This non-American Life

France: Charming Toulouse

2009-11-23T10:38:00.000+01:00

Lufthansa was having a sale on direct flights to Toulouse, so how could we resist going to meet up with our friends who have a house just outside the city? I only wish we had gone sooner, because as a vacation destination it was fabulous.

Toulouse itself is a wonderful city for wandering. One day we roughly followed a walking tour laid out in a guidebook, which took us from big market squares, past monuments and public art, to small, winding, gallery-filled streets.

For lunch we stopped at vegetarian cafe La Faim des Haricots. There you can choose a combination of salad bar, savory tarts, dish of the day, and/or dessert bar, and eat as much as you like. It was filling and yummy.

An item on my must-eat-whenever-in-France list is macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, those coconut cookies). These little mouthfuls of joy consist of two light, flavored cookies smooshed together around a flavored cream. We picked up some at Poussin Bleu (45 rue du Languedoc), and amazingly they survived the trip all the way home (but not much longer after that). The caramel and pistachio flavors were my favorite.

Toulouse was one of those cities where I found myself contemplating whether I'd want to live there. It had a good vibe. I'd at least like to go back for more wandering.

France: public hygene, art, and tarts in Albi

2009-11-17T17:01:00.000+01:00

Albi is a charming old town about an hour's drive from Toulouse. Its architecture is a fascinating mixture of tumbling down ruins, beautifully-restored old brick houses, and modern embellishments.

The public showers were open and ready for business. How convenient that you can tell that smelly person sitting next to you on the bus, "Here's a euro, please go have a shower on me." Of course he'd probably use it instead to buy a bottle of yummy local wine.

I'm usually in a perpetual state of church burn-out, but Albi's was worth a visit. We paid a couple euros for an audioguide which did a good job of pointing out some amazing details, such as the richly-colored ceiling frescoes which have never been restored.

The big highlight of Albi is the Toulouse Lautrec Museum. Albi was his birthplace, and the museum holds an excellent collection of his paintings and prints.

The museum is housed in the former bishop's palace. I'm sure these fancy gardens must have helped the bishop do god's will or something.

Street signs in Albi are posted in two languages, French and Occitan. It's amazing how many languages you've never heard of you can find lurking around Europe.

We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Ambroisie, a cute little restaurant specializing in tarts.

Schwarm: flashmobbing in Munich

2009-11-11T10:39:00.000+01:00

Back home in Munich, and the fun continues. Last night we participated in Moment of Starlings, a flash mob event that momentarily bewildered many a passerby downtown.

We received information on the meeting point by SMS about an hour before the event was to start. After crowding into a bookstore to listen to an introduction and receive some general instruction, we were off. Text messages with new instructions arrived sporadically over the next hour and a half, and the crowd of a hundred or so people was delighted to do the bidding of our unseen puppet master.

I loved the looks on bystanders' faces as we slalomed through the Isartor Sbahn station in a long, single-file line and then ran up the down escalator. Well, about half of us did. That is one long-ass escalator. Pant pant.

After some general swarming and barking at a giant turbine, an SMS told us to go pick up a pillow and congregate in a dry fountain. You can imagine what happened next (actually you don't have to, since I have these nifty photos of it).

At the end we were rewarded with some Glühwein. And we got to keep all of the feathers clinging to our clothes, hair, and faces. Lucky us.

I have been a big fan of Improv Everywhere for years, so I was super excited to get to participate in a flash mob myself. Although our performance was nowhere near the caliber of a Grand Central freeze, nor as meticulously coordinated as a Best Gig Ever, it wasn't bad for a group of beginners. The organizers did a great job coordinating the various moving parts, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

This was the second of four planned flash mobs. The next one is on November 25th and will be part of the Spielart Theater Festival in Munich. See the website to find out how to sign up. You'll need to understand at least a little German or go with someone who does; all of the instructions are sent out in German, but I'm sure you could find someone at the event who will help translate if you need it. Or you can just follow the swarm.

Squeezing the fun out of London

2009-11-09T18:58:00.000+01:00

I have had the good fortune to go to London twice this year, with more trips planned soon. Such an infinitely entertaining city, with friendly people and charming accents. I could spend years there and not get bored. This time I was hosted by the lovely and talented Em and her husband Jeremy. You might notice a certain similarity between this post and one on her blog.

Em just moved to London, so it was fun to get to explore her new city with her. We found a local pub with her favorite beer (I use this term loosely) on tap and another one with a fun-filled pub quiz night. Our all-American team did surprisingly well given how many questions had to do with English soccer and Mr. Bean. Still, I recommend that they recruit some locals for next week.

I don't usually like shopping but even that is more fun in London, especially when there are kitschy blow-up Christmas decorations overhead. There's no Thanksgiving in Europe to hold back the Christmas stuff, so it starts appearing as soon as the whether gets nippy.

My trip happened to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day. Unfortunately we didn't see any bonfires, but there were fireworks all over the place. Next time I'm hoping for some effigies. Even if I have to make them myself.

A lot of our time was spent wandering aimlessly. One can do this all day in London, passing from one neighborhood to another while being constantly entertained. And if you happen to wander into a museum or gallery or two along the way, all the better.

One of our days of wandering centered around Rivington Street, an area full of galleries, cafes, and artsy little shops. We had a cheap and delicious lunch at Cargo while admiring the graffiti art. We took in some wonderful exhibits at Rivington Place and White Cube. Later on we stopped for coffee on the animal-print sofas of Zigfrid von Underbelly and spent about an hour photographing ourselves in the mirrored mosaic bathroom.

Another highlight of the trip was our many bus rides across town. When you're not in a hurry, it's much more fun to travel on the top level of a red bus than deep underground. Especially if you get the front seat, and you're traveling west into a glorious sunset.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 16: Das Schützen Festzelt

2009-11-03T09:49:00.000+01:00

Somehow we managed to survive another whole Oktoberfest, concluding with a day in the Schützen Festzelt. This is the largest tent at Oktoberfest, and they really know how to pack in the people.

As we were ordering up our first round of beers the tent shook with a mighty loud boom. Everyone jumped a bit except for the waitress, who calmly explained that they were doing some last-day-of-Oktoberfest ceremonial shooting over on the steps to the Bavaria statue, right next to the tent. There were more booms to come, so we might as well get used to it.

The feel and atmosphere inside the Schützen Festzelt was similar to that in the other large beer tents, and the food was about average for Oktoberfest tent food. Unlike most of the other tents, though, this tent had wines (and even weinschorle) on the menu in addition to beer. Can't wait to bring Em there next year.

The creepy mannequins attached to the walls were pretty cool, too.

The Kaiserschmarrn looked better than it tasted.

And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen: another year of Oktoberfest behind us. Whew.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 13: Weinzelt, good and bad

2009-11-01T13:49:00.001+01:00

After a couple nice visits last year, I was really looking forward to our evening reservation at the Weinzelt this year. Overall it was a fabulously fun Oktoberfest night, but my esteem for this tent has dropped considerably. I'll have to be on the lookout for a new favorite.

The main reason I love the Weinzelt is because almost all of the tables are booths, meaning there is a nice barrier between you and the asses of the drunk, sweaty, squirmy guys sitting at the table behind you. This little detail increases my enjoyment of a long session at Oktoberfest considerably. Another nice touch is that the Weinzelt stays open an hour later than the other tents.

The Weinzelt, per its name, serves a decent selection of wines instead of Oktoberfest beer. You can get weißbier at the Weinzelt, but not all night long (I forget at what time they actually stopped serving it). The food at the Weinzelt is top-notch, but comes with a similarly high price tag (evening reservations are around €80 per person). While I very much enjoyed my dinner, fine food seems kind of out of place at Oktoberfest. There's so much else going on around you that it's hardly possible to give your meal the attention and appreciation it deserves.

The worst part of the evening was getting into the tent: only one door was open, and there was a giant crowd of angry, drunk, reservation-holding people all shoving to get into it while asshole security guards looked on and offered no assistance. It was a horrendous experience, even by Oktoberfest standards. And from what I've heard from other people, this is pretty much standard practice at the Weinzelt on popular evenings. If you can't be bothered to allow customers into your tent in a way which does not squish the air out of their lungs, I'm not sure I can be bothered to fork over money for an evening reservation at your tent again. No matter how cute your flashing pink bunny ears, nor how awesome you Oktoberfest band's renditions of Lady Gaga songs.

We'll see which parts I remember most when next year's Oktoberfest comes around.

Greetings from... where do you think I am?

2009-10-28T00:49:00.001+01:00

Anyone know where I found these adorable cross walk signs? I mean, they're not quite as awesome as the East German Ampelmänner, but they're still pretty cute.

Put your guess in the comments. Maybe there will be a prize for those who get it right, or for those with the best answers.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Eva guessed correctly; these little guys are found in Andorra. More about our trip there soon.

Greetings from southern France

2009-10-25T20:11:00.000+01:00

Have I mentioned recently how much I love living in the center of Europe?

Italy: you say Bozen, I say Bolzano

2009-10-23T15:57:00.001+02:00

I was happy to finally get back to Bolzano (Bozen in German), a city where we spent some time many years ago and completely loved it. At the time we were living in Italy and found Bolzano's German-ness to be novel and charming; this time around it was the Italian side we were more interested in. Although the locals supposedly prefer German, the city feels almost perfectly bilingual, and almost every conversation I had involved exchanges in both Italian and German.

Luckily it wasn't too hard to find enough Italian details in Bolzano to completely delight me. Bolzano's cafes serve real espresso and delicious aperitivi. The city's center contains many winding, cobblestoned pedestrian streets teaming with life. The cuisine in most restaurants is heavily Austrian-leaning, but we had an amazing Italian dinner at Hostaria Argentieri. We took it as a good sign that the only menu available was in handwritten Italian, and and our instincts were dead on.

This time we stayed at the Parkhotel Laurin, a grand old-timey hotel with a gorgeous private park and an elevator that contains a sofa. The location was great for exploring Bolzano on foot, and the rooms were clean and modern. We've also stayed at Hotel Figl, which I can also highly recommend: central, good value, clean, good.

The views of the vineyards and Dolomites surrounding Bolzano are gorgeous, and there are many nice hikes that you can start right from the city. We skipped him this time, but I also recommend a visit to Ötzi. That is, if you can tear yourself away from people-watching as you sip your prosecco at an outdoor cafe.

Italy: Val Gardena

2009-10-21T17:58:00.000+02:00

The Dolomites were the perfect place to unwind after two weeks of Oktoberfest. A friend recommended Val Gardena, Italy - about a 3-hour drive from Munich. It's a ski resort area in the winter, and popular with hikers in the summer. Since we are now the shoulder season, we were able to get a great deal on a room with half board at Hotel Grones in the little mountain town of Ortisei (St. Ulrich in German).

Signs in the area were often posted in three languages: Italian, German, and another one which contained wacky things like ë. This turned out to be Ladin, a local language similar to Romansh (one of Switzerland's four official languages) and about equally decipherable. At the hotel and around town we heard all three languages being spoken around us, and it made my head swim a little. Our waitress clearly preferred speaking Italian with us, while the hotel owners were happier chatting in German.

The roads were small and windy, which made for some heart-thumping every time a tourist bus came flying towards us. There were a lot of tour buses. I don't want to imagine what it must be like in the high season.

We visited various little towns in Val Gardena (each with a cute little church and graveyard, some hotels, and at least one collapsed wooden barn). There was a little Sound-of-Music-style spinning involved. And a waist-tall squash. I'll let the photos say the rest.

In Munich tomorrow? Join the Carrotmob

2009-10-16T14:26:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow (Saturday, October 17th, 2009) afternoon Munich will experience its first Carrotmob. If you understand German, watch the video below (if you don't, check out Carrotmob's English-language website):

The idea behind Carrotmob is to reward businesses which pledge to become more environmentally-friendly by delivering a bunch of consumers to their door. In this case, a small Munich grocer has signed up to spend 30% of their sales from the Carrotmob to make environmentally-friendly improvements to their refrigeration system.

Tomorrow's Munich Carrotmob will take place from 12 to 3 PM at Löwenzahn, Lindwurmstraße 135. There are Carrotmobs in many other cities (especially around the US), so if you can't make it to Munich tomorrow, try looking for one in your area.

UPDATE: The Carrotmob was a success! Despite crappy weather, their money-raising goals were reached. When we went there seemed to be the perfect number of people milling around and buying things - no long line, but it was definitely the busiest shop on the block by far. Unfortunately the rain made us not so eager to stick around and listen to the band play, but it was still a fun time.

Italy: Bolzano's colorful market

2009-10-13T00:23:00.001+02:00

I could have wandered up and down this street all day.

Not that Munich doesn't have a nice market; it does. But for some reason everything looks more delicious when it's in Italy.

Luckily we didn't have to just look.

We came home with many delicious Italian treats from this market.

My husband gets credit for most of the photos. He was shooting away while I was buying as much as I could carry.

Hiding out in the Dolomites

2009-10-07T09:46:00.004+02:00

Greetings from Italy. We're recovering from Oktoberfest in a cute mountain resort town, because the best way to get over too much German beer, pretzels and kaesespaetzle is to wash it down with Italian wine, pasta, and cheese.

I'll be back to finish off my Oktoberfest posting in a few days. But for now, the sauna is calling me.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 12: tent hopping

2009-10-04T10:05:00.000+02:00

A new set of visitors, a new introductory tour of the Wiesn. We went around noon on Wednesday and poked our heads into several of the tents. Most of them were pretty quiet, and all of them had free tables. Only the Hofbräu tent was full of rowdy drunks at this hour.

We decided to lunch at the Augustiner tent. The service was pretty bad but the food was decent (including my veggie ravioli). The tent's most striking feature was its forest green canvas roof.

Fake lederhosen at the beery-go-round. You can't buy Oktoberfest beer unless you're in a tent or on its patio, but there are a few places around the wiesn where you can get wießbier. One of those places is this slowly rotating platform (actually there are a couple of these).

I get the feeling that this ride would not meet US safety standards.

This sign struck me as an interesting example of Denglish, advertising a little temporary cafe outside of the Oktoberfest grounds. Wiesn is the place where Oktoberfest is held; Treff is a German word meaning 'get-together'. Obviously the After part is supposed to be understood as the English meaning of the word, and the sign is trying to say 'hey, here's a place where you can hang out with your friends after Oktoberfest'. At least I hope that's what they're going for, since the alternative would mean using the German meaning of After, which is, ehem, anus.

And on that note, we're off to the last day of Oktoberfest. Ein Prosit!

Gooooooooooooooooooool!

2009-09-29T22:17:00.002+02:00

Urinal at Drei Königinnen in Augsburg, Germany.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 6: Bavarian Heaven

2009-09-24T23:04:00.000+02:00

Thanks to its charming decorations and lively atmosphere, the Hacker ten t (Himmel der Bayern) makes it onto lots of people's list of favorite Oktoberfest tents. The walls are painted up into a fairytale-like Bavarian town, and the ceiling is a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Today (a Thursday) we decided to go for lunch, and had no trouble scoring a prime table at around 11:30am.

The tent finished filling up pretty quickly, and there was constant competition for the extra seats at our table. We were joined by an adorable old Bavarian man for part of the day; he was thrilled to death by all the attention the bedirndled foreigners were giving him. I think we made his week.

It's actually quite easy to get a lot of attention in Bavarian Heaven: just stand up on your table and chug a liter of beer (or better yet, have your friends hold the table in the air while you stand on it, like the guy in the photo below). The whole tent will cheer you on, and celebrate your inebriated victory. But be warned: if you fail to finish they will boo mightily, and never forgive you.

We had lunch (merely so-so food) and a couple rounds of beer in the tent. Around 5:00pm we got kicked off of our table due to an evening reservation, but by that point we were ready to move on anyway. It was time for some rides.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 4: itty bitty tent

2009-09-23T13:37:00.005+02:00

Last year I don't think I even noticed the tiny tents interspersed amongst the big Oktoberfest tents, but there they are. Most of them have names which describe what kind of animal they most like to kill and cook up for your dining pleasure. We spent yesterday evening in the Heinz Wurst- und Hühnerbraterei, a tent that holds fewer than 400 guests. The largest tents, in comparison, hold around 10,000 people each.

When we first arrived at our tiny little tent, I was skeptical. It was about half empty (reserved tables which hadn't been claimed yet) and the band hadn't started playing. It felt like a sad little imitation of the real Oktoberfest. When the entertainment for the evening took their place, my skepticism grew: visually, the duo resembled a certain Will Ferrell SNL skit.

But as the tables filled up and the music got going, I grew fond of our little tent. Turns out it had a lot going for it. The seats were more comfortable than the backless benches typical of a big tent, and the open windows made it not as hot. There was more drink choice than in a large tent, with weißbier and wines on the menu in addition to Oktoberfest brew. Everyone in our party agreed the food was fabulous. Plus as someone who is mildly uncomfortable in large crowds, I appreciated the smaller scale.

The musicians were great and really got the crowd going. There was plenty of dancing on the tables and singing along to Oktoberfest classics. And I never had to wait in line at the bathrooms. All in all it was a very fun night at the Wiesn, and a nice change of pace from the big tents.

Oktoberfest 2009 day 1: Ochsenbraterei

2009-09-20T15:34:00.000+02:00

Ozapft is! Munich's mayor tapped the ceremonial first keg at noon yesterday with two brisk swings of the mallet. Bring on the drunken revelry.

We spent the first evening in the Ochsenbraterei tent. We had a table reserved, which is the only reason we even considered going opening day. All the tents were full, and some very forlorn tourists practically begged us for our armbands as we headed towards the door.

The tent was sweltering hot, much hotter than I remember being last year. Dirndl-skirt-sticking-to-your-ass hot. Perhaps it was because of the heat that the beer* tasted particularly good.

The music was particularly repetitive, and not particularly good. Not that Oktoberfest music ever really qualifies as "good", but still... Achy Breaky Heart? Come on, people.

After a couple hours we couldn't take the heat anymore, so we headed out into the cool night to ride a ride and head home. There's nothing more fun than spinning around upside down in the air after two liters of beer.

Luckily we didn't see too many guys walking around in these.

* Spaten is served in the Ochsenbraterei tent.

The Oktoberfest answers you've been searching for

2009-09-18T18:03:00.000+02:00

As is to be expected, this week I've had an explosion of hits from people googling their last-minute Oktoberfest queries and questions. Why don't we take a stab at helping out these folks, shall we?

oktoberfest reservations
A little late for that, buddy.

cheap dirndls
Try Ebay.

oktoberfest munich first time advice
You're in luck, I wrote a whole post about that.

is there sex at oktoberfest?
Hmm. Probably?

oktoberfest regensburg 2009
You're close, but actually it's in Munich.

where to buy lederhosen in munich
These days you can buy them all over the city, but I'd recommend heading out to the Loden Frey outlet store or the giant Wies'n Tracht & Mehr on Hanaurstraße. Both are near the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum U-bahn stop.

oktoberfest reservations tents
Yes, Oktoberfest reservations are in tents.

oktoberfest munich without a reservation tent
No problem. See my tips.

oktoberfest sex stories
Well, there was this one time... not. Perhaps Penthouse should put out a special Oktoberfest issue. Or feel free to leave your own story in the comments.

oktoberfest pictures with lederhosen
Here's one of my favorite Oktoberfest lederhosen pics, taken at an after-hours party across the street from the Wiesn.

oktoberfest peeing
There's no peeing at Oktoberfest. You just have to hold it in. OK, I guess you could use one of these.

how to get a last minute beer tent reservation oktoberfest
Call or go by the tents' offices. Check the tents' websites (Oktoberfest.de has convenient links to all of them) to find out where the offices are and how/when you can reach them. But don't get your hopes up too much - it's probably not worth the effort.

training for oktoberfest drinking
The jury is out on how to best go about this.

oktoberfest signs
Signs that it is Oktoberfest: 1) more drunken lederhosen-clad hordes on the U-bahn than usual; 2) puke at your tram stop.

oktoberfest waitresses
...have mad beer-carrying skillz. And are usually grumpy. But you would be too.

nudity oktoberfest
Yes, there is nudity at Oktoberfest, most of which is of the unfortunate, ~~pale~~ British variety.

what are the waitresses called at the oktoberfest
Hmmm. Any ideas?

expat dirndl oktoberfest
They let us wear the same dirndls as the locals, actually. Here's mine. It's the tourists who have to wear the funny ones.

drink as much as you want 10 euro munich
You can totally do that at Oktoberfest. I mean, assuming you only want a liter. That's enough for anyone, right?

preparation for oktoberfest drink water
Nah, then you'll just have to stand in that godawful bathroom line even more often. Instead, prepare by 1) going out and buying some tract and 2) getting a lot of cash out of your bank account.

Tomorrow's the day...

A long night of Berlin's museums

2009-09-16T09:17:00.000+02:00

Our recent trip to Berlin included the Lange Nacht der Museen. Long museum nights are popular in many cities around Europe (we've also been to them in Zurich and Munich). Berlin has two a year, with 100 museums around the city opening their doors from 6pm to 2am. Special events for the evening include concerts, demonstrations, and things like the opportunity to destroy your evil things with a special machine (after first attending the Dinge-Sprechstunde, during which an expert will evaluate your thing for evilness).*

The festivities were centered on Museum Island. The big light show entertained us while we were milling around waiting for buses to take us to the more far-flung locations. There were so many interesting-sounding things to do that we had a lot of trouble choosing.

The DDR Museum was serving up 'typical East-German cocktails'. I was worried that drinking one might make my hair curl up into a mullet.

Several museums had the added bonus of letting visitors participate in The Big Draw Berlin. We doodled at the Museum of Communication and at the Sammlung Scharf Gerstenberg (which has an amazing 'Surreal Worlds' collection, by the way).

The big Bauhaus exhibit at the Martin-Gropius-Bau was also part of Museum Night, but we wanted to spend more time there, so we went the next day instead. It's a fabulous exhibit, probably the most comprehensive presentation of the Bauhaus that I've ever seen in one place.

The dance show at the Schwules Museum was quite colorful.

We also hit a fabulous photography show at the Akademie der Künste (right next door to the Adlon hotel, featuring the Blanket Jackson Balcony). I'm sure we visited a couple other museums that night, too, but that's all I can remember at the moment.

---
* I didn't even make this part up. It happened at the Museum of Things.

Dopplr keeps trying to send me to Canada

2009-09-13T15:40:00.000+02:00

As a frequent traveler, I'm always on the lookout for ways to make travel easier. There are several websites out there that claim to do just that, but my patience for trying out every new thing to hit the interwebs is low. But this year I've been trying out two sites which claim to help out with travel planning and organization, and there's a clear winner between the two.

On the surface Dopplr and Tripit are similar - basically you tell the site about your upcoming travels and it will tell you when any of your friends will be in the same place as you are at the same time. It also organizes your travel info into an itinerary which it supplements with other info such as maps, weather, and things to do. You can decide who has access to your trip information and add other users as friends.

Both sites allow you to enter trip information manually, or you can forward your confirmation emails for flights, hotels, etc., and have the site extract the information itself. This feature is key, since I have no desire to perform data entry in order to use a site that is supposed to be making my life easier. TripIt does an infinitely better job with this feature than Dopplr does.

Dopplr seems to be more popular with other bloggers I know, but I'm not sure why. It has done a horrible job of interpreting travel emails. For example, I forwarded it my plane reservation for an upcoming trip to Dublin, and instead Dopplr decided I was going to From, Norway, for almost a year. For another trip Dopplr has me in Night, Canada, one day and Armonai, Lithuania, the next, when in fact I'll be in Bavaria the whole time. Dopplr also thinks I spent a week in More, England, when in fact I was in Toulouse. Tripit got all those bookings right the first time.

I really like the itinerary presentation on TripIt. It includes vital info about flights and hotels, plus weather and maps for your destination. Flight listings include a handy button which links to the airline's online check-in. TripIt also has an iPhone app which my husband loves.

Dopplr seems to focus on giving you other information about your destination - restaurant reviews, hotels, sites, etc. - and it encourages you to add your own reviews. Dopplr doesn't present your itinerary in as useful of a format, but it does keep a copy of confirmation emails handy in case you need to look up information.

The only clear advantage I see to Dopplr is that as of now more people I know use it than use TripIt. This is important for the second big advantage of these sites, i.e. their ability to let me know when friends and I will be in the same place at the same time. A site needs a critical mass of users for this to really work. The easiest way for me to check to see if most of my friends will be in a certain place at the same time as me? Announcing an upcoming trip in my Facebook status.

I've been using both sites for about six months now, but I think I'm about to ditch Dopplr for good. Now if only I could get all my friends to sign up for TripIt.

Do you use any travel websites like these? What's your opinion on them?

The quick brown fox flies over the lazy Olypiastadion

2009-09-11T16:09:00.000+02:00

After more than a year and a half in Munich, we finally made it out to Munich's Olympiapark. What finally got us there was the flying fox they have up for a few months. We decided to do it together with the Zeltdach-Tour (tent roof tour), which made for a good yet expensive couple of hours of entertainment.

The architecture at the Olympiapark is quite striking, and the roof tour focused on the history of the structures as well as their unique features. It was surprisingly interesting. There was no mention of any tragedies that may have been connected with these particular Olympics.

We were put into some pretty serious safety gear. It seemed quite excessive for the roof tour part, but like just enough when it came to flying across the stadium hanging from a wire.

The step off the side of the roof is a big one.

Reservations are recommended for the Zeltdach-Tour, but it sounds like you can do the flying fox without calling ahead. Instead of doing the combination tour like we did, I think I'd recommend reading up on the architecture of the Olympiapark on your own and saving €40 by doing just the flying fox. You still get to go onto the roof for it.

There's a new lady bag in town

2009-09-08T10:47:00.000+02:00

German Company Invents Pocket Toilet for Women

Lady Bags became sort of a conversational leitmotiv during the Whiny Expat Bloggers Meet-Up. We think they should market these at Oktoberfest by handing them out to bedirndled women waiting in long bathroom lines. Except they're going to have to make them bigger, first, since I believe most women pee around once per Maß, and the gel can only absorb half a liter.

And I thought these Lady Bags were weird.

Have you ever peed in a yogurt cup during a road trip? Yeah, me neither. I guess it's a German thing.

Munich: So many bloggers

2009-09-07T14:56:00.004+02:00

Whew, what a weekend. We Munich bloggers had the honor of hosting this year's Whiny Expat Blogger Meet-Up. Bloggers from the far corners of Germany descended upon us for a weekend of eating, drinking, wandering around, and lots and lots of conversation. We tried to give everyone a glimpse of our city with some unexpected twists.

One stop on our walking tour involved watching the famous Eisbach surfers. Urban surfing at its best.

Another fun stop was the Anglia English Bookshop (Schellingstraße 3, near the Universität Ubahn stop), which has a nice selection and reasonable prices compared to what you'll find at other English bookshops in Germany.

While we were tempted to require everyone to consume Bavarian food (washed down with liters of beer) for every single meal, in the end we opted for a delicious Ethiopian dinner at Blue Nile on one evening. This was a nice break for those who are not so skilled at peeling Weißwurst.

Dinner was followed by That Queer Expatriate's Queer Expedition, an annual tradition of sorts. This time it was held at Mylord, an absolutely charming little bar in the middle of the Glockenbachviertel (Munich's gayborhood). The furnishings are just like those at your grandmother's house, assuming your grandmother has been a chain smoker for the last 60 years and has a penchant for erotic lesbian art.

Sunday morning started with a stroll through the Theresienwiese to catch a glimpse of the Oktoberfest tents. Looks like they're almost ready to go.

And as a grand finale, we went on a little pilgrimage to Munich's very own public shrine to Michael Jackson (to be found on Promenadeplatz), which was skillfully scoped out by the HeidelbergerInnen. Notable features included a creepy drawing of a little boy cowering in a corner and a panda bear humping a mattress spring.

Even though I failed to talk anyone into buying lederhosen, the weekend was a blast. It was such a great group of people who made me laugh harder than I have in a long, long time. Posts from other bloggers about the meet-up:

Berlin: as enchanting as ever

2009-09-02T22:50:00.003+02:00

After almost three whole months (oh, the horror) of sleeping in my own bed, I finally got out of Munich for a few days in Berlin. Berlin is one of the few places I go back to over and over and over again, because I will never get enough of it. It's so big and diverse and... atmospherey. You know what I mean?

A highlight of the trip was getting to meet Snooker and Sweet No (oh yes, and Mimi!). And I get to see them (minus Mimi) again this coming weekend at the blogger meet-up. Woo hoo!

We met them at the charming Ampelmann Restaurant and 'beach bar', where I could indulge my Ampelmann fetish to my heart's content. Later Snook took us to the kind of place you just don't find in Munich: an Indian restaurant with a large outdoor terrace populated with glowing neon-pink plastic palm trees. The food was delicious, too.

We found a couple other new (to us) restaurants we liked this trip, too. MaoThai was yummy, cheap Thai food in big portions. In street food, we enjoyed falafel at a small döner kebab place along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße across the street from Alexanderplatz.

2009 marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and naturally the city is celebrating. There's a great temporary open-air museum up at Alexanderplatz which chronicles the history of the Wall and the revolution which toppled it.

Speaking of museums, we hit a lot of them this trip. More in a later post.