And the winner is....(drumroll please!)

Our train tickets and hotel reservations are officially booked for Dresden!!! Bro, we will be celebrating your birthday there and will drink to your big 2-4!

Thank you all who voted in the poll, even though the poll function did not work. Neuschwanstein Castle will be another adventure later in the year when it is warmer and we can enjoy the hiking.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we wish a very happy holiday to everyone! Jack and I will be celebrating with some fellow American friends, with some Thanksgiving foods, lentils, and chapati :)

Dresden: Source

Ich lese Eine Weihnachtsgeschichte

lese = I read
die Weihnachts = Christmas
das Geschichte = story
der Roman (hehe...Roman...) = novel

This weekend after my yoga class, I met Jack at Dussman's. Dussman's is one of the most wonderful places in Berlin; it's a bookstore. But not just any bookstore. Their English section is bigger than many bookstores in America, and there are floors and floors of (German) books, calendars, music, movies, and journals, games, other language books, and all of those fun little knickknacks that you find at the cash register that you would have never thought to buy unless it was staring right in front of you. Really...who needs a holographic bookmark when it's sole purpose is to mark your place when the book is CLOSED and you can't see it?

Anywho, so I met Jack and Dussman's because I was on a quest; a quest to get a real book to read auf Deutsch. None of those little kiddie 99 cent 2"x 2" books that are about a hen who learned to fly with an umbrella and wind (though I am proud that I read that thing!). No, I wanted to get one of my favorite books auf Deutsch. Jack and I agreed to meet back in a little (less) crowded corner in 45 minutes as we did our own perusing. I walked through many different sections, though spent the most of my time in the Roman section (teehee...Roman...). What book do I choose? There are so many, but how hard would they be auf Deutsch?

It was then that the book I ended up choosing basically flew into my hands. The book is not too long, not too short. I know the story extremely well, so I can figure out what is happening. On top of that, the setting of the book is basically upon us...Christmas. I purchased Eine Weihnachtsgeschichte (aka A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) and began reading it as soon as I got home. Yes, I have to look up almost every other word. I have a handy dandy notebook to write down the words and their meanings. Yes, it takes about 30 minutes per paragraph to read. Yes, it's only been 3 days and I am only on page 3 (almost 4!). But gosh darnit, I am reading a real Roman (teehee!) auf Deutsch! It is going to take a long time, but go me!

My book with my handy dandy notebook

Poll #1: Where Should We Go First?

Jack and I decided that we want to travel throughout Germany while we are here to see and learn a little more about the country we are living in. We would like to take long weekend trips about once a month to explore different areas at a time. If you look on my pinterest board, you'll see tons of places that we want to see and do here. The problem is, where do we start? Jack and I cannot figure out where we want to begin! So, we thought that it might be fun for you all to help us out with this. Where should we go? We want to go sometime in January, so it will still be cold! I limited the choices to 4 places, but know that there are still PLENTY of other places that we want to visit; we just might want to save them for another time/warmer weather :) Here is a little snipbit about each place:

Dresden: Source

Dresden:
It's nickname is "The Jewel Box" because of the beauty of the lavish city. It is the home to one of the largest collections of royal jewels in Europe. It is similar to Venice and Stockholm in that the city is on a river. Much of Dresden was bombed out during the Napoleonic Wars, German Revolutions, and of course, WWI/II, but these proud people built up their city time and time again to continue its reputation as being a european leader in the arts and sciences. It is full of greenery and lush gardens to walk around in and enjoy.

Heidelberg: Source

Heidelberg/Black Forest:
Jack has already been here, but no matter! Heidelberg is an old town with the oldest university in Germany. There are baroque styled buildings, gothic streets, and a beautiful castle. The shopping, pubs, and beer gardens are very typical German. A short day trip away is the Black Forest, a forest full of valleys, hills, and beautiful landscapes. Also the origin of Black Forest Cake is here! Yummy!

Nuremberg: Source

Nuremberg:

Most of you know Nuremberg from the Nuremberg Trials, but there is so much more to this city than that. Fun fact, it was known as the "unofficial" capital of the Holy Roman Empire because court met often at the Nuremberg Castle. Aside from all of the history that this city possesses, there is the Nuremberg castle, gingerbread market (they have their own special gingerbread recipe!), and medieval craft markets. 

Neuschwanstein Castle: Source

Neuschwanstein Castle:
This is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based off of...need I say more? Hello?! Even Walt Disney thought that this castle was worthy!
It is also in the Bavarian Alps and in an adorable medieval town called Fussen which has been described as "picturesque and whimsical". Cute pubs and craft shops line the streets of the town with the huge castle in the background. It's also not too far from Berlin, so it would make a perfect weekend trip after a busy holiday season. Also, good trip to go on when it's still cold out..cough...vote castle...cough...I'm not biased.

Oky dok, so you have the low-down on the 4 different places. Take a look on the top right of the home blog page and you will see a poll. Where should we go??? Feel free to vote whenever and however many times you want. The poll will stay in the same place no matter how many posts come after this one :)

Touching the Plane

Jack and I just flew back the US for a few days to celebrate the marriage of our two dear friends (Congratulations Brian and Larissa!!!). While it seems like we just got to Germany, we knew that we couldn't miss this wedding. So, last Wednesday morning, we packed up our things and headed off to Tegal Airport. Because Jack likes to be über early to everything, we arrived at Tegal with so much time to spare, that we weren't even allowed to check in yet. After some (ok lots of) waiting, we got on the plane from Tegal to Frankfurt, and it was all fine and dandy. Until...

I have a crazy superstition about planes. I don't have many superstitions in life, but this is one that I keep. I always must touch the outside of the plane as I get on it. This includes the people in my immediate party. The few times I have not touched the plane, either something has gone wrong or the flight was just horrible. My family has gotten to the point where they do it out of habit, so I never have to remind them to touch the plane when we go somewhere. However, Jack and I have not flown together often, so I forgot to remind him about touching the plane from Frankfurt to Orlando. It went all downhill from there...

I had a bigger lady sitting next to me whose arm took up half of my seat space, no matter how many times I pushed it over. The back of Jack's arm has bruises from the flight attendant carts and people that knocked him. I had cramps. We were fed dinner in the beginning of the flight, which tasted of the aluminum that the meat was packaged in. I didn't eat it. We weren't fed or even given drinks or snacks for another almost 10 hours (I checked...). When they came around with "lunch", they had gave us no choice, and we had to eat it in 10 minutes because we were close to landing. It was a gross mac and cheese. Again, I didn't eat. Screeming babies echoed the cabin. Jack and I were faint, dehydrated, tired, hungry, crampy, bruisy, and all around miserable.

Fast forward 5 days later to our flight from Chicago to Berlin. Different airline today, and I made sure that Jack touched the plane when we got in. We were greeted with candy by the flight attendant as we walked on the plane. We were given travel kits, ear phones, full sized water bottles, free wine, and plenty of delicious food. The touch screens that everyone had to use were as nice as my ipad with tons of movies, whole seasons of tv shows, and even games. Even though we were in economy, we felt like at least business class. Also, no screaming children! Jack has learned his lesson, and hopefully will not need to be reminded again.

And here's a little visual for you; Jack enjoying PizzaHut in Target along with a monster-sized cup for soda/water. Oh, America, how we missed you :)

*Note to all those that travel with me in the future, TOUCH THE OUTSIDE OF THE PLANE!!!!!

Yummy Pizza!

Can my stomach hold that much water at one time?

Give me a High Five #1- German Beers

My dear friend, Lizzy, who I met here in Berlin, also keeps a blog about her adventures here, and gave me the idea to do a Top 5 list as a blog post when I might not have as much to write about. This is the first of many top-5s, as my week was pretty much spent doing work, and I have little to write about.

Jack is the creator of this list, as I myself am a Wine-o, living in a Beer country. As a Hefeweizen connoisseur, Jack's favorite are the wheat beers, but partial to Pilsner, Kölsch, and Dunkle beers. Without further ado, here is Jack's "High Five-ish" beers, which as he describes, "may not be the best, but the most interesting that you can get." From here on out, this is written from Jack's perspective:

1. Weihenstephaner
(side not from Sarah: This is Jack's favorite beer of all time. It's really quite adorable when he drinks it...he gets this cute little grin on his face and he's so happy and content. Now back to Jack.)
It's definitely the best and the most interesting with its banana and bubble-gum notes. It's very unique. It also has the perfect amount of foam when it is poured.

Source

2. Erdinger, Franziskaner, Maisel Weisse
These three beers, also Hefeweizen beers, are very good, just one notch shy of Weihenstephaner quality.

Source

3. Radler
Something unique to Germany is that they mix beer with soda (like Sprite, Fanta, Coke). It's pretty popular here. Not my favorite, but it's not horrible.

4. Berliner Kindl Weiße
Super sweet. It comes traditionally in two flavors: Cherry and Sour Apple, but there are other syrup combinations. It is seen as a Berlin "speciality" if you will. Not that great on the first taste, but gets better as you keep drinking...

Source

5. There isn't a 5th...Germany doesn't really have a huge variety of beers. You kinda have the same companies, and each restaurant offers one wheat beer and one pilsner. While they all taste good, there's not a huge selection of what we would call "microbreweries" that we have in the US

Caption This! #2

Another chance for you to caption a random picture! Give it your best shot :)

The Roman Family's Berlin Bear

*Dedicated to meine Familie

If you didn't know already, Berlin's mascot is a bear. About 10 years ago, tons of life-sized bear sculptures were created for businesses, artists, and people to decorate and then display around the city. About 7-8 years ago, I visited Berlin with my family for not even one full day. It was the end of a 2 1/2 week long trip to Prague, Vienna, and Krakow, and we had a long layover in Berlin before heading back to the states. We were tired, cranky, and the weather kinda stunk, so Berlin did not leave a good impression on us.

One of the very few things I remembered about the city (other than a Marijuana Festival at the Brandenburger Tor...) were the bears, specifically one in particular that was right next to our hotel. On our family vacations, I was always the designated photographer, so I whipped out my camera and took these gorgeous pictures of Brother Kyle with the bear:

Bro with the bear

Wow, he looks young!

We never thought of the bear again. I didn't even think about it when Jack and I moved here. Heck, I couldn't even tell you where we stayed or where this bear was. I basically totally forgot about our day in Berlin, the bear, and the pictures of Brother Kyle. Then, on a run around Berlin a month ago, I saw this...

It's the Bear!!!

Keep in mind, this picture was taken roughly 7-8 years later...can you tell? It was as if the bear was frozen in time. As soon as I ran by the bear, it all came flying back to me. I remembered my trip as if it had happened yesterday. So, I immediately sent brother Kyle this picture (after I ran home, showered, and ate breakfast of course). 

Since then, I have passed this bear on numerous occasions, most recently with Mutti when she was visiting.

So this bear has seen 3/4 of the Roman Family on different occasions, and is (un)officially the Roman Berlin Bear. Let's go, Pops! You're next!

Hej, Stockholm!

*Get a glass of coffee or wine and sit down. This is going to be a long post :)

Hej (pronounced Hey!) = hello (in Swedish)

Meine Mutti (my Mom) came to visit last Tuesday and is here until Thursday. Since then, we have been taking Berlin by storm. When planning her trip over here, we decided to take a long weekend and go to Stockholm, Sweden, since neither of us have been to Scandinavia. We left on Thursday and returned Sunday morning. When I wasn't enjoying the trip, I was itching my brain to figure out what to write about Stockholm. What kind of witty post could I write to capture what we experienced in Stockholm? Finally, I came to a realization that I can't capture Stockholm in one or two witty repartees. Stockholm was too wonderful and the people too lovely to do that. With that, I decided that the best way to tell you about our experience is simply that...to tell/show you about our most of our experience!

Thursday:
After an early flight to Stockholm, Mom and I carried our bags to the tiny, old island called Gamla Stan. This island has original, old, medieval streets that are quite frankly, adorable. We walked around this island pretty much the whole day, shopping in souvenir stores, eating in restaurants, and walking the adorable streets. For dinner, we walked to a different island to a local pub. Mutti ordered Fish and Chips, I had goulash soup and salad...very un-Swedish!

 Medieval streets of Gamla Stan

 Standing in front of the narrowest alley on the island. Only one person can fit at a time!

 Such a pretty city at night!

Friday:
Rain and snow were in the forecast, but Mutti and I lucked out! We had mid-high 40s and no snow, with only about 30 minutes of rain total the whole weekend! We began the day with a sightseeing boat tour that took us around 4 of the many islands that Stockholm is made of. Afterwards, we walked to a different island that holds one of the big department stores, NK. Very similar to Harrods, Galleria Lafayette, KaDaWe, etc... Sadly, no purchases were made here. Afterwards, we had probably our most favorite meal...a lunch of Swedish meatballs! Sorry, Ikea, these are far superior!
We then walked around the city hall, weaving our way back to Gamla Stan to walk more of the streets. While the island of Gamla Stan is very small, Mutti and I loved it, and were happy that we were staying on this island. It has so much character! It was on Gamla Stan that we had "Fika", Sweden's word for mid-afternoon coffee and cake. After having Fika, Mutti and I came to the conclusion that we prefer Happy Hour over Fika!

Dinner was spent on the same island as NK, and we went to a swanky grill. Mom had lamb sausage (sehr lecker!), and I had Char. Mutti was happy that Stockholm restaurants have full bars. In Germany, most restaurants only have beer and wine. Only the ethnic restaurants have full bars. Mutti was finally able to get her Gin and Tonic!

 Mutti listening to our audioguide and looking at the scenery

 Swedish Meatballs!

The perfect bite

 More Gamla Stan

Fika!

Saturday:
Lots of walking today! We walked through the classy and rich apartment area to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was an old, 17th centure warship that sunk in the first 20 minutes that it set sail. Due to poor construction, the Vasa capsized, sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. 333 years later, in the 1960s, it was raised from the ocean floor, preserved in the water. Due to the lack of salt in the Baltic Sea, the Vasa was not destroyed by the sea. Now, the Vasa is on display in a museum...98% original, with only the stainless steel replacement nails replacing the rusted nails from the time. It was a very cool museum!
We then walked to another department store near NK, trying to look for something that Mutti wanted to buy. Sadly, we did not find it, so we left in search of a cafe for lunch. We finally found a panera-type cafe, ordering simple sandwiches, but happy with our meals!
We then walked back to our home-island of Gamla Stan, visiting the Royal Palace. It was a very neat palace to visit, as there is so much history to the palace, but also because the royal family still uses it today, so you see the past meeting the present in a lot of rooms. The current royal family is gorgeous, btw, with the Crown Princess looking like Maria Menudos.
After the palace, we again walked around our favorite island. It was around 4:30 when Mutti and I decided to screw Fika and have a typical, American Happy Hour. Of course, we had to go to the bar that had one of my dad's brands advertised outside the restaurant. It was a very small, pub-type place, where you order your drink at the counter and then go find a table. We sat down, and were immediately greeted by a Swede wearing a Yankee hat, which brought up some conversation, since the Sox just won the World Series. An hour and a half to two hours later of talking to the Yankee and his cute, banker friend, I learned that Yankee loves to party at night and wants to marry an American for a green card, and cute banker is even cuter after a glass of wine.
We then went to dinner at a Swedish-tapas restaurant close to our hotel. Since I had another glass of wine at dinner, Mutti and I had to walk around the island to walk it out. Mutti was ok...I'm the light weight :)

 The Vasa

 More Gamla Stan!

Changing of the guards after our visit to the Royal Palace

 Mutti and I having our own version of Fika :)

We left Sunday morning, and after the trip, Mutti and I miss and love Stockholm. The people are very kind. Mutti lost her credit card, and several Swedes helped her to find it. The city is both beautiful and clean. If you ever get the chance to go, GO! We would go back in a heartbeat!