Ahaha hahahahaha....

Haahahaha......ahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CC_9aFuEkA

Dont worry, it's work-safe.

PS.  Ahahahahahaha, stupid cats!

Good Music time....

Hey guys

Just got back from seeing Band of Skulls, they we're awesome!  Also, good possibility that I have a job as of Monday, but I'll confirm and elaborate then.  Lastly, it sucks when you make a toasted cheese sandwich and the tomato superheats and burns the shit out of your mouth when you bite into it.  Damn you, tomato!  Why can't you be more like your best friend cheese, and melt deliciously? WHY?  ANSWER ME!

Nighty night, sleep tight.

Adam

Bank Error not in your favour.

So, back in London, back to the drudgery of so-called “life”.  I’m just heading to bed, thought I’d drop ya’ll a quick line to let you know the cold weather and trains haven’t yet killed me.  A few short observations -

• -          The live episode of 30 Rock was hilarious. 

• -          British banks are worse than useless.  Kat tried to open an account before we left, and when we got back, we found out they made a mistake.  So we went back and they photocopied her passport again.  Two days later, we go and ask about the account (just to check) and unbelievably, THEY MADE THE SAME MISTAKE. AGAIN.  It turns out the morons at the bank weren’t photocopying the right page of the passport.  Also, they wrote my address down wrong, so my PIN got sent to our neighbour. 

-  

•        There is a deal here where I can get a unlimited cinema card for $13.50.  THAT’S AWESOME.  Unlimited movies for thirteen pounds a month!  MOVIE TIME BABY!  Starting with The Social Network next week. 
•           I got offered a job, then realised it was about 2 ½ hours away.  So, using a complex mathematical forulae, I worked out that this meant at least five hours of travel a day.  Had to turn it down. 
• -          On the bright side, got another interview on Tuesday for something much closer.  Wish me luck!
• -          London is big.
• -          I hate the idiots who process OT Registrations.  Six months to do some paperwork?  GIT OFF YOUR ARSES, YOU LAZY BRITISH SEE-YOU-NEXT-TUESDAYS!

That’s enough ranting from me.  I’ll write again soon. 

Keep it real.  Real dumb.

Prost!

A Panorama of Oktoberfest

(Apologies for getting my Oktoberfest entry in so late, I've been busy getting organised in London.  Also, thanks to Kate and Bonnie for answering my soup question.  The rest of you, GET ON IT!)

Dear Reader

As I type type this, I am sitting in the hall of the Easy Palace Hostel Munich with the sounds of Oktoberfest outside.  It's about 10:30 at night and I can’t type in my room as people are sleeping.  Also, I can’t sleep because (A) Kat is still out, so I’ve decided to wait up for her and (B) a guy in my dorm room is snoring like a Mack truck. I decided to take the opportunity to get some writing done and get you guys up to date.  It has been an interesting two days.  Myself and Kat spent the first night getting settled and meeting Jess and Lyndsay and the Lowenbrau beer garden, though we decided not to imbibe, as it was already getting late (past nine o’clock).  Early night, no harm done. 

Second night, different kettle of fish.  We arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds, which are only a few minutes walk from our Hostel, at 10AM, thinking that we would have our pick of the tents.  What we were instead greeted with was a completely insane sea of people that stretched as far as the eye could see.  After some investigation, we discovered that literally every beer tent was completely full by ten in the morning.  We were relegated to the outside beer garden, which certainly has its own charms, but doesn’t quite have the same atmosphere as inside, with its live music and table-top dancing.  We settled in and ordered our first round, as well has half a chicken and potato salad for breakfast.  I received my first stein at ten o clock (each stein is a litre) and my second at 10:33.  I made it to five steins, then the world went blank.  I wish, dear reader, I could say that I was composed, even elegant in my drunken stupor.  But that would be a lie.  I was gone, hammered, if you will, and I have no recollection of the hours between six pm and eleven pm, save for what the ladies I am staying with have told me.  Suffice to say, I could not walk, talk, eat, or dress myself.  In fact, the ladies have several videos attesting to these facts, which I will not link to here.  Kat was very sweet, getting me home safely and later went out to buy me fries and Brawurst.  Many conversations since this night have begun with “Remember doing thing x with group y, that was awesome!,” only for the speaker to receive a  blank stare from me as I have no idea what they are talking about.  I had attempted to write some blogging notes on my little notepad during the day, and it shows and interesting descent into inebriation as the writings become increasingly random and illegible.  I will post some photo’s of said pages.

Still, good times.  Also, I wasn’t sick, so that’s a plus.

Kat and I having a laugh.  Notice my psychotic grin.

Day 2 was our recovery day, time to see some Munich sights and let our bodies repair.  We went on a walking tour with our Canadian tour guide Stacy (why our tourguides never from the country you are in?) and ate a delicious lunch of suckling pig at the world famous Hofbrauhuis beer hall, founded my Maximilian the 1^st in 1607.  We spent the evening touring around the Oktoberfest grounds, going on some rides eating some delicacies.  I should point out here that for those who haven’t been, Oktoberfest isn’t just big tents of people drinking beer.  It’s more like the Ekka in Australia, only much bigger, more awesome with less showbags and more beer.  There’s rides, fairy floss, rollercoasters, haunted houses, icecream, you name it.  So this was our night to enjoy the non-beer tent atmosphere and have an early night.  Kat indulged her inner Kleptomaniac and stole a Lowenbrau stein by secreting it in her handbag.  Today she stole another, lets see what score she can manage before the this trip is done.

Jess just lurved her dirndal.

We endeavoured to not repeat the mistake of Saturday and risk not getting into a tent on Monday, the last chance for us to do so, and the last day of the festival.  You see, you can’t simply wander into a tent at Oktoberfest and start drinking a beer.  You have to get in early, REALLY EARLY, sit and guard your table like it’s sacred ground.  By one pm, you won’t get a single seat, let alone a table, and by three you want even get inside the tent to stand up.  Not that standing does you any good, since the fraus only serves those sitting down, or at least standing on benches rather than the floor (Since, I suppose, logically they would have had to begin by sitting at a table before they could stand on it.).  We were terrified of this fate befalling us, and so arrived at Oktoberfest in the wee hours of the morning, (9 AM, to be precise), when not a soul was stirring, save for the trucks resupplying the beer, pork hock, bratwurst and chickens. After some confusion, which is unavoidable when dealing with a group of women (sorry ladies) we decided to go to the Hippodrome tent, which is supposedly the hip, cool young tent where they serve beer and wine.  (This is because Kat and April are still not big fans of beer.  )  However, the lame Hippodrome told us we couldn’t play cards for some reason, so we decided to move on.  We settled on the Shwarzen Festiviz tent, since we had briefly poked our heads in near close the night before and it was definitely a tent for partying, with the band doing a stirring rendition of Highway to Hell.  So we settled in, and I made a very focused effort to spread my beer drinking out over a longer period of time, and with some more food in-between.  This approach proved very successful, as by six o clock I was both awake and (mostly) sound of mind.  Kat and April had gotten tispy from some 3 euro wine (classy!) back in the hostel, and were happy enough that they didn’t care what they were drinking, (as in, beer.)  We had successfully staked out our claim, and were now smack bang in the middle of seven thousand drunken people, standing on the benches and belting out New York, New York at the top of our lungs, smashing our steins into each other at each line of the chorus.  This continued for some hours, with April and I making up our own sing alongs when we didn’t like the bands choices, (favourites included Bohemian Rhapsody and Prince Ali, from the Aladdin soundtrack).  Truly, a sight and sound to remember for many years.

Us and our sevend thousand drinking buddies.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but everyone here is standing on their chairs.

Oktoberfest closes at 11pm each night, but April and I were wrecked by about nine forty five.  Keep in mind, we had been drinking and eating for almost twelve hours by this point.  We elected to head home.  Kat and Jess, showing the fortitude and stubbornness I have come to expect, fully intended to stay until closing.  On the walk home, I stopped not once but twice for Bratwurst with bread and mustard.  Mmmm, so delicious. 

And so, that is where I leave you,  Comrade.  Oktoberfest is closing now, so I’m going to sign off and see if I can find Kat amongst the hubbub streaming out of the grounds.  Seems like a fairly daunting task, but Kat has her hair in very cute, big curls tonight, so I’ll just look for a curly blonde head in the crowd.  Besides, better than sitting in this hallway all night, am I right?

Adam

Nearing Munchen

Brief update today.

German countryside whizzing past outside, as our ICE train speeds its way to sunny(er) Munich.  Phase 3 of Operation: Ferro  is about to commence, after the success of Phases 1 (Family) and Phase 2 (Couple).  Phase 3 is codenamed “Friends”, this despite the fact that April is coming. I joke, I Joke!  Please Apes, don’t hurt me. 

For the next four nights I sleep in a dorm room with five women.  In my mind’s eye, I picture this as a scene from Porky’s or perhaps one of the better American Pie movies, with lingerie-powered pillow fights, girlish squealing and consumption of much passion pop.  The more rational part of my brain knows that it will more likely be similar to the beach opening in Saving Private Ryan, but I just say “Shuddup brain!” and poke myself in the eye with a pencil.  Good times.

Should I be able to bring finger to keyboard in the next few days, I will try to convey some impressions of our Oktoberfest adventure, though that may only be in flashes.  By the way, to prove that someone other than Kat is reading this, you HAVE to comment below with your favourite soup.  I will start: Tomato with meatballs.  And……GO!

A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

Ridiculous levels of busy since we got to Amsterdam, dear reader.  I’ll get to that in a moment, after a brief recap of the last few days.

We left the family boats on Monday in Gouda and caught a train to Den Haag, where we had a hotel room booked for one night before going to Amsterdam until we hopped on another train to Munich on the 1^st.  Unfortunately, the hotel wasn’t really in Den Haag at all, but in a small beach town to the North called Noordijk.  Who knows why the hell anyone would want a beach town on the sands of the freezing waters of the North Sea, but the Dutch do strange things sometimes.  Did I mention that it’s not far off winter here? Guess what is going on in the freezing cold, raining, off-season version of the Gold Coast?  The answer is nothing, nothing at all.  Even the tourist office basically said so, and they are supposed to make this place look good.  On the plus side, the hotel had free wifi, so I downloaded season five of Futurama, Spartacus and the new Dexter and 30 Rock and some music.  The other two good things that happened were a Sand Castle Building Competition (It was over, but the sculptures still stood.) and Kat and I wandering around on a Monday night for an hour and finding the best damn Thai place in Holland.  Seriously, My-Thai quality here people.  So when you’re in Noordijk next, hit em up.  You’ll have to find them though, I don’t remember the name. Sorry.  Next morning we bussed it no nearby Leiden, (very cute), sighsaw for a few hours (Windmill Museum, haircut for me, 14^th  century Citadel closed for repairs) and trained to Amsterdam. 

So Amsterdam is quite a blast.  Our hotel is literally one street from the red light district, which means we’re basically close to everything.  Not twenty meters from where I am right now, there’s a Chinese, Italian, Indonesian and French restaurant, a bar that has been selling booze to visitors since 1530, coffee shops that don’t sell any coffee or coffee related products, red windows with ladies of the evening in them and so, so, so many sex shops, you have no idea.  After we checked into our small but functional room, we had ribs for dinner and took a guided tour of the red light, which concluded with a Jagermeister shot for each of us (of which I took both), followed but visiting various bars and downing much beer (for me) and wine (for kat).  By midnight we were feeling somewhat tipsy and decided to catch a show.  I can’t tell you too much about that since various parties read this blog (Hi, Joanne!) but suffice to show, it was an eye opening experience.  (http://www.casarosso.nl, NSFW) We stumbled home at about 3am and collapsed into bed. 

Today, in contrast with our night of decadence and sin the night before, we were beacons of culture and refinement.  Our morning started with a visit to the Amsterdam flea markets, where I totally lucked out and found the absolute most awesomest, coolest jacket every to grace gods green earth.  It’s brown suede with cream and orange trim, beautifully made and like new.  I immediately purchased it for the meagre sum of forty euro, put it on and refuse to take it off.  Even now, as I sit in bed typing this, it sits proudly draped over a chair, magnificent in its splendour.  I shall call it “William III, Prince of Orange” or Willy for short. 

Our Lonely Planet had told us that every Wednesday at lunch there was a free half hour concert at the Concertgebou, which was about a 45 minute walk from our hotel.  We could have caught the tram, but Kat and I prefer to walk, it’s definitely the best way to take in the sights and sounds of a new, foreign city, free and helps burn off the calories from all the frittes and mayonnaise.  Over 800 000 people visit the Concertgebou each year, making it the busiest concert hall in the world, and is reputed to have the best acoustics.  It certainly sounded good to me.  After lunch (A Fatboy burger with sauerkraut and mustard) we visited the Rejkmuseum, the home to many of Rembrandts most famous pieces including The Night Watch, The Jewish Couple and Jan Six, as well as many other famous artists like Hal, and many of Rembrants pupils.  It was fantastic; there is something about seeing these works of art in person that cannot be captured in photographs.  For example, Rembrandt used a technique of using thick paint on areas that he wanted to shine, as the light would reflect off the thicker paint and create an almost metallic effect.  Also amazing was the minutely detailed model of the ship Prins Willem, which sat in the entrance of the Dutch Admiralty for over two hundred years, each canon and piece of rigging perfectly positioned.  No photos, unfortunately.  It was late afternoon by this stage, and our last stop was a Microbrewery called “De Brouwerij”.  I tried to get Kat to drink a whole 200ml of delicious, handmade wheat bear (the mildest of the beers) but she only managed about half that, leaving it to me to polish off the rest, as well as my Spicy Amber Ale and Traditional Pils, though she did help with the salami and cheese.  I’m sure she’ll be fine in a few days with a litre stein of hardcore German Pilsner.  Sure she will.  Italian for dinner and bed, which is where I am now.  Last day in Holland tomorrow, having a much quieter one than today, with only the Ann Frank house, the Royal Palace, more frittes’ (chips) and touring a Diamond factory.  Sleep time now though, goodnight all.