Verliebt in Berlin

Back in the beginning of Nena's career (think 99 Luftballons), the time when Kreuzberg was inhabited only by punks in the early 1980s, my parents were living in Berlin. They were about my age at the time and were away from their families and were lucky enough to find many great friends there. They eventually got married in Berlin and my sister was even born there! Their lives really began together there and it's always had a special place in my heart because of the memories they share from their early days there.

 
Fast forward 20 years, I was lucky enough to visit Berlin with my fellow CB/PPP exchange students. Unfortunately, on that trip I got bit by a spider and had an allergic reaction that led to a trip to the very hospital my sister where my sister was born, in Kreuzberg. I didn't get the chance to see any of the major sites in the city because of the dang bite and I've wanted to go back there ever since.

Pre-bite visiting the Bundestag with great friends and fellow exchange students ;)

A while back, I started reading Nicole is the New Black, an American expat in Berlin's blog about life abroad. I love reading her point of view as a solo female traveler and about life in Berlin in general. Through her, I read about Travels of Adam. It was perfect timing as I saw his post about a giveaway for a weekend in Berlin. Amazingly enough, I commented and tweeted about the contest and I won! Out of the 422 entries I was the winner, and I'm so freaking excited about it! I'll be going for the weekend at the end of this month thanks to Roomsurfer.

Roomsurfer is yet another accommodation website, but with a hipster twist. The website uses your Facebook profile to match you with a potential host in whichever city you’re looking to visit. So if you like a certain type of music, you’ll be connected with potential hosts with similar tastes. It’s a unique way to get to know new people. With airlines already using Facebook to match passengers with seatmates, social-media profiling (is that the right way to word it, I don’t know?!) is only going to increase in the travel industry. And Roomsurfer is on its way up.
It’s a lot like CouchSurfing, but with Roomsurfer you’re paying for a host. Whereas I may spend hours (or days) writing and trying to organize a host on CouchSurfing, Roomsurfer does all the hard work for you. Finding a potential host could finally be a lot easier! (From Travels of Adam)

To be perfectly honest, when I found out I won, the first thing I said to T-Slav is that all of my blog followers are gonna hate me and think, "Why does this girl get all the fun?" But believe me, it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. I was really missing my family and having an "I'm sick of Zagreb" moment and complaining when I checked my e-mail and saw that I won the trip! The other thing is, you can be doing this too! You really can! It's important to do the things you really want to do and live your life. What are you waiting for?! I have wanted to take advantage of the fact that I live here and try to see as much as I possibly can (on a budget) and I'm getting the chance to finally visit Berlin again, attend the Room Surfer launch party on April 28th, and really live out my dreams. All thanks to this awesome giveaway on a really cool blog! How cool is that?

So, I encourage you to write down all of the things you really want to do and see in your life and start to do them. Start small or big, take a day trip on the weekend, start painting, enter a contest! Do something that scares you. Seriously, try it and feel alive. Even if that something is starting to exercise or starting a blog or who knows what! I'll be sure to tell you all about my weekend in Berlin but I'd love to hear about what kinds of things you'd love to do. What is your number one dream destination?
 

From PA to Zagreb!

Yayyyyy!!!  

We are SUPER EXCITED to share the news that we're going to be filming an episode of 

Big, huge thanks to first of all, my amazing sister, Dominika, for urging me to start this blog, without which we wouldn't have gotten approached to be on the show! Not only do I love writing my blog, it's really fun for me, but it's also the reason why we'll get to be on the show. This awesome producer, Michelle, found my blog and left me a comment on here and we started corresponding about our story and they thought we'd be a really great fit. 

Then, our lovely friends, Sarah and Jan, filmed us running around Zagreb showing our favorite things so that the other producers and network could see what we're really like. They loved the video (despite my horrible editing and file compressing efforts) and notified us that we'll be featured on the show! I've been a huge fan of the show and it's literally like a dream come true that we'll get to be on it. I'm so excited, it's gonna be a really fun experience for us! If you haven't seen the show before House Hunters International is a half-hour program currently airing on the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV) in America. The series is designed to de-mystify the international home-buying process by going behind the scenes of a house hunt where expats and their real estate agents tour 3 homes. At its core, House Hunters International is a travel show concentrating on the idiosyncrasies of the locales and what makes them special and different.

You can watch an example of the show here. (California to Vienna)

If you want to check out the video we made, you can see it here:

 

If this video doesn't work, the producers put our video up here. Check it out! P.S. Our friends who helped film the video, Sarah and Jan, can be seen having a coffee with T-Slav in the video :) Thank you thank you everybody!

Problems you may face while planning an American/European wedding in Europe:

SAVE THE DATES: how to write the date! This is a serious concern because if you found the perfect save the date style that you love, but it only has room for writing the date with numbers (like 6/9/2012), the problem is that half of your guests will assume the wedding is in June and the other half will think it's in September!

GUEST LIST: With that comes the guest list, in general. It's so difficult to figure out who and how many people to invite. With us, we would obviously love all of our friends and family to attend but we understand with the very far travel, it's just not possible. Our venue is very small so we actually can't invite too many people, although we would like for them to be there. We just don't want anyones' feelings to get hurt or for them to feel rejected in any way but it's just hard. We also can't assume that people won't come because it's in Zagreb because who knows, maybe EVERYONE will come since Croatia is just that awesome :) I just want everyone to have our Save the Date because I'm proud of them and I think they're really cute.

MUSIC CHOICES: To circle dance or not to circle dance? I'm slowly but surely letting go of my childhood American wedding dreams and accepting that this is truly gonna be a Cro wedding: our style and its gonna be amazing! It's so hard to choose whether to have a band or DJ, although we'd really prefer a DJ but finding an English speaking, awesome and pumped up wedding DJ in Zagreb is proving to be difficult. Please let us know if you know of anyone!

Wedding planning isn't as easy breezy as you might think it is but through it all, we just keep reminding ourselves to not stress out and think about the important things, like that we will be married after the whole wedding is over. Thankfully T-Slav reminds me to take lots of deep breaths to calm down. I'm just excited to show my family Zagreb and to be T's wifey :)

P.S. The picture is from our wedding venue which is right on the Main Square in Zagreb so there's a fantastic view from the window behind me! Love it.

Live to travel? Travel to live!

It might be totally cliche or obvious or whatever, but I really love to travel. I love the feeling of being in a new place, especially one I've never been to before and the rush, the excitement, even the confusion it all brings! It must have began when I was little and my parents would bring us back to Poland (from PA). I find it so interesting to hear about what I was like when I was little, how frustrated I got being in Poland and not understanding my family speak Polish around me. It's hard for me to imagine NOT wanting to speak another language, but apparently I was really against speaking Polish for a while. After that trip, I vowed to speak only in Polish with my parents so that the next time we went to Poland, I would be ready.

And ready I was, am, and always will be! I'm sort of obsessed with learning other languages. Going to Germany for CBYX  was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm so glad I got to go at such a young age (15/16 for one year, living with a host family, adapting to life in a foreign country, with a foreign language, and a new and different school system). It taught  me so much, about myself and about the world and about other cultures. It really helped shape my future and I'm so thankful to have had that amazing year in Bayern.

Anyway, I could talk about this sort of thing forever because I'm so passionate about it and really believe that young people should experience life abroad to allow themselves to learn, immerse themselves in another culture and grow and mature with that. The other thing I wanted to mention is that even if you are on a serious budget, you can still find ways to travel. Believe me, you really can! As a high school student, I obviously didn't have money to travel so I'm really thankful that I found out about that scholarship. There are tons of scholarship opportunities, especially for college students so you just have to do some research (early!) so that you know what the requirements are for certain scholarships. Here are some other ways that you can travel on the cheap, or ways to make money while traveling!

1.  Be a caretaker (basically, a professional house sitter): If you're interested in getting paid to take care of someones home/pets or perhaps even a hostel or bed  and breakfast, definitely check out this very informative article here. It's a great way to earn money while experience life in a new place, if you're up for it.
2. Teach! Teach what you know, whether it be teaching English (or another language you may know). Depending on what country you are in, you may not need a teaching degree to teach the English language. Tutoring is always a great way to earn some extra dough, and you can find a tutoring gig by posting on local forums or at the local university. Also if you have any special skills like playing the guitar, that's something else you could potentially teach!
3. Along the lines of music, become a busker. If you have an instrument and a talent, you can earn some serious cash if you find an area that gets a lot of foot traffic!
4.  Become a tour guide. Find out anything and everything about the city you are hoping to go to, or that you live in. Learn everything you can about the historical aspect and be ready for questions that anyone might want to know. You can plan your own tour of the town and advertise your services then. It's a bonus if you speak several languages, but if you have a friendly and outgoing personality, you may be able to start your own 'business.' Or, seek out a tour agency and see if they could use a freelancer!
5. Couchsurf: Although this isn't a way to make money, I think CouchSurfing has to be mentioned as something every traveler needs to know about. CouchSurfing is an amazing community of interesting, opening minded, and welcoming people. One of the taglines of CouchSurfing is: Imagine having an interesting friend wherever you go -- whether that’s 2,000 miles away, or right in your hometown. CouchSurfers are commited to intercultural understanding. If you haven't been on the website yet, go check it out now. You don't have to go anywhere to get involved, you can start by maybe hosting someone or just meeting up in your hometown for a coffee with a new traveling friend. It's a way to make friends all over the world!
6. Finally, one of the most inspiring CouchSurfers and people I know is Thomas Love Perko. You have to check out his page Thomas Love's Adventures. He writes in both Croatian and English (and maybe a few other words/phrases here and in there in other languages!). He is a CouchSurfing ambassador, hitchhiking advocate, and one of the friendliest people you will ever meet. Check out his page to read all about the adventures he's had and to learn more about how he found sponsorship (from the likes of MasterCard and the travel agency Da Da Da) for some of his recent travels. He is currently traveling for his Project '1000 Days of Summer - following the Sun on a journey around the World' using alternative ways of travel (couchsurfing, hitchhiking, busking). Read more about it (in Croatian) here. Or just check out his Facebook page! 

The King of CouchSurfing himself!

Just do it! Go, put yourself out there and do it now, because if you don't go now, when will you do it? If it feels right, just go for it and make it work! And if you have any questions or need any help or advice about anything, please feel free to ask!

To get a better understanding for what Thomas Love's project 1000 Days of Summer is really like, check out this short trailer about it:

Homesickness

Most of the time, I'm thrilled by being in a new place with new people and new cultures, but after some time traveling and being away from home (even if you've been away from home so long or so many times that you're not even exactly sure where or what "home" is) a bout of homesickness can hit you, and boy...does it hit! It literally hits you like a bat to the stomach and not much can make you feel better. You just have to spend some time having a good cry, reminiscing, and hopefully, getting a big hug from a friend or loved one. It really depends on you for what can make you feel better. Sometimes skyping or talking with loved ones from home can help, or looking at old pictures, or making a meal that you love to eat at home. Other times, you just need to cry it out.

Today, I am homesick.

I miss my family and my friends and not talking to them enough. I feel bad for not being there for some friends, when I know they need me. I feel bad for what I put my family through sometimes, with running around all over the place, and I miss Philly. There are so many wonderful things that I absolutely adore about that city, ESPECIALLY the food, but for me, it's always a case of "sehnsucht" no matter where I am. (sehnsucht means longing in German) When I'm in the States, I long to be abroad and vice versa. That's the thing about traveling, you meet and fall in love with people and places all the time and then you move on to the next one and you fall in love all over again. I'm lucky to have actually fallen in love with my amazing fiance, who is totally there for me and understands homesickness like no other, but it's hard to deal with sometimes. It definitely passes quickly, but when it happens. Man, it hits you hard.