Today I arrived in Luxembourg for my month-long sojourn in which I will also be very stressed and take tests and classes. There aren’t many photos because today was just a travel day, so unless you want to hear about how my transportation related adventures, you can skip to the end and see some delicious food photos. If you aren’t into that, I’m not sure I can help. I started off at home, frantically deciding to repack my suitcase. I packed 2 weekends ago, then re-packed this past weekend. But last night, I went out to dinner with Joe and it was *cold*. But it was the temperature that Luxembourg…
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Back to Budapest
After my whirlwind trip through Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest in 2015, Joe surmised that, since I had returned safely from my trip, that it was safe enough for him to go. So one year later, we spent the next October 23, 2016 in Budapest, after a week in Prague. We did not stop in Bratislava this go-round. Below is a combination of my facebook posts and current (2018) reflections on that trip. Learning Hungarian I like to think that I write here from a place of honesty, so I’ll share this part with everyone as well. We planned our trip to Budapest almost as soon as I returned from my…
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Hungary
My first trip to Hungary was in 2015. This was my first solo trip in over a decade, and I was very excited and grateful for the opportunity. The trip began in Prague for 4 days, then Bratislava, Slovakia for 2 days, and then to Budapest. I think that the layout of my trip really set me up to fall in love with Budapest. Cooking class Since Budapest was my last stop on the trip, by the time I got there, I hadn’t really spoken to anyone or had a real life conversation in a week. I don’t generally enjoy doing tours, so I never had a tour guide or…
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Learning Luxembourgish
Wait, what? Luxembourg is a small country nestled amidst the countries of Belgium, Germany, and France. There are about 600,000 people in Luxembourg, and they sometimes speak Luxembourgish. Yes, that’s really a language. It is most closely related to German and Dutch. At this point, because so few people speak this language, it is not really beneficial to use it in international business or other interactions. There are three main languages in Luxembourg: French, German, and Luxembourgish. My understanding is that Luxembourgish is spoken at home, elementary school is taught in French, and high school is taught in German. All government documents are in French, as we have had to…
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Luxembourg – April 2018
In April, we visited Luxembourg and fell. in. love. The city is absolutely beautiful and so picturesque up on the mountain. We loved the food and the people we met. We enjoyed venturing outside of Luxembourg city to Echternach, Joe’s familial home town. Food I loved the food of Luxembourg. It’s a peculiar mixture of German and French cuisines, and is quite unique. I love the heavy, saucy, creamy, old-world style foods, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. We visited a brewery and had bouneschlupp, a green bean and ham soup, followed by Kniddelen for me, which is a giant version of spaetzle, and Wainsaucisse for Joe. The kniddelen were superb,…
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FAQ – Winter in Russia
Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would definitely recommend it. I learned so much about the culture and norms in different places, which is a completely invaluable lesson in empathy and understanding. I saw places that weren’t just major cities, walked through the countryside, and I think that’s also a really important part of this trip. When traveling, it’s so easy to just go to the main cities and never explore an entire country. It’s so rare to get the chance to see this much of a single country. Why travel alone? It’s partially an exercise in exploring my personal endurance, and learning…
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Final Day in Russia
Checking out For my final day in Moscow, I have made a list of the things I still wanted to see and try to be a bit more organized. I could spend another whole day wandering Red Square because those guys are out there dancing again and really what more could you want? I had to pack everything up and check out of the hotel, so here I do the muscle work of putting as much as I can squish into the roller suitcase. It’s carry-on size, but I’ll be checking it. Then I put everything I’ll need on the plane: clothes to change into, electronics, batteries, etc, in my…
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New Years Day
ABBA Ok, so I totally forgot to tell this story last night. So there’s this song that plays on the radio everywhere. I’ve heard it a hundred times this trip, but never before. It’s clearly from the ~70’s, and my guess was Oliva Newton John. But it turns out it’s ABBA, a song called “Happy New Year”. It’s popular here because I guess there aren’t that many new year songs. It’s a weird song because the vocal harmonies overlap a lot, making the lyrics difficult to distinguish. But what I can hear is the chorus of “Happy New Year” over and over and a line that says “We might as…
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New Years Eve in Moscow
Venturing out into Red Square After sleeping until 2 in the afternoon, trying to fight off my cold, I woke up starving. Leftover breakfast pastries just aren’t going to do it, so I put on some clothes and go out in search of lunch. The map says there is a collection of fast food places across the street from my hotel, so I decide to head that way. It turns out that the security for NYE is already in full effect. They have barricaded off Red Square essentially in concentric circles and a series of one-way paths, each circle with another security checkpoint and bag check and metal detector. Outside…
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Moscow part deux
My last train ride Now it is the final leg of my trip. I am taking the train back to Moscow to celebrate New Years Eve before coming home. It has been an amazing adventure and while I’ve written as much as I could on the road, There’s obviously so much more. I have a 4 hour train ride now and I am just going to reflect a bit on all that I’ve seen. Siberia Traveling to Siberia was really the highlight of this trip. Honestly, before I left, I had given little thought to the ‘culture’ of Siberia. When I thought of traveling there, my imagination was of lakes…
