Munchen: beer and love

It was a 2-3 hr train ride, 1st class with our rail pass to Munich.  The rail system is extraordinary, so functional.

We checked in to Hotel Kent in the very quiet, Bavarian town of Engleschalking.  A great room, 3 single beds, clean & tidy with great ammenities. The room came with a old trouser press, too cute! In the hall was a shoe shine machine, cuter! First night in we just grabbed some snacks, drinks and pizza and were in bed by 9pm in preparation for Oktoberfest.

Awake by about 5.50am, the dress up process began.  Hair, makeup and dirndl all go!  We headed into town (very quick ride on the S Bahn) and when we got off, joined the masses on the walk to the grounds. We arrived between 7.30-8.00am and lined up at the main tent the Haufbrau.  Doors were opening at 9am. The doors cracked open about 10mins early and it was a wave of bodies, a moshpit! I dont think my feet touched the ground, I was jammed so tightly between bodies. We ran and secured a table, in a great spot near the stage and close to the bathrooms. We were joined by two other lovely girls, Cleo and Amy.  We all got along very well.  We were all hungry and parched. I needed caffeine, so ordered a coke but had to wait for 10am for any drink service. I ate a poppyseed roll with ham/salad.  They have cute people with food baskets walking around, serving pretzels and rolls.  When my coke came, I was so relieved to have liquid, caffeine and sugar... Only 2 more hours until the bells ring and its beer time.

At about 11.30 our assigned 'beer wench' Bettina took our beer orders. In the meantime, the band and family of the tent (each tent is named after a family) came on stage and received massive applause.  A marching band came through the crowd about 11.50, everyone stood on their chairs cheering! Then right on 12pm the gong went off, bells rang, the band started and the crowd of thousands cheered! Bettina had our drinks over to us straight away, she was onto it! Prost! Ahhh that first stein went down well, I reckon it took about an hour to get through. By our 2nd round of steins we were all mingling with surrounding tables and everyone was pretty loose and happy.  People from all over: aussies, kiwis, irish, german, italian, swiss, austrian!  It was honestly one of the most exciting, electric and happy environments I'd ever experienced.  Everyone smiling, getting to know eachother, drinking and dancing together.  There was attractive men in lederhosen everywhere.  There's something magical about the traditional suede lederhosen, every man just looks so handsome! And those beer wenches, holy crap some of them carry 10 if not more, steins at a time - it was mental!  These are mostly older women, with arms of steel.

Later in the evening, after a few bathroom runs, a cheese pretzel, a couple of steins later, (at one point I actually pretended I didn't speak english to a couple of aussie girls in the bathroom line haha) tabletops by now where dancefloors. I had  met so many lovely, happy, drunk people two which were a couple, I dont know their names. He was Swiss, she was Irish and they had actually just met that morning! They seemed in love, very cute.  I had said I wanted that, a nice guy - but no Aussie ;) We were all dancing on table tops, laughing, smashing our steins together and singing along to the band until the drinks stopped at midnight and it was time to leave the tents.

Following morning I was a little worse for wear. Lack of sleep, water and food took it's toll and I decided I couldn't do a second day/ night at Oktoberfest.  Nick headed in and I went to sleep.  At 1.45 I woke up, watched german Mtv and caught up on the internet.  I decided to head in so I got ready. Then I sat there fully dressed but still could not muster the strength or desire to head in. So my trackies came on, I went and got a pizza and spent the night in.  It was nice to have some space to myself.  I fell asleep after dinner, woke up about 2am and Nick was still not back.  I hoped he was ok and with his aussie mates.  I woke up at 7am, showered packed my bag and tried to contact Nick, no go.  Check-out was at 11am, he just turned up at 11.02.  Lucky!  We checked out and decided to get the soonest train out to Berlin.  It was raining a lot in Munich so not worth site seeing.  So off we went to catch our 6hr train ride to Berlin. 

I didn't have any expectations of Munich or Oktoberfest but it certainly delivered happiness, beer and love in bucket loads (or Stein loads!)

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Sunny Frankfurt

Frankfurt is a beautiful big city. It's a bank town, business district. Very smooth running and organised.

I have really loved the 2 days I've spent here.  The weather is beautiful & sunny.  It does get cool at night but no cooler than at home right now.

Day 1
arrived at Frankfurt Hostel early, 9.30am and could not check in until 2. I has tired but more so very.dehydrated from travelling so I was pretty out of it.  I mingled a little, drank water and tea and rested on the couch until nick (my travel buddy) arrived at 12.30.  I was lookin pretty nasty, greasy hair and my face needed a good scrub.  We walked the streets a little until check in.  I purchased some shampoo/conditioner haha and then it was time to check in, that first shower as you can imagine was divine.  The hostel rooms are very tidy, clean linens and towel are provided.  I am a rare female in this hostel. I realise now the sausage fest was due to a car show that is on.  So after a shower I went in for a quick nap. 3.5hrs later haha! We got ready and walked looking for a genuine German pub with cheap beer and food. No go. In the area we walked, it was all cafes and restaurants! So we settled for an awesome restaurant/bar called Chicago. Yup, it was american! We shared a pitcher of Becks. I had a delicious shrimp salad. Then we were pretty spent so it was back to the hostel.  It was in interesting night. 3 older men must have booked the other beds. One of them slept above me, gross! Lucky for earplugs, it was a dirty snore choir in that room.

Day 2
Early to rise for our buffet breakfast that comes free at the hostel.  Cheese, ham, tomato, toast, rolls, coffee, tea, juice, fruit etc.  at 11am we had to meet for our Rhine Valley day tour that I'd booked.  Joking around we thought it would just be us in the back of a VW Golf. But no, it was a proper fully booked and catered bus tour through Greenline Tours. Our guide was a very funny, witty, intelligent German named Michael. We love Michael! There was about 25 ppl on the tour, 8 of them Australian!  It started with a bus ride taking us through the Rhine river valley to Rudesheim.  On one side of the road, vineyards and homes on the other.  All cute, pointy roofed homes, made of render and stones with shutters and flowers pots in the windows.  I want one of these homes!  We got to our stop which actually took us to a chair lift. And down we all went in pairs down a chair lift that actually passed us through the backyards of homes! Down the bottom (the base of Hells Mountain) we met and walked over to a restaurant.  The restaurant was so cute and kitsch. Extremely over decorated.  Pictures, paintings and fake grape vines adorned every single space on the walls.  For lunch we all had grilled chicken with fries and salad. Well the salad was more of a slaw. I washed this down with a  glass of Hells Mountain Red wine.  After lunch we jumped aboard a large 3 level steamer boat which took us down the Rhine River. It was so cool! Beautiful ancient castles, vineyards, and quaint towns line the river.  One particular place The Loreley, has a legend. Loreley was a beautiful lady/mermaid who would sit upon a rock. Her beauty (boobs) would distract the sailors and their boats would crash, fall to pieces and sink.

At lunch we were seated with some lovely Americans. 26yr old twins, Brendan & Chad and their father Ned - from Kentucky.  Chad and I got on like a house on fire, like we were separated at birth.  The 5 of us sat on the top level of.the boat, in the sun drinks in hand, enjoying the views and great conversation.  The tour ended about 8pm and we decided to go to dinner to a Restaurant recommended by Michael.  Steinen Haus (i think) its a 500 yr old restaurant serving genuine, traditional food. €12.50 for my delicious and generous pork knuckle with roast potatoes & sauerkraut. I requested some of Frankfurts famous green sauce on the side. Best thing ever! Its like a creamy herbal sauce that I reckon you could eat with anything.  Full, tipsy and happy we went nextdoor to a pub for one after dinner beverage. A little place where the bartender did everthing by hand. No cash register, no dishwasher.  There was a funny german who I nick named Duran Duran, he offered Nick some snuff haha to which he declined. This guy actually guessed I was from the Gold Coast!  

On our last day, Nick and I visited the St Bartholemew cathedral, the only structure to survive the war in that area, very beautiful and grand.
Frankfurt was a great start to my trip, made some beautiful new friends and seen gorgeous sites. 

X

Shrimp Salad at 'Chicago'

view from the chairlift

the homes we pass thru on the chairlift

Hells Mountain

View from the Rhine Steamer

the beautiful restaurant

Malay away

So I'm sitting at Kuala Lumpur international airport.  I've been here for just over 12hrs. The good thing about this place is the airside transit hotel, it books in 6hr increments rather than the usual check in/out times.  So i've caught up on heaps of sleep, had lunch, had a reflexology foot massage (ouch!) A shower, now enjoying some Starbucks.  I've checked out of my room, fly out in about 4hrs. So in the meantime I'm going to do some shopping at the MAC counter then go have some dinner.


I had to have a giggle, on the flight over here they served breakfast on the plane at about 4am.  Rice with chilli shrimp.  Yum, but noooot at 4am! The smell was making me dry reach.  So I just ate my fruit & croissant.
Also during my foot/leg massage oh boy that little asian dude stuck his knuckles right in the arches of my feet, holy moley!  I reckon tomorrow too my calves may have some bruises.  But it's all that good pain.  It was all going ok until the end I felt something being shaken over my legs.  I looked and realised it was talcum powder.  Now anyone who really knows me would remember I hate the stuff!  The squeaky texture makes me want to scream and or vomit.  So I was dying while he rubbed it in, in my head I was screaming get it off! Even now just thinking about it I'm getting goosebumps.



P.s Malaysia has no sky, its jusy grey! We're so lucky in Oz to have clouds, blue sky, rainbows and stars.


P.p.s the airport smells like burnt cheese all the time!


the garden lounge in the transit hotel



the view from my hotel window at 7am, pitch black!



stoked I got a toothbrush!

The New

At the start of the year I had a few goals, one of them was to learn a new language.  I started this! Italiano, but unfortunately got bored after 5 weeks, but I believe I'll pick it up again.  Especially since I'm going to Italy, which brings me to another of my goals - travel.


The world is such a big beautiful place, dying to be explored.  So armed with a heavy backpack, I've come to Europe via Malaysia for a 2 month site seeing trip.
This brings me to yet another goal I had, change career.  I quit my job before embarking on this trip.  A job I had for 10 years but in order to open myself to other opportunity, I had to close the door on that job.  So what's next...?



the cake I got on my last day of work

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Take it away

What do you take travelling? What can't we live without?
Well here's a few snaps of me in the process of packing for my trip to Europe. I'm backpacking for a couple of months so I've got the essentials.

Here I have my Soap & Glory travel minis so I smell, look & feel clean.
Check out the cute as laundry kit, comes with dirty clothes bag, clothes line, universal plug (for washing in hostel basins) & a handy little pack of laundry soap sheets.

You may also notice a box of Degas.. well that is pretty obvious what its for! There's just something about long plane rides that gets my gut a little well... windy.  Also I was concerned about the change in cuisine (sausage, cabbage and beer!)  So I bought those to be prepared.  After all - I'm a lady!
 
Don't forget to take confidence, friendliness and manners. Always makes for a happy and easy experience.
X

Giggle in yo wiggle

Aawww let me tell you about the coolest and cutest new website to hit the intrawebs.  

HELLOGIGGLES

It is the love child of Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi & Molly McAleer and it is the most quirky, fun, fantastical, informative, random, interesting site I have seen in ages!  Actually I don't even think I've ever come across anything like it, well clearly if I had I'd remember right?  It's a girly site, made by girls for well - us guurls.  Nothing is off limits, beauty, boy talk, fashion, movies, music, how-to's - the list goes on, you'll just have to check it out.  Many articles are written by contributors who are equally as funny and intelligent as the boss ladys who run the show.

HELLOGIGGLES

 "Founded by actress/musician Zooey Deschanel, producer Sophia Rossi and writer/Internet Sensation Molly McAleer, hellogiggles.com is the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females. Everything hosted on the site will be lady-friendly, so visitors need not worry about finding the standard Boys Club content that makes many entertainment sites unappealing to so many of us."

 

 also follow them on Twitter and Facebook

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open your eyes

you know we all get moved by beauty, beauty is in the eye of the beholder yet it is all around us, every minute of every day. Do you see it?

Driving by an old  wooden house with weathered peeling panels and seeing its quirky beauty, my curiosity is moved by what history it may hold. Or It may be a picture perfect sunset, hot pink and orange colours painting the sky.   Music, moving into our ears, into our brains down into our hearts and stains our souls.  What about scent? That smell of Jasmine blooming in the spring, that stings through the crisp air, gives me a smile like no other scent can give me.  Food glorious food, the allure of deliciously, sweet, fresh fruit or the hearty smell of a home cooked lasagne that fills our bellies then washing it down with a glass of  full bodied Merlot.  And a smile and a 'good morning' from the old cashier that sold you your newspaper this morning?
All of it is beautiful, its inspiring and its the simple things we need to appreciate in life. You see, we can find beauty in everything, it is there right in front of us!
When you see, smell, taste, hear, or feel something appealing, that moves you, even just a little bit - smile, soak it up and take it in.

The more you appreciate everything and everyone around you, the more you smile and the happier you will be.  

A favourite quote of mine is from a book "The Four Agreements" by don Miguel Ruiz 

  "The world is very beautiful and very wonderful. 
Life can be very easy when love is your way of life"

Its so true....this book is amazing and turned my life around. I lent it to a friend a few months back, its been about 12mths since I read it and I can feel I need it in my life again.

What made you smile today?  Better still, what made you frown and was it really worth all your energy?



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