My hotel

I'm in Bremen for work purposes, hence my visit to the airport. I haven't been required to travel much for work so far, but Chrish told me that when he went to Geneva for work, he'd been booked into a hotel where all the furniture had been bolted to the floor. Way to make someone feel welcome! Anyway, my hotel is not like that at all.

Chosen because it is literally across the road from where I'll be doing my thang, the hotel is pretty nice and the furniture is able to be rearranged. 

Haribo Gummibaerchen on the pillows!

In addition, when I checked myself in, I was told that they would expect me in the hotel restaurant for my 3 course dinner. Huh, what? The receptionist then handed me a letter saying that I'd been booked into the hotel under some *Sommer Spezial* that included a welcoming dinner and a city discount card. I'm not sure how much of the discount card I'd use but the dinner was greatly welcomed!

The amuse-bouche, a cold cucumber soup. Refreshing.

First course - Salad with marinated tomatoes and frischkaese. I had no idea how I was supposed to eat the cheese and tomatoes. I ended up digging it out with a fork and spreading it on bread.

Main course - fish fillet and vegetable risotto!! Mmmm, fish.

Dessert - Sweet lasagne! Definitely the highlight of the meal, it consisted of deep-fried pastry with layers of mango and chocolate ice cream!

So pooped out from the eating and travel, I retreated to my (air-conditioned) room. There is a possibility that I may have to return to Bremen in Oktober for more work. If so, I look forward to returning!

...and another awesome thing at the airport...

In the courtyard, the powers that be have set up a wave pool where people can surf. Yes, right in the middle of the airport.

THAT IS AWESOME!!!!

Munich Airport - getting more awesome, oder?

I've mentioned before about how I find Munich Airport totally awesome. Well, I think Lufthansa just did something to make it even more so!

Behold! Free coffee and tea facilities for their customers in Terminal Two! I didn't taste it because I don't drink coffee but I almost did because it's free!

But I can't help observing that they may have created a bigger problem for themselves - while writing this (using free internet!), repeated calls for boarding have been made for a flight to Helsinki. Two passengers just rocked up and got a tongue lashing from the gate attendant for turning up 10 minutes late yet deciding there was enough time for them to stop and get their free coffee....

I am a powernerd

How do I know? Because I still get a kick out of seeing DNA in an eppendorf tube!

It's that fuzzy white-stringy-stuff near where the tube starts to narrow!

Another thing to tick off the To Do list...

Today I swam in the Eisbach - the stream that runs through the Englischer Garten. Despite being an alright swimmer, it was pretty stressful for me because I can't say I've ever swam in such a strong current for a long time. It's strong enough to push you along without much effort on your own part. Plus all those warnings about cutting my feet/breaking my limbs/losing my bathers from Amy didn't help. In the end, despite having to hang onto some of the guys and Amy along the way, I did manage to get out without much injury. I did lose one of my contact lenses though so I declined a second round because I didn't want to risk losing the other and ending up walking around blind.

However, here is a picture of me with Schminke in the small Eisbach (Schwabingerbach)

Next Garten activity to tick off the list - getting nekkid in the Schoenfeldwiese. I'm not sure if I will try to make photographic evidence of this. 

A visit to the forest...

Once upon a time, I went on a hike many years ago with H. The comment at the time (after furious laughter) was that I must be truly in love to have agreed to go on it. Well, now it turns out that there is another, great love in my life that would not only compel me into a forest, but also up a mountain. The other member of this deep, sweet romance turns out to be bier - there was a bergfest in the Bavarian Forest (Bayerischer Wald) that Fabi's grandfather (a lumberjack) helped establish up in the mountains so I may as well come along to see what a real village fest is like!

Oddly enough though, when I told Riccardito that I was heading to the forest to climb a mountain, he also laughed like crazy and demanded photographic proof. Well! This made me even more determined to climb that mountain - he ignited my desire to prove that, like any princess worth her salt, Princess Mallymoodle can get pretty damn kickass when she wants to!!! And so off I went with Fabi, his gf Steffi, and village friend Hansen!!!

The view of the forest from Deggendorf. A nice safe distance in my opinion!

At the start. We would be walking 3.5km to climb Vogelsang, a 1022m high mountain (considered by some to be a hill).

OMG, I'm in a FOREST!!!

Fabi and Hansen on the way up. Hansen (blue shirt) is a member of the village fire brigade (Feuerwehr) and set a bit of a cracking pace while also getting updates on a walkie-talkie. Fabi was all, "This is pretty fast, we can go slower if you like?" My reply went along the lines of, "FFFUUUUUU!!!!! This is easy!!!"

Hansen on top of the Regensburgerstein - a rock on the mountain from which you can see  Regensburg (here and here for photos from Regensburg).

You can also see the Danube, the Isar, and apparently on a clearer day, the Bavarian Alps. 

Me on the rock with a black labrador.

Throughout the forest, we saw lots and lots of foxglove, aka digitalis purpurea, aka fricken damn poisonous. And now that I've looked up digitalis on the internet, I can never use it to poison my enemies. 

I like to think I handled the pace quite well. In fact, here is a pic looking back towards Steffi and Fabi!

I think this was looking towards the Czech border. 

Trees!

Eventually we came down from the mountain and headed towards the bergfest. It turned out that our pace was so cracking that we'd actually climbed much faster than the time that Fabi thought we'd take, meaning that the fest was much more crowded than anticipated.

The fest is so traditional that the locals wear their normal clothes as opposed to tracht!

Also, I was NOT the only asian there!!!

My bergfest food - Wammerl (a cut of pork belly), kartoffelsalat (potato salad), and a semmel (bread roll). 

My bergfest bier! It was being served straight from barrels in the back of a truck!

The view from the meadow where the bergfest was being held.

After the bergfest, we made our way back to Deggendorf but we  stopped quickly by Schloss Egg near Metten to get some castle action. We didn't go inside because none of us could be bothered paying for it.

The gatehouse looks appropriately worthy of a castle.

Fabi told me some colourful stories about the castle - apparently some evil Count and black knights used to live there and threw people into the dungeon!

Spot the Steffi!

Before we properly headed back to Munich, we stopped by Fabi's mother's place for him to pick up his stuff

and for me to play with her new kitten, Dr. Watson!

And we also stopped to get ice cream! This is my Il Bacio del Diavolo - Chili-chocolate ice cream with strawberries. When I ordered it, the waitress said, "Aber es ist scharf!" (It is spicy!). And it actually was a little bit but not enough for cause me discomfort!

The Bierfest Season Rises

It's August. When I think of this, two things come to mind. Firstly, WHERE THE HELL HAS THE YEAR GONE?!?! Secondly, HELLS YES, BIERFEST SEASON IS BACK!!! And so, I dirndl'd up again for the first big bierfest of the season - Dachauer Volksfest. 

Annie, Cece, Mari, Stacy, Michael, and Amy...all waiting for our first bier...

My first Mass of the day!

Fluffy hats!

I don't know why, but I really liked these guys' boots.

Cece is moving back to Sweden so it's probably her last bierfest...unless she comes back in September for Wiesn!

And then a few hours later in the day, who should I bump into but Riccardito, Noelia, Noelia's sister, and Antonio!

And so begins the summer...

Movie review - The Dark Knight Rises

Set several years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham City apparently an almost crime-free city due to stuff I can't really remember. Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) has become a recluse, but that all changes one night, Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) steals his fingerprints and his mother's pearls while posing as a maid during a charity event hosted at Wayne Manor. And other trouble is brewing in Gotham City with the arrival of Bane (Tom Hardy), a character who is slightly difficult to understand through his mask and set on creating some sort of chaotic new world order.

As with the other movies, the subtext of the plot is meant to resonate with current events, and this is the same for this movie - the inequality in wealth distribution and the resentment this breed within the poor and disenfranchised against against the rich. This movie is essentially well made. The main actors (including Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine) all acquit themselves well, although I must again say that Hardy's dialogue can be unintelligible at times due to the mask. That's probably not a great thing given that he's supposed to be main villain. Also, I found Bale's Batman growl somewhat ridiculous but I admittedly found that ridiculous in the other movies as well. 

But at the same time, I don't know, I had a distinct sense of disappointment upon leaving the cinema however, I can't exactly figure out why I'm disappointed. I mean, even accounting for the huge plot holes (you'll know when you watch them), the story is engaging and I was entertained by the action set pieces and explosions. Nonetheless, the first comment I made when leaving was that I was sore after having sat there for nearly 3 hours (the movie clocks in at a whopping 165 minutes). Out of all the things I could have commented on, the first one I thought of was my sore ass? This is not a sign of a great movie. But on the other hand, I didn't really notice that the time was passing, which is not the sign of a bad movie!
So yeah....I can't put my finger on why I didn't like it. And in fact when I do think about it, other than the usual flaws, the film is actually pretty solid. I can't unequivocally recommend it due to my initial gut reaction but I can't say it's a piece of crap or borderline fail, so I guess it's a...
7/10

On the topic of bikes...

....CHECK OUT THIS MASSIVE BIKE!!!

The saddle is almost up to my armpits!

And it was being ridden by this HUGE guy! He came out to move it and I reckon he was at least 6'4!!!

Cycling to Schleissheim.

It was a nice blue sky day today - oddly rare for the weekend (trust me on this). And another rarity - I hadn't gone out to a party on Saturday night meaning I was feeling alright and up to bike ride when Fabi said he felt like taking advantage of the nice day. In fact, I was feeling so good that I said, "Why don't we cycle to Oberschleissheim? We could go to Schloss Schleissheim!" He hadn't been to the Schloss (palace/castle) before so off we went!

I knew vaguely how to get there because it's close to where we work. We decided to not head to work and ended up getting lost and taking a back way that apparently went through a mini-forest and (no joke) past a cornfield. Interesting thing about Schloss Schleissheim, there was an airfield there that was active from the very first days of aviation and so there is a museum with lots of old planes and models!

This model was of a 1909 plane!

I think this glider was something that the students at the Technical University Munich made as an assigment in 1912.

Fire it up!

Seriously, nerd heaven.

Takka-takka-takka-takka pow-POW!!

The really professional paintjob saying there was an ejector seat on this Egyptian fighter.

Thumbs up to that!

Some German fighter

Fabi experiences the effort required to force a plane forward.

We then cycled around the museum and Schloss and took a break in the biergarten where we had some radlers (shandys - since we didn't want to be drink-biking!) and Pressack - a type of pressed sausage made from a pigs head. Because I'm hardcore, I had *roter Pressack*- this type also includes the pig blood so it's red. Fabi said my eating this made me more Bavarian than most Bavarians, his grandfather would be proud of me for eating that!

One of the Schloss' facades.

One of the courtyards in the Schloss. People lived in some of the apartments in the courtyards!

Proof that I was cycling.

Unfortunately, while we were sitting there eating and drinking, we noticed that the lights in the garden came on, despite the fact that it was only 5-ish and the sun doesn't set until nearly 9pm. Then we saw the clouds rolling in. Given that we were about 11km away from our place, this was not a great sight for our eyes, and after giving my assurance that I could go fast, we started to go fast.

We took a quick look at the Schlosspark before heading out though.

Check out the clouds behind the Scloss

Uh-oh, clouds rolling in on our way home...

Alas, we were not fast enough and about 3km away from home, it started to POUR LIKE CRAZY. I was all up for finding shelter and waiting it out but Fabi was all *Nah! We're not far! Let's just keep going!* And that's how we arrived back home looking like this. 

You can't actually see how wet my clothes are.

Fabi says riding furiously through the rain to get home reminded him of being a kid, so I guess my childhood is now complete.