10 Signs of Oktoberfest Goodness

This post is about a month late, but hopefully still funny :). We've been heads-down organizing our thousands of photos, and we're finally surfacing for some blogging air. Dana has also been hard at work redoing our photo site at http://www.joshanddana.com/. It looks awesome now, and we've uploaded a lot of new photos: honeymoon (finally), Oktoberfest, baseball, and soon India and southern Europe!


Without further ado, here is my belated Oktoberfest Top Ten!


10) Half-yard long hot dogs





9) Gingerbread hearts - how sweet!





8) Numerous attendees in the proper worship position





7) Riding the ferris wheel...and not remembering it


6) Giving keys and sunglasses to your wife so you don't lose them...


5) ...then nearly crying 2 minutes later when you can't find them


4) Operation Flankenstein!


3) Thoroughly hating Oktoberfest for at least one full day. Sensitivity to light and noise may also be involved.


2) Pulling something from your pocket and saying "These aren't keys, these are ALMONDS!" Yes, I was obsessed with my keys.


Last but not least, and already mentioned by Dana. The top sign that Oktoberfest is going awesomely...


1) COW HAT!!!

Germany Drinks

I love the drinks they have here in Germany. Plain fruit juice with carbonated water. They need to sell it in the US...

Oktoberfest

Sorry for the long hiatus from blogging. It takes a lot of patience to type out all of these posts and actually feel like people will enjoy reading what I write. :)

Oktoberfest started last week. Honestly, I didn’t really know what it was going to be like, but I think in my head I imagined a big outdoor fair with people just standing around drinking and waiting in lines for food like the Bite of Seattle. Then add 6 million people and I wasn’t really excited about it, but was going to go experience it.

Well, boy was I wrong. The Germans know how to do a fair right! The fairground (aka Wiesen ) looks like an amusement park. Many of the people are dressed in the traditional Bavarian clothes (Liederhosen for men, and Dirndle for women). You walk around the Wiesen and try to enter a tent where people sit at tables, eating and drinking. This task of entering a tent is much more successful if it is a weekday and not an evening.

Now, they call these things “tents,” but I would never imagine a tent to look like this. They spend about a month before Oktoberfest to building these tents. These tents are like buildings! They have 2 floors, tables galore, mass decorations, and a band section! The band is critical to the excitement of Oktoberfest.

So, on to my Oktoberfest as of now:

Saturday was the first day, so my mom, Josh and I all went to the Wiesen to see what was up. We walked around, ate some food and bought some gingerbread heart thing that everyone was selling. I still don’t know where these come in to Oktoberfest. If anyone knows, please fill me in! Then we left since it was packed. We would have gotten a table, but on the first day, they don’t start serving beer till noon, but you have to go at like 7am to actually get a table.

Sunday we watched the parade. There were people from Bavaria, Austria and Italy that marched in their traditional outfits. After seeing about 30 different outfits, I was bored. My mom and Josh stayed through the whole 2.5 hours of the parade. Lots of photos. The most amusing shown here:

Monday, my mom and I went to a tent (Hippodrome) after we went on the BMW factory tour. I didn’t enjoy the tent too much since I had a headache from the smells of the factory. But my mom and I split a Radler (lemonade and beer) and had a Wienerschnitzel for lunch. The tent was quite fun overall but I just didn't enjoy with the headache.

On Tuesday, Brad, Brandon, Wintana, and Paul came in town and my parents left. I met them all at the Hippodrome tent and started drinking. I got there at around 3:30 and we had a blast. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to stay at our table until 5 since they are all reserved at 5:30. We got up and luckily found a table with a few Italians who let us sit with them. We then got kicked out for a 6:30 reservation. By this time, we were ready to leave, so we left and went to a biergarten where we met Josh, Rangan, and Beth. Rangan was here working with Joshs team (he does Bing in Redmond) and Beth was here doing some acquisition for Microsoft. It is quite amusing that they were both sent to Munich on individual trips from at the same time. By the way, they are dating which is why it is so amusing :)

Wednesday, Josh and I went to softball, then our friends took us out to dinner, which was very nice. Then we went off to Oktoberfest to experience it at night. Valentina was saving us space at a table in the Ochsenbraterei tent so we met her there and got to experience the night tents! Quite a rowdy crowd at night, but it was lots of fun. We were there for about an hour, and then they kicked us out. No, we weren’t too drunk, it was 11:30. They do a very efficient job of kicking people out, and we were outside in less than 5 minutes. We then went on some rides… well Brandon and Brad went on a ride, then Brandon and I went into the funhouse. They give you glasses that refract light then you walk through this maze of moving objects. It was quite amusing, mainly because you drink and then walk on things that are already moving and you have the funny glasses on. But then, at the end was the best part. There is a rotating tube that you walk through. The first one wasn’t so bad since it was spinning to the right… but the second one switches and you are turning to the left. Brandon has some humerous videos of this on his camera :)

Thursday came and I was ready for an Oktoberfest break! But I felt bad and went… since it was our visitors last day. Josh and his work had a morale event at the Hacker tent (I found this an amusing coincidence… msfties at the hacker tent J… Hacker is the real name of a brewery). We met at this tent and we drank and ate a lot. Travis bought Josh a ridiculous cow hat which he actually wore the whole day. Click here to see a lot of photos that Gene took.

The group split up when they kicked us out of our table for the next reservation and we tried finding another table with no luck. Rangan, Josh and I went outside to go explore. Josh and Rangan, both being afraid of heights, decided that they wanted to go on the ferris wheel. After this though, I decided that we had had enough fun for one day and it was time to take the boys home. We went and dropped Rangan off at his hotel and then went home. We went to bed right away. Keep in mind, it was 7:30 PM. Oh what a day!

Then I took an Oktoberfest break! I haven’t been back since, but Thursday night I am going for a going away party for Valentina!

Photos from Croatia and Oktoberfest

I posted photos at www.joshanddana.com from our trip to Croatia and the first day of Oktoberfest (just the firgrounds, not inside the tents).

EuroTrip - Croatia

We took a ferry from Italy to Croatia. Overall it wasn't bad. I learned that the behind-the-ear motion sickness patches work for me, which is excellent. I still felt mildly disoriented, but no nausea and I was able to sleep most of the night. The sea was pretty rough, so it was a good test.

The boat was by no means a luxury liner. It had an OK dining room, but our cabin was quite basic (4 bunk beds and some drawers). We arrived in Split, a town to which we'll need to return. Diocletian's Palace is there, and Arty informs me that it's the birthplace of Toni Kukoc. We hightailed it out of there in search of beaches and national parks.

Croatia is quite a beautiful country. It isn't very developed (at least where we drove), so there are miles of trees, hills, and mountains. It seems like a good place to go for a relaxing vacation. We also heard that some cities in the south (especially Dubrovnik) are awesome beach towns. We went to Krka National Park, and saw some cool waterfalls (pictures are coming, we promise!). We also checked out Zadar, a cute little port town. After that, we drove the winding highway up the coast. Dana and Janine wanted to lay out on a beach. Unfortunately, we saw exactly one the whole way up, and it was kind of small anyway. The northern part of Croatia is mostly rocky coastline, alas.

After all of the driving and hotel searching in the past week, we decided to just bite the bullet and head back to Munich for some rest. Overall, the first part of our trip was a lot of fun, and we have thousands of pictures to sort through now!

EuroTrip - Italy

Dana's parents are in town for a few weeks, so it was the perfect time to start using up my 3 weeks of remaining vacation this year. Dana planned out a rough plan to hit several spots in Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Austria.

We started by driving from Munich to northern Italy. We had designs of going to a small town called Menaggio on Lake Como. It is located east of southern Switzerland, but it is quite difficult to actually reach it since Switzerland doesn't have many signs to nearby Italian locations. In preparation for this trip, Don brought a USB GPS receiver and we installed MapPoint 2009 on both my and Dana's laptops. This seemed like a solid alternative to having a Garmin, and should have led us to places like Menaggio. MapPoint had other plans:

• It was probably not tested on super-mobile PCs like Dana's netbook. It was a bit slow (route calculation - forgivable...map drawing - not so much). Worse, some windows couldn't be resized or rotated, which really hurt with the limited screen size.
• The turn-by-turn directions were not forgiving. If you lost satellite reception, the map would zoom out to show the whole route. This made visualizing the next turn really hard. Plus, there didn't seem to be an option to have it follow your progress close-up by default.--The written turn-by-turn directions were nearly impossible to follow. This is not all MapPoint's fault, as Google and Bing also suffer from this in Europe. Why? Because European roads are terribly labeled and super confusing. You would have unlabeled left turns of varying degrees at the same junction, and the directions would say "Turn left onto local roads." REALLY!? Thanks!
  

We ended up staying on big roads until we got to Como. At this point, we decided to find a hotel and spend the night. Como is a cute little town, and I'd like to go back there to chill out on the lake. I think sunrises and sunsets would look great (I woke up too late to see one this time).

Next, we drove down to Parma and spent the day eating prosciutto (yum!) and parmesan cheese (more yum!). We took a tour of a little Parmesan cheese farm. Ever wonder why the cheese is so deliciously salty? It's because the cheese wheels bathe in a brine of sea salt for a good long time! We also learned that there are different grades of Parmesan cheese, and angry cows can hurt your cheese quality.We intended to spend the night in Bologna, but European signs foiled us again. Instead, we drove a few more hours to Florence. Once there, we were hotel-less. Fortunately, our friend Valentina was there and super-graciously helped us find a nice hotel at 9 pm! We did a wine tour through Tuscany to Siena the next day (and places were actually open!), and bought some wine, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. We stopped in Castellina-in-Chianti and hit a shop we found with Justin and Maggie 3 years ago. Franco, the proprietor, was still there and friendly as ever!

Before leaving Florence, we decided that being lost sucked, so we went to a store called Euronics and bought a Garmin with 41 European countries. We were heading to Rome next, and driving there is like Florence on Deity difficulty. We were in great spirits until 20 minutes from Rome, when the brand-spanking-new Garmin opted for early retirement, and wouldn't turn on. Much angst ensued, and after calling Euronics we found that only the Florence store would take it back, since the store is franchised or some crap. So not only were we lost, but we had to either drive to Florence again or be stuck with a dead Garmin forever. After several wrong turns trying to follow Google directions, Dana somehow spotted another Euronics, and we desperately pleaded our case there. At first they said the same thing, but eventually the guy helping us gave in and swapped our Garmin with their display model. We were saved!

Dana found an awesome apartment in Rome for us, and it was right down the street from Graham and Kerri. We walked the city a bit with them and congratulated them on their recent wedding. Before we met up with them, we saw a noteboard at the check-in for our apartment. There were three recent notes from guests. The first two both said they had a great time and would recommend the place to friends. The last one said, "The internet does not appear to be working. Graham #2." Classic ;).

While in Rome, Dana booked a countryside agritourismo for our next stay, near Assisi. We spent a beautiful, relaxing day there lounging by a pool and reading. For dinner, we had a special treat as the nearby town, Cannara, had their annual onion festival. They had tents with cheap, tasty onion-based Italian food, served in a country-fair atmosphere. The next day, we visited Assisi (cool fortress town) and Perugia (sister city to Seattle, and home of the whole Amanda Knox murder trial nonsense). We also hit the Perugina chocolate factory, though we missed the tour and just got to steal a bunch of chocolates.

Our last stop in Italy was the port town of Ancona. We boarded a ferry there and sailed overnight to Split, Croatia. This post is getting long, so I'll continue the story in another post. Overall, Italy was awesome as usual. And we came back with lots of groceries, of course!

Char-grilled, juicy, hand-packed MEAT

We (or at least I) will very shortly start to miss American hamburgers. German ones are fine (and actually tend to be big, from what we've seen), but they suffer from a few problems:

• Poor availability of ground beef in stores. Haven't tried butchers yet, that may help. Also, most of the meat you see is actually "Hackfleisch" which can be up to 50% pork or something. Not bad, if you don't have dietary restrictions, but not BEEF.
• Burgers in restaurants are too often pan-fried. Again, fine, but they tend to be a little more oily and just don't have that *grilled* flavor.
• The meat tends to be too tightly packed. I am sorely missing loosely-packed burgers, especially ones you'd make at home.

We had awesome burgers at Svenja and Michi's the other day, for Svenja's birthday (they were grilled on gas, definitely a large step up from pan-fried)!

Das Milky Way

We had another softball tourney last weekend. This one was spread over two days, which made it a little less taxing. On the downside, we played the first day in pouring rain and went only 1-4. Just need to improve our defensive consistency. Ah well! The second day was beautiful. Some pics below...

As usual for a softball tournament, they had homemade BBQ food for sale plus various snacks. Candy bars were available, and our friend Svenja picked up a Mars bar. I wouldn't usually comment on this, except...this got us talking about candy bars. Somehow this led to Svenja betting me 10 Euros that Milky Way bars did not have caramel in them. Since this is one of my favorite candy bars, I accepted immediately! We planned to unwrap one at a later date, but Svenja's husband Michi looked it up on his iPhone. Turns out [Milky Way US] = [Mars EU], and [Milky Way EU] = [Three Musketeers US]. So we were both right! I think the unveiling would have been quite a surprise, though.

Dana's parents, Don and Janine, just arrived today, and Dana got a futon from Ikea. We are now fully guest-ready (hint hint :))!

A quick grocery trip to Italy

On Friday, we looked in our cupboard and decided that our balsamic vinegar from Germany sucked. So we took a quick trip to our friendly neighborhood Italy to remedy the situation!

OK, so it didn't quite go down that way, but we did come back from our trip with better balsamic, prociutto, cheese with flavor, wine, and most importatnly - blood orange juice!

The real story - Dana and some of her friends from German class decided it would be fun to drive down to Florence for the weekend. Valentina, one of her classmates, has an apartment down there, and one of her friends had an old car that we could borrow for the trip. This was the perfect weekend to do this also, because it was Assumption/Ferragosto/Mariahimmelfahrt - aka the Catholic day commemorating Mary's ascension to heaven. Since we live in the lazy Catholic part of Germany, stuff shut down this weekend and we had to find stuff to do. Two side notes: 1) yes we went from Catholic Germany to an wholly Catholic Italy, so stuff was closed there too. But we went to Florence, which does open stuff for tourists. 2) the super literal translation of "Mariahimmelfahrt" is "Mary Heaven Drive" (I think), which is an awesomely German word.

We left Munich around 8 pm on Friday, and Valentina's boyfriend Marco heroically took the job of driver for the whole trip! It takes between 6 and 8 hours to make it down there, passing through Austria and northern Italy before reaching Florence. The landscape is beautiful, though we didn't see much heading down since it was dark. The town distribution is interesting to me. They kind of spot the landscape, and all of them have a big church tower rising above them (without exception). Some even have a castle overlooking them, which reminded us of old vassal/serf times. When passing through northern Italy, lots of signs are in German and Italian. Our hosts said that the border Italians speak German and generally wish they were German :).

We slept in on Saturday, then went to a villa restaurant/hotel for a long, relaxing lunch. After that, it was several hours of swimming, sunning, reading, and generally awesome lethargy. See below (soon) for the pics.

For dinner, we went to another restaurant and had proper Florentine steak. This was good because it's really hard to find good, fat, juicy pieces of steak in Munich, and because this elevated Florentine steak to its proper place in my mind (first trip to Italy, the Florentine steak was a letdown).

On Sunday, we did our grocery shopping and milled around Florence for a few hours. I saw my good friend Loomy McLoomerson (aka the Duomo in Florence), and I had one too many capuccinos and got a bit jumpy :). Our ride back was uneventful except for a massive thunderstorm near the Alps that made us halve our speed on the highway.

Overall, it was a great weekend! I will change the name of the holiday to "Danaitalienfahrt," because Mariahimmelfahrt is so last millennium.

Quick update

This past weekend Josh and I rode our bikes to the Englisher Garten. We rode to the south end which has a wave where people surf. There is just one wave and the surfers ride back and forth on this wave until they fall and get carried down the river. It is quite interesting to watch. There is a sign that says no swimming in the water, but nonetheless people surf it :)

Another area of Englisher Garten: Josh's cousins came into town this week and we went to a beirgarten for dinner. I was happy at this biergarten because they actually had cider! (I dont really like beer, so usually I order a Radler which is half lemonade and half beer). To eat I got a half a chicken and fries. When ordering though, I asked for a half a dog :) The word in German for chicken (I think actually hen) 'Hun' and dog 'Hund' are very close so luckily they didnt actually serve dog here otherwise I would have been in for quite a shock.

Josh, Frank and Joel in front of the Beirgarten.

Friday night Josh and I went for softball practice. Apparently the practice was actually a practice BASEball game, not softball. So we played baseball. My first time ever playing baseball. The pitcher threw the ball to me maybe at 50-60 MPH. I hit the ball at my one at bat (it was a pop-up, but still the contact was good). Later there was a pitcher that threw 80 MPH and I did not make contact with that one :)

Sunday we walked around with Frankie and Joel. We went to Schloss Nymphenburg, BMW World and OlympiaPark. It was nice to do since Josh and I havent done much touristy stuff here.

Last week I started my German class. I got lucky -- there are a lot of fun people in my German class so we hang out every once in a while. Last night Josh and I went to dinner a few of my classmates. The people we went with were Valentina (Italian), Natasha (from Wales), Ricardo (Brasilian), Concheta (Spanish), Moritz (German - teacher). There were a lot of languages going around the table and it was lots of fun. My German is coming along quite slowly... but my spanish is improving!

Midnight Softball Tournament

We posted long ago about joining a softball team. Well, this weekend the BBQ team (the co-ed rec team) had a tournament. It doesnt seem like one/two games per day is common in this league, so the team participates in tournaments. Yesterday we played in the Midnight Softball Tournament. This tournament started at 9am and the championship game started at... drum roll... MIDNIGHT!

The tournament was in a little town called Schwaig which is right beside the Munich airport. We got a ride from one family up to the fields since we don't have a car and public transportation out there would be more difficult (though it would still be better than Seattles busses!). We woke up at 7am to meet them at 8 and be at the fields in time for the first game at 9am.

The team that put on the tournament really went all out. They had 2 fields to play on and there was a large tent area. In this tent area, they had a BBQ picnic going and a bake sale. Near field number 1 was also another BBQ/restaurant stand where you could buy food and drinks. Around the fields were short wheat fields and every 10 minutes or so you would see a plane take off or arrive since we were so close to the airport. It was so close to the airport in fact that you could read all of the logos on the planes :)

To start the day of softball, they had a traditional Bavarian ceremony. There were 5 guys wearing Lederhosen standing in a row holding a gun (or as Josh called it, a mini cannon) which probably dates back to 1700's. They had to put the gunpowder in the barrel then use a ramrod to hammer the powder to the back of the barrel. Then they shot the gun all 5 at the same time. They loaded it again and went one after the other 12345. Then they loaded again and went 12 pause 34 pause 5. Then they were finished and we were allowed to start.

Every game lasted 45 min or 5 innings. There was also a rule that if you score 10 runs in one inning, then you are done batting for that inning so that the game doesnt last forever :).

Our first game was at 10:30am. I played 3rd and Josh played SS. We won this game 6-4 against a team called the Six-packs.
Our second game was at 12:00. I sat out this game since we had a lot of players and Josh played SS. We won this game 8-0 against a team called the Fireballs.
Our third game was at 2pm. I played 2nd and Josh pitched. We won this game 9-3 against a team called the Red Lions.
Our fourth game was a 4:30. I played 2nd and Josh pitched. We won this game 13-0 against a team called the Cobras.
Our last regular game was at 7:30. I played SS and Josh played 3rd. We won this game... but I dont recall the score.

Since we were the only undefeated team in our group, we were automatically in 1st place and we made it directly to the semi-finals. In the evening for the playoff games, they had the lights on the field turned on but the grass was still a bit more slippery.

This team was more difficult than the previous teams we had played. After 2.5 innings we were down 4-6. In the 3rd inning we loaded the bases with 2 outs, and I was up to bat. I hit a nice line drive to Center Field scoring 2 people to tie the game. Then Josh was up with someone on 2nd and me on first. He also hit a line drive to center field and the person on 2nd scored. The play ended with Josh on first and me on 2nd. Then everyone from our team started cheering and Josh and I both thought that they were just cheering since we took the lead... but then they started running onto the field, and a 14 year old kid name Jakob (ya-cobe) runs to pick up Josh. We were like, huh? whats going on, its only the 3rd inning. Apparently the 45 minute time limit was done and we had won! We made it to the final game!

Now in the large tent area at this time, they had a live band playing with full light setup and everything!

Since we made it to the championship game, we had to then wait till midnight to play. The team we played in the finals were really quite good and many of their players hit it over the fence. We lost the final game 5-9 but all in all we did very well.

We went to the closing ceremony thing which they gave out large beer steins to every team that participated and a large trophy to the winners.

Finally we got home around 2:00, showered and fell into bed. Today we did nothing but rest and arrange our living room furniture :)

London - "Please Mind the Gap"

Dana and I flew directly from India to London, as my team had a meeting there on Friday July 24. Speaking of India, my stomach is about 75% recovered from that place. I still love Indian food, but forgive me if I don't partake in it for a month or two! Anyway...the flight was good - very empty, so Dana and I even took separate rows and could sleep laying down in coach, which was nice. In contrast to the movie selection London -> India (awesome), this time around it was awful. We watched "17 Again," which I admitted a few months ago that I wanted to see (I know...teen girl flick, it is hard to explain). I actually liked it, because it lived up to my moderate expectations and I kind of like "body-swap" movies. And it had people speaking Elven. Yes, Elven.

We got to the City Inn (our hotel) around 1 pm. I was too tired and India-sick to do a half-day of work, so Dana and I wandered around the Westminster area (the hotel was nicely located). I would've had more fun, if my stomach didn't groan every 10 minutes. But we got some nice pictures! We also had 1 order of fish and chips at a place called "The Albert," which tasted good but probably contributed to my stomach antics.
Me in front of Westminster and Big Ben

Abe Lincoln!? Fish and chips...and mushy peas (meh)


Later that night, we met up with my work team at a pub called Cittie of York. We got there an hour late, because we misread some directions/maps, and walked in every direction but the correct one. I didn't eat or drink, because I felt sick. Dana got a nice salad and three ciders - which due to her now low tolerance did her in :). On the way home, we went the wrong way on the subway, and I foolishly tried to switch cars and ended up leaving Dana on the wrong train! This led to about an hour of me freaking out and running around multiple subway stations asking if people had seen Dana since she had no map and we had no phones! Dana of course just went back to the hotel room (smart), which is where I finally found her after I reached the hotel in a panic :). Dana: Please keep in mind that when Josh says that he left me on the tube, he really means that we got on the train going the wrong direction. Josh realized this and decided to hop off the train just as the doors were closing leaving me alone going in the wrong direction.

The next day I worked (though half of that was a scavenger hunt exercise for team-building, which I kind of enjoyed...maybe because my team won!). We also moved from the hotel to my friend Vik's place, as he was super gracious and let us stay with him (including using his bed). Vik, you are the man! He has a cool loft that's only a few blocks from Marylebone, an area that is jam-packed with tasty restaurants. I almost didn't get into his place though. I buzzed the flat, and Vik chose not to answer as "it's just some caucasian blonde guy." Evidently my long hair has changed me! Dana even thought he was joking (she had gone earlier in the day).

The next day, we took a train to Slough and met up with Louis and Louise, our friends from Aitutaki (our honeymoon). We got to meet their son Ewan (adorable), have some delicious pub food at the coincidentally named "Emperor of India." Louis introduced me to some better English beers (though none were "proper" ones :)). The highlight of the meal was my dessert, called an Eton Mess. It really was a mess - coffee mousse, mocha something, berries, and merengue - but it was very good! We spent the rest of the afternoon at Windsor Castle, the weather was great and it was a nice relaxing time. That night, we went to a Spanish tapas place with Vik, his girlfriend Brianna (sorry if it's misspelled), and my coworkers Michael and Daniel.
Look Ma...it's slanted!! Dana in front of Windsor

Louis and Ewan The well...'tis Ancient!!


Unfortunately, we had to leave the next day. London is a very cool city (wouldn't have minded living there either!), and we will need to get back so we can see some sights with Vik. The only downside to London is the cost - prices are nuts (though less nuts since we make Euros now)!

I couldn't think of a title for this post (probably because I don't have a core point), so let me explain the quote. This is what they announce constantly when you enter/leave subway cars. I'm not sure why they first started doing it, but it has become a kind of tourist marketing thing now as well. They sell shirts, mugs, anything really with the phrase "Mind the Gap" on it. I even came home with a set of English tea in tins that say "Underground" and "Mind the Gap" (my prize for winning the scavenger hunt).

Oh, and one other thing - riding the "tube" in London really made me want to play the board game Underground!

Bikes in Munich -- and police

There are bikes everywhere in Munich. They ride alongside cars most of the time and in some places, they even have their own lanes on the sidewalk that you have to be careful not to stand in if you are a pedestrian.

I didn't have much to do today so I decided I was going to take my bike out for a ride. I don't know how to get many places above ground (becuase we take the Ubahn everywhere) so I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn what everything looks like outside of the subway stations. I mapped out my route on google maps and went downstairs to find my bike. I found it (not in our storage unit where I last saw it becuase Josh apparently moved it), pumped the tires and got ready to go. I started, and after about a block I had found someone to follow behind to make sure I wasn't on the street when I wasn't supposed to, or some other arbitrary rule that would make me get hit. After a block and a half, I thought to myself, "ok, this isnt so bad, actually, its quite easy and nice since everything is so flat." Then we crossed the next street and some police car comes up to me and has his lights on. The guy in front of me stops, so I did too. The police man comes up to me and I tell him I dont speak German. He then speaks to me in English and tells me that we ran a red light and this is illegal in Germany. The fine is 120 euro.
I give him my WA drivers license and he asks if I am a tourist. I told him I just moved here. He goes to his car, tries to look me up in the system and apparently this was unsuccessful. He then tells me that I need to go to the police station. One of the police drives me in the car, and the other one rides my bike.

I get inside the station, and the officer goes to the back room and comes out with an older policeman who I can only imagine is the head policeman of this station. He says something to me about not needing to worry, that police in Munich are not like police in the US and that he has some friends in the US who tell him stories... not sure what he meant by it... maybe that I shouldnt feel unsafe? He explains to me that there are 2 red lights in Germany. A short one, if you run it within 1 second of it turning red, and a long light, if you run it after 3 seconds of it being red. I of course fall into the second category.

He and the officer that stopped me then talk again at a map and I get up to show him where I live, and that I had only been riding 2 blocks before being stopped and that this was really my first time riding in Munich and I was just following the guy in front of me. I finally convince him to write me up for the 1 second light which costs 40 euros. When I first mentioned this, he laughed and said something about American Cops... not quite sure what he was finding humorous.

Anyways, my first 2 blocks in Munich on a bike... not a great experience... but at least I got him to go from a 120 euro fine to a 40 euro fine...
BLEH!

Taj Mahal

Josh and I are finally back in Munich. Our travels were lots of fun, but it is nice to be back "home."

I think we last posted about Delhi, so I will give a quick summary of what we have done since the last post. I hadnt realized that it had been so long!

The main reason for going to Delhi was to take a day trip to the Taj Mahal. Josh had one coworker who joined us on our trip to the Taj Mahal. We got up at 5am and went to the train station to catch our train to Agra. It was still dark outside when we arrived at the train station. There were tons of people sleeping on the floor at the station. I assume these were homeless people who needed a covered place to sleep for the evening. It is generally common to see people sleeping in a train station, but it was different from what you normally see in a European train station. These sleepers didnt seem like they were waiting to catch the morning train. Anyways, we got on our train and left the station.

Photo taken from the train:

We arrived in Agra after 2 hours. Since there are many scams in India, they do a few things to protect the tourism industry. When you leave the train station, you go to a police booth to buy a pre-paid taxi. You pay the police and you get a reciept. You take this reciept to the taxi and you dont have to pay them anything else. We did this and got the taxi driver to take us to the Taj Mahal. On the way, he convinced us into keeping him for the whole day. For the whole day, he cost 750 rupees ($15). For anyone going to the Taj, I suggest getting the driver for the day. It was nice and convenient.

We got to the Taj Mahal and bought our tickets. The white person fee here is 750 rupees compared to the 10 that an Indian person pays. (Keep in mind that this is what we paid the driver for the day).

Click on the photos to make them larger

You walk into the Taj Mahal entrance and see this to your left:


The front of that structure:

Closer:

the Taj:

There we are!


Josh holding the Taj:


Me in front of the Taj:


Me and Josh:


The Indian women wanted a photo with me:



Thats about it... I think the photos describe it pretty well :)

After the Taj, we hung around Agra for the remaining part of the day till our train ride back to Delhi. Anyone want to take this train:


or would you rather be at the train station with a cow:



After Delhi, we flew back to Hyderabad and checked back into the 5 star hotel. It was so nice to get back there. I would definitely recommend this hotel for relaxation!

Stay tuned:
London
Munich - adventures in unpacking

Delhi

After 2 weeks of being in a five star hotel far outside the city, Josh decided to take a few vacation days. We were making our decision about where to go and the front runners were Mumbai, Goa, the Maldives, Delhi and Hampi. Mumbai (formerly Bombay) was literally underwater from the monsoons so that was out. Goa, which is most easily reachable via the flooded Mumbai, was also out due to the weather. No real reason to go to the beach in the rainy season :). I have been dreaming of going to the Maldives since we started planning our honeymoon, but unfortunately it is very difficult to reach from Hyderabad. If you go via an indian airline, you pay a lot of money and generally have to go through Sri Lanka... so if we did that, we would probably just stay in Sri Lanka. Hampi is near to Hyderabad and has some cool ancient temples to see, but we decided that Delhi would win coupled with a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

We heard that 'you have to fly Kingfisher Airlines!' so we paid a bit more than the other airline and took Kingfisher to Delhi. The funny thing about Kingfisher though is that they are a major beer company in India :). When we got on the plane, we found our seats. The seat size was fine, but the leg room was not. I could not even fit my backpack between the seat cushion and the chair in front of me. By the time I finally maneuvered it onto the floor, it would not fit under the seat in front of me. Josh had the same problem and we ended up just putting them in the overhead bins. Overall, the flight was fine. It was a 2 hour plane ride which got us here safely. That was the most important thing. I would not make the same assertion that someone must fly Kingfisher.

Delhi is very different from Hyderabad in that there is more infrastructure (though I read that it is not as reliable and power and water outages are very common). But to me, there are more street signs, more traffic signals, and more completed buildings.

Day 1 in Delhi, Josh and I went out in the morning to 2 different bazaars (shopping areas). The first was an outdoor market with clothes, sunglasses, and leather belts and wallets.




- Me trying on Sunglasses -


The second was an underground electronic market.



The items here were mostly knockoffs of all electronic items. The most interesting items were the sciPhones (iPhone knockoff), and miniPhone (a mini iPhone knockoff). When you open the miniPhone, the cool thing was that you can put in 2 SIM cards!





After shopping we went back to the hotel since it was really hot. We decided a few hours later that we should venture out again. We took an autorickshaw (or tuk-tuk). Josh did the bargaining for this ride. He had done some research and found out that it should cost about 20 rupees if they use the meter. The guy outside the hotel said, I will take you for 300 rupees. Josh said, um... how about 20. The guy looked at us and said, what is this, joke? After that, we walked away from the hotel, went about 2 blocks and found someone else. We ended up paying 50 rupees ($1).

We went to a place called the Red Fort. It is basically... a red... fort. You pay the foreigner entrance fee of 250 rupees (compared to the 10 rupee Indian price... yes, 25x more). Once you enter, you hit some shops, but once you pass these, you hit the garden. At the end of the garden there is a red building with some cool arches. (we will post photos once we are back in Germany). There are some other white buildings within the fort that we saw but there was nothing that really stood out to me other than the main building I just mentioned. This day was very jot and not many clouds to protect us. Josh was very hot and I think quite dehydrated. We left the fort by foot and tried to get to the famous mosque. This didnt work out since we could not cross the street anywhere without going through the 'urine scented' subway underpass. This did not appeal to our senses so we ended up just taking an autorickshaw back. The autorickshaws are interesting to ride in. You see them from a regular car and you know they look interesting, but being in one is a whole different experience. There are no doors, and you are so low to the ground and just so close to everything! I mean, you can just stick out your hand and grab the person on the motorcycle next to you. (or you could take facebook to the next level and literally poke someone).

We got back to the hotel, showered immediately and then went to dinner.
Dinner at the hotel was a feast. They had some special dinner which consisted of different courses from 4 different regions in India.

The first course was interesting. The clay glasses had flavored/spiced waters. The left was from Kolkata, middle from Mumbai and right from Delhi. My favorite was the middle with some sweet - almost Chinese tasting sauce. The one on the right was a blandish potato corn thing.


The second course was not very good. Upper left going clockwise: Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata. I liked Mumbai's the best but didnt care for any of them much.


Third course was very very good. Upper left clockwise: Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai. I loved the prawns from Mumbai and the fishy cheese fried thing from Kolkata. The lamb from Chennai was good... didnt like the bread thing much, too hard. The chicken from Delhi was very good - similar taste to most all international Indian foods.


Fourth course: Upper left clockwise: Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata. The Mumbai was amazing. Its called a Frankie. The chicken inside was very good. The garbanzos from Delhi were a little bland. The thing from Kolkata was interesting -- josh ate the paper around the food :). The soft meat almost fishy tasting thing from Chennai was very good. The sauce tasted like my mom's lentils.


The last course. Upper left clockwise: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi. the mashed potato thing from Delhi was exactly as you would expect mashed potatoes with pomegranate seeds to taste. The beans from Mumbai and Kolkata we’re very very good. not sure what was in it but I liked it a lot. The thing from Chennai I hated.


I disliked all the desserts. Josh of course liked them all. The first was like a meringue in some syrup that overtook your mouth it was so so so sweet. The second was like spiced rice pudding. the third was like mangos frozen and served in some sort of ice cream manner. If I liked mangos I would have loved it. The last thing was sort of an almond puree... minus the flavor.


Day 2 in Delhi. We got up late, and went to Sunday brunch. This brunch was good, and had many different things. It was not as good as the hotel in Hyderabad, but still good.

We decided to go to the India Gate and then to Humayun's Tomb. India gate was just an archway through one street in the city. It reminded me a bit of the Washington Monument in DC because there are long gardens extending out from the monument. The difference of course is that you could drive through this one. We took photos and then went on our way to the Tomb. This place was really cool. Well... it was actually very very very hot. The humidity really got to me today. I think it was a high of 105 and then add the humidity on top of that. We paid another high fee for being white and went in. This building to me was worth the price we paid. You walk in a doorway and enter a nice little grass area. There is an archway to the right which has a nice white tomb building inside. You walk through the lawn area to another archway and have a lovely view of the next building, the main attraction. (Photo to come). From the archway, you see a large red building with a white dome. In front of the building is a nice courtyard with a long fountain. Very pretty area. We walked through this, and up the the building. The decoration on the building is simple but elegant. We walk up the very steep stairs onto the main building where the tomb is located. We stayed here for a while, took lots of photos and then once we were dying of heatstroke, we decided to leave. We went back to the hotel.

For dinner, we decided to go to the nearby McDonalds. Yes... McDonalds. I like to go to McDonalds around the world and see how different the menu is due localization thatt McDonalds does. Here in India, they had no beef. They had items such as the Chicken Maharaja Mac (Chicken BigMac-ish thing), Vegi Pizza McPuff, Wrap Chicken Mexican, Wrap Paneer Salsa, and the McAloo Tikka. They were very clear to separate all of the vegi vs non-vegi items. They would not even put them in the same bags.
Overall, very interesting.

Crazy Taxi 3: India

We trekked from Hyderabad to New Delhi yesterday for a few days of vacation. I've included another map below, for anyone who's following where we actually are :). On the way, I realized something. Driving in India is a lot like playing a video game. If you dropped someone in and told them it was a new Crazy Taxi game, I swear they'd believe you.

It starts with the loose adherence to lanes. You know how in video games, the computer cars kind of drift aimlessly between lanes? Same thing happens here. Cars aren't hitting each other, but they just kind of move to where there's space, and they all go at kind of random speeds. This chaos is actually helped by the liberal use of horns, because you basically know when cars intend to get in your face (or side or butt) without needing to spin your head like you're possessed. Part of the trick is to judge the direction/speed/momentum of the other cars, and slide through when you can (kind of like Crazy Taxi, with a little less contact :)).

The pedestrians add to the effect. They just cross at random places, often standing between lanes as cars drive around them. Again, just like video game peds! You never know what they're going to do! Dana and I have started doing this in New Delhi - it is crazy but feels safer than doing the same in the US, because the cars drive around you instead of trying to run you down (or just plain not seeing you).

But the thing that makes it feel the most like a video game - there are random inanimate obstacles everywhere. Sometimes they make sense (blocking off a pile of rocks b/c of construction), but other times they just seem like they've been randomly placed by some video game designer. It's like the Indian transportation authority decided that all of India should be on "hard mode" and dropped barriers and "diversions" (as they're labelled) wherever they wanted. The most fun part is when your cab driver decides to pass some other meandering car by driving straight at a barrier, only to cut around it at the last second. Crazy taxi indeed!

We are at the Park Hotel (shown on the map):

View Larger Map

*Now* we're in India!

Saturday we went out to tour Hyderabad, finally leaving the garden of corporate compounds and surrounding...nothing. I'm fully recovered from my self-birthday present, so Dana planned out a full day's worth of sites and we hired a car to escort us around for the day. Three of my coworkers also joined us. You can follow the itinerary here (Google wins with easier map snapshots).

View Hyderabad Day Trip in a larger map

First on the list was Goloconda Fort, a big 16th century construction. We managed to fight off a few tour guides who insisted that not using their services after travelling so far would be a waste. While their prices are fine ($4), we just weren't interested. It was a great place for photographs, with lots of little towers and walls. The entrance also had cool acoustics...if you clapped, it would echo very loudly and quickly, and in theory you could hear it far up in the fort (never tested by us). We walked around for a bit and saw some other cool stuff - a corridor FULL of big, noisy bats was my favorite and quite disturbing. I also liked the faucets labelled "drinking water." Not for me it isn't! A number of Indian tourists stopped us and asked to take pictures with us, which really caught us off guard. The first few times I was worried about being robbed (it was just so unfamiliar), but after a few we found out that lots of them do it so they can take the pictures back and remember who they met on their trip (especially less common foreigners).

Next, we went to the Qutb Shahi Tombs. They're basically a bunch of domed buildings, like mini-Taj-Mahals. We also fended off eager tour guides here.

After that, we went to the Charminar (which Google couldn't find). This is a big monument in the middle of a bazaar district. It was built in the 16th century at the founding of Hyderabad, to commemorate the end of a plague. It took an AMAZINGLY long time to get there due to traffic. Most of the trip was fine, but the last 3 blocks took about an hour. This is because there were so many cars, bikes, autorickshaws, and people trying to go every direction, at the same time. It was the most insane traffic jam I've ever seen. We finally made it and climbed the tight staircase to the main floor of the Charminar. This gave us a good view of the chaos from above. The walls up there were super short (like 2 feet at the highest) with really no other railing. I was quite freaked out by this! Dana also has a funny story about some people she met up here...

We then went into the bazaar to look around. You could buy lots of fake watches, bags, sunglasses, etc. as well as Indian clothes, jewelry, and food. There were also lots of beggars asking for food or money. That's a little hard on me, because I always feel bad and I basically need to block them out. I wonder how native Indians respond to them, generally.

At this point we were getting pretty hot, tired, and dehydrated. We skipped visiting a Hindu temple and went to see a Buddha statue at the Hussain Sagar lake. This place turned out to be really nice, it was a clean park where a bunch of people just seemed to be relaxing for the afternoon. We didn't see the statue up close, since it involved a boat ride and I wasn't doing that at this point in the day. The park was the only place of the day that didn't charge us what we called a "white person fee." Basically, the price we paid for entrance to each of the above places was between 5 and 20 times the regular price. Since this maxed out at $2, it didn't really matter. I actually think it's a good thing here, because that price is still way cheap for foreign tourists, and otherwise it allows Indian people to see the same landmarks for a price that is affordable to them as well. For whatever reason, the park opted not to do this :).

We ended the day with a special vegetarian meal at the hotel's Indian restaurant. It was quite a shindig that night, with special tables (cushions, pillows), hookas, and entertainment. We all got some forehead paint to round out the experience.

One last thing amused me to end the day. There's usually a piano player in the hotel lobby, and they play nice, calm sounding music. The catch is - lots of the songs are versions of American pop songs. As we left the restaurant, we were greeted with a soft, soothing rendition of Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold," of all songs!

Josh's Birthday

For Josh's Birthday, he decided to get himself a batch of food poisoning. Yesterday he was fine in the morning, then at about 3pm he was complaining that he was not feeling very well. When he got home at 6 from work he went right to bed. I will skip all the details of the night, but by morning he was feeling a little better but still had a fever. The Indian manager set up Josh with a doctor appointment at Microsoft this morning at 11am. So Josh and I went to the Microsoft campus, building 3 and went downstairs to the doctor. He has a little office down there, and by him was a pharmacy and a little convenience store.

We went to the dr, and he gave Josh 3 prescriptions. One for an antibiotic, one for his stomach and the last to help replenish the good bacteria in his system once he took the antibiotic. We were not sure how much these 3 prescriptions would cost but we went to go fill them anyways. The guy at the pharmacy said 119 Rupees. I was like, WHAT?! 119! I couldnt believe it. Now for those of you who know about Rupees, 119 Rupees on a bad rate is $2.50. 3 prescriptions from the pharmacy cost $2.50 -- without insurance.

After the pharmacy I went to the convenience store, and luckily they also had gatorade. In contrast, the gatorade cost more than the prescriptions. Now Josh should be feeling better in no time. Drugs, hydration and time should do the trick!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

I am not in India...

well... technically I am. But the hotel we are staying in is not typical of India. We are in a luxury 5 star hotel on a compound near the IT district. It is about 45 minutes away from the city Hyderabad so we are removed from the hustle and bustle of the city.

This hotel, the food, the staff, and the spa (which I haven't yet experienced, but will!) are all amazing. I dont currently have photos of anything because I took them with the nice big camera... and I dont have a compact flash reader. I will post photos when we return to Germany.

The food is amazing. Indian, European and American food are all available. Yesterday was Sunday Brunch which was so much food, and so many different types. I tried all of the Indian dishes. I was surprised, but I liked them all! Last night for dinner Josh and I didnt eat too much since we were still full from buffet , but the naan (like a flatbread without cheese) was amazing! This morning for breakfast (which is included in the price of our room) was also buffet. They had a few interesting things like green lentil pancake (which was thin like a crepe), a few other Indian things which I wasnt in the mood to try, pastries including all types of doughnuts, European style breakfast including salami and cucumbers and tomatoes, fruit including guava and fig, and finally you could get eggs any style you wanted.

The service is the main thing that reminds me that I am in India. Everywhere you go there are people to help you. I was wandering around the hotel yesterday and I was asked a few times if they could help me find something. When we are at a meal, there are 4 or 5 people helping to serve you: push in your chair, refill your water glass, give you more bread, take away your plate, transfer your meal from the bowl on the side to the main plate in front of you, etc. And everyone puts their hands in a praying position and does a little bow every time you pass them. The come to clean or refresh our room 3 or 4 times per day as well.

Overall I definitely do not feel like I am in India and am not experiencing the real situation of India. Though, I am very much enjoying the royal way of life in India :)

I do wish that the hotel were closer to the city so I could venture out on my own and see the sites. I will be doing this with Josh on the weekends.

I have seen lots of the poverty mixed with the riches though. In the states, we have the nice areas very separate from the trashy areas and we dont see the two mix much. Here they are right next to each other. On our way to the hotel from the airport, there were lots of shacks with metal roofing, and a few very small homes. Then we got off the highway and we saw people sleeping on the ground in front of shops, and then we saw A-shaped shacks covered with tarps and ropes. We turned the corner and there was the huge Microsoft compound. This of course had security outside, huge walls, but other than that it looked like it was a building from Redmond placed here in India. There were 3 buildings that looked identical and then there were 2 additional that were a bit more separated. Those were all glass.



The weather has been very nice. Supposedly we are in a drier part of India during the monsoon season so I havent seen any rain. It is just a tad bit humid - nothing compared to the east coast - and its been in the 80's. Very few mosquitoes here at the hotel, probably due to spraying and the bug zapper thing you saw in Josh's previous post.

Arriving in India

Josh and I just got to India today. We got off the airplane and apparently they take the Swine Flu very seriously. Normally when you go on an international flight, you just have to clear customs and then get your bags. But now, in India, you have to make sure you dont have a fever and get a signoff from a doctor!

BUG-minton!

(Posted by Josh actually)
Dana and I enjoyed a nice Sunday buffet at the hotel today - good quality "international" food and a nice selection of Indian dishes as well. However, the definite find of the day was the tool they used to keep the bugs under control. It was essentially the combination of a bug zapper and a badminton raqcuet! Check it out below, not much more to say, other than that we want one :)

Softball, German style!

Dana found us a softball team the other day, courtesy of the expat site http://www.toytowngermany.com. She participated in a practice on Friday, and today we both went out for a game (Saturday or Sunday are their usual days for games). There are actually two teams that we know of - a fast pitch women's team that Dana is going to play on, and a slow pitch rec team that often practices with the women's team.

As an aside, the rec team is called a barbecue team. Why this is, I am not entirely sure (maybe to denote that it's casual somehow), but this is definitely the term here in Germany. When we asked the team captain if the team was fast or slow pitch, he responded, "oh no, slow, it is BBQ." As if that just explained it :).

Here is approximately where we played (go to Aerial or Birds Eye view, the default is lame). Today it was the BBQ team vs. the women's team. It was a lot of fun, and it felt good to go out and play softball again. However, I felt like one of those European or Latin American guys that play in our lower level soccer leagues in Redmond. Dana and I were definitely both the best players on our respective teams. My stat line reminded me of an article I read about Manny Ramirez's project minor league stats - 5/5, 2 HR, 1 2B. I was stroking the ball well (note: use a 33 inch bat), but not 2 HR well! Dana also juiced the ball, but except for a well hit 2B to left field she had the misfortune of hitting every other ball sharply to the shortstop (me!), who was able to vacuum them all up, including an amazing A-Roid slide and throw (if I do say so myself).

Dana's team evidently travels to other cities (and Austria!) to play, so that should be fun. I'm probably going to play in two tournaments in August with my team, I'm sure my ego will be duly adjusted at that point. Dana also heard about a baseball team, so I might look into that too.

One other fun German language aside - you've probably heard that German words are really a bunch of shorter words crammed together. I was reminded of their word for "glove" today because someone said it during softball. It's "Handschuh," which is literally "hand shoe." Go German creativity :)!

Hello new apartment!

We got the keys to our new apartment today, so we were finally able to post pictures (as you can see from Dana's post)! We only had our small camera with us, so we'll take better ones with the wide-angle lens later. We did the walk-through today, though not much was wrong with the place. For most of the time, Dana and I were discussing where to put furniture (which included me laying down on the bare floor, to approximate the length of our bed :)). We think with some good placement, we'll be able to utilize most of our furniture but still make the place comfy and not too crowded. When we have guests in town, we may need to get creative (and we need to buy a futon).

We get our air shipment (some clothes and our bikes) on Saturday, and will move some other stuff that we don't need on hand to the apartment as well. We won't be moving in until July 26th, when we get back from India. I can't wait to get it all set up!

Apartment

I promised photos, so here they are:

Entryway:


Bathroom:




Bedroom:




Kitchen:






Living room:

just a few photos from the weekend

Electronics Store

Today Josh and I went to go pay our deposit on the apartment. The way to do this is go to the bank, and transfer money from our account to the landlords account. Thats it. the rest is all behind the scenes. No checks or anything.

After that, I decided to go look for washing machines and potentially a zoom lens for our DSLR camera. There is a store called Saturn which is similar to our Frys/Best Buy at home. I love how in Europe, the shopping is just a series of old buildings with the stores inside. This is the main shopping area in Munich. Here are some photos of it:

I went inside of this store, and it was huge. Not huge in the expansiveness of Costco or Frys, but huge nonetheless. The first floor was cameras, fridges, washers, dryers, vacuums, and kitchen appliances. They probably had 600 different washing machines to choose from. Since the first floor had everything I needed, I was done, but wanted to explore the rest of the store. So I went up the escalator and there were all the computers. In there, I went to go check out the laptops since I am my fathers daughter. :) I was sorely disappointed in the selection. They didn't have very good netbooks and half of all their laptops were Sony... now, I don't know if you've heard me talk about how much I dislike Sony, you will know that I was not very happy with this. (I have nothing against Sony for TVs, stereos, music players, or anything sound related. But I hate their cameras, DVDs, cell phones, etc. I especially hate that they have their own proprietary media for everything. Anyways, enough about Sony).

I was about to leave for the 3rd floor (which had everything TV related) but then I saw a few booths in the middle of the store, one which was called Alice. Josh had told me that the internet that most people have is Alice. I went to the booth, asked the guy if he spoke english, and luckily he did. He explianed that the DSL was 24.99Euro/mth with no phone and no contract. This sounded good, so I said sure. Then he asked how long I would want it. I told him 2 years. He said, ok, for you, there is a contract plan for 1 year which costs 29.99Euro/mth including a phone line. For the first year of the plan though, I only pay 19.99Euro/mth, then I can come back and switch to the 24.99/mth deal. AND I get a 100Euro gift certificate to the Saturn store and a free wireless router (9.90 for shipping). I signed up to have it set up on July 27th, which is the Monday after we return from London. Worked out perfectly!

India

Josh has a business trip taking him to Hyderabad India on July 4th-23rd. It is quite a long trip and though about going, then not going, and then Karen convinced me to go. It is quite surprising that I would have ever talked myself out of travelling somewhere new, especially when I don't even have to pay for the hotel! But, I will be a girl all alone wandering through a city with 9 million people and wasn't quite sure how safe I would feel. Also, we just arrived in Munich and hadn't gotten everything situated.But now that we have a bank account, health insurance figured out, an apt, no furniture and I am not keen on the idea of living in this hotel much longer due to the location, I feel good about tagging along to India.

Since you need a visa to travel to India, I went to the Indian Consulate in Munich. The commute wasn't bad except for the fact that it was pouring the entire day. I submitted my application for a visa around noon, they took my passport and told me to come back between 4 and 4:30. I trekked back home in the rain, did laundry, read and then went back to the consulate. I recieved my passport and now I have yet another Visa! (Italy, Germany, India)

This was the first time I had ever been inside any consulate building and was a bit surprised at how normal the building felt. I was like I was going into any normal office buliding, waiting for a doctors appointment -- of course, except for the Discover India movie playing the the corner of the room.

The flights from Munich to Hyderabad were quite expensive compared to the flights from London (and also there is a direct flight from London), so I decided that I was going to take a cheap flight to London, stay with Vik (Josh's friend from college) and then fly to India. It now turns out that Josh needs to be in London on July 24th for work. This works out perfectly becuase now we can take the long flights to India together and then we can hang out in London for a few days too.

When we get back to Munich on the 26th, our furniture should have finally cleared customs so we can move right into our apartment and have it feel like home.

Overall schedule:
July 1 - get apartment
July 4th - go to India
July 23rd - go to London
July 26th - return to Munich
July 27th - get furniture (hopefully)

Walking to work...and German Country bands?

For the first time in my life, I actually need to propel myself to work manually. True, I may hop aboard some kind of underground rail-vehicle, but the walk to the U-Bahn station is decidedly longer than the one to my garage :)! I actually enjoy walking to work, and I definitely don't miss the random frustrations of driving on crowded streets.

One of the downsides of our temporary housing is that we're in kind of a boring, low key area of the city. It isn't in the boonies by any means (it's actually quite central), but it isn't what you'd call "active." You can check out my walk to work here, from point 1 (hotel) to 2 (U-Bahn). It takes 10-15 minutes.

For the most part, the walk is nondescript, but one thing caught my eye the first day - a sign for a music group called...The BossHoss (I'm not kidding, see the picture!). I had to know who these guys were. Turns out they're a German country band! What does German country sound like, you ask? Check out their site to find out - http://www.thebosshoss.com/. Some of their stuff sounds like stereotypical country imitation, while some leans a bit more toward German-ish rock music. I get a kick out of this caricature of the US "cowboy," from the German perspective.

As for the name of the band...I don't think you'd see "The BossHoss" in the US, seems a bit nonsensical (at least for the country genre). However, I know that Marc and the whole state of Texas probably approve ;)! Hoss-i-licious!

Bank Account

This morning we went to go set up our bank account. We chose Deutsche Bank since they have a deal with Microsoft for a free bank account. Alexanrda, our real estate agent/relocation person helped us find someone who spoke english to set up the account for us.

We were given a list of accounts, the main account which was free included an ATM card, free transactions from a teller, and online banking (which can be in english too). You would have to pay €1.50 per check that we write. Apparently checks are very uncommon here. In Germany, the accounts do not have a dollar amount to make them free as in the US, but rather you must always pay a fee depending on the account type you choose.

We decided to get a credit card as well. This is interesting because it is not really like an american credit card. there is no real "credit" aspect to it. It is attached to your bank account and you spend on it accruing a total. At the end of the month, the entire amount is debited from your bank account automatically. This means that you can never carry a balance. This is no problem for us since we never carry a balance, but I thought that this is a great practice that should be implemented in the USA. This practice of not spending more than you have would be great for americans to learn in my opinion :) Also, the credit cards are never free in Germany and we had to pay a small annual fee of €15.34 (this fee would be more if Josh didnt work for Microsoft).
Overall, easy to open, but interesting differences in the banking system

Apartment Search

This week has been a lot of weird sleeping hours for me and I have finally finally gotten adjusted to the European time zone.

Mixed in with the weird hours was a lot of reading and looking for apartments. Our agent, Alexandra, said that the market right now has not been very good like it normally is (go figure) or like it was when we were here last month. Anyways, we saw one place that was right in the center of town. I dont think you can get more central without living in the main bell tower, but the place was small and we didnt care for it much. There was no hookup for laundry machines, we would have to build the shelving in the kitchen, the bedroom and the extra room. We saw another place that is in a nice area, and it was big, but it didnt come with washing machine, dishwasher, or a fridge so we would have to purchase all of these things. This may sound quite unusual to us Americans, building a kitchen and having no appliances, but this is very common in Germany. In fact, it is more common to have no place to hook up a washing machine, and have to build your entire kitchen than to have anything included.

Then Alexandra got a call from another agent who had a place to show us that was not going to be on the market for another week since they "needed to paint." Now I put this in quotes since the place was almost perfect except for like 1 or 2 little spackled spots, but this was a big deal apparently.

The place was built in 2000 and it comes with a laundry hookup, an already built kitchen with a fridge and a dishwasher. The bathroom is a nice size with towel warmers and 2 sinks. There is a balcony that connects the bedroom and the living room and it has a retractable awning which will be perfect for when the sun is hot. The bedroom is a bit small and the main room may not fit all the furnitre that we brought but there is a nice storage space downstairs that can house the stuff we cannot fit upstairs. Overall, we are very happy with the apartment! So we applied for it, and 2 hours later found out that it was ours! A very painless process since Alexandra had pull :)

I will of course post pictures once we have keys to the place but here is a link to the location: Location of our apartment. Check out the birds-eye view to actually see where we live! It is the east/west building segment immediately south of the arrow on the map. We are on the fifth floor, north side facing the courtyard :)!

I think that the only problem that we will face is that when people come to visit, there will not be a lot of space for them :( but of course, we will figure something out!