Year 1 in Georgia

I've been in Savannah for a year! A year and a month at this point, technically. I've had few people ask me questions about moving out of New York and I can confidently tell them, "It was the right choice for me." My wise friend Sam put it best. She said, "Look. You think you hate New York. You have to move. You'll either move and be happier, or you'll move and miss New York and you can come back happier." She was right. I was stuck in this unhealthy "the grass is greener" mentality. It's scary to leave friends, but I'm really proud of myself. I'm a big believer that you're responsible for your own happiness, and I wasn't happy in New York.

My first few months here, I could feel my icy New Yorker shell slowly melt. It was this crust that always made me expect the worst of every stranger and hold myself in constant competition with everyone. Slowly I had to learn that people just say "good morning" here and they aren't trying to rob me. 

However, I also tell my friends "My decision might not be the right decision for you." I know when I'm happiest. It's when I'm quietly drawing, or reading comics, or laughing at some goofy Youtube video. It's when I can design my own little world. I'm good at being alone. I need it. For me, living in a place where I can afford to live alone is perfect. But that's not everyone! Some people are way more social than me. They're happiest when surrounded by a big group of friends at a party, or at a concert. I kinda hate parties and concerts. I do miss my friends, but I still feel connected through all the dumbs memes I send them. I actually felt a hell of lot lonelier when I lived in New York and saw Instagrams of friends hanging out without me. Now I'm just living my best life. 

I renewed my lease to be in this apartment for another year, but I'm thinking next year I'll look into buying a house.... 

Locked Out

Well, it's day 3 and I got locked out. The door closed behind me when I went to get the mail. Lesson learned. 

Me and Jeff Goldblum. We out here. 

Every celebrity I saw while living in New York

Jake Gyllenhaal
Anne Hathaway *under a parasol
Justin Long
Zosia Mamet
Nick Lachey
Vanessa Minnillo Lachey
Ana Gasteyer
Alison Harvard from ANTM
Sean from Degrassi
Katherine McPhee
Kahlen from ANTM
Bianca from ANTM
Counselor Pat from Heavyweights
Amir Blumenfeld
Taran Killem
Paul Dano
Phil of the Future *eating a bagel
Michael Angarano
Andrew Ranells
Ray from Girls
Kevin Corrigan
Leonardo diCaprio *served him pumpkin pie
Anna SophiaRobb
Rosie Perez
James Murphy *gave him back VERY wrong change
Carrot Top
Kyle MacLachlan *riding a scooter
Gretchen from Kimmy Schmidt
Danny Devito *walking a weiner dog
Jackson Galaxy
Ice Cube
Gilbert Gotfried
Ben McKenzie *<3 

FAQ

What's up?

I'm moving to Savannah, Georgia. 

Is Amanda okay?

For those of you not in-the-know, Amanda is my BFF since middle school. She currently lives a 10 minute walk away from me and I can often be found at her house watching Fixer Upper on her giant TV. Honestly, this is the first question people ask me. I think Amanda is sad for her, but more happy for me because she is a good friend. We also didn't go to college with each other and made it through ok, so I'm not too worried. I foresee a lot of FaceTiming in our future. When reached for comment, Amanda said "Ask me in 6 weeks." 

When do you move?

June 1st. I recently signed a lease and I'm very excited. I'll be moving out of my current apartment April 30th, then couchsurfing in NY until May 17th, then going home to Ohio for the rest of May. 

Do you have a job?

No! I don't! That's scary. However, I've been doing freelance design during these transition months until I move (March-May) and it's been going well. I plan to keep that up when I move and try to get a restaurant job partly to meet people/get out of my house.

Do you know anyone down there?

No! Not a soul. Luckily I'm pretty good at being alone, and I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so I'm ok at making friends.

Are you getting a car?

Yes! My parents got me a little red Jetta that I've named Brünhilda; Hilda for short. I'm kind of nervous wreck when it comes to driving, so I'll have to get used to that.

Why Savannah?

Well I've been wanting to move out of New York for a long time. It's too expensive. Ultimately, I am a homebody that just wants to have a little house, drink some wine, and take my dog for walk. That's hard to do in New York (okay, the wine part is easy, but that's easy everywhere). Also, I'm 27 and although I've had some great roommates, I'd like to live alone. And have a dishwasher because I HATE DOING DISHES. Ok, so that's all "why not New York."

I was planning to move to Portland, mostly because it looked cool on Portlandia. But then I agreed to go on a very quick trip down to Savannah with some friends and I loved it. The weather's warm, the houses are beautiful, but there's still some art school weirdness I appreciated. It's cheap and pretty walkable too. Not a ton of design jobs, but I'll figure something out.

Insomnia

I can't sleep. My brain is in this loop of "Why did you do this? Damn, this is expensive. Will you make enough money? Did you just ruin your life? How do you set up address forwarding? What are you doing? Should you get a new bank?" Normally I can numb this whirring with some mindless Kendall & Kylie app, but I have to wait 4 hours for Perry to text me so I'm out of luck. Dammit, Perry!

So I'm moving to Savannah, like quit my job, broke my lease, scheduled the movers, MOVING. I don't have a job in Savannah. Or any friends. Hence the general anxiety and stress.  

Now is when Logical Liz comes out to make me feel better. "You want this. This is smart. It's expensive now, but make it to Savannah and then things will be cheaper! You can ride your little bike around and go to the beach and never wear that big puffy coat you hate! You'll probably get a car. Remember how fun driving a car is? You can finally get a dog!"

"Right. Look at these rescue dogs. Am I ready for a dog? Dogs are a lot of work. What if I get a shitty dog??"

"Ok, ok. Table the dog thoughts. That went south quickly. Moving is what you need. You need a new chapter! An exciting new adventure! You'll be fine. A lot of changes are coming, but take it one day at a time. Right now? You need to go to sleep and go to your last day of work tomorrow. Take a break from worrying about anything beyond that. Sleep."

On Blogs

My New Years Resolution was to write more. At the moment, "blog" is as close as I get to "write." And here we are.

I'm struggling with this blog because WHY. I love writing when I travel because there's a point. Girl experiences new place, is an idiot, hilarity ensues. Or at the very least, it's vaguely interesting to read about because it takes place in Prague. What do I write about now? Girl goes to work, has an okay day, watches Oddities on Netflix? I live in Brooklyn, which I admit is interesting but I am not doing interesting things inside of it.

I need a focus; a purpose. "My blog has no purpose," I told my friend Gaby over $12 sandwiches in DUMBO. "Hey, just like your life!" she retorted like a JERK. (Shoutout to Gaby, hey Gaby). I could go off on a giant tangent how my life really doesn't have much of a purpose right now and that's kindaaaaa stressful, but another day my beautiful friend. Another blog post.

I'm not going to write about my daily life because I just lived it, geez, give me a break. Also, it would reveal the troubling amount I think about bagels everyday, so no thanks. I'm certainly not a lovely productive DIY blog with weekend tutorials because I live far away from Michael's Craft Emporium okayyyyyy. I'm not a collection of witty essays and interviews with my hip celebrity friends. Today I wore leggings as pants, so a fashion blog is out of the question. I also can't inspire myself to lose weight so don't expect my help there. Are there other blogs? I don't know dude, enough of this paragraph already.

Ultimately, I'm going to play the entitled I Do Me card of my generation. Yes, that sounds super pretentious and condescending on my part, but I'm actually being sincere. I'm writing here because I enjoy it. I will continue to post whatever. Second shoutout to Resident-Jerk Gaby who also said, "You're all my least favorite kind of blogs but in a way I like! Travel and food! Next you'll start blogging about motherhood." (No plans to start blogging about motherhood anytime soon)

Wednesdays are blog days. Blog updated Wednesday. Yeah today is Thursday but chill out.

kthnx bye 2013

2013 was a weird one for me. It began with a European adventure, and then fizzled into an enduring amorphous blob of uncertainty and generally scattered existence. Not wholly bad though.

Lowlights

To be fair to 2013, I now realize I had unreal expectations. "I'm going to travel to Europe and when I come back my dream job will fall in my lap and my grown-up life I've been programmed to strive for will begin!" Visions of corporate gym memberships danced in my head. That did not happen, which I have to say was quite a blow to the ole ego. 

I've actually seen a similar funk happen to a few friends. I understand nothing about the economy, but I've heard it's bad, so I'm tempted to blame that. I don't really think it's the economy, but I do think it sucks. I'm not terribly interested in dwelling on the why though, mostly because I haven't figured out the why. The continuous job-search is definitely the big Debbie Downer of 2013.

Highlights

But 2013 wasn't always such a soul-suck! Nay, sometimes it was great! I think I definitely figured some personal stuff out. I'm not perfect, I'll never be perfect, and that's okay. I finally learned to try to be the person I want to be, and not the person I think I'm supposed to be. If something makes you unhappy, change it or get over it. I wanted to go to Europe so I went. I like Pokémon so I like Pokémon. I don't need to apologize for it. I still have to figure out the details of who I want to be, but I'm getting there. By the way, yes, Pokémon X was definitely a highlight of 2013.

I also figured out when I'm happiest: traveling, planning parties, and making stuff. Blog posts are included in "stuff." I would like to apply for a traveling party-planning designer job please. I also really like summer and anytime I can wear jean shorts. If you spot me wearing jorts, I'm at least sorta happy.

Now let's look forward to 2014. That sparkling Oz-like wonder of possibility and self improvement.* I hate New Year's Eve, but love resolutions. 1- I'd like to write more, here specifically. 2- Start working out (ughhhh so boring same resolution as everyone else get out of here). 3- I've also gotten REAL lazy when it comes to new music/movies/etc. Lately I've just been alternating between Miley and Beyoncé. I used to be up on new music thanks to The OC, which is also around the time I stopped buying music. My iTunes is a beautiful time-capsule of 2008 indie rock. Hello those are my resolutions.

See ya 2013, wouldn't want to be ya. Onward to 2014! I'm already planning another post here on hangovers. I can drink to that. 

*obviously I mean like Wizard of Oz; I hope 2014 is nothing like the HBO series

Chicken Fried Model

This summer was weird and aimless. Kind of appropriate for summer though, I suppose. Eh, at least more acceptable for summer. I started working at a fried chicken restaurant, which is pretty fun as far as jobs go. I eat a lot of food I shouldn't eat, but I walk around all the time so it's been balancing out. I may have a heart attack at the age of 31 though.

I've also been doing a wee bit of modeling here and there. Sometimes for free sometimes for money. That sounds so unbelievably vague and sketchy. Just online catalogue stuff, honest! AS IF I need a reason to post flattering pictures of myself on my blog:

Looking bored

Vintage! 

My Corona! *sung to the tune of My Sharona*

The coolest thing I did was a music video. See what I mean by this summer being weird? Whatever, watch me eat a taco.

Oh OF COURSE I set a custom video placeholder featuring me. My like three "modeling" jobs have also turned me into a clinical narcissistic psychopath. JUST KIDDING! (no I'm not)

Mean Vegan

I've been back in New York for a month and trudging along with my job search. Frequent questions I've been asked: "So what did you do today?" "Did you leave the apartment at all?" "Did you just wake up?" Oh unemployment life.But I keep myself busy! Between applying for jobs, doing some freelance for my old job, and working on personal design projects to add to my portfolio, I've been cooking! Vegan, specifically.

I'm not a vegan. And I'm definitely not calling myself a vegan while I still have those Mini Babybel cheeses in my fridge. However, I watched a bunch of food documentaries that made me want to eat less processed foods and get more fruits and vegetables. I watched Forks Over Knives (on Netflix Instant) and I've been trying out Engine 2 recipes. Whole food, plant-based diet. First, can we look at the Engine 2 guy?

His name is RIP and he's a FIREFIGHTER. Of course I'm going to try all his recipes.

whole wheat means a lot of brown food

Blueberry Dumpster Cobbler Rip, you know I love you, but don't call any edible thing "dumpster." Even if it's so easy like putting out a dumpster fire (actual reason it's called this). For goodness sakes, dumpster fires. Why didn't an editor say something? Anyway, the thing was good and pretty easy. Not sweet enough though and I threw in an extra packet of Truvia. Let's not call it a dessert. It's a breakfast.

Breakfast-Worthy Banana Bread I only used 3 bananas and it was kinda dry. Definitely going to try this one again though, but use 4 bananas and replace some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce. I also may throw some dark chocolate chips in there because yum yum yum.

Macaroni Not Cheese Bland.com/boring. TO BE FAIR, I used almonds instead of cashews so maybe that would have helped? Today I ate leftovers and cooked up some more onions in vegetable broth to add to it, added beaucoup salt n pepper, and a little cayenne pepper. That helped. Oh and I didn't have peppers. I hate when people don't follow the recipe and then complain, so I'm sorry Rip. I'll do better next time. It's me, not you.

Looks like monster snot

Hummuacamole A mutant hybrid of Engine 2 Hummus and Steaktooth Hummus.

Ingredients:

1 Avocado 

1 Cucumber (I couldn't find zucchini!!!)

1 tbs. Crushed Garlic

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

2 tsp. Bragg's Liquid Aminos

2 tsp. Cumin

1 tsp. Sea Salt

1 big handful of kale

1 cup of mushrooms

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Throw it all in a food processor. Blamo. It's good, but kinda watery. Probably should've looked harder for that zucchini. I threw in mushrooms and they disappeared. This is a good one to sneak in a buttload of raw vegetables.

Dark Chocolate Tofu Mousse

Dark Chocolate Mousse A Liz original based on like 5 different recipes. It's delicious and very rich, but not too sugary.

Ingredients:

14oz package of silken tofu

1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla coconut milk

3 tbs of agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix it up. Scoop into little cupcake holders. Top with fresh berries. Refrigerate for a while. Makes 8, 100 calories each.

Back!

I'm BACK! First order of business: watch too much TV.

HELLO New York. You're looking fine.

I'm hanging out and birthday celebrating in New York this weekend. Then I'm off to Ohio to save money and work on my portfolio from March 4-April 2. Then I'll be back in Brooklyn for good. And that's the plan, Jan!

Treat Yo Self

Today was great and lovely! The weather was sunny and 45 F. I didn't even wear a coat! I'm in Iceland if you've lost track.

somewhere in Iceland idk

on the set of Prometheus

After finding my long lost love (cottage cheese) at breakfast, I was off to Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon is a geothermal mineral pool and spa thing. A wee bit pricey but I was really looking forward to this.

beautiful Blue Lagoon! Little man, I want to Photoshop you out so baaaaaad

Gorgeous darling.

It was so beautiful and relaxing. I was just swim-swamming around in February in Iceland. The whole place smells faintly of farts due to the sulphur, but I didn't mind. I need to shower because I still kinda smell faintly of farts (moreso than usual).

The water is mineral-rich and very good for your skin. They have the boxes of silica mud you rub on your face like a mask. It's totally unattended and free. Naturally I took giant handfuls and covered my entire body with it. Sorry, but that's what you get when you leave me around free beauty/skincare/anything unsupervised. I also went to the steam bath and sauna. Then I got an ice cream bar at the swim-up bar and everything was perfect.

Tomorrow I will undertake a quest for some shark. It's their national food and I would like to try shark. Then I'm BACK!! My flight leaves at 5pm tomorrow and I'm supposed to land at 6pm in NYC because we're flying against TIME. It's a 6 hour flight. I have plans for a couple trip-end posts over the next day or so. Reflections, art dump, stuff I made, etc. We ain't done here yet son.

Hungöveretten

Hi guys, it's time for my favorite kind of post: hungover. Currently self-medicating said hangover with a giant cup of coffee and chocolate cake because I like to reward bad decisions with delicious cake. There's something a little beautiful about hangovers. I'm so enveloped in feeling sorry for myself that I forget I'm a tourist in a strange Deutsche-land. I'm just a human lookin' for that cake. Cake cake cake cake. I was quoting poet-laureate Rihanna at the end there.

I'm still in Berlin! I've seen a lot of museums. So. Many. Museums. I'm tapping out. I've gotten so spoiled and sometimes I buy a ticket and speed walk through the joint. It's happened a couple times. I'm not terribly proud of this fact. But it is what it is.

Museum Island

I went to a 19th centuryish art museum, a 20th centuryish art museum, a DDR museum (East Berlin), an "alternative Berlin" tour, Bauhaus archive, and the abandoned airport Tempelhof.

Bauhaus was cool. I finally learned its pronounced "bow-house" so I can stop embarrassing myself. Unrelated: Lime in the Coconut just started playing in this cafe. I bought a poster! I buy nothing ever, so that it significant.

Bauhaus Chairs

I miss art school!

The DDR museum was really well done. It was largely about daily life in East Berlin. Here's a photo, idk man..

Who is this Party informant snooping around my East berlin flat?!

Tiny naked people! East Berlin didn't have enough swimsuits so everybody went naked. And then 25 years later someone felt compelled to make a diorama about it. 

Tempelhof was so cold. I imagine it would be wonderful in the summer. They had BBQ spots. In the winter though, woof. The wind just impaling you from those flat empty runways. Like trekking Siberia. I took a photo of myself so I could remember what I looked like before my nose fell off from hypothermia. Isn't it nice to know I'm still so dramatic even when it's just me?

Tempelhof aka Siberia 

in remembrance of my nose

I also have successfully undertaken the bahns, as I affectionately refer to them. U-Bahn and S-Bahn. Berlin public transit. Apparently ticket inspectors check sometimes, but I have yet to see one of these fellows. I keep buying tickets though because I'm terrified of getting yelled at in German.

I've also been pretending to be German as much as possible. To accomplish this, I just say "Hallo" and then nod when people talk at me. I also maintain a bored face and hide my panicked confusion. It's been working out for me. It got me a fork at Starbucks, interestingly.

Other things with me. I've been watching a lot of vice videos. I think I will send them a letter re: giving me a job. These guys went to North Korea! Makes me feel like a lame little baby for not jumping head first into some weird underground Berlin club with like those pierced people hanging from a ceiling and an animal sacrifice. That's probably happening somewhere in Berlin, right? Who knows. But I like wifi and chocolate cake and art museums.

Now I will take a train to Frankfurtty and get a hotel by the airport and hang around. So close to being home! Are you coming to my birthday? Come to my birthday!

TV Tower

Berlinagain

Hey-o! I'm back in Berlin. I think I may have left Munich a bit prematurely because after I got to Berlin, I realized I actually know THREE people in Munich! Whoops, I screwed up! I'm happy to be back in Berlin though.I totally did have another super weird night train dream again. I dreamt that I was watching a Beyoncé WWE pay-per-view fight. And I kept asking who she was fighting and everyone would just say "haha um Not Beyoncé."

Yesterday I was planning to go the Bauhaus Archives and that was a 32-Double D BUST. Short version so as not to dwell: spent an hour getting there, museum closed on Tuesdays. Bad job, Liz.

Last night was great though! I went to a "Living History" talk that my hostel out on with a man from West Berlin that occasionally did work in East Berlin. When I was last in Berlin, I met with a man from East Berlin. It was really interesting to hear stories and perspectives from both sides of the wall. It really blows my mind how recent that history is. When I was a wee babe, the wall was still up! I was pooping my pants in Texas and Berlin was divided! Bananas.

Did you know there were two subway lines that ran from West Berlin, underneath East Berlin, and back to West? The train would just slow down in the East stations, but never stop. The East Stations were guarded with machine guns. Once a train lost power IN East Berlin, and they refused to let anyone off or even have contact with the West Berlin passengers. I can't imagine, but I'm really fascinated by the whole thing.

Okay, here are my Berlin goals: Bauhaus Archives, Topography of Terror, Museum Island museums, now-closed Tempelhof Airport. If I do not do these things, you should yell at me.

Gold Beers Cold Beers

After wandering around Munich and spending a half hour smelling all the celebrity perfumes in Sephora, I went to Haufbräuhaus! I had a beer and pretzel for lunch, which I felt was nice and Bavarian. An oompa band was playing!

Hoflighthaus

Bier!

Haus

Then I went to the Residenz, the home to the electors/dukes/kings of Bavaria (they kept getting upgraded). I recommend it! I was in a "eh, this will kill some time" mind frame, but it was very interesting! Really expansive and they give you a free audio guide. Very opulent and fancy-schmancy.

Seashell Lady

Hermes and MORE SHELLS

They also had a chapel for all their relics. Relics, dude, relics. They say they have the head of John the Baptist, but the Catholic Church says that's in Italy, so I'm not really clear how that counts.

Love the Lana del Rey headpiece, John the B

So intricate!

Why isn't science all over relics? Shouldn't Bones be out here telling us what's what? Is that happening and I just don't subscribe to the right periodicals?

And on that note of old saint body parts, I gotta go find some dinner! Icky.

This is not the Hofbraubaus

Guten Tag!

Yo Munich! Yesterday I went on a walking tour that was quite nice. Munich's name comes from monks! There used to be a bunch of monasteries here and people would just say "Oh I'm from that place with the monks." I also saw my first ever real monk in Zagreb! Brown robes, rope belt, whole thing.

Munich

Munich

After the tour I did a wee bit of shopping (got a birthday dress oh yeaaaahh), grocery shopping, and laundry.

Today is Sunday, as you may know. So everything was closed. Everything except museums! I did FOUR museums today. On Sunday admission is only one euro and all the museums I wanted to go to are in a little block. Good day good day. Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek, Museum Brandhorst, and Pinakothek der Moderne.

Side story to tell you about this German woman. I was just checking my map and she offered to help me. She was probably like 70 and had so many lady whiskers! Basically a full beard, but all white. And big fat tears were just coming out of her eyes whenever she blinked and she didn't seem to notice or care. I think I'm going to make up some German folklore about her. She was nice though.

Ok, so that German lady told me "Pinakothek" is basically Greek for "place to keep important things." Take that as you will. It was four different art museums for various time periods. I really enjoyed myself.

Art

I'm drawing!

No.

Seriously, mom?

Monkeying Around

DESIGN

Warhol

Tomorrow I'll do some more Munich stuff then I'm heading BACK TO BERLIN. Crazy, right? I really liked Berlin and my hostel there though. I think there's still a lot for me to see there and it's slightly cheaper than Munich. Another night train by the way, so lets see if I have another vision quest.

Munchin' in München

Greetings from Munich! Home to Oktoberfest, Hitler, Hofbräuhaus, Olympic tragedies and who knows! I'll have to find out!More importantly though, I took my first night train. I can only speak of my one experience, but whoa, night train dreams are like some vision quest stuff. A bunch of my friends were all having an elaborate tea party on the train station platform and we kept arguing about which train to get on. Poetic?

It wasn't bad except this German guy slept like a log the first 2 hours (when we still had to go through border patrol every couple of minutes) and then kept getting up every hour during sleepy times! Duuuuuuuude. He and his wife were okay though. I, however, was a sloppy mess. Shirt kept riding up, blankets twisted all over the place, belly hanging out. Not cute.

I suspect it's related to traveling alone, but a lot of my thoughts are occupied with "what if." For example, last night it was "what if I just took my pants off in this sleeping car?" Would anyone say anything? Would they ask me to put some pants on? Would no one care? Would the conductor/ticket man say something? Too gauche? Their English wasn't great, so I wonder how it would translate. I did keep my pants on, for the record.

Now it is 7am and I will go eat some hostel breakfast, explore Munich, and come back to check into my room. That's how my day's shaping up.

Oh I did have a very Bridget Jones moment in Zagreb. I'd been walking in the snow all day and my little head was saying "wine wine wine wine." I went to open my Hungarian wine, but the cork kept breaking so I started stabbing it furiously with a knife. I think I'm the only one who didn't see this next bit coming. I pushed the cork in too forcefully and wine went all over my face and shirt and hair. I legitimately had to go wash my face. Anyway, I smelled like an alcoholic for the day but that didn't stop me from enjoying my wine with the accompaniment of deli slices and popcorn. C'est magnifique.

Update: I've hit a wall. Big wall. It's now 9:19 am and I'm killing time till the free walking tour at 10:30. Dying. So sleepy. I wish I could be cute and say I've hit a BERLIN wall, but I'm in Munich so screw it.

Srce

"Srce" means "heart" in Croatian. Pretty sure that word is missing some vowels, but that's Croatian for you! I'm in Zagreb. I can't quite get a handle on Croatia. What's your deal? I don't know!Everyone is very nice though. I think tourism is still novel enough that they don't hate me immediately. The staff at my hostel is wonderful! And there's a DOG named COOKIE. Dogs are so great. My wifi sitch is meh though, hence the lack of activity on the blog.

Cookie Cookie Cooke

Things are nice and cheap as well. Not as cheap as Budapest, but pretty good. Everything is weirdly 30 kuna ($5 USD). Lame nachos, pasta primavera, movie tickets, vegetarian risotto, museum admission. All 30 kuna!

First day I went to the new Museum of Contemporary Art and then went to see Warm Bodies at a movie theater. I actually have a ton of photos from all the art museums I go to, but I've been hoarding them. Maybe I'll do a big international art post at the end of trip. Anyway, the weather was gross so I wanted to keep it indoors. My plan to go south for more warmth has really backfired.

Next day I walked around Upper Town. Zagreb used to be two towns (Kaptol and ummm something starting with a G) and they would fight for ages. In the 1800s they finally joined forces and now the symbol of Zagreb is a heart. Because the two towns coming together. Get it? It's appropriate for VALENTINES DAY wheeee!

Zagreb

Me in Zagreb

Zagreb

lil thingy

Today I woke up and made delicious Paleo Pancakes! This paragraph is not travel related. I'm not doing Paleo, but I'm lazy and like easy things. You mush up one banana, add two eggs, whip it up, and cook it like a pancake. It's a very tasty banana crepe kinda of thing. Would be amazing with Nutella. Two ingredients! So nice. So healthy.

In the spirit of being festive, I went to the Museum of Broken Relationships! People donate objects from their relationships and a little story about it. Very interesting. It's very much like spying on strangers most vulnerable moments. Donations are from all over the world, but the stories are all pretty universal.

I bought my ticket for Munich tomorrow! I'm taking my first NIGHT TRAIN. I don't know what to expect from that. Going to attempt Zagreb Zoo tomorrow during the day.

Staying: funk lounge

Croatia!

cold, wet, sad

Uh oh guys, you know I'm nearing the end of trip when I don't have a punny title for my blog post. I'm in Zagreb though!The hostel I'm staying at is very fun and all the Croatians (Croats? Is one of those racist? I should look into that) I've met have been really friendly and nice! Except that guy at the zoo parking lot, but let's not talk about him. Also, my hostel has a lil Pekingese dog named Cookie! I tote her around when I can. She doesn't like me very much.

I have my own room here which is such a wonderful treat. I planned it this way, but still. Yesterday I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and then saw the movie Warm Bodies. I was in a Croatian mall and it felt so American I was comforted. Mmmmm sweet sweet capitalism.

Today I walked around Upper Town! Saw some lovely Croatian sights. I tried to go to the zoo but missed the entrance and just walked around the entire perimeter of the zoo in the snow. So at that point I was pretty over my enthusiasm for the zoo and just came back to the hostel and ate deli meat and drank wine.