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Visiting Potsdam and the Sanssouci Palace in Berlin, Germany: Part 4
On my last full day in Berlin, I signed up for a far happier tour than of the previous day: Sanssouci Palace and Potsdam. Our first stop after about an hour on the train from Berlin was Potsdam. Potsdam was a planned city where the Prussian kings and German Kaiser lived until the early 20th century.
Visiting Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Berlin, Germany: Part 3
On one of my days in Berlin, I had signed up to visit a concentration camp: Sachsenhausen. While far from a "fun" tour, I felt that, as the Nazi history is so prominent in Germany's history, it would be a very interesting visit. Sachsenhausen was the first concentration camp built, just outside of Berlin, to house political prisoners. It later served as a camp for both Jewish and gay prisoners. As Sachsenhausen is in Germany, it was considered a work camp, rather than a death camp, although many deaths still occurred within the walls. The visit was quite incredible, bringing us as close to what it must have been like in those years despite the fact that we will never quite understand how it felt without having gone through it.
Visiting Berlin, Germany: Part 2
On my second full day in the city I went on the Free Berlin Walking tour, more focused on the city itself and its tourist spots and less so on its Nazi history. We visited many more squares, libraries, churches, and some of Berlin's most touristy spots. Some interesting facts that I still remember from the tours:
Visiting Berlin, Germany: Part 1
Berlin was amazing, let's just start with that. Despite having five days in the city, by the end I wished I'd stayed longer. On my first day there though, I had the complete opposite feeling. I flew in from Frankfurt, which should have been a quick flight. But because it was delayed by more than an hour, I didn't get into Berlin until the late afternoon, so that by the end of the day I really didn't have the opportunity to see much. I stayed in East Berlin by Alexaderplatz, where many of the buildings are reminiscent of soviet architecture, practical and ugly, many of which are abandoned. However, because I took the bus from the airport, we had passed through Museum Island, and I got my first glimpse of the Berliner Dom.
Starting Off an Adventure in Frankfurt, Germany
It's a little surreal to think that I've started on a two month trek across Europe. I've been planning and dreaming of this for so long, that I know it will just fly by. It feels like I'm still in planning mode, even though the first city has already come and gone! Since I've been terrible at sharing lately, and still haven't finished posting about my Australia trip, I figured I'd try to record what I do in Europe as I wrap up each city. So, for the first one, Frankfurt!
Zoey Turns 5!
It's Zoey's birthday today! I can't believe this little nugget is turning 5 and that I've had her for 4.5 years now. We've moved across the country together and are about to do it again. Something I've been wanting to add to the blog for a while in a photo diary of her. I take sooooo many pictures of Zoey, but don't really post them anywhere. So, from now on, she'll have her own little photo album which I'll update whenever I take new pictures, rather than posting them individually. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past 5 years.
Diving and Flying Over the Great Barrier Reef
One of the experiences I was most looking forward to in Australia was diving in the Great Barrier Reef. As I wouldn't be spending too many days in Cairns, and would be both flying in and out of the city, I was unable to actually dive with an oxygen tank, but chose to snorkel instead. I signed up for the Cruise and Fly Reef Tour through Expedia, and it was an incredible experience.
Visiting the Kuranda Rainforest in Australia
To kickstart my Australia trip, I wasted no time hanging around. My first flight was from NYC to Vancouver, Canada. I left NYC on 1/1 at 7PM and arrived in Vancouver 6 hours later, or 9:40PM local time. It's funny thinking that was the short leg of the trip. Whenever I fly from NYC to Seattle, or my family comes to visit, I always think it's such a long flight and how crappy it feels. But, since I was flying halfway around the world to Australia, this first leg felt like no big deal.
Three Weeks in Australia and New Zealand
As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I recently traveled to Australia and New Zealand for 3 weeks. It was an incredible and very packed vacation. We did so much in those 3 weeks that it would be impossible to try and fit it all into just one post. I will break down all the adventures into multiple posts and upload those over the following weeks. A quick run down of all the activities:
POPSUGAR Must Have Box February Review
Just after I moved to NYC, I cancelled all my subscription boxes. While I was in save mode, the main reason was really that I just didn’t have time to try all the samples from my Birchbox or that I couldn’t finish all the cookies from Barkbox. However, I did continue to try and swap items through My Subscription Addiction, while continuously reading the new reviews. One box I’d been wanting to try for a long time was the PopSugar Must Have box. Every month when I read the review, I loved every item that was in the box and tried to swap for it. So, when I saw the spoiler alert for the January box, I decided to sign up. Unfortunately, it was too late and I started with the February box, but it’s still awesome!
San Francisco Tech Trek
As NYU gives us the whole month of January off to pursue recruiting, I spent the past week in San Francisco through a school tech trek. We visited twelve companies in four days, so lots to take in. Here's my take on the recent trip:
Working on Shutterfly
One of my favorite things to do in January is to put together a photo album on Shutterfly of the previous year. While I usually try really hard to update it periodically during the year to make it easier in January, I seem to space out on it around July and then have to catch up later. In January, it's always hard to remember who took that photo that you really liked, or remember why the heck I was dressed up as a lollipop.
Why I'm Obsessed with PostSecret
PostSecret is a massive community project where people mail in their secrets written on a postcard. A number of these post cards are then posted online every Sunday morning. Recently, the founder, Frank Warren, gathered hundreds of these previously published and new postcard secrets into a book. When I began reading these more than 3 years ago, I loved them because they were mostly outrageous secrets. But the theme eventually evolved into a therapy session. Many secrets today deal with broken hearts and souls for numerous reasons.