This was my first Monday in the new apartment and my first official full week of living in my new neighborhood. My week started off strong with St. Nikolas day celebrations, meeting Ingo, finding a new gym, chilly nighttime walks and Gluhwein at Alexanderplatz. I loved everything about the first half of my week and it only kept getting better from there. On Thursday I woke up to a snowy Berlin and I was on cloud 9! I went for a long morning walk and frolicked around the neighborhood taking pictures of everything. After a beautiful snowy Thursday I woke up extra early on Friday, grabbed my suitcase and skipped across the ocean to NYC! The flight to NYC was long, but worth it because I got to surprise all of my friends on Friday and Saturday. I loved seeing everyone again and being back with the NYC crew for a few days.
St. Nikolas Day
I learned about St. Nikolas day in November when Alice and I decided to celebrate Christmas a month early. I loved the idea of starting the Christmas celebrations 20 days before Christmas, so naturally I wanted to celebrate on actual St. Nikolas day too. St. Nikolas day is always the 6th of December and this year that day fell on a Monday. It felt like the perfect way to start a dreary winter Monday, so early on the 6th I snuck through the apartment and filled my new roommates shoes with candy and candles. I pulled off the surprise successfully, but my creeping around the apartment made my roommate think there was a ghost. Whoops!
John Reed Gym
Now that I have moved to a new neighborhood, it’s time for me to find a new gym. I can’t lose my ‘triumphant’ 7kg weight lifting skills, and yes that was sarcasm. Nevertheless, I am still motivated and slightly addicted to weightlifting now. It’s meditative and a nice way to start off the morning or end the day. This week I tried out one of the John Reed gyms. John Reed is a popular chain of gyms in Berlin and after visiting I can understand why. They spent a lot of time and money making the gym feel like a club and it 100% pays off. The aesthetics of the gym are amazing and I love all the little artistic details in each room, like vintage carpets, funky art and giant statues. I mean, the gym also has it’s own DJ… could it get more Berlin.
Coffee every morning
I love a lot of things about my new apartment, but one of the small things that I surprisingly love a lot is the coffee machine in the kitchen. It’s one of the coffee machines that you see in ~actual coffee shops~ and I think it’s so much fun to use. I love making a fresh cup of coffee in the morning, sitting next to the window and thinking about how crazy it is that I am ACTUALLY drinking a cup of coffee from one of those ~cool~ coffee machines while looking out the window of my Berlin apartment!
Meeting Ingo!
This week I got to meet Ingo! Ingo is a cute little black pudel and he likes to stop by the apartment in the middle of his morning walks to say hi and smell the apartment. I loved getting to play with a puppy every day this week.
Chilly walks and Alexanderplatz
The temperature is starting to drop in Berlin and it is dark all the time, but this week I went on a nice long evening walk with two friends to Alexanderplatz and the chilly air felt amazing. Once we got to Alexanderplatz we warmed up with a nice big cup of Gluhwein. I think Gluhwein and Christmas markets are my favorite part of Christmas season in Berlin.
Anmeldung adventures
While moving into my new apartment was exciting, the thought of re-registering at the Burgeramt alone was a little daunting. I lucked out when registering my first apartment because my company hired a translator to set everything up for me, but now I’m out on my own. Or so I thought! Instead of having to go alone my lovely new roommates offered to take me and help me with the registration. I’m so thankful that I not only found an amazing apartment in a beautiful neighborhood, but also that is full of the nicest roommates too!
My FIRST Berlin snow!
I can’t stress this enough, I love love love snow. It instantly makes me happy and when I woke up on Thursday to giant fluffy flakes falling from the sky I was ecstatic. I immediately threw on my boots and ran outside to frolic through the freshly fallen snow. I frolicked in the nearest part and I walked all over the neighborhood admiring how beautiful everything looks when it’s covered in a fresh sheet of snow. The best part about waking up to the falling snow was that it kept falling all day long on Thursday and through the night. It was the best last day in Berlin before I go home for Christmas.
pACKING UP MY HOLIDAY SWEETS
Before heading home for the holidays I went to the grocery store and loaded up my cart with all of my favorite sweets. I think out of all the treats I purchased, my favorites are hanuka, kinder eggs and ritter sport chocolate bars.
Traveling home home for the holidays
I don’t know if other people say the same thing, but when I am talking about “home” it’s where I’m living and when I say “home home” it’s always where my family is. It doesn’t matter where the actual location is, but as long as the whole gang is there it’s home home. This week I traveled back to NYC to surprise my best friends in the city. To prep for the trip I had to get a dreaded PCR test, but once that came back negative I loaded up my suitcase and headed to the airport. My flight had a layover in Istanbul, which was cool because I’d never been to Turkey before. I still haven’t really been to Turkey, but based on the number of Baklava I ate in the airport lounge you would probably think that I had been there for a week.
SURPRISE!
I love surprises and this holiday season I got to surprise my NYC friends with a little holiday cheer.
Santa Con
A final Santa Con in the city spent with close friends and a bottle of chocolate syrup.
Relaxing Sunday
Carrying on the Berlin tradition of doing nothing on Sunday. Today I popped over to Matt’s apartment to veg out and watch High Maintenance and I think you should leave.
