Another aeroplane, another sunny place,
I'm lucky I know
but I wanna go home
Let me go home

Hello, USA?!?

I want more vacation! (Click on the words)

Working in and now living in Germany has proved to me that most Americans do NOT get enough vacation. In S'burg, I got 10 days of vacation per year. In germany, I get 30!!

Most germans take off the entire month of August and a good chunk of Decemeber too. We need a break, america.

No Cuse, Noooooooo

For shame, syracuse, for shameeeeee .... (click on the words)

Because of this sad news, I have added this awesome picture of my dad playing for Uconn. Irish 'fro, what what?!?!

Mad Upsssss

Around München: Wies'n

Also known as ... Oktoberfest! :) So as most people know, it is actually held the last few weeks in September. It started as party for King Ludwig I's marriage (the crazy's one grand daddy) to Princess Therese. It recently celebrated its 200th year, but it was not the 200th Oktoberfest. It was cancelled around 20 times due to wars or illness. So you can plan that trip in the future! :) It's held on a large field known as Theresienwiese (this is why the locals call Oktoberfest Wiesn). It starts with a large parade with all the beer makers bringing the barrells of beer to Theresienwiese. The mayor of Munich taps the first barrell and then the fun begins!

So now to the beer. Only beer that is brewed within the city limits of Munich is allowed to be served. Lets see if I can name them all: Augustiner, Spaten, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu and Hofbräu. The beer is served in a maß or one liter of beer. And they are all served in tents. There are currently fourteen large tents and twenty small tents. I was in what was known as 'Oide Wiesn' or Old Weisn. Its a bit calmer then the big tents and they served beer in the ceramic mugs.

Oide Wiesn

My friends Keith and Katharina enjoying some beers

As you can see in the above picture, most people wear the traditional Bavarian garb. This includes the lederhosen (leather pants) for guys and Drindls (dress thing) for the ladies. No, I did not buy one so I did not wear one. But here is my friend Matt wearing the outfit to work one day! It was quite common to see this at work during Oktoberfest.

Looks happy to have his picture taken, right? haha

I thought Oktoberfest was kinda like the New York State Fair, but with way more beer. But there are tons of rides and food vendors. I went on a few rides. I think they try to find the rides with the most possibility for people to throw up. I mean, look at my first picture! Spin, drink beer, spin. They also have these cute heart cookies that everyone wears. They are made out of Lebkochen, or the german version of gingerbread. Most are hard, so sadly not edible. Here's my friend Katharina wearing one:

It says, "I love you." Awww :)

So overall experience was pretty awesome! I think it is something everyone needs to experience at least once ;) The 2012 dates are Sep 22 – Oct 7 (hint, hintttttttt). One thing that I learned is that Erin + maßes of beer = Erin falls down a lot. Now come on, who doesn't want to see that?! haha

Stay Tuned ....

Updates are coming!

Oh Be Calm.

Be calm.
I know you feel like you are breaking down.
I know that it gets so hard sometimes,
Be calm.
Take it from me, I've been there a thousand times.
You hate your pulse because it thinks you're still alive and everything's wrong
It just gets so hard sometimes
Be calm.

The Extended Royal Edition

Ahhh, another weekend, another castle to visit. They're easy day trips, so I like to do them on Sundays when NOTHING IS OPEN. This weekend I went to another one of Ludwig's castles, Herrenchiemsee. This one he lived in for a whopping 10 days! This one was pretty baller in the sense that its in the middle of an island. It's in the middle of the largest lake in Barvia called the Chiemsee (I think). I had to take a ferry to get there, after I drove anywho. Here's the car btw:


118 d

It's not available in the US sadly, its a cute lil' car. And pretty baller rims if I do say so myself. :) So the story behind this castle is that it is modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France. It's got a Hall of Mirrors and everything (longer than the original)!  It actually looks like Versailles too, without the two side wings.



Versailles- minus the side wings

 Why no side wings you ask? Quite simple actually. This is what happens when the King likes to build several castles all over Bavaria and runs out of money before they are finished. Seriously, this palace has like 70 rooms and only 20 of them were finished! Plus, of the 20, only 3 were like living quarters. The rest were just tributes to the Palace of Versailles. And when I say tribute, I mean it. There are literally no paintings of anything German in the entire place. All Louis XIV. Kinda weird when you think about it.

Front Lawn

Front Lawn that extends all the way to the lake

So, the coolest part about this castle is the fountains. They are all copied from some other castle, but the effect is still the same.

Fame and Fortuna (maybe?) Fountains

Getting artsy ... Creepy kid though, reminds me of that scary movie in that big hause where the little children statues come alive and tell the lady to saveeee them

Definitely my favorite fountain

The lady on top curses all the people below and turns them into frogs because they would not give her and her children any water. Also, there's no water in this picture because the fountains turn off every 15 minutes.

This dude has a frog head ... haha loves it.

The tour was really short again, only like 25 minutes. There were some cool things inside though. Like I said before, there was a hall of mirrors. There was a chanderlier (NO idea how to spell that) in every room with hundreds of candles on each. They were all only lit once when the king was there and for no special reason. Another cool part was his elevator dining table. The table actually could move between floors so that 'the help' could set the table in one room and then he would be waiting upstairs. They said this was so he didnt have to actually see 'the help.' I dont know if thats incredibly stuck up or sad! He was kinda a loner, so I am going to go with sad. :(

Orange flower :)

German dudes playing at the castle

So finally, the other cool part was of course getting there. The lake was very beautiful. There were a lot of people on boats, sailing or relaxing.

Dock at castle

Lake with mountains :)

Ducky! :)

Btw, people will cut you in line faster then you can say, 'Aww I want a picture of that ducky!' Above, said ducky. Oh well.

PS- Charlie turned two yesterday! My baby, they grow up so fast!

<3