Travel

Berlin, Germany

Oh, Berlin, you were lovely. We were *still* a little bit sick when we arrived, but we were so excited to experience the city and meet up with our friend that we hardly even noticed.
 
We were staying at our friend's charming apartment in Mitte, which was very central and in a beautiful, quiet neighbourhood. The train system in Berlin deserves its reputation of being fantastic – they are clean, efficient, and the main S Bahn line has all these wonderful, high-ceilinged station platforms. We quickly mastered the system, and spent the rest of the week taking advantage of the fast, great trains.
 
One thing we noticed a lot: the food in Berlin was really great quality. Even in the subway stations, you'd have little cafe storefronts serving fresh sandwiches and salads. And outside of the metro too, the street food and restaurants we went to were all top notch. Our first night we made a trek (we switched trains 3 times..even with German efficiency that was a bit much) and ended up in the most beautiful neighbourhood, in search of a highly rated restaurant that we found on TripAdvisor. After two weeks of Croatian food we both had a hankering for something Asian, so we tried this Vietnamese place. The owner was so friendly, joking around and sitting down with us at the table to advise us on the best fresh juice and appetizers. It was a really delicious meal that we enjoyed on the bustling sidewalk terrace as the sun went down. It was so great.
 
While in Berlin, we did a lot of touring and I guess you could say paying homage to the history of Berlin. One of the things that I find so interesting and amazing about the city is how much it is in touch with its past. Our guide for our first tour explained that many Germans are extremely aware of their history and the image that other countries have about them. He said that Germany truly believes that expression: “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” The city is rich with memorials and museums (almost all of which are completely free) and I think that's one of the things that makes it so amazing.
 
We wound up going on a tour to the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. That trip was very, very surreal. It was almost impossible to wrap your head around where you were standing, and the atrocities that happened there. Our tour was very informative, and more importantly, very respectful. It was a powerful day, and a completely beautiful one, weather-wise, which made the experience even stranger for me. I couldn't bring myself to take a single photo that day, even though many members of our tour group were taking many. I guess I felt that taking photos makes it into a “tourist attraction”, which, I personally feel, cheapens the suffering of the people who were trapped and killed there.
 
But Berlin has a lot to offer in terms of the present day as well. We ate well, sat in beautiful parks at dusk, drank grapefruit (?!) beer, toured the absolutely stunning architecture, visited the famous Pergamon museum and saw parts of the Babylon Gates (I was blown away), visited beer gardens (delicious food, great beer, and very cheap), went for walks, lay with our heads together on the stelae (concrete slabs) of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and discussed the really powerful museum we'd just experienced (you can do anything but stand on top of the stelae), cooked a yummy homemade dinner, and explored the cool East Berlin. Berlin reminded me somewhat of Montreal (although with grander architecture), and I felt happy and calm in the city.
 
Favourites:
  • Sandemann's New Europe Tours: we used this program both for their free tour and for the Sachenhausen tour, and both were really great. The guides are all really passionate about history, friendly, and respectful when it counts.
  • Saigon and more..Das Original restaurant: the Vietnamese place with the very friendly owner. We loved the food and the service. Their bathroom is very cool too, completely stocked with anything you might need (and I mean anything) all for free.
  • East Side Gallery: a section of the Berlin Wall that was left standing and has been painted by various artists. The art is wonderful and it's such a cool outdoor exhibit.
  • Ritter Sport shop: where you can make your own chocolate bar. Enough said, yes?
  • Berliner Dom: a wonderful cathedral. We climbed ALL the stairs up the very top lookout and the views were amazing. The inner church is totally stunning as well.

Split, Croatia

Split, our last stop on our great Croatian adventure. Unfortunately, we both rolled into Split with nasty head colds – boo – which meant we were tired and just a bit under the weather, even though the weather was awesome the whole time we were there. We still made the most of it, just took it pretty easy and took advantage of the numerous fresh juice and smoothie stands in the old town of Split!

Our second day, we took a great tour to Krka Falls National Park – it was completely stunning. We were both very sleep deprived that day, so taking a tour by minibus was perfect, since we didn't have to make any decisions ourselves and we got to see so many gorgeous sights we wouldn't have made it to otherwise. We had lunch at a very rustic tavern in the park, near a small waterfall. They brought out water, wine, fresh bread, homemade goats milk cheese, fresh tomatoes, olives, olive oil, a meat platter (which I refrained from) and…homemade liquor. It was all you could eat and drink for a very reasonable price (especially for the vegetarian..). They had us take shots of the VERY strong alcohol before lunch and we were positively giddy by the end of it. All throughout, the tour guide and the owners of the tavern hung out a little ways away from the table and played and sang Croatian folk songs – not on our behalf, but we got to enjoy it anyways. It was a lovely atmosphere.

In Split we also tried the most intensely chocolate gelato of all time, explored the local fish market (really cool) and quaint fruit market, went up the bell tower at Diocletian's Palace (and it scared the living day lights out of me, those things were not built to be climbed I'm telling you), explored faraway beaches that we needed a kindly old man to lead us to down a fairly sketchy path to show us the way to, and explored the old town. We walked the promenade almost every night at sunset, eating ice cream and people-watching, and went to bed early every day to help heal ourselves. Despite our sickness, Split still gave us some fun adventures and delicious treats.

Favourites:

  • Konoba Matejuska: we came here our last night based on the wonderful reviews on TripAdvisor and it was amazing. Incredible service and even better food. We had a really nice time.
  • Slasticarnica Tradicija: this is where we found the delicious, intense chocolate ice cream. It was amazing.

Hvar, Croatia

Our time in Hvar was wonderful. Our apartment was so centrally located and our hosts were so helpful with their recommendations – all of which were completely amazing. Hvar is a beautiful city, on a beautiful island, but I was unprepared for just how much of a backpacker/party destination it was. I guess I should have known, what with the famous Carpe Diem club being there and all, but I didn't realize Yacht Week was such a big part of the culture there (it's a program that is in essence a big party on a boat that stops in at different cities to party) – the boats would come in almost every afternoon to drop off a big group of very drunk people, some of whom, as one local told us, “don't know how to behave”.
 
Trust me though, I'm not complaining. We still had an incredible time. It was just up to us to make our stay in Hvar our own, and we went about it in a slightly different way than those folks. On our hosts' recommendation, we spent most afternoons at the beach on daybeds (when we could get them, they were often reserved!) at the further away and less crowded Falko Bar beach. All the daybeds on all the beaches were technically owned by the individual bars nearest to them, but happily you didn’t have to buy anything to use them.
 
One day, we rented a car, and I drove (eek!!) on the narrowest mountain road with extremely few road barriers (double eek), through narrow tunnels that looked to be simply chiseled from underneath the mountain, along gorgeous cliffs with amazing vistas, all around Hvar island. On a whim I pulled into a driveway off the narrow old road, and found an abandoned old house with colourful beehives alongside. When we were wandering around, we heard a bell ringing and decided to follow it (all the while wondering if we should be creeped out or not..). Eventually we turned a corner, and a donkey came over the hill towards us!!! He was the friendliest. It was such a good omen for the rest of our trip. That day we also bought 1.5L of red wine from a roadside stand for about $5, where the winemaker recommended a beach (Ivan Dolac) to us that was just beautiful. We sang and toured and found fresh figs and abandoned houses. It was a great day.
 
A couple days later, we rented a boat! A tiny little one, which I kept messing up the steering on in our initial (very casual) tutorial (nobody was overly concerned we'd never driven a boat before). Adrienne mastered it though, and we were off to explore the islands! It didn't go very fast, but we were fine to putter around, letting the ginormous yachts pass us. Another good omen – on our way out of Hvar harbour, we passed a little Island with – you guessed it – a donkey on it! Donkeys are the mascot of our trip, we have decided. After touring around a bit, we pulled into a little secluded inlet and went swimming around the boat in the blue blue water. We eventually took off again, with me driving this time (yep, managed to master it!!!) until I felt a bit seasick.. After I sun burned my back and ended up throwing up overboard (whoops!!!), I felt better and we had lunch and dropped anchor at a beautiful little beach (Robinson Beach) where we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and swimming. It was magical. Those two experiences were enough to make me feel like I experienced more of Hvar than just the harbour and nightclubs – though we definitely experienced those too! It was really fun to walk down by the main strip and ogle all the enormous yachts parked right up alongside.
 
Hvar was a mix of adventure and relaxing beach days. We ate some amazing restaurant food but also packed a picnic lunch of snacks most days, since the produce from the daily farmers market in Hvar was amazing. Unfortunately, we both ended up with head colds, which we are still fighting as I write this, a couple days later in Split. They're almost gone though, hopefully with one more good sleep we'll have kicked them!
 

We loved our time in Hvar. We loved walking around the city and soaking it all up.

Favourites:
  • Restaurant Marinero: this is located right around the corner from Kiva Bar, which is a really fun bar (pretty crowded) for dancing – they play great music – and right downstairs from a hostel. But the food is amazing (we went back a second time) and very reasonably priced.
  • Restaurant Luna: literally almost right beside our place, the food here was delicious and the service was excellent.
  • Falko Bar: great vibe, really relaxed. There were always dogs around, and good music. We never tried the food, but it looked great.

Korcula, Croatia

Korcula started off bitter and ended up sweet. I know it sounds petty of me to say that, considering how lucky I truly am to be spending this time in beautiful Croatia, but that first half day in Korcula didn't go so well, all things considered. Our host cancelled our accommodations just a day before we arrived, telling us the payment hadn't gone through (it had), but saying we could still have the room if we rebooked. When we arrived, though, her story changed and suddenly we had to pay cash (we had booked through, and had credit for Airbnb) or find somewhere else. All this after a 5AM wake up time for the ferry ride, on which I let myself get a bit too hot and dehydrated. So we were disoriented and suspicious when we arrived, a fairly bad combo.

After some lunch and some beer, we were fortified and happier. Deciding we didn't want to waste time looking for another place, we paid cash (and asked for a refund from Airbnb), and our host surprised us by giving us *back* money, insisting that the place was cheaper than the original booking price. All's well that ends well!

We ended up having a lovely two days in Korcula, which is a very small but beautiful town, very old, very picturesque. We spent our afternoons on the beach (perhaps TMI, but we found a secluded spot and did some topless tanning – that's a first!) and our evenings walking around the old walled city, along the promenade. We climbed up the steepest, narrowest steps to the tiniest tower to look out over the city. We perused some beautiful handmade jewelry. And we ate some really delicious food, including my first palachinke (a thin crepe with Nutella)!

The sunset on our last night was completely perfect, and I loved exploring the city in the evening, watching the pink sky and listening to all the hubbub. Like I said, it ended up being totally sweet.

Favourites:

  • Walking the promenade at night – the sunsets in Korcula were amazing.
  • U Maje I Tonke restaurant: delicious tapas-style food. Everything we tried was creative, homemade, and beautifully presented.
  • Marinero restaurant: set just off the main promenade, this restaurant is apparently owned by two fishermen, and the food was incredibly fresh. When we were there, an older (fabulous) woman who is American but has been spending her summers in Korcula for some time now was raving about the food to everyone who walked by. We weren't disappointed, it was delicious and well priced.
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