Polish Wedding (& a few hours in Berlin!)

When Christian and I studied abroad in Finland, we weren't the only exchange students who met and fell in love. Our favorite travel buddies Denis (French exchange student) & Emma (a local Finn! aka Denis' souvenir from Finland) were another couple and Bob (Dutch exchange student) & Agnieszka (Polish exchange student) were too. 

Considering 3 couples came out of our semester abroad in Finland, we're convinced Lappeenranta is the place for love <3.

Anywho, just a few weeks ago...our dear friends Bob and Agnieszka got married!! It was a no-brainer that we were definitely going to travel East to Poland for the wedding. 

Christian flew out a few days early to hang out with his best friend (who lives in Wroclaw) and I came out later via overnight train (I love trains!). I left The Netherlands and 9 hours later I woke up in Poznan :). Shortly after, Christian and his friends arrived too. 

It was only a quick weekend in Poznan but we were able to squeeze in some Polish nightlife and chilling in the sun. Once wedding day came, we walked to the church and oh myyyy what an elaborate church it was!! At the reception, we toasted to the bride and groom, pigged out on a table full of Polish food, sipped on chilled vodka (there was a bottle at every table!) and well...later in the night, did some more pigging out...on a roasted pig! It was incredible and met every expectation I had about the sheer awesomeness of a Polish wedding (and it was in THREE languages: Dutch, Polish and English). 

It was quite incredible to be able to study with these two as they fell for each other then to be able to be a part of their wedding day.

The next day, I had to head back to Amsterdam pretty early. I had no complaints though because I flew out of Berlin and, after taking the 3-hour Warsaw-Berlin Express, I had a few hours to kill before my flight. Two words: Prater Biergarten! I loved this place when we first visited Berlin years ago and just knew I had to return--and I'm so happy I did. I'm now convinced that no pre-flight meal is better than a German bratwurst, kartoffelsalat (potato salad) and a couple white beers (carb overload anyone?) in a shady biergarten! But when in Rome...errrr Berlin, right?

TIPS

*Drink a beer at Brovaria brewery in Stary Rynek (Poznan's main square). I got the beer sampler--delicious!

*Walk into a vodka bar for a quick shot between bar-hopping (only 4 zlotys or 1 EUR)

*Rent an apartment near the main square, there are tons to choose from--we booked via Air BnB (we are big Air BnB fans)

Artsy Late-night Parties at Tacheles, Berlin

After Julia and Smitty bought their tickets to come to Amsterdam, I knew we had to squeeze in at least one city trip to another place. Early on in Smitty’s 3-month stay, we escaped for a week in paradise and island-hopped in Greece. But when the three of us get together, we’re usually looking for something pretty crazy, really fun and totally out of the norm. Christian and I had a great time in Berlin with his family one summer—the vibe, the biergartens, and cool, alternative neighborhoods had me itching to dig deeper! I had decided that the next best place that I would live in Europe other than Amsterdam would most certainly be Berlin. And so I had it…the three of us decided to jetset off to Berlin for the weekend! My friend Fiona joined us too and we looked forward to a weekend filled with outdoor bars, a subculture walking tour and spending long hours at Prater.  Our first night in Berlin involved munching on some pho at Monsieur Vuong and bar-hopping in Kreuzberg…until 5AM and we planned on that night being the low-key night…haha.

The next day…it rained…a lot…the entire weekend actually—so any plans outdoors got nixed :(. Fortunately, a friend of a friend referred us to Tacheles, an old squatted art gallery that was a must see which allowed us to see a bit of the alternative Berlin and escape the rain. And it was literally just down the street from where we stayed—The Circus Hostel. After spending a few hours wandering the graffiti-covered hallways, we noticed they had a party that evening, with DJs all night (until 12:30PM THE NEXT DAY!) and a ‘whopping’ 2-3 EUR ‘by donation only’ cover charge—score! So within a few hours we were back at Tacheles. We planned on kicking off the night at Tacheles and continuing on to the famous Berghain. Because we had heard Berghain was strict with cameras, we left ours behind and had no pictures from the night—but the memories are still there. As soon as we walked in, the graffiti-covered walls was illuminated by lights, the bar had cheap beer and Jagermeister and the hallways and stairwell were strewn with hipsters, drinkers, party-goers and young tourists lookin’ to get their dance on. The DJs were some of the best we had heard! For 3 EUR. Let’s just say we quickly forgot about our Berghain plan and did the short walk back to our hostel at a ‘reasonable’ 7AM.

Our crazy night in Tacheles…more like ENTIRE weekend in Tacheles often has us reminiscing and saying ‘Hey…remember Tacheles?’ Which is usually followed by a sneaky smile, a smirk and a giggly ‘YES!'. Sadly, I've heard Tacheles is nearly gone now...but that there are several initiatives to keep it up and running! ::FINGERS CROSSED!::

Party all night in Berlin: CHECK! I’d love to go back and do it all over again.

Roadtrip!! Belgium & Germany

Yay my parents are in town! They arrived 10 days ago and together with Christian, his dad and I, we explored Normandy, Paris for Mother’s Day (last year my mom flew out last-minute and we spent Mother’s Day in Venice!), Tuscany and Rome. Now I’m enjoying the last weekend with them--Christian and my dad are trying to fix his boat and me, my mom and a bottle of wine are doing some wedding planning :). No complaints here!

I’ll have some pics from our trip soon but here are a few from my parent’s first trip out to visit us. They were actually our very first visitors when we moved to Amsterdam nearly 4 years ago. I finally got to introduce my parents to my favorite city—Amsterdam—and show them the University of Amsterdam, the Grad school I’d be attending and they got to meet Christian’s family in Maastricht. Christian’s dad was so accommodating, he took us for a roadtrip around some WW2 monuments and windmills, we visited Bruges, Belgium, and we hopped over to Trier, Germany, seeing some small German towns and castles along the way.

Looking for a fun weekend trip from Amsterdam? Check out gezellig (that’s cozy in Dutch) Maastricht, cute little Bruges, or do some German castle-hunting to Cochem Castle and Burg Eltz. My parents still talk about how fun that trip was :).

Have a great weekend! We’re enjoying my mom’s home-cookin’ and my dad’s silly jokes…

{Bruges, Belgium}

{Half Moon Brewery in Bruges!}

{Burg Eltz castle, Germany}

{Cochem Castle}

{Trier, Germany}

::Friday Link-up:: Five Reasons to go to a European music festival

One of the best things about summer are the FESTIVALS!! With Coachella in full-swing back home in California and me oh-so-anxious for summer to arrive, I’ve been researching European festivals this summer almost religiously.


Almost every weekend during summer, there are literally hundreds of festivals going on around Europe at any given time ranging from small, local parties to large, commercial DANCE parties. Electric Picnic in Ireland, rock-festival Rock Werchter in Belgium, Roskilde in Denmark or Hurricane in Germany, Sonar by the sea in Barcelona and on sailboats at Soundwave Croatia, up and coming Exit Festival in Serbia, a crazy-month-long festival called Kazantip in Ukraine (word on the street is that Christian’s friends are taking him here for his bachelor party…lucky duck!), the ultra famous Glastonbury in the UK and ofcourse some local ones in Holland—Loveland, Lowlands and Mysteryland, which often have swingsets, arts and crafts and boats to lounge in. The list goes on and on! I'm envisioning walking into a wooded forest in Norway or Sweden and finding a bustling Midsummer Party in full-swing under the midnight sun…I’m still trying to find if these exist ;)

European festivals are sometimes much cheaper than American festivals, attract the same talent (and artists that America knows nothing about yet!), with less rules and I see just as many people sipping on water as they are sipping on beer—they’re just there for the atmosphere...the festivals are that fun! I’ve been lucky to add a few different music festivals under my belt and loved each of them—Dance Valley in Holland, I Love Techno in Belgium and the iconic Love Parade in Germany.

Today I’m linking up with Ellen over at Company of Clever for 5 simple reasons why you should check out a European music festival this summer:

1. Enjoy the great outdoors! Parties and festivals in Europe usually happen in the summer which means the sun will just barely start going down around 10PM…yep, that’s right, lots and lots of sunshine! (Unless you’re in the Netherlands…then it’s hit or miss). 

2. Meet new friends from ALL over the world. It’s incredible how much music, beer and good ol’ fashioned fun brings strangers together.

3. Learn some new artists and DJs AND experience a new country.

4. Be amazed. Plenty of European festivals have roller coasters, outdoor lounge bars, arts 'n crafts (yes arts 'n crafts!) and NO curfews. Relish in the wonderment of FREEDOM in an adult playground...Europeans not only know how to throw a good party, but their own police force find a way to manage festivals (because they know people are gonna do it anyway!). What does this mean? A go-with-the-flow mentality!

5. DANCE!!!! All day and all night. 

{Dance Valley, Amsterdam, Netherlands}

{Love Parade, Germany}

Yeaaaaaa a festival on an old freight yard gets a little bit dirty...

....ok really dirty....

Lesson learned: don't wear sandals to a festival held at the site of an old freight yard...yes people were taking pictures of my feet...SICK! But mission accomplished ;)

{I Love Techno, Ghent, Belgium}

Lastly, BE SAFE! The Love Parade was indefinitely cancelled after tragedy struck.Go with a group of friends, watch each other and assess the situation at all times. Dance and party responsibly!