London - definitely a grower

London is still not one of my favourite places. Even so I get an overwhelming feeling that I'm going to end up there, particularly given that my trips there are becoming exponentially more frequent!. It's probably very good that my latest trip to the capital was in fact very pleasant.
First of all, life is so much easier with an oyster card. And cheaper. One less thing to complain about.
Secondly, I didn't get lost. I went one stop in the wrong direction on the tube, but that's of little consequence.
Thirdly, despite all the riots (and I did go to an area that was affected by riots), it doesn't look like London was recently bombed during WW3. Nope it's all fixed up.
This really isn't fair. I want to continue hating London, but the city gave me nothing to complain about. For once. No, I shall have to be content with an amazing concert and a wonderful afternoon with friends. Might leave it on my list for a while yet ;)

Lederhosen at Oktoberfest are not practical

The highlight of my little holiday is without a shadow of a doubt, Oktoberfest. The real deal, not Rocktoberfest that we have at my uni, or the copy that Sherbrooke have every year. Oh no the real, world renowned festival of beer. The one in September.
Raffi was insistent that we go in traditonal dress. As a girl that means I should have worn a dirndl. I wasn't game. a) I didn't know of anyone with one b) I definitely wasn't going to buy one. Instead I borrowed some lederhosen. very much cue feeling like a pratt for a very long time, pretty much until sufficient beer had been consumed. It was very easy to pick out the foreigners. They were they ones not in traditional dress.
Finding it involved following some people from the train station, in such clothing (very easy to spot). Hey presto we made it to what very much looked like a fairground at first. We made our way to a tent and sat down at a table. Not a very hip table mind you. There was a couple, minimum age of 60 sat opposite. The woman was drinking coffee. Far too civilised for Oktoberfest! A Canadian guy was later seated at our table. He was on his own and clearly sparked the interest of the aforementioned couple so that Raffi and I had to act as interpretors for his life story/their questions. The table over was hosting far more English speakers so we made a sly shift onto their table.

This hat seemed to be being passed around. I think it looked best on me. It may have belonged to the only other Brit I found all day! That's a Maß in my hand. There's lots of clinking of these glasses, especially when singing along to the live bands playing what I can only assume is traditional/Bavarian/folk music. Being my sociable self, I was befriending anybody and everybody so Raffi, the Canadian (may or may not have been called Brad - I forget) and 2 German guys, decided to change tents for a livelier one. The thing about Oktoberfest is that you need a seat at a table to get served and these tables are often reserved and if not, fill up easily. The idea being that you find a table and stay there all day long.

Our solution to this? We ambushed a table that a company had reserved for its staff. There weren't many of the staff there yet you see and they didn't seem to mind. I think they liked my lederhosen. By this time it was getting towards evening, everybody was a little bit merry and there came a point where it suddenly seemed socially unacceptable to be sitting down. Everybody was standing on the benches, singing, stamping, clinking glasses and having a jolly old time. Sitting down was at your own peril really. If your head is lower than someone's glass/foot/hand you will end up covered in beer, stomped on and possibly getting an accidental left-hook to the chops. Really, it's for your own safety that you stomp and sing along with everyone else!
Somewhere among all the joviality, we lost our table to the employees of the company it was reserved for (probably fair) and I found a group of Australians on an extended trip around Europe (anglophone radar in full swing) We joined the throngs of people not at tables, simply milling around, dancing to goodness knows what music. It was so packed, that it would be an absolute miracle if anyone was able to a) catch the attention on a waiter/waitress to order anything and b) anything ordered actually reached it's intended recipiant.
Either way, we forsook our places in the tent and went outside to explore the fairground bit. I dragged anyone and everyone on any rides that took our fancy. So most of them. Being majorly overpriced didn't seem to deter anybody. We rounded the night off with an ungainly helter-skelter, takeaway, lost wanderings around Munich and finally a snooze on the floor in the train station before catching a very early morning train back to Bregenz.
So Oktoberfest...
Was it as I expected? Not quite.
Was it good? Oh definitely.
Would I wear lederhosen again? Never. Going to the bathroom has never been such a pain.
Was it expensive? Naturaly, but entirely worth it.
Would I recommend going? As the travel expert that I am (ha!) I insist that everybody, particularly anyone who speaks/learns/likes German goes at least once in his/her lifetime.
It is AMAZING. 

Bin wieder da!!

I`d always known Bregenz was small. Still, it came as a bit of a surprise that within such a short space of time (I`d literally dumped my stuff at my friend`s and gone for ice-cream) I saw students, a former colleague and boys from the Marianum.
How I've missed ice-cream by the Bodensee. Proper ice-cream. Mmm.
The day after I arrived was my birthday (I'm telling everyone that I'm 19 now that I'm back at uni) so Raffi and I went to Europa park. It`s probable that I am the worst person ever on a road trip because I pretty much slept  the whole way there and on the way back too. Raffi insisted on the biggest fastest rollercoasters (damn straight) and I forced him onto the water rides and the ridiculously awful things, that were possibly supposed to be scary.
In true birthday style it was rounded off by a few EMK friends coming round for drinks and then heading out to Paschanga for a legendary Long Island Iced Tea für Erwachsene. They ought to be legendary by now, I've blogged about them enough. There were a few other people we knew also there, including a few that I'd played touch rugby with that once. Out of sheer laziness, I hadn't been speaking any German which lead to some hilarious moments. Well hilarious for myself and anybody who knew that I understood everything being said about me. The priceless moment when I finally turned round and said "Ich KANN Deutsch..." Brilliant. Proof that some Brits really can communicate in other languages without repeating ourselves more slowly and louder, with more and more gesticulations.
Whilst being in the general kind of area, I took a trip to Stuttgart to visit my lovely friend Laura. What's a few hours on a train and €40 when I get to see one of my favourite people? It was a rather cold, grey day, on top of being a Sunday which severely limits possible activities. We had a traditional German lunch (more to this cuisine than sausages you know) although I must admit I have no idea what most of what I ate was...
We went for a wander. Cue the following display of superior intellect :
"ooh, that looks a bit Welsh!" In my defence, from the angle where I was standing, the writing was upside-down. We met up with some other people (not really clear on who they were. I did however enjoy their Scottish accents) and mooched round a flea market where we spotted a colossal electric Donald Duck. We debated over its possible purpose. Apparently it waved and the eyes lit up. I sent some things flying on one stall and decided it would be better to keep a safe distance and not end up paying for ivory carvings. We followed this root around with some lovely hot chocolate, a brief visit to Laura's flat before I headed back to Bregenz. My overwhelming impression of Stuttgart is now overshadowed by my own ineptitude.
I rounded off my time in Bregenz (before Oktoberfest - keep your eyes peeled for a post) with a list of errands. A not-so-quick to the bank gave me a nice shiny sum of money, rather than it being held hostage. To make sure they didn't keep it captive again, I closed the account. This was followed by a trip to the school, where I fortunately found all the staff getting ready for an afternoon meeting. I therefore greeted everybody nicely, said hi to all the teachers and picked up my from so that nobody tries to claim back that well-appreciated ERASMUS grant, which I no longer have. Being just round the corner, I nipped up to the Marianum. This wasn't very exciting. I didn't have any post and nobody was around. Boring. However, it was ever so nice to make a trip back, even if I spoke hardly any German.

Top of the Morning to ya!

It`s actually a few months since my trip to Dublin now, but this post has been months in the making. Despite being such a short distance away, that weekend my very first trip to the Emerald Isle. It's funny, I assumed that had something to do with grass being green and there being lots of countryside in Ireland, but almost everything is green. Buses are green. I'm surprised phone boxes aren't green. Actually, I don't remember seeing any phone boxes so who knows what colour they are.
I got very excited upon our arrival, because signs are all in Gaelic as well. Obviously I prefer the Scottish variety, but still... We waited around for a bus, made our way to the hostel and moved in to our dorm, where our nostrils were instantly greeted by Man-smell. Clearly we were not in a single sex dorm. Clarification was later demanded as to whether we meant B.O or fart by man-smell. We're not certain.
Lauren and I went for a wander to find ourselves some alcohol and a bit of food for dinner. I say a bit, we did also have the €5 beer and burger at the hostel. Before long we were all dolled up and ready to hit the town armed with directions to Temple Bar (we didn't get there) and the helpful words "when you see the big pointy thing you know you're home."
We got a little disheartened by the cost of things. Entry, a single drink, a round.. it all seemed extortionate. Seemed is the wrong word. It IS expensive. We found a bar called Dandelion doing a deal - 3 Jaegerbombs for €10. aka 3 shots of Jaegermeister and a small can of knock-off red bull. Maybe it was real red bull. Who knows. We stuck to those. Somewhere in among our drinks, whilst wondering where to go, I asked a guy where he suggested. His suggestion was that we joined him and his friends. So we did. They were quite the nice group of Irish lads. They bought us all drinks and managed to get us free entry to the club. Although I'd earlier joked that the only way to have a cheap night in Dublin would be to find a group of guys, it hadn't actually been our plan! We went for food. Laura and Lauren made a beeline for McDonald's. I followed still chatting to some of the guys and one of them decided I needed a Happy meal. We then spent 2 hours in McDonalds with 2 of these guys before finally getting a taxi home. I spent a grand total of €15. Sadly, my shoes ruined my feet.
I assumed we would be the last ones sneaking into the dorm room. We weren't. A very very drunk young Irish boy strolled in around 7.30 who obviously wasn't in the mood to sleep as he started talking to everyone, opening the curtains and poking my mattress from his bunk underneath. Not the best night in a hostel.
Sunday morning! Finally time to start our sightseeing.
Traipsing round in some lovely sunshine was all very wonderful and we had took in a fair few sights: the castle (not really a castle and vaguely resembles Balamory on crack), some churches, some ruins, a park... but by the time we hit the Guinness Storehouse, my feet were dying. As the storehouse is indoors I decided wandering around barefoot would be perfectly safe and give my poor tootsies a break. One word of warning to anyone out there: you will end up looking like a third world child who has never seen a pair of shoes in his or her life. On the bright side I am now certified to pull the perfect pint of Guinness. That`s a certificate to whip out if I ever want a bartending job...
Oh well, from bar tending to bar-hopping. Not that we did that, but we did make it to Temple Bar this time round. Somehow we picked up a group of Americans. After the bars closed we headed back to our hostel armed with beer and the Americans and took over the games room in the basement. Cue some crazy version of ping pong (it would make sense to call it Beer Pong if such a thing did not already exist) which we played for hours. How many things I would have loved to quote yet can`t quite remember!
Our last day before our flight was much less touristy, although we did pay a visit to Trinity College. We spent most of the day shopping for Laura`s graduation outfit.
A fleeting visit to a city that definitely deserves much more time. I want to visit a distillery, some of the quirky museums (including the leprechaun one, I don`t care how awful it turns out to be!) and the things outside the city centre. Perhaps take in some of the green, that isn`t a bus. Just nobody tell Izzie (remember, the one from China) just how much I liked Dublin, I`ll never hear the end of it!