Adios hermano :(

I received some sad news during Oktoberfest - after nearly three years and many many parties together, my Spanish brother David would be leaving Munich :(.  So we did what we always do - PARTY TIME!!!

And for someone who lived here for years and went to a billion volksfest yet never got a pair of lederhosen, we bought him a uniform that would be just as acceptable. 

él le gusta!

Y con mi otro hermano, who will also leave for Paris in the new year. Oh well, another reason to go visit!

Cake time!

I am now the consul for an online expatriate group. Our thing is to make newbies in the city feel welcome, but our actual theme is that we love chocolate. Yes, you know what this means. NOW I CAN OFFICIALLY GO OUT AND EAT CAKE IN THE NAME OF HELPING PEOPLE!!!

Our first location was Maelu - definitely a very important place for newbies to know. 

My pink lady cake - a combination of berry, lychee and rose. All washed down with a hot chocolate.

Birthday Karaoke!

ShaScha had her birthday party this weekend and, joy of joys, she wanted to do karaoke! But not that stupid open mic karaoke they have in Europe - we found a Thai restaurant that allowed you to book out their entire private room and for a minimum spend, have the karaoke system fired up! I was pretty !$%#ing excited to take part in this! Someone even asked me if I was going to sing - my reply was "Dude, I'm Asian. You try and stop me singing!"

And it was necessary to sing - BECAUSE WE SPRANG THIS BIRTHDAY PRESENT ON HER!!!

Yep - a personalised karaoke song!

This was her face when she realised what we were doing

I won't post the video of us actually singing it, but here we are as popstars.

Plus bonus photos of me and Tammy singing True by Spandau Ballet!

Cafe Kosmos

I'm always looking for somewhere nice and convenient to go to for drinks in Munich. Sure, alcohol is cheap and freely available but I miss the Melbourne bar culture which I firmly enjoyed. I'm not sure at what point we started going here regularly, but there's a new favourite bar - conveniently located near the Hauptbahnhof and next to a gourmet burger shop! This bar is Cafe Kosmos and it's filled with just as tatty mis-matched furniture as any Brunswick St bar.

Here's the strawberry-flavoured cocktail of the day that I drank while sitting in the window of the bar like a hipster.  

Facial paralysis

About a month ago, I started getting very localised pain in my jaw. It turns our I have 4 wisdom teeth and the lower two are not only very close to the nerve but they're impacting on my lower molars. Not surprisingly, this also meant that my gums were quite inflamed and would require some treatment before the surgery to get the wisdom teeth out.

I had requested that the treatment take place early in the morning so as to not interfere with my getting to work in time. What I didn't anticipate was receiving 4 different injections of local anaesthetic around my mouth in order for them to do the treatment (whatever it was). Needless to say, while I got to work on time, it became pretty clear VERY EARLY to my colleagues that there was no way what I would be able to spend the entire day at work. Maybe it was because they would see that I couldn't move my face properly, maybe it was when I started to cough and not being able to move my mouth properly, I started to have a small choking fit. Either way, my facial paralysis was very entertaining for all of us.

I'm somewhat looking forward to what will happen when all four wisdom teeth come out!

As an aside, the German word for wisdom teeth is a literal translation - Weisheitszähne!

Nach-Oktoberfestgrippe

A number of people I know are currently ill. This list includes:
Swiss Chris
Sarah
Caro
Laura
Susi
Thomas
Christian
Myself
There can only be one reason - we all partied too hard during Oktoberfest.

Last of Wiesn

As much as I love Wiesn, I'm always glad it only goes for two weeks. Otherwise I'd probably end up killing myself with alcohol. This weekend was catching up with Latin types who I hadn't seen in a while.  

Mi hermano David told me that due to his company not offering him a new contract, he will leave Munich at the end of this month :(

y mi otro hermano Rubio will move to Paris next year :( 

But they both said they'll be back for the bierfests!

Carlinho also made the trip over with his new lederhosen because he NOW A GERMAN! (but assured me that he will always be Brazilian).

Here's to old friends and next year's festivals!

My pig Prosciutto.

I have loved these walking balloons since I saw them last year. And while there are many options, my favourite has always been to purchase a pig because they're just awesome. I've always regretted selling my first ever pig, Babe, to that drunk Italian guy for a 400% profit, and I've been trying to replace Babe ever since. This year, I got a new pig, who I decided to christen Prosciutto, in memory of one my favourite pork products. After a raucous day at Wiesn, Prosciutto was living a pretty easy life at my place when one day, I noticed he was looking at me with very accusing eyes when he saw I was dirndl-ing up without him. 

Awww man, he's hiding behind the door. This means he needs to be better acclimatised!

So out onto the street and u-bahn with me he came!

But while many people also loved Prosciutto - asking for photos and to kiss him (one guy did it with tongue, yuk) - he also drove people to punch him :( One drunk asshole even punched him out from  under my arms >.<

But then the drama of all the walking finally got to him and Prosciutto lifted up into the skies! My pig flies!!!

He's been there since, and they lived happily ever after.

Skype Date

It had been a while since Dr. Wallace and I caught up over skype. This is partly due to time difference, partly due to my not being sure whatever condition I'd be in during weekend mornings. Eventually, we managed to get our shit together and talk. But when the camera loaded, I got an eyeful of this!

OHMYGAWD!!!

But then he stood up to prove he wasn't nude-skyping me. Phew!

More Wiesn!

I scored a ticket to the Rischart Kaiserschmarrn Tent. As you might imagine, there was pretty good food to be had.  

Like this epic brotzeit platter

And this superhuge kaiserschmarrn that came with sparklers!

And this less wonderful schnapps. It was like drinking petrol. 

I do like the musicians catwalk in this tent. 

Neuschwanstein again!

Wow. This visit couldn't have been more different from the last time I went here. For one, instead of one person, I was accompanied by a hoard of them! And instead of dodging snowballs, we had a beautiful clear day!

Yep, it was turned it on for these guys. KT was especially mesmerised by the Bavarian landscape

Which was pretty impressive, I have to say

Oh hurrow!

Hurrow to you too!

Lookit!

Gargh, even I have to say I was pretty impressed by how gorgeous everything was looking. 

KT went a bit insane with the photography, going close to the edges.

It looks like a toy set!

The sweet, sweet view from Schloss Hohenschwangau

After the last few cold days, today was so pleasantly warm that it was sleep inducing

But we powered up and made our way towards the Marienbruecke!

The classic view from the Marienbruecke. I'll confess - I think I took about 10 photos that were basically identical. But this one was the best :D

Hmmm, bungee jumping...

So ein schoener Tag

And now here are some photos as we killed time - for some reason, there was a 3 hour break between our tour of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.

Peekaboo!

I see you!

oooh, atmospheric

People have asked me if I've thought it worth going to the castles. I've always been a bit uncertain as to how to answer this because the ride to Schwangau is about 3 hours (depending on connections) and the tours of the castles only go for a combined one hour. I therefore asked me guests who agreed that it was totally worth it and not only that, but the visit was a highlight of their trip. So there you go.

MEGA MUNICH VISIT

For the first weekend of Wiesn, I received a mega-epic SEVEN visitors! Marene, Studds, dancinghula, Rao, KT, Addy and Bob all descended upon the town like a rage of Aussies. Except that unlike most Aussies in Munich during Oktoberfest, we didn't actually spend that much time getting drunk, believe it or not! I don't appear to have taken many photos though - clearly I was too excited at feeling as though I was back in Melbs, but with extra tracht and much cheaper beer.

Arriving a day before everyone else, KT helped me set up Ele's apartment in anticipation for the others' arrival (mille grazie, Cara!) before we went to Hyper! Hyper! and all the Germans going off to freaked her out hehehe. After everyone arrived, we chicas headed off to buy some tracht before going to dinner followed by some specially requested clubbing.

Success!

Asians love red. 

When we did make it to Wiesn though, it was the full experience. 

Complete with new pig, Prosciutto! 

Hooray for cheesy souvenirs!

Enjoying our time in the Augustiner Festzelt

And then some time in the Loewenbrau biergarten!

It was pretty cold out there. We had to huddle under Marene's poncho for warmth!

Randoms at the toilet!

But despite all the joy and fun, we didn't spend a whole lot of time there - we had an early wake up for our day to Neuschwanstein the next day.  

Although KT and I did make it back another day to take a photo with this random guy. 

I am these puppets

Just under two months until their new album is out!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch!

Stephan and Claudia returned to Germania a few months ago and have now gotten married!

The happy couple before the ceremony. Sehr schoener Tag

While I've attended a few weddings in Germany, I have to say, this was the first time I've attended a civil one. It was suitably official - things like birth dates and locations were cited. Afterwards, we all headed to a hotel where a wedding breakfast/lunch was served.

Stephan delivers his speech and toast

Clucky Claudia? hehehe

Stephan's dad presents the surprise wedding cake,

Which was duly inspected and given the seal of approval by the happy pair.

I can confirm that it was delicious.

Alles liebe, ihr zwei!