Hello again. This past winter break, I traveled to Europe for the first time to meet my discord friend of 5 years! It was my first time traveling abroad by myself, and also meeting an online friend irl. I’ll refer to her as ‘blue’ moving forward. A little backstory, I met her doing my quarantine youtube era when I was a niche internet microcelebrity…man those were the days. She joined my channel server and the rest is history. We had always joked about doing a VIP “meet and greet” where I would fly out to meet her, so I started dissociating real bad on the 14 hour plane ride there. I couldn’t sleep at allll because of my nerves. It also doesn’t really help that I used to have a crush on her a while back (she was a masc lesbian for years… but then she suddenly turned straight and got a bf a month after I booked my flight, god what are the odds T-T). I never confessed because she’d mentioned multiple times in passing that she could never do long distance with anyone. Anyways, when I got off the plane my legs were jelly and my heart was literally beating out of my chest because of my anxiety. Blue had texted me that she was waiting right outside the baggage claim but I had gotten out at a different exit so I ended up surprising her from behind. At this point though, I had been awake for like 23+ hours so I was pretty delirious. The initial meeting was like me collapsing into an asian squat from anxiety while hiding my face and her shuffling her feet around from nerves. It’s pretty hilarious now that I’m thinking about it.
My initial impression of the Netherlands was how the airport (and other buildings in the area) all looked like they were part of some IKEA franchise. The trees were also vastly different from how they looked back in the states. Very, very tall, narrow, and all planted in neat rows along the road. After I took a long nap at her place, we visited the lovely canal district in Amsterdam. We went several days in a row there because she wanted me to experience it during the day and night time. I remember being in such awe of the historical architecture and the Central Station. The narrow, leaning canal houses all had so much charm and character to them, and Blue and I spent a lot of our time just walking around and admiring different alcoves and wooden doorways. The orange glow of the street lamps and Christmas lights also added to the cozy ambiance. In the canal district, we first visited the torture museum! It was just awesome. The building itself was quite small but there was a good amount of stuff to look at, including replicas of torture devices used in the middle ages, and overall the experience was quite informative. Afterwards, a chill guy that had been behind us in the museum tried to make conversation and we ended up talking to him for two hours in the freezing cold. He was visiting from Belarus and was homeless for the night (it was NYE and the hostel he was staying at raised their prices from 20 to 100 euros a night so he said fuck that and decided to just kill time at random parties later on). Later that night we went back to Blue’s neighbourhood and watched the fireworks from her front yard. If there’s one thing I learned about the Dutch, it’s that they do NOT play about their fireworks. At one point, I remember feeling like I was in the Purge because of how many explosives were going off in the streets. The air was thick with smoke and the sheer amount of fireworks going off in every direction within a couple feet was exhilarating but simultaneously very culture-shocking (there were sparks raining down on our coats cus fireworks were being shot literally above our heads).
The next two days we went to the canal district again and I ate a bunch of overpriced but delectable stroopwaffels and these Dutch cheese crackers called kaaskoekjes. We also visited this maze-like antique store with so many unique booths and Blue ended up buying me this gorgeous comb with a silver, engraved case as a souvenir. I ended up purchasing a pair of ornate Dutch tea spoons from a really kind seller who ran a military antique shop. The selection he had was nuts, but I couldn’t afford the shoulder bag I wanted.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other places we wanted to visit were closed because of the holidays, so we did a bunch of window shopping instead. At night we went to Asia town and I took pictures in front of the store where Yung Lean filmed his Kyoto MV!! We also passed through the Red Light district on the way there but I felt too awkward to take my eyes off the road and glance at the windows T-T. Before we went back home, we stood in line for the fries. I say this with a heavy heart but the Dutch fries were so overrated. I even got mine with the truffle mayo but Wendy's still clears by a landslide. They were just too thick/boxy and not even that crispy. The perfect fry to me is when the fry is crispy but has a thin body for max flavor to potato ratio, and these fries felt really bland, even with the sauce (which was also very mid) and they also only put the sauce on top of the cone of fries, so you’re left with a bunch of dry, bland fries once you finish the top layer. Later that night we watched Blue Velvet and made Dutch pancakes (which were like savory crepes, super yummy).
Now I’m going to quickly go over the last two-day trip to Köln, Germany because I’m half asleep writing this. This part of the trip was the highlight for me. First of all, it felt like I was going on a catholic pilgrimage–awesome– and second of all it was snowing pretty hard in cologne so the cathedral looked straight out of Bloodborne.
I had worn my black velvet Lady Macbeth coat with my burgundy marc le bihan skirt and was listening to the Bloodborne soundtrack while walking around the cathedral imagining I was a hunter in snowy Yharnam… so basically I was in heaven. I can hardly describe the feeling of standing in the presence of the cathedral, like I could spend days just staring at it and soaking it all in. The sheer size and magnitude of the cathedral alone was unregisterable to me, it was so otherworldly and dreamlike that I felt like I was staring at a projection or a mirage. Blue and I spent hours sitting in the pews staring at the stained glass and the majestic pipe organ while listening to Kavari, melokei, and more soulsborne soundtracks. Pure bliss. I’m not religious anymore but I really think I felt God in that cathedral. My creativity was reinvigorated for sure. After attending a mini mass ceremony, we decided to do the cathedral tour, which consists of A) climbing a flight of narrow spiraling stairs to the top of the church and B) the treasury. It was difficult trying not to slip in a tight, steep, dimly lit ascent consisting of 533 steps to the top, but the view at the end was so rewarding. It was also so cool experiencing the inside of the bell tower, as it had the same vibe as Lady Maria's boss fight in the clock tower. The treasury was structured like a museum, housing religious artifacts and relics like chalices, vestments, and even the shrine of the three kings! The craftsmanship on these items were jaw dropping, and the level of detail given to the intricate engravings and jewel placements quite literally blessed my eyes. Before we left, I spotted the only lolita I came across during my entire trip and we talked for half an hour! Her coord was all white and she looked like an angel in front of the cathedral. We also became obsessed with the "Lebkuchen" lattes from the Starbucks across the cathedral. I think we drank three in one day...yeesh. (Turns out if wasn't a German specific menu item and was just a regular gingerbread latte FML).
At night, we visited the best restaurant in the world: Lord of the Grillz. If you are into medieval themed places and want to feel like you genuinely teleported into a tavern/skyrim this place is a MUST. Like it made my heart burst with how well the restaurant was decorated and themed. The cozy and theatrical ambience was IMPECCABLE. Firstly, your table is lit by candlelight and the innkeepers/wait staff are all dressed in period clothing and they not only banter with you, but they also speak entirely to you in Old English. Secondly, they give you knight armor and crowns to wear while dining (the menu is spectacular), and the interior was furnished very meticulously. Tons of taxidermy, stone walls with torches, mysterious bottles, a full on armor stand chilling by the bathrooms. I ordered the black metal burger with an apple pie for dessert and they were both delicious. 10000000/10 stars. I’m seriously not gonna stop raving about this place until I die. If I lived in Germany, I would dine here every week. Not kidding.
I also want to quickly mention the hotel we stayed at because I highly recommend it if you ever visit Köln and are a lover of Gothic revival. The building itself is a historical beauty, being that it used to be a monastery, so right away in the lobby you’re greeted with gorgeous ribbed vault ceilings, pointed arches, and stone columns with carved capitals. The hotel rooms also have these beautiful gothic tracery windows. It’s about a 10-15 walk from the cathedral and called THE QVEST. Two other restaurants we dined at include Oma's Küche and FRÜH "Em Jan von Werth.” Oma’s Küche was a small and cute, cozy restaurant we stopped by for breakfast. I ordered the “Currywurst mit Karoffeln” (curry sausage with fried potatoes) and the food was a 7/10. Blue and I couldn’t stop laughing at the interesting poster of an AI grandma covering the kitchen. FRÜH "Em Jan von Werth”was an old historical pub and the food was amazing. Blue ordered a Schweinshaxe (roasted pork knuckle) which was so tender, crispy, juicy, and flavorful. I ordered the “‘Brauhausewurst‘ Krakauer vom Grill mit Bratkartoffeln und Krautsalat,” which was a sausage with pan fried potatoes and cabbage salad. Oh and they also make the BEST apple strudel I've ever had in my life. It was served with this vanilla cream and it melted in my mouth.
Overall, I’m so happy with how my first trip to Europe turned out, even though a snowstorm hit the Netherlands before I left, cancelling my flight home two times. It was a bit stressful but I made it back home before the semester started, and thanks to the storm I got to actually play in the snow and build a snowman for the first time. I shot a bunch of footage on my camcorder that I’m hoping to edit into a little video diary when I have the time. I will update the post with the link when I get the chance. Thanks for reading my very disorganized post if you made it this far. I’m going to bed now.
Diary Entry 1: Winter Break
12/29/25
This winter break I’ve been in a weird place mentally. Time feels like it's moving way too fast, and I can’t really remember how I spent most of it. I also feel a bit worthless because I haven’t composed any music at all, or studied more music theory as I had planned to this break. Instead, I've dedicated most of my freetime to making this site. I guess it IS partly due to the fact that I forgot to bring my monitor back home, so I couldn’t access Ableton, but I've just been kind of intimidated by music production lately.
On the brighter side, I got into all of the medical programs I applied to, and even got a scholarship to the one I had wanted to get into the most. I’m not that passionate about my future profession, but that's a whole discussion for another time. It just felt a bit anticlimactic, my parents didn’t celebrate or even think much of my accomplishments/the hard work I’ve put in to get to this point for the past 4 years. With my last semester in college coming up, I feel as if I’m in some kind of dreaded calm before the storm, like it’s the last breath of freedom I get before I cuff myself to a railroad.
My friend came over to my house to spend Christmas with my family. It was a nice change of pace showing them around my city and staying up late at night watching 2nd gen k-pop mv’s from our childhood on the projector. We watched a lot of sheena ringo too. By the time they left though, my social battery was completely drained…and I felt like a shell of a human being. This is something about myself that I wish I could fix. While I love my friend, there are parts of myself I have to always mask around most people, and it really exhausts me, both mentally and physically. When I have to mask for long periods of time, I usually end up feeling really hollow and easily irritable. This is why I have fewer and fewer friends every year.
Watching old k-pop mv’s reignited my love for g-dragon though, and I have been looping his music videos and interviews every day to get me through my slump. He really is called the king of k-pop for a reason. Rewatching his dance practices had me in awe of his mesmerizing stage presence. He carries this natural swag and groove that make his choreography look effortless and relaxed, yet super sharp and precise. Idk it just feels so expensive. Truly a born dancer in my books. Personally, my favorite dance video of GD’s is the dance practice for Good Boy. I’ll link it below if you’d like to watch him :D (he’s the one in the beanie and flannel).
My favorite live performance of his will always be either 니가 뭔데 or Black, both of which I will link below. In 니가 뭔데, he exudes such a boyish charisma that will always steal my childhood-fangirl heart. The outfit in this live show was also just…legendary. GD was usually always dripped out in flashy clothing, so I remember this simple/more idol-like/boy next door fit was sooo charming to see on him. The timberlands make me wanna cry from nostalgia (also what was up with kpop’s random obsession with them in the 2010’s?!). I also adore the choreo in this song, especially the part at 0:53. His smile is so foxy/cat-like here… I love it so much. Anyways, my friend is the number 1 GD x kiko shipper so she insisted to me that GD wrote this about kiko after they broke up, which i guess makes the whole thing that much cuter XD.
Moving on to Black, GD’s face card kills me every time I watch this live. He actually looks 2D, as many of the comments will point out, and his side profile here will always make my nose bleed. I think what I particularly love about this live show is his gaze while performing and the overall styling. The subtle smoky eye and black suit really adds to the atmosphere…and he also looks so so pretty in white hair. Sorry this has turned into me just drooling over GD in his prime LOL but what can I say… he rewired my brain chemistry back when I was in elementary school.
Watching his old performances now is a bit painful, knowing how the relentless bullying and harassment from Korean media gradually wore down his spark. I think the reason GD remained such an iconic figure in kpop comes down to his complex personality. He has this stark duality where a part of him is this charismatic and effortless performer/party animal active in underground clubs, but behind that image is also a disciplined, musically gifted producer and leader. He's also openly revealed his more anxious/lonely side, and this contrast between his public persona and his battle with mental health, impacted heavily by the pressures from unfair public scrutiny and the media, has deepened my support for him as a fan. He's helped me get through a lot in my early life, and I really wish GD peace and healing (oh my god i sound so parasocial).
As for other media I have been recycling through this month, I have been rereading a lot of Kaoru Fujiwara's works, especially Sono Saki no Fuukei. I think I will make a separate blog post about her in the future, as she is one of my favorite mangaka. I gravitate to her works a lot when I am in a weird headspace. I also got through half of the Galerians - Rion movie and I really like it so far. I've never gotten the chance to play the game, but I plan to watch a play through once I'm done with the movie. Thoughts will be out later.
I also have been baking again! I forgot how much I enjoy the process, and it's been helping me destress. This month, I baked salt bread, earl gray sponge cake with early gray chantilly frosting, and flaky egg tarts. I'll put some pictures of the pastries when I get the chance.
Thanks for reading this far if you have managed to get past me glazing GD… I’m traveling to amsterdam (my very first europe trip) in a few days to visit my internet best friend of 5 years. I’m very nervous as I’m pretty awkward at these kind of things and I’m scared she’ll be disappointed in me if I’m different irl than the image of me she had built in her head over the years. You guys will find out soon enough if all went well! Also, happy new years in advance!
01/20/2026: Netherlands and Germany
