Archive for 'Living in Germany'
Oktoberfest 2009
Posted on July 22, 2009, under Living in Germany, daily life.
Only 59 days until the opening of this years Oktoberfest (www.oktoberfest.de) and the tent preparations are already under way. Compared to this time last year, the building works seem to be a little behind.
This is a still taken today from this webcam.
These “tents” are engineering pieces of art. Some of the larger ones can seat 8,000 people in them. Sometimes the definition of “tent” seems lost on tourists. These structures have kitchens, solid walls, multiple levels and balconies. There are 14 tents, which can seat 110,000 people. Many of the tents have beer gardens around them so if the weather is nice it is probably a good move to stay outside. The only disadvantage is that you may not hear all the live music from the Oompah bands.
Smoking at the Oktoberfest
This year again smoking is allowed in the Oktoberfest tents, they cite problems with dealing with crowds as to why they can’t impose the smoking ban. Some tents have said that they will try to enforce that in the earlier part of the day that smoking will be prohibited. But in a tent with 10,000 people this may be quite the challenge.
Drinking at the Oktoberfest
This year a litre of beer will set you back €8.30 to €8.60, last year it was €7.80 to €8.30.
SEOktoberfest
There are plenty of parties going on at the Oktoberfest, one I would like to go to is SEOktoberfest , but entry to the event runs at €5,000, which is a little out of my range for a startup SEO. If you do have the money and you want some great drinking buddies then I would give Marcus Tandler a shout ASAP. If you can’t afford €5k, then one tip is to get to the Weis’n early. This means getting there before 9am at the weekends and before 5pm during the week.
Eins, Zwei, Drei – Gsuffa!”
What a day
Posted on February 27, 2009, under Living in Germany, daily life.
Today was one of those good days, you know the ones, when things take charge of themselves and you find yourself doing things you never though you would. Well that was today. It started off nice, with some ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI, which I think I got my money’s worth 10 hours later I am still quite full. Here is a picture of some squid (excuse the quality of the pictures, they are from the blackberry).
Then it was on for a wander around Munich city centre, and I came across a Maybach (www.maybachusa.com) car. It’s one of the most prestigious cars in the world, in fact they only sell less than 200 of them a year. Some of them go for a cool 1/2 million euro. SO there I was thinking that this day couldn’t get any better, spotting one in the wild is a pretty rare occasion. But we did decide to take a peak at some of car shops around the city.
Then it was on to the Bugatti Dealership in Munich, where they had a Bugati Veyron, list price of €1,300,000 . Yes I didn’t type that wrong, a cool €1.3 million for a car, crazy, but beautiful at the same time. Check out the videos on Youtube here and here. That thing at the back is not a spoiler, it’s an airbrake that tilts when you really want to slow down. I was also suprised that there wasn’t a secuirty guard or even a railing around the car, it as just there, right inside the door of the showroom. I guess they must have a few of these lying around if they are putting it on display.
I really do like my life right now in Munich 
And tomorrow it’s off to South Africa !
My 2nd Girlfriend
Posted on February 14, 2009, under Living in Germany, food.
As you may or may not know, I am a bit of a coffee snob. I know what I like, and I am likely to turn up my nose when I don’t like something. Once you have tasted some real coffee, and not that instant muck from Nescafé, you will realise that not all coffee was created equal. Above all coffee should be created fresh. This starts with the beans being ground fresh then making sure that the water from a fresh source. Also for my coffee mug, you should really heat it in advance. Then of course there is the choice of beans. Here is a quick video of what I call my 2nd girlfriend. A DeLonghi Magnifica , which retails at about €400-€550 here in Germany. I picked mine up from a nice American for half price because she was heading back stateside. The bean hopper can store about 300g of beans. It grinds the beans internally and stores the spent coffee in a little internal bucket afterwards. They look like little hocky pucks when they come ou ! The water source at the side can hold about 1.5L of water, which is good for about 10 coffees.
That reminds me I should really do something with my coffee website , but in the mean time you should check out The Other Black Stuff which is a great Irish blog on the topic of coffee.
Snow in Munich
Posted on February 13, 2009, under Living in Germany, daily life.
Finally after 2 years there has been some decent snowfall in Munich. Over the past few days it’s gotten a little colder and it’s finally snowed ! I love when it snows as the noise levels in the city drop, as the snow acts like a damping factor.
Time for New Years Resolutions
Posted on January 21, 2009, under Living in Germany, daily life.
I am not really a person for NYR (New Years Resolutions), as I believe that you can make conscious changes at any time, and it doesn’t just need to be on Jan. 1st. So here are mine, 3 weeks into Janurary.
- get in shape, well not that I am over weight, but I do think that I need to tone up a little
- have a more regular working schedule. Start at 9am and finish at 5pm or earlier.
- go to at least 3 new countries. South Africa is already planned in March, so I just need to find 2 more.
- to stop buying new domains, the plan is to develope the existing ones (about 30) before I go further.
So there I have it in writing.
P.S. The domain here is still being setup properly so do let me know if there is anything askew.
Oktoberfest Building gets underway
Posted on July 23, 2008, under Living in Germany, Theories, daily life.
Today there are just 61 days until the magical Oktoberfest 2008 starts. It’s time to drink beer and be merry with 110,000 other happily drunk people. I’ve gone for the past 5 years, and the magic is still there. In fact 2 years ago I had the great luck in meeting L there.
Here is a still from today taken from this webcam.
Bring on the Summer
Posted on May 5, 2008, under Living in Germany, daily life.
It’s funny how the weather can effect people, it effects their mood, their energy and probably other things too. The last time I posted , way back in March there was a bit of snow on the ground, and well now there is nothing but clear skies forecast for this week.
For the last few weekends the weather has been nice and warm, in or around the 20°C (65-70°F). And it’s kicked off the beer garden season. One nice beer garden in Munich is right on a lake in the middle of the English Gardens, the Seehaus (Lake House in German). It’s only about 10-15 minutes walk from the centre of Munich. Here is a picture (from briethe) looking across the lake and into the Seehaus Beer Garden.
This is one of the best ways to pass the time on a Sunday in the Sun.
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