Oktoberfest 2013

Once again I find myself behind on the blog.  While we have a few topics to write about, I will start by skipping back to the end of last month/beginning of this month to write a quick entry about our 2013 Oktoberfest experience.

As mentioned in the prior post by Noah, we returned from our USA trip with colds.  He didn’t mention that we also returned to Oktoberfest in full bloom.  As it only lasts for 2 weeks (over 3 weekends), our colds would end up preventing us from partaking too much in this year’s festivities – our friend Angela can attest to this. 

An old college friend of mine (Angela) was able to book a last minute trip to come to Munich during the first week of Oktoberfest.  I told her we were glad to host her here, but we had work during the day.  I assumed we could join her in the evenings down at Theresienwiese (this was before the cold hit).  Well, instead all I was able to do was loan her my dirndl for the week while she connected with friends via Facebook to go to the festival with.  At least we were able to do one dinner with her before she left (at a restaurant, not a beer tent). 

Being sick that week also caused me to miss my 2 work outings to Oktoberfest, plus we weren’t able to join a group of Noah’s fellow DAAD friends when they went over the weekend.  Lame.

By week 2, however, we were feeling a bit better, and were determined to at least have lunch in one of the tents.  So the last Friday (a ‘brückentag, or bridge day, where Noah is forced to take vacation as the Thursday is a holiday), we geared up to go just for a few hours.  We’re pretty burned out on most traditional German food (meat and potato dishes specifically), so we picked the Fischer-Vroni tent where we could enjoy a nice steckerlfisch.  

After a maß of beer each along with our fish, we strolled the fairgrounds for a bit so Noah could buy his crepe.  However the weather wasn’t the best, and we didn’t want to catch another cold, so we called it a day and headed back home to enjoy our day off.   I think if this was our first year with Oktoberfest, we would have pushed ourselves much harder (and gotten much sicker), but luckily we were able to go multiple times last year.  Plus there is always next year! 

The BMW Leprechaun

Between the all the popular German car manufacturers (including BMW - Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works), the famous Autobahn, and various other car things I am clueless about, Germans are known for their love of everything auto.  While it is all pretty lost on me, I was intrigued when I heard about these rare concept cars you might chance to glimpse every so often on the Autobahn.

Basically car manufacturers will paint their next generation car models with all kinds of swirly paint meant to act as camouflage so that they can drive them in public without competitors or the media discerning what they are working on.  As you can imagine, these car manufacturers aren’t constantly driving these things on the roads– giving them an elusive quality, like a leprechaun.

As Noah and I don’t really spend too much time on the road, I was excited to spot one of these motor-leprechauns on our drive back from Dresden.  I urged Noah to rush to get closer after it passed us, but this thing was flying.  Below is the best shot I was able to get as it sped away.  I figured this would be the one picture I would get of a concept car, though it is hard to tell what it is.

So you can imagine our surprise when we stumbled upon a parked concept car just a few blocks from our apartment as we were walking the dogs.  I ran back home to grab our camera, hoping the car wouldn’t drive away in the meantime.  I quickly snapped a few shots – all the while afraid the driver would see the flash going off and run out and smash the camera.  Ok, maybe I have seen too many spy movies.   Noah told me to calm down, as I was simply taking photos in public, and I relaxed enough to pose the dogs next to the car (they weren’t impressed).

Thanks to car-people on facebook, it looks like I photographed the BMW 6 series Coupe concept car.  Though to me it will remain an elusive swirl-painted leprechaun car.

Well that went by too fast…

Our 9 days back in our motherland was over in a blink of an eye and left us recovering for an entire week while we readjusted.  We came back with many American items - luggage, food, new clothes, and a nice American cold.

We began our stay at my friend Scott’s new house just outside of Dallas, TX.  Although we are pretty seasoned travelers, we ran into a bit of trouble on our first day.  Long stories short: we thought our cellphones were unlocked and we could simply put in US SIM cards we bought on Amazon (nope – locked tight). And then a trip to the ATM led Julie to the realization that our ATM card expired 3 months earlier.  One cheap Verizon phone and a trip back to Wells Fargo to withdraw cash from a bank teller later and we were back on our feet.  Thank goodness this was our country where we could go a day without phones/cash, and not a new country where we couldn't speak the language!

Now we were really ready to jump head first into American culture, by going to a Texas Rangers baseball game.  After a few Miller Lights (with Julie finally realizing that they do taste watered-down… seeing as she didn't drink beer before we moved to Germany) and a churro, we finally started to settle in to the American way.

Sunday Scott drove us to meet up with my brother Seth and his wife Marty as we would drive with them out to their place in Austin.  We spent the rest of our time in Texas (except a quick day trip to Houston to say hi to Julie’s folks) binging on all the foods, television, and shopping we had the energy for.  Our favorite meal hands down was our BBQ lunch at Rudy’s, a place we had eaten at before but didn't really appreciate until now.  Perhaps the lack of BBQ in Phoenix (our prior home) and now Munich made it all the more delicious.

My mom flew in from San Francisco to join us on all of our ventures except the food binge, of course.  Unfortunately I was restricted to the suburbs because I caught my cold pretty early on and didn't have the energy to really explore our old college town.  Luckily suburbia had all we wanted – shopping malls, Kerbey Lane, HEB, and Target.

We flew out on Thursday to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding weekend.  By then Julie was now playing host to my cold virus.  Although it was a new city, the routine on Thursday was pretty much the same - shopping, eating, shopping.  Though now we had the added company of my Grandma.  Then the wedding festivities began and the rest of the trip was over in a flash.  We had the rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and farewell brunch on Sunday (for the newlyweds… not for us).  It was so great to see all of the Weiss family, who we have dearly missed since we last saw them for Seth’s wedding in 2011.  Plus Eric and Allyson booked the best wedding band ever – the Becca Kaufman Orchestra.  Seriously – they are awesome.  

Before we knew it we were on our lonely way back home to Munich, thankfully on a direct flight from Chicago.  But we will be back in our motherland in February for round 2 to see my brother-in-law get married.

Photos from the wedding weekend (yes, we were a bit obsessed with the photo booth):

Rehearsal Dinner

Before heading to the wedding

We are pros at walking Grandma down the aisle

Pictures from our first two photo booth sessions

From left to right: Brothers + wives + Grandma; Seth, Mom and me; The ladies who married into the Weiss Family, aka the Mrs. Weiss'

By the end of the night I turned into a creeper