Europe in the Springtime Part 1

So I never really gave a proper update of my time in Europe. By the time it was over I had more great things to write about! And before I'm off to San Francisco for two weeks for my cousin's wedding I figured I would describe my travels across the pond, mainly so I can come back to this blog in one year's time when I've forgotten everything.

So let's see, I made a little list here of observations along my way (I had a lot of time to think, more than I've had all year!). First things first, the whole purpose of my 2-week vacation was to go to a wedding in England. An English friend who I had met in Mexico took it upon herself to use organize her wedding nicely so we could have a 5 year reunion for our 14-person Girl City group (one night when we were all hanging out someone walked into the room and saw 9 girls + 5 guys, all of whom except 1 were gay, and exclaimed "It's like girl city in here!" and the name just stuck). Instead of flying to England for the weekend and then back to Miami, I decided to take advantage of Europe's compact countries and my having friends in various cities in those countries.

So the journey started in Zurich, Switzerland where a college friend who I met while studying abroad in Argentina (I guess I can't really meet internationally-minded people in the US can I?) was living. I hadn't seen Cait in 2+ years and so it was really nice to reconnect with her. She's from Connecticut too and had just moved to Zurich a month before so she was happy to explore the place with me. Observations included:

• There are a lot of bicycles, I mean a LOT of bicycles in Europe
• The bike parking lots are even covered, whereas the car parking lots aren't necessarily
• Swiss people mind each other's business, which when taken to the extreme can mean they don't seem as friendly. Example: at an outdoor pasta place when Cait and I asked for tap water the waitress looked at as confused, and then after our mediocre hand gestures brought back 2 half-filled glasses of water and brusquely placed them on the table, water spilling all over my menu.
• The Swiss don't offer tap water in restaurants
• Zurich's expensive! ($20+ for any meal, not even at a fancy place)
• Geographically-speaking I found it similar to Colombia, hills, lakes and valleys.
• No chocolate tours (and the Lindt factory is located in Zurich)!
• There are lots of Audis and European cars, I rarely saw a Ford
• The guidebook says you get organization and order but unfriendly people. I would trade any day.

 I was only in Zurich for 4 days, 2 of which I spent jetlagged and hungover, but I still felt I had seen most of Zurich, though not much of Switzerland. But then it was on to Munich! I took the train through the Swiss countryside, and am pretty sure I passed through Liechtenstein on the way, but alas the rolling European hills all look the same after a few minutes.

In Munich I stayed with a couchsurfer. Since I was only going to be there for 2 nights I figured why pay for a hostel when I can soak up some of that couchsurfing love. I met Stef at her office after I got off the train. She handed me the key to her place along with directions, and I was on my way. When I've told people that story some find it very bizarre that a stranger would give me the keys to her house with no one home, while others just quip "Oh isn't couchsurfing amazing?!" Her place was clean and well located, so I was happy. The first day I just walked around, had some Turkish donner and somewhat followed the NYT's "36 hours in Munich" guide. The next day I went on a free walking tour to see the historic stuff and then met up with the Hungarian boyfriend of a friend, who had been living in Munich for 4 years. The friend was more like someone who I work with at another company, but is from Munich and gave me great tips. And here we have Munich observations:

• People are friendly, but still mind their own business
• You should never flag down a waiter - it's rude!
• They serve pretzels at the table like we do bread, but then charge you a euro per pretzel if you eat them
• You never cross the street until the pedestrian sign is green - no J walking!!
• You can surf on a river in Munich (and use a handy attachable surfboard carrier on your bike)
• I cannot wait for the Olympics! (I visited the site of the 1972 Munich Olympics, still very much intact, and hosting the Special Olympics)

Ok, Part 2 of the saga, which includes Berlin, Prague, and Shropshire, England, to come soon!

 Bicycle parking lot in Zurich

Apfelspritzer drink with Cait

Yep, they're surfing in Munich, on a real (not artificial) river!

Site of the Munich Olympics

Thermostat Wars

Is this something that you normally fight over with your roommate/partner? When I was living in Medellin there wasn't any temperature control device to fight over, so no problems there. When I lived in a house in DC with 5 roommates we were all college students and so everyone understood the need to freeze their fingers while they typed away into 4 in the morning on their laptops in a 60 degree house in the middle of February.

Nowadays though, it's the opposite. Living in Miami without air conditioning is impossible, but having it set at 68 degrees all day is not necessary, nor something we can afford. We have the same down comforter I used during those chilly nights in DC on our bed here in Miami, something I keep urging us to throw into the closet. "Why do you think we're getting so hot in the middle of the night?" I ask Gio. "It doesn't mean we have to make the apartment even colder!"

Last night I had had enough. For the past week I would wake up in the middle of the night freezing and go to the thermostat to turn it up. I told him our number was 72, 72 was reasonable! So last night I said ok that's enough, I'm tired of having this thermostat war, can we just agree that it makes sense to put it on 72? 4 degrees less = $25 a month more in our electric bill (I even showed him the math!). He agreed, he looked me in the eye and said seventy-two, yes, you're right. So I went to bed earlier than him as I usually do, and as I'm laying there listening to my audiobook and he's asleep, as usually happens, I felt it getting way too cold. So I crept out of bed and went to the thermostat to find it at 70. Seventy!! Just an hour earlier he had looked me in the EYE and told me he agreed with my perfect number of 72. Oh, my blood boiled. I got into bed and immediately pulled my pillow to the edge of the bed and turned my back to him, thinking how I was going to handle this. From now on, I decided, I just can't go to bed earlier than him. I will have to be an A/C nazi, not a role I wanted to take on, but my logic is correct, my number is perfect, and the numbers don't lie. I'll go to bed after him, wake up before him. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but as his favorite dumb TV show Storage Wars shows us, if someone really cares about something you can't let them have it.

And yes, this is how exciting my life is right now that I am prone to scheming to beat my boyfriend over $25. I need a cat.

Berlin brings it out in me

When you go to Berlin there's no avoiding that spark that wakes up the left side (or is it the right?) of the brain that screams for some out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. Everyone in the city is either "working on their music/art/film" or studying, and those that do have actual jobs are boring ol' graphic designers. My friend Emma who I stayed with and her roommates have "construction days" in their apartment in which actual wood and tools are involved! So instead of denying the hipster-gentrified neighborhood I was in, I embraced it and picked up some some markers, construction paper, and stickers to put together an original recipe I should have done a month before for this wedding I went to in England 4 days later. It was exciting, my friend and I spent 3 hours working into the wee hours in her kitchen, talking about racism and Scandinavian babes, while pouring every last ounce of creativity we had into our works. I hadn't felt that creative since high school field hockey when I would spend hours (ok really 10 minutes) working on the biggest and most glitter-fied"secret psych" gift for my fellow teammates (to "psych" them up for a game, not that kind of "psych"). 

So along with pounds of chocolate and English tea I brought home some of that creative spark I rediscovered in Berlin. "I love maps, and why not take that love of maps and decorate a little with them. Make our place feel a bit more 'lived in?" I suggested to Gio. It turned out we only had the maps from the 4 cities I visited on my trip, plus a map of San Francisco and a map of the Everglades we didn't really much care for. But it didn't matter, we were off to the hardware store! Before that we went through postcards, photos, beer coasters and other memorable items we had collected that were now on our bedroom floor (a bookcase is the next item on our furniture shopping list!). Seeing as we have many a blank wall to decorate we immediately thought of the numerous guests who come over during our non-existent dinner parties, and decided to give them a little something to look at while relieving themselves, making good use of our worldly postcards.

Of course after we got back from the hardware store we were tired and didn't feel like continuing with the Berlin project. So instead I left the layout of the maps and postcards on the floor, right in the middle of the living room, for the day. Waking up the next morning, I stepped around my short-lived inspiration, and only after going to the mall and buying myself a pretty dress did I come back reinvigorated to finish the weekend's project.

Postcards decorating the bathroom wall

Still adding to our map collection... of course the idea here was to use one whole wall as a big map of the world, placing each map in its place within the world, i.e. maps of Europe east of the Everglades map. It's a concept in progress

Berlin inspiration: Emma's improvised clothes wardrobe using hooks already in the wall and chains.