Wiesbaden has more Americans. I'm happy I took the Mainz course because taking a class where over half of the people don't speak English really makes you immerse yourself in the language (I know, living in Germany just isn't enough, right?). Each day when we learned how to ask new questions I end up learning so many new facts about my classmates. I LOVED it! It has given me such a great, new perspective on life. My classmates are from: Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine. Crazy, right? One of my favorite days was learning how to sing Happy Birthday in German to Colleen! We had a Funfetti cake, and most of the people from other countries had never had it (I just checked the box for major contribution to society, don't you think?). We had fun feeling like we were in 3rd grade again sitting around and eating cake from paper plates.
Colleen about to blow out her candles!
Reasons why you MUST take this course:
You learn enough Deutsch in the first course to buy food at the markets, order at a restaurant, and shop in all of your favorite stores.
It only cost 255€ for an intensive 5 week course that meets 3 hours a day. This includes a bus and train pass good for 2 hours before and after the course lets out. Sadly, they wouldn't take a VAT form (I had to try!).
The course books cost about 8€ a piece! This is cents compared to my $200+ used science books back in college.
You meet some pretty amazing people from around the world, and get out of your small American-military bubble!
Signing up for the course:
Walk into the Volkshochschule building and tell them you would like to take the Deutsch als Zweitsprache A1/1 - intensive course. They will more than likely give you a sheet of paper with hours on it for you to come back and assess your German knowledge with a teacher (I know it sucks to make two trips, but you can do it).
After you show that you don't know any German words, the teacher will then say you qualify for the beginner course.
Take your approval form to the front desk and pay (bring cash, yup this place doesn't like your fancy card either).
Unfortunately, circumstances out of my control caused me to only take three out of the five weeks of the course, but even with three weeks I feel more confident while speaking Deutsch. I'll leave you with a small video of me speaking Deutsch, so you can see how far you can come after one course!
A gallery wall? I know, I'm so late in the game with adding one to our home. Especially for a picture / memory freak like me, right? Well, after several months of trying to decide my layout and find the perfect accents for the wall, it's finally here.
It all started when I saw this entryway in a Real Simple magazine and HAD to have it. I also wasn't fond of tracking dirt all over our tiny apartment. Has anyone else noticed that with a smaller place you see ALL the dirt? I think it's because there's not enough far off places for the dirt to scurry off to. So, the hunt was on for a bench and decor for our giant blank wall.
You have to have it, right?
Bench
I had dreams of finding a nice authentic bench made in Germany, but after a few dud trips and a lot of dirt being tracked in our home I headed to the local Ikea and bought a bench in a box. Sam and I swore we would never buy anything again that had to be put together after he moved into his first townhouse and we managed to effectively put everything together wrong (Go figure eight years of combined post undergraduate degrees and we still can't follow directions). We even managed to think that Target sold us stools without hardware and went out and bought all the parts (Don't worry, we found them later and have a few 100 extra screws/nuts/bolts if you need them). Later that day, we got to the last step of putting the grill together and realized that we had to take it all apart to do it the right way. So much for grilling out for dinner that night. We ended the night with overly salty hot dogs from Sonic (welcome to Clarksville and adulthood where you have just enough money to buy stuff from a box). Anyhow, since I wasn't doing too much with my days when we first moved here I decided that I could waste a day away putting a bench together ten different times if I needed to.
"You know we went to Ikea, I bought a bed bench, put the bed bench together myself"
Gallery wall
The idea for my gallery wall all started when I found this little moose head at the Depot (my favorite store in Germany). I only really knew these were cool because my sister-in-love said faux taxidermy was all the rage this past winter. It came unfinished, so I painted it and added a cute little pattern.
If I can do it, you can do it!
I started with all of the picture frames that we didn't hang in our home after the move to Germany. I threw in some 4x6 frames and added a little gold paint to accent the corners. This arrangement felt too big.
The idea was to mirror the left side to the right...too many holes, right?
This made me feel better, but it still seemed like it would overwhelm the space on the wall, and let's be honest, do we really need three 8x10 wedding pictures on one wall?
I finally remembered to check my folder that I keep filled with old magazine pages that I tear out of ideas for home decor. I usually do this before I recycle my old magazines. It helps me not be a hoarder of 50,000 magazines because I like three or four ideas in them. I know, I know, everything is digital now, but I haven't quite figured out how to just like a page on my digital version and compile them.
How fitting that my bench came from Ikea, and I ended up modeling my gallery wall after this advertisement.
Ahhh, this look a bit better, right? The different sized frames and symmetry of the circles throughout help give it some "gel" to hold the whole arrangement together.
Hanging
Okay, so since I'm really bad at committing to putting 1000 holes in the hall, I decided to put some newspapers up on the wall in the same layout. After 20 minutes of looking at it from every angle in our tiny apartment (i.e. the hallway, dining room, doorway, which are all in our living room) and sitting on the bench to see if the height was okay, I was committed. We actually found that the newspaper made it easier to hang the photos.
Our boot tray was really doing its job that day.
Entryway accessories
The bag that I bought from a Thirty-One party last year fits perfectly under the bench and holds winter gear, and the boot tray came from my amazing mom who bought it locally at Target and shipped it over. Target does ship to APO, but the estimated date of arrival was two months later. I couldn't wait that long. I NEEDED it now, so my mom gave in to my neediness and shipped it on over within the week. Love Her! Don't you love the copper boot tray? The price was hard to beat and the copper really adds a hint of regal-ness. Don't you think? I added the gray accent rug because I'm trying to add more gray into my color scheme, and it helps bring together the drum shade light fixture located five feet away in the living room.
All together
So, what do you think? Are you in love with it as much as I am? I told my hubs every day for a week how happy I was to just look at it and thanked him for being an expert picture hanger (positive reinforcement for my next project). I also love being able to see the smiling faces of our family members. The fact that it's not difficult to switch out the photos with new memories every few months makes me happy too. Although some pictures will never change like the one of all of my nieces and nephews together frozen in a moment in time.
Final touch of Emmie dog to have my Real Simple entryway :)
