Allow me to introduce Koopa, my four year old pet budgie, emotional support animal, and pint-sized travel companion. She is named after Koopa Troopa, a turtle-like character from the Super Mario series. She loves to eat corn and climb in my hair. Koopa also loves to fly laps around our home and requires constant supervision. I love her so much it hurts. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Koopa is that she travels with us! People, especially dog or cat […]
Category: Travel Stories
Why Sweden Felt Like Home.
I realized that Sweden felt like home only a few hours into my trip. I was actually rather startled to discover that Sweden was so similar to the USA, although the comparison was likely exaggerated because I had been living in Germany for a year. Experiencing Sweden – the people, the culture, the food – was like coming up for a desperately needed breathe of fresh air. My love for Sweden grew quickly and unexpectedly during the four days Mr. Meena […]
On Traveling Europe Together.
Traveling Europe together with the person you love is an extraordinary experience. It’s something that many couples dream of doing and even spend years planning and saving for. It wasn’t an objective of ours, specifically, until we found ourselves rather suddenly relocating to Germany for Mr. Meena’s training. We began traveling Europe together because we wanted to take advantage of our time there. Our travels were born from opportunity. As we traveled we started doing things we’d never done before; […]
Taking a Tour of Auschwitz.
I was not prepared to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp. I bought tickets in advance, saved the address, and arrived early. I asked others about their visit and educated myself about the history. Still, I didn’t fully understand what I was getting myself into. I was unprepared for the shock of human depravity – for confronting a site where mass human extermination occurred. But I was also unprepared for, and unexpectedly shocked by, my encounters with the people taking the […]
The Value of Fleeting Friendships While Traveling.
Sitting on a train in Thuringia we received a resolute “nein” from the train conductor – the kind that meant we had made an expensive mistake. To our dismay we were informed that the “Regio120” train ticket we had purchased was not actually a regional ticket. As we tried to work out a resolution amid frustrations about the vague Deutsche Bahn guidelines that have fooled us twice now, a young woman turned around in her seat to help us communicate […]
Walking Along the Wall of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
The stairs were uneven, the path was narrow, and some portions seemed on the verge of crumbling, but I loved it nonetheless. Walking along the wall of Rothenburg ob der Tauber may not be for the faint of heart, but it’s a rewarding experience that is worth the possibility of risk. The city of Rothenburg will gift you with sights of half-timbered homes, stretches of green valleys on the horizon, and peaks of the inner city between rooftops. As my […]