Palaces & Dessert in Berlin

I had the day to myself in Berlin as Chewy had gone to do some sightseeing elsewhere with his parents, and decided to go shopping, the results of which you'll see in later blog posts.  So as not to be completely uncultural, I decided to visit the Charlottenburg Palace.  It was absolutely beautiful, and unfortunately I can't even share photos with you as you aren't allowed to take any inside.  So the 2 photos I took from the outside will have to do! 

 

 

After shopping and sightseeing I was famished.  Continuing on the general theme of 'treating myself' (with all the money I don't have), I went to the foodcourt in the KaDeWe for a very late lunch at 4pm.  I had a selection of salads which was very tasty, and now let me tell you about the bread roll.  It was fresh out of the oven and steaming hot, and they have these ultra delicious, cute, little butter numbers with olives, and garlic and herbs in them.  I can't recommend these enough!

 

Needless to say, after all that savoury there needed to be some sweet.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

No photos of me today, and the quality of the food photos isn't great as I'm still relying on an iphone camera.  But I thought I'd share my lovely little day with you all anyway!

A 10km Walk Through Berlin

Being a tourist in your own country is strange.  I'm German originally, and still speak the language, but haven't lived there since I was 6.  Suddenly finding myself surrounded by a city where everyone speaks German was a bizarre feeling.  Anyway, I digress.  We arrived to a sun filled Berlin, put on our walking shoes and walked and walked and walked.  Personally, I prefer walking around cities to catching public transport everywhere as it gives you a much better impression of a place (as well as a lovely bit of exercise!), and I ended up doing a lot of walking during my 5 nights in Berlin.  Thank you for playing along weather.

On my suggestion we did quite a few of the big landmarks on our first day, such as the Brandburger Tor, the Reichstag, Alexander Platz, Tiergarten, Museums Insel, you name it and we saw it that day. 

 

I highly recommend these enormous juice boxes you can find in every shop in Berlin.  I've never seen a juice box with a 500ml capacity, and there were just ace.  Tasty and cheap too.  Good way to start the day!

Posing at the Alexander Platz.  Shortly after this I had an incredibly wet bottom from sitting on the side of the fountain.  Oh well, all in the name of a good blog entry.

The Tiergarten is a massive park in the centre of Berlin and you can spend hours walking through it.  We walked up the Strasse des 17 Juni, towards the Grosser Stern, which itself was over a 1.5km walk.  Well worth it though (as long as it isn't raining).  On the way back towards Berlin Mitte, we meandered through the park itself.  It was just a shame we didn't have any food or drinks for a picnic with us as it would have been a perfect setting.  So there's a tip - if it's nice weather bring something with you to consume in the vast Tiergarten!

After a lot of walking we both had quite sore feet, and stopped off at the first cafe we came across.  Luckily for Chewy they had the mother of all brownies there, and I indulged in an ice cream.  Bandy Brooks is the place, and it can be found right next to the Museums Insel.  The last photo is Chewy being very happy with himself after demolishing the brownie, with cream!

 

These last 3 pictures were taken at the Gendarmenmarkt in central Berlin, which is home to the Konzerthaus.  The lady playing the violin in the centre of the Gendarmenmarkt was incredibly talented, and added the loveliest touch to the whole place.  

At the end of the day we counted, and worked out that we'd walked roughly 10km that day.  A well deserved dinner followed! (But more on that in a later post because the restaurant was so great that it deserves it').

Backless Summer Dresses

After a few months of travelling, I decided it was high time to treat myself to a new dress!  After a quick visit to Brandy Melville, I came out with this little backless number below.

 

In my opinion it is the perfect summer dress, whether you're on the coast or in a city.  And it didn't break the budget either luckily!

I wasn't able to find one online, but for those of you living in Europe it should be available in all stores.  Happy shopping!

A Wonderful Italian Dinner in Budapest

Anniversaries need to be celebrated right? We dressed up (with what little we have in our backpacks), left the hostel, and walked to a lovely terrace in central Pest where Da Mario's Italian restaurant awaited us.  Along the way I met Ronald Reagan!

My skirt is from Urban Outiftters and my top is from Nasty Gal.  Both are firm favourites in my very limited collection of travel clothes!

 

 

 

A little bit starstruck? The statue is to commemorate and honour the work Reagan did to help rebuild eastern Europe after the war by the way, and there is a plaque outlining all of this right near the statue.

 

We shared a starter and chose the parmigiana tiepida, or the oven baked eggplant parmigiana for those amongst us that don't speak Italian.  Unfortunately the photos don't do the dish justice at all, but I am still only equipped with an iphone camera.  It was utterly delicious though!

 

For mains I chose the tagliolini with Sicilian pesto sauce.  Again, just plain yummy.  And the portion wasn't too large, so there was still room for dessert.  Winner.

I didn't manage to get a photo of Chewy's main because he started too quickly, but he had the risotto with porcini mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.  I am told it was delectable, but I wouldn't know that information first hand because I wasn't allowed to sample a single bite. 

I'll end the post with some photos of the inside of the restaurant because I really liked the interiors, especially the bar.  If you're in Budapest, pay Da Mario's a visit and you won't be disappointed.  The prices are very reasonable, the waitstaff are very attentive (if not overly so at times), and most importantly the food itself is definitely worth a visit.

 

At the end of dinner we decided to grab an ice cream each and a few ciders and headed back to the hostel, where we saw the night out sitting on the balcony of our third storey appartment.  Just lovely!

Sunshine in Budapest Part II

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, flowers were in full bloom…Budapest could not have been any prettier.  We read in a guidebook that you shouldn’t visit Budapest during summer because of the ‘stifling’ heat, but honestly, whoever wrote that lied and just didn’t want you to visit during the loveliest months of the year.  

We walked from Pest to Buda to see the castle and the ramparts, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.  On our walk, we passed yet another vegetarian restaurant by chance, this time a raw, vegan one.  We’d just had breakfast and weren’t at all hungary (I couldn’t resist, sorry), but again we were surprised at the number of vegetarian restaurants that seemed to be around.  Visiting the ramparts is free, so we kept things cheap that day by walking around the beautiful gardens and streets on top of the hill.  Getting into the castle does cost something, and for those of you with European passports do bring them because you pay half the price, and it is home to an extensive gallery.  We decided against going in because we really wanted to see an old castle in all its glory and weren’t too keen on a gallery that day, and we were trying to be stingy.  

So we walked and walked, and occasionally/frequently stopped because I had a horrible sinus infection and was a resident of struggle town.  The upside to this was that we could enjoy the incredible weather as it was simply stunning outside!  Without further ado, here are the photos.  Hope you enjoy them!

 

Chewy was feeling a bit peckish after all the sightseeing, and indulged in this artery clogger.