Oktoberfest 2008

4 Days in Munich for Oktoberfest was outrageous and I am totally over beer. The stench is oozing out my pores, my hands are bruised and blistered from swinging steins, my lungs are black as night. The night we arrived, we visited a well know establishment called Hofbrauhaus to warm ourselves up for Oktoberfest. Drinking from steins gets you absolutely wasted. Steins are 1 litre but you drink it at the same pace as a pint, so you are basically drinking and getting pissed twice as fast. Just to describe how leathered I was, I passed out fully clothed with my man-bag and shoes on.
Oktoberfest 1 – Sam 0

Saturday morning started at 8am as the doors for the beer tents opened at 9am and you have to line up else you will not be allowed in if the place is full. The doors normally close at 11am so there was no way we were going to miss out. Beers did not get served till 12pm since it was the opening day of Oktoberfest so it was dead boring sitting there twiddling with our thumbs.
At 12pm, beers came rolling in. Due to the 3 hour anticipation, I ended up drinking beers like water. We were kicked of the tables at 3pm as it was reserved but we weren’t too bothered, everyone was fully tanked. The night ended at the hostel getting more plastered and passing out at 12am. Oktoberfest 2 – Sam 0

To show that I have culture and not just about the booze, we visited the Nymphenburg Palace. This palace was built in 1664 to celebrate the birth of Maximilian II Emanuel who went on to become a ruler of Bavaria. The palace and park is about 200 acres but after 90mins of walking, we had to call it quits. Back to the beer tents we go for some refreshments. At around 10pm, I went back to the hostel to freshen up as my clothes were saturated in beer. I sat on my bed, closed my eyes and woke up the next morning. Apparently everyone was jumping on my bed and nothing was able to wake me up. I was very ashamed of my effort. Oktoberfest 3 – Sam 0.
We all sat in the courtyard on Monday with minimal words spoken. Everyone was either too hung-over, loss their voice or sick of everyone else.
Oktoberfest was an experience of a lifetime. Anyone keen on Oktoberfest 2009?
Oktoberfest gallery can be viewed here

Marienplatz Glockenspiel – 6.2 MB
Hofbrauhaus – 5.6 MB
Oktoberfest Part 1 – 6.2 MB
Oktoberfest Part 2 – 3.5 MB

Sam




Head count








Marienplatz Glockenspiel








Eileen with her first stein








She was carrying 10 at one stage








Boozed








Nymphenburg Palace









€8 My Little Pony

Dutch people hate tourists

I will talk about Amsterdam before I start expressing my opinions. Amsterdam is such an awesome place. Our flight was delayed so we started having shots and get getting plastered at the airport. Even during the 45min journey, we were the typical drunk Aussies/Kiwis on the plane. We occupied the last 2 rows (there were 11 of us) and the drinks cart only managed to finish serving us before they had to return back into their cabin. I feel sorry for everyone else onboard.

I’m not going to go into detail of what went on in Amsterdam as it could be used as incriminating evidence against me. The red light district was hilarious, although the amount of beautiful women in the windows is about 1:4 pugs. There’s an alley called ‘Skinny Lane’ and the name tells all. This alley was so narrow that you would struggle to fit 2 people side by side through. So when you are walking through, your face is basically pressed against the windows; the beautiful girls were a bonus. After viewing most of the ally’s I found one that I have not walked down; so I went to talk a look. The girls in the windows were hideous; I almost had to take a Viagra just to make sure I could pee. I have given that alley a name that I hope the Dutch can appreciate, ‘Chubby Lane’

We also did a lot of sight-seeing; visited Anne Frank’s house, Van Gogh museum, sex museum, Heineken brewery (it was closed), pancake houses, coffee shops and the best of all; renting bicycles. Since everyone in Amsterdam rode bikes, we had to embrace the culture and terrorise the streets with out rented bicycles. We even had individual names just to make our bike gang better known. Mine was Viper, we also had Slayer and we named the other two guys Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. My advice to everyone is to rent a bike to when visiting Amsterdam, there is so much more out there; we visited places we wouldn’t have known about. The culture also changes when you are out of the city. We managed to find Rembrandt Square where a statue of Rembrandt stands. I didn’t even know Rembrandt was Dutch.

So when I was in Amsterdam, I noticed that no one actually lived there. It is just a city of tourist, tourist, and tourist. Of course there are loads in London, but in Amsterdam, we/they are all in one area. You meet people from all sides of the world.
Back to my initial subject that Dutch hates tourist. Well for one, I got absolutely abused when I was calmly riding my bike but I think the main reason is that tourist do not understand the rules, do’s & don’ts and just there to abuse the substance privileges while being rude and obnoxious. Let’s break that down a bit. Firstly, riding a bike in Amsterdam is not easy; the bikes are old and not very stable as you bounce your way down the cobblestone road. Bikes also have right of way in most places while tourists are constantly blocking their way. You also have and traffic system for bikes, due to the fact that I did not know about it, I nearly got T-Boned by oncoming cars. Secondly, tourists are smoking marijuana in public. This is a no no, you already have the ability to smoke in a coffee shop but people decide to walk around the city and sparking up in the corner. Not to mention they will be high as the cloud and not caring about the surrounding public.
Pics from Amsterdam can be viewed here

Sam






Infamous Bulldog Hostel










Let's Party







Cockring?










mmm salami









Smoking Kills








Want a ride ladies?

Donington Superbikes

Pete, his girfriend Jess and I attended the Superbikes in Donington this weekend.
Donington is about 2 hours North-West of London. Due to the amount of detours we made, it took us 4 hours. We left the accommodation a bit late and ended up staying out in Birmingham. I always thought Birmingham would be a hip place to be but apparently it’s rough as guts. Young girls pushing a pram around everywhere, it must be a craze to have kids at such a young age. The motel we were staying at was an absolute shithole. The entrance was a fire exit; even the stairs to our room was a fire exit. The rooms we so small that the door will not open fully. There was rubbish on my floor and the bed has been made with the same linen from previous visitors. Shit sleeping experience.

Now to the fun part; the Superbikes. Superbikes is one class below MotoGP. It was rainy, muddy and slippery. Bodies were flying everywhere and hitting the pavement at Ferocious speeds. Of course entertaining. We left the raceway soaking wet and smelling like horse manure. The 2 hour drive home plus the 1 hour tube journey was not the most satisfying.
Pics from Donington can be viewed here

10 Star Hotel Part 1 - 5.7 MB
10 Star Hotel Part 2 - 4.7 MB

Sam





Fast Crotch Rockets







brrrmmmm...








Final Race

I am no longer a shitter

As I sat patiently on Friday; ready to slit my wrist, I was offered a role at Interconnector UK. The role is basically supporting staff and using my Trump card on vendors. Today was my first day, it was slow as expected; absorbing as much information as I can about the environment. I also spent about 5 hours crawling around doing cable management. Here's another famous Soh Wisdom

'You have to wash the car, to be able to buff the car'

I don't have any pics this week as Eileen borrowed my Camera for Barcelona. I am however going to watch Superbikes this weekend at Donington raceway so that should be good. I don't know which will be more interesting; The superbikes or the population of 7000 at Castle Donington. Oh, I also managed to obtain another Microsoft Certificaton; I am geek, hear me roar

Peace

Sam