So, did you figure out where this castle is located? If you are a movie junky, then my title above should give away where we were! I will tell you what movie at the end of this post. If you thought Salzburg, Austria then you are one smart cookie! Salzburg was literally right on our route from Croatia to Munich, so we stopped for 2 nights to check out the city. Dan let me do the hotel booking so I picked a place a little different from the  typical hotels we where we usually stay.

It was an adorable and  family owned  with a beautiful view of the Alps. The staff was super friendly and accommodating, and felt very homey. It was nice to stay somewhere like this for a change!

We were only a couple miles from the City Center, where all the action happens. We took the local tram in while we were there, so we didn’t have to deal with the hassle of driving and parking in the city.

I loved the City Center. I feel as if the buildings look like the are from a movie set, they were just so old and perfect, and the Alps in the background just added to that “fake” effect.

The number one thing we wanted to do was to see the castle. To be correct, this was actually called the Hohensalzburg Fortress, not a castle. It was built in 1077 and is the largest and fully preserved fortress in Central Europe.

You could literally see the entire city and beyond. It completely amazes me that this was built almost 1000 years ago and that it holds so much history from Austria and the world!

Besides the Fortress, Dan and I weren’t too sure on what else Salzburg was famous for besides its beautiful scenic city. With a tiny bit of research, we found out that Salzburg is the birthplace and home of legendary composer, Mozart.

This is the home where he was born and  lived until he is 22 years old.

This is Mozart’s violin of which he received and started playing when he was six years old!

The house was filled with remarkable history from Mozart and his family.

Above is one of Mozart’s earliest work that he wrote down by hand as a child. It is hard to believe that this is over 200 years old!

The Mirabell Gardens are also one of the top 10 things to see while in Salzburg.

This garden is unlike anything I have ever seen! It just kept going and going with perfectly manicured flowers, statues, fountains, and history. You could spend hours there and not notice every detail.

This garden is also  shown in the legendary film, The Sound of Music.  The movie was filmed here in Salzburg in the 1960s and there are so many parts of the city that look exactly the same now  as it did in the movie.

The Sound of Music is one of my all time favorites, and I feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to  visit the exact spot where it was filmed over fifty years ago!

More pics to come! Have a good Monday! 🙂

Well, I hate to say it, but the Croatian Holiday is over. It is such a shame, but at least I got a tan.

I mean really though, why wouldn’t I  miss waking up and having breakfast here every morning?

We did finally accept the fact  that we weren’t going to be able to stay in paradise forever, but we did however, come to the conclusion that we didn’t have to leave in the middle of the week… So, we didn’t. We stayed two extra nights and decided Italy can wait. It was worth it.

Opatija, Croatia was seriously the most beautiful beach location I have ever been to. The water is just the right shade of blue, and the mountains surrounding the coast just make the views picture perfect. The entire town is well manicured with an unique little touch, the people are friendly, the seafood is fresh, and there is gelato every two shops. What more could one want for a tropical vacation?!

Oh, and to make Opatija even better, the seagulls get  up close and personal.

This guy here was going to town on some french fries a fellow guest left behind on the table next to us. Yes, that is ketchup all over his beak. He was pretty aggressive with those fries, and Dan was completely grossed out and wanted to move, but I thought it was hilarious just kept snapping pics.

Anyways, Dan and I found the best restaurant in town. It was called Hemingway Ristorante and we went there THREE times! I know that may sound weird, but trust me, when you live overseas and 90% of the time you can’t understand the menus and never really know what you are getting to eat , when you find somewhere with extraordinary food, you have to go back.

And might I add, not only did everything on the menu look outstanding, the ambiance and service was excellent.

To prepare your palate for awesomeness, the chef sends out a per-appetizer ” small bite”  to every guest that varies daily. This wasn’t anything but a slice of toasted french baguette, with a cream cheese flavored topping and a cherry tomato, but man was it good.

For an appetizer, Dan and I  decided to eat local and ordered up some fresh  muscles and calamari.

It is incredible how the freshness of  food improves the quality. These were both EXCELLENT and there wasn’t a crumb left on the plate.

And here we have my main course for our second night’s dinner. Hemmingway’s specialty is pasta and the first night I tried a pasta with shrimp and truffles.  I have never before had a truffle, but know they are somewhat of a delicacy and allegedly delicious. It was indeed delicious, but for dinner on night two I wanted something with a little less potent  flavor. I decided to get a simple spaghetti bolognese with mushrooms.

There was no doubt that this pasta was homemade , and that  makes a huge difference in quality. Also, I loved how the sauce wasn’t heavy and had a lighter tomato flavor unlike many bolognese sauces I have tried. It was absolutely fantastic, and even Dan thought so!

So, there we have one of my best dinners thus far in Europe.  This place, Hemingways, was delicious, and I give them two thumps up.

And now I am sure you are wondering, “Where is the dessert?” Trust me, I did not skip out on dessert while in Croatia! Like I mentioned, there were gelato shops EVERYWHERE! We seriously had gelato 5 out of 6 nights we were there.

I know, that is horrible, but how could you pass this stuff up?

Don’t mind the chandelier  reflecting in the glass, they just do their gelato classy like that in Croatia. We went to a different shop and tried different flavors every night, and once you get stuck on gelato, regular ice cream doesn’t cut it.

I definitely couldn’t  have asked for a more relaxing, beautiful, and romantic time with my love. If you ever get the chance, check out Croatia. I feel that it is an overlooked destination for Americans, and I guarantee that it is just as nice, if not nicer than several other tropical locations that are often more touristy and just as expensive.

Now  that we have officially moved on from Croatia for the time being, you may be wondering if we took advantage of our last two days on vacation and went anywhere else cool. Well, of course we did! We wanted to knock out two birds with one stone and check off another desirable European destination on our way back to Munich, with some history and cool sights.

 This a view from a  famous castle we visited while there. Any guesses to where we chose to go?

Posts and  more pictures coming soon!

Happy Hump Day! I thought I would treat you with some pictures of our Croatian vacation to help get you through your Wednesday.

You’re welcome.

Above  is the view from my lounge chair at the local “beach.” The interesting thing about Croatia is that there are no sandy beaches like most tropical paradises. Our 4 Star hotel has a beautiful view of the Adriatic  Sea and Yacht Club, but only a small pool and nowhere to lay out by the water.

This is very common here, since there is literally no room to expand or build. There are a couple areas in the town where you can rent lawn chairs and they have a little sandy (man made) beach area. 80 Kuna for two chairs! Totally worth it.

Don’t worry, 80 Kuna isn’t as bad as it sounds. Kuna is the currency in Croatia, until  June 29 at least. On Saturday Croatia will officially join the European Union and switch their currency over to Euro. It would definitely have made our vacation a lot less complicated if this had already happened!  1 U.S. dollar equals about 5.73 Kunas. We have been dividing everything by 5 to get a round about price. It is weird to get used to, being everything is labeled at such a high price (e.g. Mojito =45 Kuna). That’s about 8 bucks for a cocktail,which is pretty reasonable for a tourist area.

This beach, Tantra, was awesome. It had a little Tiki Bar right behind us so we could order 8 dollar cocktails all day long if we wanted. It also had a pretty sweet high dive going right into the sea. Of course I was scared to death, but there was no way I wasn’t going to jump off that thing.

I was pretty proud of myself, especially since my dare-devil boyfriend wouldn’t even do it.

So besides the gorgeous sea views, I really love the actual town of Opatija. It is southwest of Rijeka on the Adriatic Coast. It is such a quaint, cute, little town with beautiful villas all over, and TONS of flowers.

About a two minute walk from our hotel is Park Angiolina, which has over one hundred flowers from all over the world.

The landscaping everywhere here is perfectly maintained, and the various flowers really give the town a unique touch.  Thus far Croatia has been nothing less of a perfect getaway for Dan and I.  No complaints whatsoever. I will share more in Part 2, but for now, a freshly caught plate of seafood  is calling my name for dinner! Cheers!

Hello from Croatia!

Wow, we sure had no idea what we were in for on our drive from Augsburg, Germany to Opatija, Croatia! Our GPS indicated that our drive should be about  5 hours to our final destination, and although we appreciate and are  very thankful we made it to our beautiful Croatian seaside hotel, it definitely did not take 5 hours, and it DEFINITELY wasn’t smooth sailing, to say the least.

So apparently our travel route took us through the Alps. Of course, we did no real research on on our actual traveling, since we are used to putting our full faith into technology… we had no idea what scenery and obstacles we were to endure. I would say it was pretty amazing..and maybe a little terrifying at times.

The mountains were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Probably more so since they were a pleasant surprise.These photos I took from the car, actually, on the highway in Austria. 

We drove past some unbelievable sights. I kept telling Dan to stop so I could take pics because hanging out the window of the car just wasn’t cutting it for me. We finally found a rest stop that we were able to stop and take some pics with the mountains.

Pretty amazing, right?! What I find even more amazing is that Dan and I drove through 4 countries (Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia) in just about 7 hours. That is more countries than many  people will visit in a lifetime!

 In Germany and Austria we had no issues whatsoever, but once we hit Slovenia everything was quite different, and the road quality declined severely. We found ourselves driving off of the highway through little villages and then in the mountains, literally.  Extremely narrow  windy roads with views overlooking cliffs were a little  too close for comfort for me. It kind of felt like we were in one of those crazy sports car commercials driving on the side of a cliff with no barriers. It wasn’t as cool though because we weren’t in a Ferrari and it was real life.

But We survived thanks to Dan’s immaculate driving skills and here we are!

These are taken from our 6th floor balcony, and trust me, these pictures don’t give the views justice! I don’t want to spoil you with all the eye candy at once so I will post more pics through the week! Stay tuned! 🙂

Happy Friday! Dan and I are thrilled it’s Friday because vacation begins tomorrow!! Well, I am kind of always on vacation, but he has the week off  work,so it is definitely the first “real vacation” for the both of us together. Super excited.

So, where does one go on “holiday” in Europe when they are already living in Europe? Decisions, decisions,decisions. Poor me, I have had a long, hard, stressful week of  researching and planning to find the perfect destination. Eventually the pieces  fell together and we agreed on the perfect destinations:

• Rijeka, Croatia
• Venice, Italy
• Lake Garda, Northern Italy

Yep, all three! It won’t be too often that Dan will get a week off during the summer months so we wanted to take full advantage. The beaches in Rijeka look absolutely stunning and the weather for the week is in the high 90s! We will stay at our beach side hotel for 4 nights, then drive 2 hours over to Venice, Italy. After spending 1-2 nights there we will then then conclude our trip in Lake Garda, Italy.We have gotten several  recommendations from the locals here in Germany that it is an awesome spot to visit with beautiful views of the Alps.

Obviously that is  the highlight of our lives right now, I am literally counting down the hours!

Besides that, this week we have been in Augsburg, Germany, which is near Munich.  It is by far my favorite town that we have stayed in for Dan’s work. There are tons of shops and cafes, and I have even got to lay out at a local pool for the first time this summer! I don’t have any new pictures for this week because I lost my camera cap and case in Amsterdam. Whoops! I am too paranoid to carry my camera without them so it has had the week off. I got replacements yesterday so it will be back to work for our trip!

I’ll admit that I have been a bit behind updating my links on the homepage, so I am now playing catch up! I just posted in Spectacular Sightings and Food Finds if you want to check them out!

Hope that you all have an awesome weekend; I can’t wait to share our vacation experiences with you!

Cheers!

Hello from Oberhausen, Germany! This week has flown by for us and I can’t believe it is already the weekend again!

As I previously mentioned, our destination this past weekend was Amsterdam.

Loved it.

We got into the city a little later than we were expecting on Friday night, so we had dinner and hit a couple bars in the the Leidseplein area.  A bit different nightlife atmosphere than we are used to, but we had a good time people watching and having a few drinks.

We actually had one of Dan’s co-workers with us, so I was out numbered 2 to 1 when it came to the things I had researched to do. We didn’t make it to any museums, but we did indeed make time to visit Heineken Brewery Tour…..hmm….

It was actually kind of interesting, I must admit, learning about the whole process of the beer making and  history of Heineken…oh, and the two “free” beers you receive with your admission fee.

The brewery tour was really the highlight of our day on Saturday. We did a lot of walking around and exploring the city at our own pace. It was kind of nice not being on a schedule and just appreciating the scenery.

On Sunday we had to check out of our hotel and prepare to go back to Germany, but we had a little  time to explore the city. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was really looking forward to visiting  the Anne Frank House. I didn’t win the vote to go on Saturday, but I had my heart set on it so Dan and I went on Sunday, while his co-worker wanted to do his own thing.

And this is as far as I made it….

…..right outside the front door. We got there way too late in the afternoon and the line was atrocious.  Leave it to me to think that we would be able to just walk right in.

It’s okay though, I got to see the home from the outside which was pretty cool in itself, and just knowing that I was in the exact same area where so much history took place was a pretty humbling feeling.

Dan knows that this is the FIRST place ( no excuses) we will visit on our next trip to Amsterdam, and we will be in line 20 minutes before opening. 🙂

So… what does one do as a tourist in Amsterdam when you can’t visit the Anne Frank House? You go on a  boat tour through the city, of course.

This is a boat similar to the one we were on. It was a relaxing, gentle ride through the city and the tour guide pointed out all the important  architecture and facts about the city. It was definitely worth the 13 euro per person.

We also learned that there are over 90 islands and more than 1000 bridges in the city! The canals are actually used as transportation by many locals, in addition to bikes. Bikes, bikes, bikes. Everywhere. You feel like the minority just simply walking as a pedestrian in the streets. The bikers run the town.

So this pretty much sums up our weekend in Amsterdam, but I forgot to mention one thing….

This is a Coffeeshop.There are LOTS of these, and keep in mind this is not where you get a cup of espresso and  an a decadent homemade Dutch pastry. Well,I take that back, there are some pastries for sale I suppose, like brownies….but it is like no brownie you have ever eaten before, so beware!

If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you need to Google “Amsterdam” and do a little research. And yes,the  people do it EVERYWHERE! Hilarious.

Have an awesome weekend guys!!! Can’t wait to share my next adventure with you!

It’s Friday! I hope you all are as excited for the weekend as I am!

We left Paris Sunday afternoon and drove about 5 hours to a small town outside of Dusseldorf, Germany for Dan to be ready for work on Monday morning. We have been here all week and I am starting to get antsy!  There is only SO much you can do by yourself during the days with no car in a little German town.

We decided to check out Amsterdam for the weekend, and should be on our way here shortly! It’s only about a 2 hour drive, so we will be arriving this evening. I am super excited to see all of the beautiful canals that run through the city, and maybe I can even talk Dan into taking me on a little romantic boat ride.  😉

I am sure we will get the opportunity to visit Amsterdam again, so we aren’t going to try to squeeze everything in tomorrow.The one thing I definitely want to check out is the Anne Frank House.  It is the actual home where Anne Frank and her family fled to from Nazi Germany and hid for two years during WWII. She wrote her journals there and it has now been turned into an exhibit/museum.  I think that it will be an eye opening, yet emotional experience re-living  and and learning more about Anne Frank’s story as well as that horrific time in history.  I am sure I will get some amazing pictures and information to share with you after our visit!

For some reason, there has been an issue with uploading pictures on my site.  I still have some awesome photos from Cologne, Germany and Luxembourg that I haven’t had the chance to post,but hopefully the technical issue will be fixed soon.  I will post an update when they are uploaded into the categories on the homepage so you can check them out!

I hope that you all have a safe and great weekend!

Cheers!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Thanks to my sweet and charming boyfriend, we had a little impromptu weekend trip to Paris to celebrate our anniversary……pretty amazing boyfriend, right?! I have been DREAMING of visiting Paris as far back as I can remember, of course, as all girls do, and I must admit, every single expectation was exceeded.   I felt like I was dreaming the entire time, a completely surreal experience…and he actually enjoyed it too!

We really only had one full day to explore the city, which was Saturday. We completely lucked out and got sunny 70 degree weather with perfect baby blue skies, which hasn’t happened too often over here in Europe. I made a check list of all the things that we HAD to see and do…

• Eiffel Tower, duh!
• Rue Cler Market
• Arc de Triomphe
• Love Lock Bridge
• Cathedral of Notre Dame
• Walk the street of Champ de Elysee
• Eat macarons

With the help of Rick Steve’s Pocket Paris, the City Metro, and my amazing skills of keeping my laid back, kind of move at his own pace boyfriend ON TASK, I got to check all of those things off my list, and even got to add some things to the itinerary!

This is Rue Cler, where they have a huge daily market up and down the street. From adorable cafes and brasseries, to butcher and cheese shops, produce, seafood, bakeries, and flower shops, this street market has everything a local Parisian would need to keep their kitchen fully stocked with fresh and delicious food. I would definitely would be shopping here daily if I lived in Paris!

Here is a picture of myself in front of the iconic Arc de Trimphe. It was one of those things that was just surreal to see in person, for I have probably seen it 20 thousand times throughout my life in print. Very cool.

So, one of the most important things I told Dan we had to do was put a padlock on the Love Lock Bridge. The concept is so cool, although Dan considered it vandalism at first before he actually saw the bridge. What you do is bring a padlock to the bridge ( and of course they have a million vendors selling them for 5 euro, in case you forget to bring one), write your names on it, lock it up, and throw the key together into the Seine River, as a symbol of your undying love. This just added to our perfect anniversary day in Paris 🙂

And these my friends are macarons. A delicate french pastry cookie, of which I have never before eaten, but decided  that Paris, France was the perfect place for my first time. Late mid-day after lunch, our stomachs were ready and the hunt for the macarons began.  We had passed bakeries with them in their windows all day, but suddenly once we were actually looking for some to eat and enjoy, there were none to be found. Our hunt lasted literally about 40 minutes, asking other bakeries and people on the streets, “where are the  macarons?!” We realized that we were in the international quarters of the city, near the Notre Dame, which was why we were having such a difficult time finding them. Having a sweet tooth and passing so much other eye candy, we decided to give up on the macarons for the time being, settle for a delightful scoop of gelato, and continue our hunt after we get off the Metro on the other side of the city. So, we got the gelato, continued walking, and two shops down was a macaron bakery. Unbelievable.

They had a large selection of minis for 1.50 euro a piece (bargain)! We bought eight, each a different flavor, took them back to the hotel,  and had a macaron party with a cup of coffee. Then, we had a terrible sugar headache, but it was worth every crumb.

Don’t worry, the headaches didn’t last long, and I was soon enough enjoying a  chilled glass of white French wine at dinner. We went to a small French restaurant near the Eiffel Tower because another point on my list I forgot to mention was to see the Tower lit at night, and watch it sparkle. It only sparkles on the top of the hour, so of course we had to go somewhere for dinner that was nearby.

And there it is. Beautifully lit up in red, blue in green. It was actually only lit up on that one side, which I thought was a bit strange, but regardless, it was breathtaking. I had one of the best weekends of my life and I am so blessed that I got to spend it with the love of my life!

Au revoir! Until next time!

Happy Wednesday from Luxembourg City!

The last two weeks have been pure craziness, but things are now beginning to slow down.  We spent the first week in Edinburgh, Scotland as I mentioned previously, and since then we have been traveling to several cities throughout Germany, and just landed in Luxembourg a few days ago for our house hunting trip!

I must admit that Germany seemed a bit intimidating, since we were coming from English-speaking Scotland. I knew that I was going to have a great amount of alone time, and wasn’t sure how comfortable I would feel traveling and exploring on my own as I did in Edinburgh. I was actually quite surprised when we arrived in our first small town outside of Dusseldorf, that despite the language barrier, the people were super friendly and accommodating. In fact, the staff at that particular hotel (a small,boutique style) actually loved me, and compared me to a local German celebrity! HA! By the time we left I think that almost all of the hotel employees knew my name….not what I had in mind for my first rodeo in Germany!

Anyways, the week went on and I realized that I wasn’t that popular at the other hotels in the small towns, and it was actually becoming  more  and more difficult to communicate with the staff and residents; however, being around non-English speakers really forced me to practice and try to  understand the German language, Deutsch. It is definitely a difficult language compared to Spanish or Portuguese, but I am doing my best and taking in as much as possible!

In addition to the small towns in which we stayed, we were also able to escape for a  few days and have some fun in Cologne and Munich.Needless to say, we had an AMAZING time. Both cities had so much to offer: amazing history,architecture, food, beer, gelato,shopping, I mean does it get much better than that?

I am in the process of posting some pics from the cities from which we have already visited, and I have decided to break them down into categories, rather than separating them by country.  I hope you check them out and I will be checking back in soon!! Have a great Wednesday!

Hello there! I am finally getting around to writing my very first post abroad! Sorry for the delay, but I have been busy doing all of the things that I am to be writing about!:)

On May 16 we took off from the Chicago and landed about 10 hours later in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Edinburgh was the first of many stops until we get to visit Luxembourg to search for an apartment! The furthest I have traveled in my 24 years has been The Bahamas, so I was thrilled to learn that my first European experience would be in Scotland, where they speak English.

When we landed it was rainy, gray, and COLD! I had on a sundress and sandals thinking that the middle of May surely would have nice weather. I was quick to learn that I might as well get used to the climate change, for the hot summer days we experience in The States were mere non-existent over in the U.K. Needless to say, I had packed A LOT of clothes it looked like I wasn’t going to be wearing.

Okay, so I obviously wasn’t happy about the weather, but once we finally got to our rental car by walking a mile in the rain with our 7 pieces of baggage between the two of us, I was feeling better; however, my feeling of relief didn’t last long once it was apparent that Dan wasn’t very comfortable nor experienced with driving on the opposite of the road. By this time, we were both running on no sleep for 24 hours and trying to find our way to our hotel off  Map Quest directions through the massive countryside.  It was an extremely  high anxiety and frustrating morning, but we finally made it to our hotel in mid-afternoon, and I don’t think I have ever been so excited to sleep.

Okay, so to break it down, here’s what I retained from my first day in Scotland:

• The people were extremely friendly and generous; however, their “English” was not our “English.”  Most were very difficult to understand, but they were all just so very nice, so there just isn’t much room to complain.
• The countryside was absolutely beautiful! I have never seen so much green grass in my entire life. The rolling hills and mountains could be seen from miles on out, and was just picture perfect. BEAUTIFUL!
• The roads were extremely narrow and the signage  wasn’t the greatest.  For these two reasons, it took us about 2 hours to get to our hotel which was less than 30 miles away.
• The style/fashion of women’s clothing often kept me staring. I didn’t quite understand it, nor have I  seen anything like it. I am going to just say it was “funky.”
• I am going to use the same term, “funky,” for the food.  It wasn’t bad, but it was different. It wasn’t exactly to my liking, but when have you ever heard of me  turning down food?

I would say that day one was definitely a challenge, but a thumbs up! I am thankful we made it safely and in one piece!  The days to follow would just get better and better, and I will be posting pics/posts from our  6 days in Edinburgh soon under the category tabs!

Cheers!