Le Bon Anniversaire Weekend - Day 2

While Lydia and Tungy decided to get up early to get to Giverny, Me, Poo, Liz, and Angry Chris decided to sleep in and then follow it up with lunch in Chinatown. Living somewhere that doesn't have a Chinatown, I have really craved Asian food that wasn't cooked by myself. And you know, it would be nice to share the experience with someone as well. 

I hadn't really thought about where I wanted to eat in Chinatown, just that I wanted to eat, and then we remembered that we wanted to go to Le Bambou last time I was here, so we went...there. On my way in, I was really hankering for some Pho Bo. Then as we went to our table, I saw a girl eating Bun Bo Hue which looked really good. Reading the menu, I was tempted first by the sugarcane prawns, and then deep fried goodies. In the end, we got this:

L-R Pho Bo Dac Biet, Bun Cha Gio, and sugarcane prawns. 

After taking the merest sip of the Pho, Pooey and Liz both said it was one of the pho broth ever tasted!!! I concur!

Me and Pooey with our food. Take note of our summer dresses - the weather in Paris was that nice!

Pooey with her sugarcane cigar

After lunch, Liz and Chris want to try their luck with the Paris Catacombs while I decided to soak up the smells and sounds of Chinatown. This included a trip to the ma-hoo-sive Tang Freres Asian supermarket to purchase a clay pot for cooking and bamboo chopsticks (they were only €0.64 or something else ridiculous). 

I also got to observe something I'd been missing - roasted meats hanging in a window!

So tempted to buy some cha siu pork - dammit Germany, why is this against the law?! 2 billion Asian people prove it's a perfectly acceptable way of storing meat!

We then went to BHV and Galeries Lafayette to do some shopping but it was pretty hot and crowded inside both stores and we were tired so we headed back in the early afternoon to rest in the apartment and get ready for dinner.


Dinner was held in that stalwart of the Marais, Bofinger. I've been trying to eat here for years! Once I was turned back because we didn't have a reservation and cbf waiting 1 hour for dinner, and another time we just got there too early. No chances were taken this time - reservation for 8 at 8 was made!

The gorgeous Art Nouveau interior of the restaurant. It occurs to me now that I didn't walk under the dome to take a photo.

Dinner participants! 

Clockwise from top left, Pooey & Alix, Gnoudesavanes, Chris & Liz, Lydia & Tungy.

There was a moment of humour as we sat down and read the menus because the various French-speakers spoke to the waiters in French meaning that we received our menus in French. Said French-literate people then continued to read the menus leaving our non-literate people to go "errr....translation please!" after a few moments. And then because we were the double whammy of being Asians AND tourists, everyone whipped out cameras to photograph our meals! 

Pooey's entree of foie gras terrine. Mmmmmmm

My entree of langoustine salad. Oh man, I've so been craving seafood...

Pooey's mains of grilled salmon 

My duck main! See that giant slab of something yellow between the duck breasts?

Biggest slab of foie gras EVAH!!! I was in fatty heaven.

For dessert, Pooey got a creme brulee that was served flaming! WOOOOOOOOOH!!!!

Me and Lydia shared this concoction of cream, berry sorbet, strawberries, and meringue. 

Me and Pooey being happy

This photo makes me dizzy

Since were were in Paris celebrating a birthday, Lydia and I decided to recreate one of the most infamous moments of our Ville Lumiere time - the night we celebrated her 21st birthday we went to a bar in the Marais/Bastille area and drank tequila shots. Despite the hazy memory made worse with alcohol, we had managed to figure out which bar it was last time we were there - and back we went for my 30th! Ahhh, the more times change, the more they stay the same.

What a bunch of booze hounds!!!

Gnoudesavanes demonstrates why he wants to move to Munich 

(hint - look at the drink he's got)

 

 Me and Poo enjoy our cocktails

 To replicate that eventful night 6.5 years ago (!!!) Lydia bought us DOUBLE tequila shots. I'm enjoying my reaction. 

And then we decided to take one of the last Metros home rather than try and take the Nightbus. Sometimes it's just not worth trying to prove that you're still young.


Le Bambou - 70 rue Baudricourt, 13e arr., nearest Metro = Tolbiac or Olympiades 
Bofinger - rue de la Bastille, 4e arr., nearest Metro = Bastille
L'An Vert du Decor (birthday bar) - 32 rue de la Roquette

Le Bon Anniversaire Weekend - Day 1 :D

One of my first thoughts when I'd decided to move o/s was that I wouldn't be able to celebrate my Dirty Thirty with my nearest and dearest in Melbs. :( *boo hoo* It was then however pointed out that I'd be living in EUROPE and I could just invite everyone to somewhere else more awesome. For example, an epic birthday weekend in PARIS. And so I did :D Now, I (un)surprisingly didn't take that many photos so these are all ripped from Pooey (who took heaps) and Tungy (ditto). 


Because I wanted to do it in style, I originally decided I was going to book myself into the Hotel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde. However at €730 a night (or $1,200 for a suite!) I had to accept that this is simply not possible on a post-doc wage. Dang. I ended up booking an apartment in the 16th district. It was really lovely. Or as Gnoudesavanes called it, "A castle". 

 The Dining room

The Lounge Room. Mmmm, Art Nouveau boiserie...

Seriously, it was the biggest apartment I'd seen in Paris in it's own private street. But I'm really disappointed that we don't appear to have a photo of the real highlight of the apartment - the *Empire Style* ensuite bath in one of the bedrooms. It literally consisted of a bath that was separated from the bedroom by half a wall. But what made it really freaky was that the bathing area was completely surrounded by mirrors so people who were brave (or stupid) enough to use the bath could see themselves reflected into infinity. We decided the owners of the apartment must be swingers.


Due to a miscommunication (or more correctly, a complete lack of communication), we ended up scheduling Dad and Bro into Paris as their last stop, so I caught up with them and Pooey and we went down to Pierre Herme St. Germain des Pres to get macarons for the Bro and cakes for us! I can't remember what they were called but they were bee-yoo-ti-fool!

My gorgeous...something

It wasn't just beautiful, it was delicious with rose and lychee-flavoured cream to go with the macaron shell and raspberry.

Pooey was pretty happy with her sweetie too. She enjoyed it in the Salle d'Attente of the Gare de l'Est.

We were pretty wrecked after waving goodbye to the Dad and Bro so we headed back to the Castle to sleep in preparation of the rest of the weekend.

I *heart* Ikea

Now that I've moved to an unfurnished apartment, I have to look for furniture. This of course means trawling through Ikea's EPIC WEBSITE and then epic trips to their store out in Eching/Neufarn. And these trip(s) prove that I'm not the only one who loves Ikea - everytime I say I need to go or am going, others pipe up with requests that I tell them when so they can either go as well or hand over print outs of what they want.


Because I have absolutely no furniture (other than a Hampen and Ringum), I really get to look at the various room conformations for inspiration on how to express me (with a budget) and build from the bottom up. Do I want to get a Florvag mattress or should I lash out and get the firmer Flataker? What size Expedit bookcase should I get? I want to invest in a sofabed for visitors who'd find it strange to share a bed with me (hai Smee!) - is the €90 Solsta really that comfortable?! The Knubbig lamp is cute - do I want it in white or colour?! These are the deep issues that plague me.


What I have definitely decided on that I will probably get the large pieces of furniture in neutral black and white (easier to sell on), and then girl my room up with soft furnishings, interesting bedsheets, or pictures. Either way, it's going to be a fun month's shopping!

Eurovision and Room Cooling Party.

Okay, I have never professed to be a saint. One of the things that really pissed me off about my flatmate was that she used to throw parties during the week. One party annoyed me in particular because it resulted in the complete monopolising of the kitchen meaning that I was unable to cook dinner. Fuming, I went to Deutschkurs the next day and vented. Ruben, despite his tender years, gave me some sage advice - "She threw a party? You just need to throw a BIGGER PARTY!!!" And thus began the planning for my room cooling party - the opposite of a room warming. At some point it was pointed out that the date I'd chosen coincided with the Eurovision Song Contest so we decided to combine the awesomeness of Eurovision with my imminent escape. Plus the bonus of annoying her. Hehehe.


First of all, I lay down newspaper so people wouldn't destroy my furniture. Secondly, we decided to have some games and drinking game rules.

1. Everyone had to represent a country. You could nominate your country of origin (e.g. Austrians could be Austria) or you could pull a competing country at random (and thus I ended up being Russia).
2. As with the *real* voting, you couldn't vote for yourself.

This then led to the competitions...

1. Official vote! Whoever was the country who won the official vote got a prize!
2. Internal vote! Whoever was the country who won the internal vote (i.e. the country who partygoers thought had the best song, aka Popular Choice) got a prize!

Then the drinking games...

1. If a Baltic Country gives another Baltic 12 points, take 1 shot.
2. If a Scandinavian Country gives another Scandinavian 12 points, take 1 shot.
3. If Great Britain got not points, take 1 shot!

And this is how I ended up falling asleep at my own party. Epic stuff. 

But anyway, many hours, much noise, a giant pile of empty bottles and one pissed off flatmate later, the winners of 2011....The Official Winners, AZERBAIJIAN

 (they're in Europe?!)

and the Popular Choice...MOLDOVA!!!

Anything that involves unicycles can't be that bad in my book!

Bring on Eurovision 2012!

Hooray! New living arrangements!!!

I am happy to report that my hell is coming to an end and I will not be sleeping under a bridge. 


After following the advice of many, I decided to meet up with a native-speaker and form an apartment-seeking fellowship. I required his German-speaking negotiation skills, and he needed my Dr. title to make sure people didn't just regard him as a student. So after having officially received the keys, I will now be moving to a place 4 U-bahn stops down the line, into a less cooler place, but into a much larger apartment with a much more sane flatmate. And you can't put a cool price on sanity.


Now all I have to do is acquire some furniture....

More Berlin stuffs.

After the walking tour, I revisited some of the places that seemed especially interesting. Firstly, me and the Bro went back to Checkpoint Charlie to get some cheesy photos.

Freedom fist!

The Communists are always watching...

Inside the replica checkpoint cabin...small...

I found this sign amusing

And very amusingly, a few meters down the road from the checkpoint was this bastion of capitalism.

I then went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum shop to get myself a mug that sayd *You Are Now Leaving The American Sector* in 4 different languages!


On Sunday, Dad and Bro decided to take another tour to Potsdam(chen) while I decided to try to see Nefertiti at the Neues Museum. I hadn't done my research on what time it opened so after saying bai to Dad and Bro as they made their way to Alexanderplatz, I found myself wandering around the various museums around in a pretty much deserted  Lustgarten.

This heroic guy was hanging out at the Altes Museum

Looking out from the steps of the Altes Museum over the Lustgarten

Mmm, peaceful.

The Alte Nationalegalerie. I wanted to climb to get a photo but there was a locked gate barring the way (huff)

I also managed to see some tourists doing the Chinese Camera Stance!

It took me longer than I thought it would to go through the Neues Museum - all those Egyptian artifacts were so interesting! Anyway, finding out that I was running out of time - my train back to Muenchen was supposed to leave at 4-something - I decided to follow Johnny's advice and climb the Franzoesicher Dom - he claimed it was the best unobstructed view in the city. I asked the woman at the desk how long it would it take and she looked at me and said *for someone as young as you, 5 minutes.* I believe she was correct! Now, I climbed all the way to the top of the Dom and found it was glassed in - Johnny lied! 

Looking down into the Dom's staircase!

Looking up into the bells!

But then I thought as I made my way back down the staircase...I wonder what these doors do...and pushed one open where I found the best unobstructed view in Berlin! The backpacker that followed me said he had been told it was unobstructed too - this makes me wonder how many people climbed to the top find themselves disappointed....

Berlin is a pretty flat city (it was built on a swamp) so you could see quite far.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to climb the glass dome of the Reichstag because apparently you need to book that two working days in advance. Oh well, just another reason to revisit!

I'll climb you another day!

Ich bin in Berlin (on free tour)

After months of people telling me I should go to Berlin, I finally went to Berlin. And I must say, taking that cab ride through to Mitte, I did think to myself *Sorry Munich, but this is a city.* And to explore this city, I went on the tour that Pooey had done many years before. Alas, Mike The Hottie was not running this tour. We instead got Johnny, a very enthusiastic and pale Pom, who was particularly interested in history and politics - very appropriate for this city! 

The tour started off at the Brandenberg Tor. As we waited for the tour guides to sort out the different groups, we took some typical tourist photos.

It's like a postcard! 

Power fist

And of course, if you really wanted to, you could take a photo with a pair of communist and a capitalist soldiers!

The tour started with Johnny giving us a rundown of the various buildings around the platz. First and foremost was the Hotel Adlon.

It's where MJ hung Blanket of a window!

Next stop - the Holocaust Memorial

It's very disorientating - here I am following the Bro.

We then went to see the location of Hitler's Bunker...

now the site of some glamorous East German luxury apartments.

As a history/politics buff, Johnny took us mostly around the old East Berlin as he regaled us with stories of Nazi architecture, and the post-war happenings.

We went to see some of the remaining Berlin Wall. I always thought it was bigger than this. 

Scattered around the city were various sculptures of Bears (symbol of Berlin). I like to help them feel not so lonely.

As we trotted through the old East, we saw lots of symbols of how it used to be. People now like to take these Trabis for *safaris around the city.

And then we got to Checkpoint Charlie! (More on this later)

After a short sandwich break for lunch, we continued on...

...to the Gendarmenarkt - site of the Franzoesicher Dom, where Johnny recommended as one of the best vantage points in the city.

And then around the corner to the Book Burning Memorial outside the Humboldt University.

Over Unter den Linden to the Memorial for Victims of War and Oppression. Moving stuff.

Past the (extremely manly) former Arsenal Building...

ending up in the Lustgarten on the Museumsinsel. That's the Altes Museum looking very Alt. 

It was a really great and interesting tour. Johnny received much Trinkgeld (tips -literally, drink money) at the end. If I had one criticism, it was that the tour didn't include this building:

But you know, the tour did take 3.5 hours so I won't complain. And so to finish the tour, I did something really Berliner-ish:

I ate a currywurst. Miam miam.