Minimalism: How to Pack Light When Travelling

As a human that barely skims over five-foot-one who fails at being an avid gym member and who can barely wield a plateful of food, with a fifty-fifty chance of straining a wrist along the way, I am a strong proponent of packing light. Stemming from a sincere interest in not inconveniencing my significant other every time we board a flight, I have made it a goal to pack in a very minimalist way. While my gusto has sometimes gotten the better of me (as I reminisce on spilling coffee on the only pair of pants I brought with me to New Zealand, without a washer and dryer in sight), I take pride in the fact that I lived, and survived, and it’s all fine and good.

While having a pared down wardrobe is extremely helpful in also paring down my luggage, there are some additional tips that I have in mind, for what it’s worth.

With our upcoming trip to CDMX approaching in the next five days, I figure this would be an opportune moment to showcase what exactly goes into my bag. Enjoy!

Start with a small-sized luggage. Initially, it may feel like you’ve gone a bit bonkers, thinking a whole week’s vacation can fit in such a small space, but trust me, it is the first criteria to securing success. The small space will really require you to assess, and possibly reassess, what you can take and what you need to leave behind. I’ve been known to go on weekend trips with just a purse or a backpack. Understandably, there are situations where this advise simply isn’t feasible. For example, if you are going to another country specifically to shoot wildlife, then it is quite obvious to me that your professional camera gear may not be suitable jammed in with your clothes. In which case, we make do.

A pair of stretchy, elevated pants worthy of a yoga session. A poncho that doubles as a scarf, at times. A vest that looks equally as great over a tee and underneath a jacket. A beanie, for the ears.

Pack enough clothes to get you through a week, and then maybe a little less. I like to pack for only a week’s worth of stuff, regardless of the length of the trip. Mostly because, as aforementioned, I simply cannot carry much more than that. But also, because I like to let go of the what-ifs and just flow with the tide. What if it rains and I didn’t pack an umbrella? Then I get wet. What if I spill coffee on my only pair of pants? Then I wear it for the rest of the day, then hand wash it in the sink and let it dry overnight. I lived.

Additionally, I am extremely resourceful with my packing. A poncho that acts as an over-sized blanket and turns into a scarf or a hijab, depending. A pair of jeans that I already wear every-day and matches every top. Tee shirts only, with the exception of silk camisoles, my secret weapon for nicer events. A sweater that looks equally great over a tee or a dress, as well as under a jumper or a jacket. You get what I mean. In the case of a true state of emergency, and not a fashion emergency, you can likely get whatever you need where you are at.

Shoes packaged in muslin bags for easy storage and minimal space.

Be comfortable. I’m looking at you, shoes. There was once a time when I thought dresses looked good only with five inch clogs, as if the additional height would justify the additional weight. Gone are those days, replaced by a more vested interest in exploring the city untethered by fashion ideologies. Also, gone are the dresses, mostly.

Embrace the monochrome, or do away with the care. Monochromatic schemes just make it easier on me. I still have a particular likening to looking put-together, and am impartial to mismatching colors, so this is where I am at. For some, loud outfits give them the giddies, allowing them to pack all sorts of colors, and interchanging countless combinations. Or rather, just do away with the care.

Tees galore, in black and stripey whites.

Wear the bulkiest of items on the flight. My internal temperatures reach “cold” before anyone else in a room, so I absolutely welcome any extra layers on the plane ride to our destination. I always wear the bulkiest items on the flight, in order to reduce the things I have to carry. Easy for me to say, due to my small stature, and significantly larger leg room and overall space.

My plane outfit consists of the bulkiest of items, which works well for me since I also tend to freeze upon take-off.

Lesser toiletries. A bar of shampoo & a bar of soap. A jar of deoderant, and a re-fillable bottle of lotion. Not enough to fill a dopp kit, thus the lack of need for a dopp kit.

A bar of soap and shampoo, for sharing between Mike and I, atop my pajamas.

Limit the make-up. Thanks to a minimalist make-up routine, this advice doesn’t stray entirely from my day-to-day. The requirements? A tube of lip balm, one eye-liner pencil, one eye-brow pencil, mascara, and hardly any room at all. Besides, who am I to meet perusing the streets in a foreign city with the only man I plan to impress?

Additionally, a camera, which I was using to photograph.

Make room for the indisposables. I consider some items on my packing list indisposable, literally and figuratively. I have to make room for a reusable water bottle, in order to cut down as much plastic bottle use as possible. In the case of Germany, it was a highly successful endeavor, since we could safely fill our bottles with tap water from bathroom faucets. On our upcoming trip to Mexico, likely not so much. I will update you on our solution once there, but I have it with me in an attempt to reduce as often as I can. Likewise, since we partly travel for coffee, the KeepCups come with. Due to an interest in sharing our adventures with family, the camera is also a must. And lastly, reading material (or two). I prefer to carry around a Kindle when I travel, since it is light and minimal, but it’s hardly the way I prefer to enjoy the task, otherwise.

Lastly, all of this, and a little more, fit in that bag. Mission accomplished.

Frugality: Travel Hacking, An Introduction

From the get-go, when Mike and I were asked to lay down our priorities in terms of lifestyle and life goals, traveling was near the top of our list. It goes without saying that traveling comes with a price that can interfere with our equally important goal of gaining financial independence. It’s hard to commit to a trip across the world when I know I will come back to an ever-growing student loan. So I am so excited to share with you guys a way that allows us to travel the world, without breaking the bank.

We do something called travel hacking.

I first discovered Travel Hacking on Choose FI’s Podcast, Episode 9: Travel Rewards; How to Travel the World for Free (here). In less than an hour, they had me hooked! I remember coming home and re-listening to the entire episode with Mike. We forwarded the podcast episode to our core group of ten friends, in the hopes that they also would like to join us in this adventure, so that we may travel the world together. We continued to study Travel Hacking by taking the free Travel Miles 101 course. We reached out to our financial adviser to ask if it was too good to be true, and were happy to learn that he, too, dabbles in this life hack, and that it would be a very beneficial thing for us to do. I highly recommend anyone interested in traveling the world for (nearly) free to first listen to the podcast episode (in order to get a taste of what this entails), and then to take the free Travel Miles 101 course. I think it would be best to leave all the nuances to the pros and to simply refer you to these two sources, giving all credit where credit is due.

What is travel hacking?

Travel Hacking entails using the benefits of Credit Card Reward Programs in order to gain points that can be used to buy flights, hotel stays, and even car rentals. The idea is to open credit cards and hit the minimum spend criteria in order to attain the massive 40k, 50k, 80k points. These points are incentives for the new cardholder to hit a certain spending within a certain amount of time (usually 3 months) since opening the card. So that is exactly what we do. There are multiple strategies in order to do this, which the sources detail really well, and which I won’t touch on in this post. If you’d like to learn some of these strategies, I refer you to the Travel Miles 101 course.

Keep in mind that while this is extremely useful and beneficial for traveling, it can be destructive if attempted by people who have not achieved disciplined, financial responsibility. The credit card companies win if you open credit cards, purchase products with them, and do not pay off the total amount in full. This leads to high interest rate charges that will lead to more financial harm than good. It also isn’t good if it results in you spending more than you would normally. The card holder needs to be well-restrained. Mike and I treat the credit cards as if they were debit cards. We don’t increase our spending for the sake of gaining more points. In due time, the points will come.

Alternatively, the credit card companies will also win if you fail to hit the minimum spending. You would have opened a credit card for no reason! This requires a very organized person who will keep track of minimum spends, and dates the credit cards were opened, and dates when minimum spending should be reached. So how do you responsibly meet minimum spend when your day-to-day activities do not meet it? There are many ways to ensure you hit your target spending before the time is up. You can use the remaining amount needed to buy grocery or gas gift cards, which could be used in the future. This is a way to guarantee getting the massive point-payout without reckless spending. Another way to meet minimum spend is to prepay bills, such as electrical bills for upcoming months. Having the bills off your mind is a big plus.

Why is this so great?

Imagine this scenario. You open a credit card that requires a $3000 minimum spend in three months. When you spend $3000, you will get a points equivalent to $1000 in flights, which is a 33% rate of return. You can’t get that anywhere! If you were to get that in a taxable investment account, you’d have to pay taxes on your gains. This is 100% tax-free. And may I say that 33% rate of return is not the best rate out there. This should be even more appealing for people who are in higher tax brackets. For people who make six figures, you are sitting in a 25% tax bracket, and if you add to that health insurance, FICA, etc., you may even be approaching closer to 40% marginal tax. For you to take a $5k vacation in a year, you will need to earn $7, 8, 9k to pay for that vacation. With travel hacking, you can do that for free. You can then keep that $7k available to other aspects of your life (aka student loans).

What’s the catch?

Our biggest concern, obviously, was credit rating. Even though we have absolutely no interest in signing up for even more loans right now, mortgages and car loans included, we still don’t want to completely obliterate our really good credit scores. Turns out, there is a very minimal impact on your credit score. Credit scores will go up and down, naturally, within 10 to 30 points within a normal month anyway. That’s just how credit scores work, and it is not a precisely fixed number. Now, if the people attempting travel hacking are financially responsible people, so their credit score would likely be around the 800 range. The maximum that it has dropped for some travel hackers is 25 points, which is irrelevant, because a score of 750 is sufficient to guarantee you most loans. And the funny thing is, these scores jump right back up, because you are constantly paying (in full) multiple credit cards. By spending responsibly, travel hackers can increase their credit score to more than what they started with in the course of a few years. Yes, initially, the hard pull when you apply for the credit card leads to a 2-5 point drop, but it is temporary and it is completely gone within 18 months. Now if you are, for some reason, extremely worried about your credit score or you have a low credit score, or you have plans to take out a mortgage or a loan in the next year, then this strategy is not for you. Do not do travel hacking if for any reason, whether psychologically or financially, you need your credit score to be a certain number.

For Mike and I, we started this journey with decently high credit scores. We decided that, even if our scores dropped as much as 30-50 points, would we be okay. The answer to travel hacking for us was a whole-hearted yes. If the trade-off is $6-7k worth of travel (for free), that would save us $10k (pre-tax) a year, which we can then attribute to other assets or to paying down debt. Since we have no plans to buy a house in the next year, we are not very worried with the short term negative effect it could have on our scores. And our credit scores would still be considered good, if not great! We are more excited about the long-term benefits.

So where has that led us?

We discovered Travel Hacking in October 2017, which is very, very late compared to a whole community of travel hackers who have been doing this for multiple years! It has been almost 5 months.

For 2018, we are able to book the following flights, for free.

Mexico City, Mexico

San Francisco, CA

Portland, Oregon

Calgary, Canada

Sydney, Australia

Melbourne, Australia (from Sydney)

Christchurch, New Zealand (from Melbourne)

Christchurch, to LAX

Pending trips: Costa Rica

The best part?

Slowly, our friends opened up to the idea of travel hacking too! Our trip to SF reunites our group of ten college friends, and the pending Costa Rica trip is being planned among a group of us, as well. It has increased our ability to grow with people we care about, and to spend time with them, and to just see the world.

Travel Hacking is fantastic, but not for everyone. So learn about it, to see if it’s right for you!

For the curious, my top 3 favorite travel rewards cards are:

These are my referral links and I posted them here to try to connect as many people as possible to the best credit cards for travel hacking. If you know someone who loves to travel, especially young college students and new grads who may feel (like we did) that it would be impossible to travel, do share this post with them. You could change their life!

Travel: Costa Rica

So as some of you may know, my brother recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica. We were sitting at the round dinner table yesterday, the same one that we grew up on, eating our meals together as kids but also now, as adults. We were on our lunch break from work (we both work at the same dental clinic) and he was sharing with me his recent photos from the trip. I was floored by the beauty and the color that he was able to capture. I really appreciate his outlook and eye for photography and so I decided to share with you guys my favorite roll of film that was developed portraying Costa Rica through his lens. My brother uses a vintage camera and shoots everything in film. None of this was re-touched, and any artistic color you see was dependent on his decision to overexpose and produce burnout on the film, or not. Provecho!

Photo Credit: Rian Oliver

Travel: With Eco-Friendly Attempts

Growing up, my family never did get around to much traveling. After all, traveling the world is a very costly thing to experience. However, it seems as if we’ve grown accustomed to a traveling lifestyle in our more recent years. In the last six months, my sister went to Alaska in June, Mike and I went to Mexico in July, followed by a family trip to Hawaii in that same month. My parents went to Palm Springs in August, Mike and I left for Germany in October, my sister left for Japan in November, my parents left for Florida in December, and next week, my brother leaves for Costa Rica. Hello January! It seems as if we are hardly in the same state for any given month. In retrospect, my siblings and I DID move around plenty in our early childhood years. By the time I got to my freshman year in high school, I had moved a total of ten times. I guess the nomad life chose us, and eventually, it permanently took hold.

Sadly, traveling comes with something more than a monetary cost, specifically when we are talking about air travel. It’s safe to say that air travel results in a significant environmental impact, and though a majority of the negative effects of travel comes from this one thing alone, I deny that nothing we do is negligible. I continue to believe that there are other ways in which we could attempt to minimize the harm we do to the environment, when traveling.

With my brother’s upcoming trip in mind, and with the recent posting of our Mexico travels [here], I feel the urge to share some of my more eco-friendly travel practices, while featuring some favorite products along the way.

+ Carry around a reusable bottle. We all need water to hydrate us during our explorations, whether it’s a city scape or the country side. It’s easy (read: convenient) to buy water bottles as needed. But most water comes packaged in plastic! So to reduce that, why not carry around a reusable bottle? In countries that are more developed, such as Germany and New Zealand, tap water is considered drinkable water. I was constantly filling my water bottle with water from bathroom sinks in Germany, not to be advised when you travel to other countries such as Mexico. So what of these other countries? I refill my water every chance I get, be it at a restaurant, or at the airport, or in the hotel room. There are many places to get safe water, and if you are not sure, then ask a local! We got the tap water tip from a German hostess at one of our earlier hotel stays. Additionally, this saves the airplane hostess from filling up a million of those disposable plastic cups for water alone. I make a note to fill up my water bottle from the airport’s water fountain right before boarding a flight. If I run out, as I do on extremely long flights, I simply ask the hostess to fill me right up. I got my Miir water bottle here, made entirely out of stainless steel. You can get a similar product here. Additional impact: MiiR partners with non-profits and other organizations to provide clean water in Honduras, Southeast Asia, and throughout Africa with a portion of their profits. Tracking your impact allows you to know where exactly the impact is happening, and an individual tracking code is sent with each bottle. MiiR is also a B-corporation ensuring good environmental, social, and transparent practices in the making of MiiR products.

+ Have a re-usable coffee mug handy, at all times. Okay, so this is a bit too similar to the above, I know. However, since a major travel activity of me and Mike’s is to drink different specialty coffees from all around the world, you can bet that we carry our reusable Keep Cup’s with us. Especially useful when one needs an energizing drink to sip on whilst roaming around the city streets, or to grab a quick dose of the liquid stuff before catching a shuttle to the mountainside. Whatever your travel agenda, if you drink coffee, this is worth packing. The specific mug we own can be found here. Additional impact: here.

+ Tote around your own utensils. I actually traipse around every day with the following utensils in my purse at all times: a fork, a spoon, a knife, a metal straw, and a pair of wooden chopsticks. For who knows when one is going to need utensils? If a friend asks you to eat take-out (see next note on take-out), then you could easily whip out your handy dandy utensils to avoid icky plastic versions. I carry them around in one of these from Ambatalia, for the sake of cleanliness, but any pouch works well. Additional impact: These utensil rolls are made out of mostly scraps- the denim is always reclaimed and intended to inspire using your own, or thrifted utensils. They don’t use any plastic in the shipping of our products and they use at least 80% post-consumer paper in any promotional and shipping materials. Thoughtfully designed and ethically manufactured in California. And don’t worry, I don’t carry around my own plates and bowls too! But, speaking of such things…

+ Choose to dine-in at restaurants. Dining in, while a bit costlier than their take-out counterparts, reduces the need for carrying around your own plate and bowl. Mike and I try our best to dine-in both while traveling, and while at home. Part of the draw for me includes the absorption of the local’s cultures and behaviors. People-watching at a restaurant is considered an activity in itself, at least for introverts likes me. Especially over ice cream.

+ Exercise, exercise, exercise. Opt outside. Exploring all the natural wonders New Zealand had to offer was one of my favorite parts of the trip. For me, vacations include escaping city sounds and city lights and just enveloping myself in sights that I don’t get to see every day. Like a bird building its nest, or how a mountain meets a lake. Take note of everything Mother Nature has to offer. If you are anything like Mike, then what you crave is the city life in another country. Even so, get outside and walk, walk, walk. And when you can no longer walk…

+ Ride public transportation. There are some times when public transportation is just not feasible for visiting vast expanses of land in such a short amount of time. But whenever possible, let’s try to get to know the Metro, or the Subway, or the train! In New York, we solely used public transportation, despite the rain. Same with other large cities such as Munich, Auckland, and Queenstown. You see so much more of the city in that way. You notice the advertisements and billboards, and learn what’s popular at the time. You notice recycle bins, and maybe learn a thing or two about their recycling rules. As always, people-watching optional.

+ Support local stores. I already try to support local stores locally, but I like to carry this habit to other countries as well. Some of my favorite stores in New Zealand are local hole-in-the-wall, self-owned shops that carry ethically made products that are also ecofriendly. My favorite purchases from there include my every day grocery bag, and fruit and veggie mesh bags. Since then, I have never packaged produce in plastic. Additionally, it helps to always carry a backpack, just in case you want to purchase something while you’re out and about. My favorite backpack is this. Additional impact: here.

+ Leave behind travel size toiletries. Equally as important, say no to free hotel toiletries packaged in plastic. Resolution: Pack soap, shampoo, and conditioner, in bar form. If you just can’t learn to dig bar forms for everything, choose a reusable bottle option, and buy the stuff in bulk, to reduce plastic waste.

+ Pack a snack bag, pre-filled with your fave munchies. Lastly, because food is pretty important while traveling, I prefer to pack a snack. For flights especially. To avoid receiving those individually packaged peanuts and cookies. Even the meals, which I love, are packaged in plastic! On the way to Germany, Mike and I sat I the last row and denied water and food from the poor flight attendant, every time. The flight attendant felt she wasn’t doing her job well enough and kept asking, “Are you sure?” On the way out, we passed her and thanked her for her hospitality, and she joked, “Gosh you two were the most demanding passengers!” Well, maybe she wasn’t joking, I couldn’t be sure. But either way, we left an impression and made it a point to deny one-time use plastic. Which gets people thinking, and I’d rather leave that behind than a trail of travel evidence.

Travel: Valle De Guadalupe Eats

Valle de Guadalupe is Baja’s best kept secret. Well known among creatives in the San Diego community, this little pocket is tucked away between the ocean and the mountain about one hour away from the Californian border. It is a flourishing wine region just north of Ensenada, and Mike and I consider it better than the wine regions in Napa and Santa Barbara, judged not only by the wine itself (not that we are wine connoisseurs anyway), but also by the food, the location, and the overall ambiance. We like it so much that we have visited twice in less than a year and a half, and there was a moment where we looked into planning on buying a retirement home here. We also considered getting married here, but then realized that half of our loved ones wouldn’t make it to the wedding. In retrospect, we should have done it anyway. Valle has that relaxed winery vibe, set in an unassuming Mexican desert, with a lively flair.

Since the main highlight for us revolves mostly around the delicious food we consume here, I decided to post a few of the wineries and restaurants that we have dined at. A majority of the restaurants there practice farm to table practices, and the food just can’t get any fresher. These are definite, must-stop places if you visit La Valle! Enjoy!

Deckman’s En El Mogor

Finca Altozano

Corazon de Tierra

Cuatro Cuatros

Travel: Rothenberg Ob Der Tauber, Germany

I am usually not a city girl. When I think of the ideal places to travel to and explore, I never come up with a city. Mike, however, loves exploring cities. We try to find a happy medium between the two of us, alternating destinations so that we discover something about each other’s interests while achieving interests of our own.

When we decided to go to Germany, it wasn’t because we had been dying to go for a long time or anything like that. Mike follows a website called Scott’s Cheap Flights and he has signed up to receive notifications for when flights go on sale. Usually, the deals are incredibly discounted, but you need to have flexibility as to where you want to go and when. For example, if there is a specific place you want to go to, you have to cross your fingers that a deal comes up sometime. It makes it even more difficult when you also have a specific timeline. For cases where you already know what you want to see and when, I would recommend other modes of finding cheap flights, such as the Hopper app. But it was through Scott’s Cheap Flights that we heard about a round-trip fare to Munich, Germany for roughly $500 per person. Additionally, the dates of Octoberfest were included in the dates available to get said discounted rates. Mike had wanted to check out Octoberfest in Germany with friends, so we mass e-mailed (or maybe we texted?) our core group of ten friends this amazing deal. We had only two takers, another married couple in our group of friends, so it is with this reasoning that we chose Germany as a fall trip. Unfortunately, something came up and the two friends couldn’t make it, which left us flying to Germany solo, but which also gave us more freedom as to what we wanted to see.

When we booked Germany, I thought that I would not enjoy this trip at all. Mike was rather stoked on the prospect of visiting a bunch of different cities and this was our first time to Europe, but I hated visiting New York, disliked living in LA, and Queenstown in New Zealand was my least favorite part of our trip there – not because these cities were awful but I just don’t like the general vibe of large cities. I need the room to hear myself think, the smell of freshly cut grass or dewy trees, the sound of rushing water. So off course, since I had control over the planning of the trip, I actually tried moving us away from Munich and spending as little time as possible in Frankfurt. What ended up happening was that every night for five nights in a row, we slept in a different city. And I ended up falling in love with Germany. One city in particular took my breath away, with its sleepy cobblestone streets, its strong standing walls, and the lovely character and charm of its fairytale buildings.

Rothenberg ob der tauber used to be a very prosperous town. In between two main cities, many traders used to stop at this city in between their travels to get a night’s rest and something to eat. Guarded by a wall surrounding the entire city, they were well protected because they could choose who they allowed in and out. The nightwatchmen roamed the streets in the evenings, making sure no one but the inhabitants and their welcomed guests were within the city.

Unfortunately, during the Thirty Year’s War, protestant troops of 40,000 men wanted to rest at Rothernburg because the winter weather was making it difficult for them to progress from one city to the other. Rothernburg refused to comply with their request, and a siege occurred. Rothernburg was captured by the troops, and after the winter, the town was left poor and quite desolate. A few years later, the bubonic plague came to the city, killing many of the townsfolk. Without money or power, the city could not grow, and thus preserving its 17th century state. I learned all of this through the amusing Night Watchman’s Tour , a definite must for anyone who visits.

We started off our exploration by entering the city gates and climbing one of the towers. We walked along the top of the city walls, peering into the city to get a preview, as well as looking out the manholes to see the outside. Walls that have stood since 950 BC or earlier, these monsters of stones held in the city’s traditional appearance, while the rest of the world lost its charm and moved on. From these walls, you can view the city in its entirety over the rooftops of residential houses.

After meandering around the perimeter, we decided to go ahead and officially enter the city and roam the streets.

When we first walked the streets of Rothernburg, I felt like I was in such a dream state. I couldn’t believe that such a place not only existed, but functioned as a real city rather than a preserved museum. One of the largest houses on the street has been occupied by the same family for 300 years! As a girl who moved ten times before reaching high school, it was an unthinkable concept. The beauty of the place was just outstanding. I knew I had to see it for myself without any distractions.

So the next morning, I woke up very early to explore on my own. I took my camera with me, and walked the foggy streets, with nary a visitor in sight. Sleepily, the town woke, as if from a spell. The scenes I captured were just so unreal. There was one in particular that I was on a mission to capture, and it’s of this street corner, which Rothenburg is very famous for.

I was so happy to get to stand before it alone, and to just think about how many times I’ve seen that same place from someone else’s photograph. I was also super stoked to photograph out without the crowds that occupy this busy street during the day time. I continued to walk around the entire city for an hour or so at my own leisure, before heading back to the hotel to pick up Mike, who woke up, along with the rest of the town.

There was a Christmas museum and ornament shop in the center of the square that we visited. It’s almost unfair to review this museum, since I was raised by a Filipino family whose DNA carries an extreme likening to this particular holiday. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed my time visiting the shop (the museum itself was not worth seeing and most definitely not free), but the shop had the biggest collection of ornaments that I have ever seen. We must have spent hours pouring over the bits and baubles, mouths agape, tongue hanging out.

And it is also here where we had the best meal we had in Germany, which ironically was Italian food. But Mike claims it was the best Italian food he has ever had his whole life, and I greatly concur. The hospitality of the owner and chef was really well felt, and I can’t talk about Rothenburg without recommending his restaurant. How we came about eating there? We were walking back to our hotel (which was fifteen minutes outside of the city) the night prior, after completing the watchman’s tour, and we came across this tiny restaurant, filled with people. There was only two bistro tables outside seating two sets of couples, but the inside of the restaurant was loud, vibrant, bright, and packed. What I remember most was the aroma that wafted out of the place as we walked by. I remember turning to Mike and saying, “We have to come back and eat here tomorrow.” So that we did. Sooooo worth it. It was eating Italian food as good as that from Italy, with German hospitality. The name of the restaurant is Profumo di Pasta da Giuseppe.

We also had Schneeballen, which were large doughy balls covered with sugar or chocolate or basically any topping you’d desire. It was good, but a little over hyped in my opinion. But still worth trying if you’re looking for something to munch on while you roam.

Pretty much simply strolling the streets of this town was definitely my favorite part about Germany. Time seemed to have slowed when we were in the city, as if it meant to draw us in and put us to sleep for centuries to come along with it. I find I might have been okay with that.