Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Oktoberfest II

I couldn't help myself. Here's another classy video of my time in Munich. (I'm not a film maker, and I had 4 liters of Haufbrau in me, so please excuse the quality) Notice the aged gentleman standing on the table with a liter of beer screaming German drinking songs. By the way, this occurred Friday night, the day BEFORE the official Oktoberfest even began. Oh, and I'm on my way to visit Wine Country in California on Tuesday, so I should have a different sort of video then.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Munich - Oktoberfest 2008


Ah, Oktoberfest. Munich. Germany in the lovely autumn. Here's a quick recap of a quite lovely week.

Day 1: We arrive in Munich Thursday afternoon around 5pm. We knew that if we lollygagged in the hotel, we would just pass out due to the jet-lag so we decided to go to the Haufbrau Haus in the center of Munich. 4 Liters of Haufbrau and 1 pork knuckle later, we went to bed.

Day 2: We thought the festival officially opened today, but it didn't. We did the touristy stuff and walked around Munich and ended up at the Chinese Tower in the English Gardens and consumed a few liters there. We then went back to the Haufbrau Haus with a couple of new friends (Billy and Phil) and consumed beers and chicken until we could no longer.

Day 3: Hippodrom - The Hippodrom festhalle is a smaller, more local hall that serves Spaten. It was delicious and our waitress was a beautiful German princess.

Day 4: Haufbrau - The Haufbrau festhalle holds approximately 10,000 people, probably more and is absolutely insane. It is more international, the band plays 24/7 and the people sing, dance and stand on the table 24/7. We arrived at about 9am and left around 6am. That's about 9 hours of beer drinking for those counting.

Day 5: Lowenbrau - The Lowenbrau festhalle is a bit smaller than Haubrau and perhaps a bit less festive, but still crazy. We sat by 4 Australian lads that were very friendly and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Day 6: Flight home wreaking of beer.

Here is a brief video of our time in the Haufbrau Festhalle:

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Entertaining


Entertaining is a skill. A skill that is not innate, rather developed through experience. Through experiences of attending dinners and throwing dinners. My parents are skilled entertainers (in both attending and throwing!) I didn't really notice that skill until I got older and saw them entertain neighbors and friends. People always left happy, well fed, and thoroughly entertained. The key to making people feel comfortable is getting them drunk. Just kidding, there's more to it than that. Most importantly you must make everyone at the party feel comfortable. That doesn't mean acting fake, it means acting real and making people feel comfortable. It also means having a wide variety of drinks available. Vodka, Whiskey, white wine, red wine, good beer, champagne, perhaps some Tequila depending on the group. After that, music is essential to creating a particular mood, whether it's jazz, rock, rap, dance, etc... Mix all of these elements well and you get a successful party...if not, people won't come back or invite you to there party.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Beach food



Too much food, not enough words.