Nuremberg is a city in Bavaria, about 1 hour away in train from Munich. It is well-known for its Christmas market. I visited in the summer, so there was no market around, but I enjoyed a nice afternoon with comfortable temperatures and a mix of sunny and cloudy weather. 

When in Nürnberg

St. Lorenz

Museumsbrücke (Museum's Bridge)

Hauptmarkt Nürnberg - the main market

Walking towards the old city and the castle

Historischer Rathhaussaal

Sankt Sebaldus Kirche - Lutheran church

Tiergärtnerplatz

Albercht-Dürer Haus - the house of the famous painter

The Imperial Castle

The Garden

The Romanesque Imperial Chapel

The Palace

The Imperial Castle Museum

Sinwell Tower 

The Deep Well

The view from the top

Around the castle complex

• Watch content in the language 📺 – Video content is great to improve listening comprehension. For beginners, children movies or series are great because the pronunciation is usually clearer and the characters speak slower. 
• Look for lessons on YouTube 💻 – you can supplement your learning process with online lessons, pronunciation tutorials and short educational videos. Language teaching is standardized so it is easy to find content that fits your topic or level.  
• Find a language partner  – apps like HelloTalk are good to find a language partner. I am very fond of this app because it helps pair people who are learning each other’s native language. In my case, I have found language partners that speak German, while I help them with Spanish. You can make corrections to the texts your partner sends and vice-versa. Audio messages and translation are also supported.
• Write a diary – did you think that keeping a diary only fits teens? You are wrong. Writing down a paragraph about what you did during the day is amazing practice. It was my French teacher’s idea and I immediately realized how useful it was to increase my vocabulary and practice grammar. Talk with your teacher to see if they agree to correct your paragraphs. I don’t think they will say no. 
• Read the newspaper in the language you are learning – while you could read other types of media, news articles are well-written and help you gain more vocabulary. Try searching for the most important newspapers in the country or area where the language is spoken. You can find here a list of relevant news sources by country. If you feel like you will forget to read the newspaper, set its website as your default homepage. That way you will see it first when you open your browser.
• Take advantage of the educational resources provided by your school – does your school have a library where you can borrow books, audio CDs, movies or magazines? Does it provide access to online platforms? Sometimes we focus only on the lessons, but often schools include in the tuition price other resources for students to enhance their learning experience. You are already being charged for this, so why not make use of it?

• Create a vocabulary list – apps like Quizlet are great for those who like making their own study sets. I began using this app when I started learning German as it allows me to write vocabulary, practice, and take quizzes. It also has a function that allows you to listen to the pronunciation of the words. I also use it to practice phrases, articles and verb tenses. reviews. As you can see, apps are a great tool to support language learning.
• Enjoy your hobby in the foreign language – learning while fun has worked for me. If, for example, you enjoy listening to music, you can look for artists who sing in the language. In my case, I love football, so watching the matches or interviews in German helps me practice listening.
• Set the foreign language as your default in electronics or websites – this one may sound a bit over the top, but doing this “forces” you to interact with the language on a daily basis. You can always switch it back, but it is fun to learn how a “ like” in Facebook is called in the language you are learning. 👍

• Make a trip – this one is not on a daily basis but it requires to save money everyday 😉. Making a field trip to a country where the language you learn is spoken, is amazing as it combines both language and cultural exchange. Learning a new language has lots of benefits, and the ability to connect and interact with people different from us is one of them. Language schools often coordinate an annual trip and while it may not be very cheap, it is a good idea to save money during a year and participate. If your school doesn’t offer a trip, you can also consider doing a summer program on your own. Tip: check out public universities as they might have summer programs at more accessible prices than private schools. That is what I did to study German in Munich at the Ludwig Maximilians University. 

A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Aug 3, 2017 at 12:48am PDT

Have you ever had a dream of visiting a foreign place but haven’t because there’s no one to go with?

Women often fear traveling alone because they think something bad is inevitably going to happen to them. At first, I thought so. But when I was faced with the opportunity to make a dream come true -to attend a football match- I waited for no one. I booked flights, accommodation and traveled to Munich on my own. It was an incredible experience. I realized that there’s no need to have a negative mindset when it comes to traveling alone as a woman.

Solo travel has far more rewards than setbacks and this is why:

1. It allows you to make your own decisions – since you don’t have to compromise, you can create your schedule based on what you want to see and do. This gives you the freedom to make all decisions and truly create the trip of your dreams.
2. It shows you that you’re capable of doing things on your own  – few things are more empowering than discovering you can do something you didn’t thought was possible. Traveling alone is the perfect opportunity to learn how to rely on yourself. By the time the trip ends, you will feel stronger.
3. It allows you to make your dreams come true without depending on others – your goals and dreams shouldn’t wait for anyone. It’s a shame that sometimes we stop doing what we like because we don’t have someone to do it with. That’s nonsense.
4. It sharpens your sense of direction and overall common sense – traveling alone means you don’t have someone close to you who you can turn to, in case something goes wrong. That means you need to be twice as attentive to everything: signs, rules, directions, places. It improves your memory and makes you more aware of your surroundings.
5. It’s a great opportunity to get to know yourself better – since you’re doing what you want, you will discover that maybe you’d rather spend more time walking around than visiting museums, or finding hidden gems than visiting the landmarks. 
6. It’s an opportunity to get out of your shell and make friends – when you travel alone you’re more eager to talk to strangers whether it’s because you’re sharing a hostel room or you want someone to take a picture of you in front of a monument. You may meet fellow travelers from different countries and end up grabbing something to eat together. 
7. It helps you see the good in people – you will be surprised about how nice people can actually be. Strangers have helped me when they saw me struggling without me asking. Kindness still exists.

Red lights. Home match. Home win. Surreal. #DFBPokal

A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Mar 2, 2017 at 5:36am PST

A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Aug 28, 2017 at 3:13pm PDT

Tschüss, Wien!

A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Aug 30, 2017 at 3:10am PDT

1. Choose your exact destinations – when booking a tour with a travel agency, it is very common that these trips have fixed destinations. They may include some of the places you want to visit but also leave others out. Planning your own trips ensures that you are going exactly where you want to.
2. Make your own itinerary – you decide where to go and for how long to stay there. Pre-made trips come with a strict itinerary and very few – if any – free days. You will spend a lot of time in the bus and less time walking through the cities. Making your own itinerary will help you assign more time for activities you enjoy.
3. Choose the best dates – similar to the destinations issue, travel agencies offer trips on specific dates. This leaves you with few options and might make your trip more expensive.
4. Choose your lodging – accommodation can take a big part of your budget. Tour companies often arrange accommodation at 3-star hotels or more. This may be great for travelers who seek a lot of comfort but for the traveler on a budget, it represents an often unnecessary expense. Booking your own accommodation opens more cost-effective possibilities such as B&Bs, Inns, Airbnb apartments or hostels. 
5. Stay on budget – when you are in control of the details mentioned before,  that flexibility often results in a reduction of the overall cost of your trip.

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💡 Tip: Travel by night, save time - Night buses are a reliable option when time is an issue. My schedule was very tight, I would go from Poland to Austria -around 9 hours- so it was better to do the trip at night. I took the cheapest option -a bus- but there are also more comfortable options by train where you get to have a compartment to sleep. It’s up to you which mean you prefer, but traveling during the night leaves you with daytime to explore more destinations.

💡 Tip: Little time? Join a free tour - In many cities across Europe you can find free walking tours. Usually offered by people who just love showing their city around, these tours are a great opportunity to see the main landmarks and learn a bit of history in around 3 hours. Before you visit a city, do research online to see if you can find a free tour you can join.

Walking city tour

Planning on visiting Vienna? This might help:

• Stay at least 3 days: Vienna is a big city with plenty of museums. I recommend staying there enough time to visit their museums and palaces. 
• About public transportation: Vienna's transportation system is efficient but not cheap. Like in Germany, look for 1-day/3-day ticket to make the most out of your stay. Your feet will thank you especially if you’ve been traveling for a while before arriving. 
• Bring extra money: Compared to other cities, Vienna is expensive, especially the food. Follow your hostel’s recommendations to save money.
• Take a music tour: Vienna is called "the city of music". According to Vienna's  website, more composers -including Mozart- have lived there than in any other city. Take your time to discover its music heritage and influence in the world.