Goodbye Munich...

 It's so hard to believe I'll be flying back to America in less than 8 hours. (Yes, maybe it's 3am and I'm still packing.) And maybe I waited so long because I just didn't want to believe this was happening so soon. In a way, I'm happy to come home, but there are definitely things I'm going to miss, like:
- Waking up to a view of the mountains 
- Drinking beer before noon under a blanket of chestnut trees (also known as beer gardens)
- Being inspired by streetstyle on the subway, in the grocery store, and by the 80 year old lady stolling down the street
- Tchaikovsky playing on rainy days waiting for the subway
- The subways in general  - "Bitte zurueck bleiben"
- Professors who spontaneously decide to have class in a beer garden
- Schnitzel, Leberkaes, Zwetschgendatschi
- Festivals every weekend (and holidays as an excuse to celebrate)
- Bars on my roof, next door, and across the street
- Traveling to Austria and anywhere in Bavaria for only 6 euros
- The English Garden: the Eisbach, the musicians, and even the retired men that play nude bocce ball every single day along the river
- Biking everywhere, and being able to leave my bike unlocked everywhere
- Thunderstorms that come without warning and are gone before you know it
- And more than anything, all the amazing people that make this city
Here's to the last few hours... Munich, I'll miss you

Maifest

 Hey lovelies, this post is somewhat overdue, but May Day in Bavaria is definitely not something to miss. I saw two unique celebrations in Egmating and Hoehenkirchen, little neighboring Bavarian towns. The celebration centered around setting up the Maypole, which weighed 4.5 tons and the process took hours. Time went by so fast though with the help of Bavarian music and lots of food. After the Maibaum was set up, there was a dancing celebration, more music, and of course beer. One of the things I love most about Munich is that they seem to find a way to make a unique cultural celebration out of every holiday. Did you do anything fun for May Day?   

Istanbul (II)

 A few more photos taken in Istanbul last week.. The picture below was taken from the Galata tower, where we had a beautiful view over the city. It took us a while to figure out how to get to all of the places we wanted to see, because the public transportation system was so different than any other European city I've been to. The buses ran rarely, so we took taxis from the place we were staying many times, which was about as a cheap as a bus fare when split between three people. Over the week we were there we saw the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand and Egyptian Bazaar, the Princes Islands, and countless beautiful neighborhoods and markets, which I loved even more than the tourist attractions, because the culture was so apparent. Still, there is so much more to see and I would love to come back someday, especially since I now know so many nice people that live there.

Istanbul

 Just a few photos I took during the week I stayed in Istanbul. I had a great time traveling with my friend Andrea and Istanbul was probably the most unique city I've seen to date. Every morning we awoke at 5am to the Azan (the Islamic call to prayer) from the mosque right next door to where we were staying. We walked through the richest and the poorest neighborhoods, went inside churches and mosques. It was crazy seeing so many places in the same city that you would never expect to find together. It was also my first time couchsurfing, which was an amazing experience. Our hosts, Okan and Buket, were so nice and took the time to show us around the city on the weekend and show us places that we would never have been able to find in a toubook. We had Turkish dinners together in the evening and went out dancing at night. I'll try to post some more photos tomorrow!
Also, you guys might have noticed that I made some changes to the blog's layout. What do you think? xx