Auf Wiedersehen Oktoberfest, Hello Furry Ones

This past weekend we hosted our annual Oktoberfest party - our final Oktoberfest celebration of the season.  

The festivities included all the expected elements - beer, brats, pretzels.  And like everything, it has gotten easier to figure out how to find these things with time.  

Many key elements were repeats:

My dear artist friend Suzie let us use this again.....

And the pretzel lady found last year did not disappoint....

Zoe's dirndl from a past Munich trip + this year's shopping spree = Zoe got her friend Noa in the spirit too!

Of course, we always aim to improve - this year we were pretty excited with some new additions:

Most exciting....
Our very own table-top KEG-ERATOR!

Friends at the Embassy helped find a keg delivery service.....

(THANKS KM & Lexy!)

A simple addition - but in this land of limited websites & confusing Cyrillic the excitement went to our heads!

We also welcomed a new addition last year who was put to good use

(Damn - is this a way to make friends with the under 12 set!)

After jacking the 35+ kids up on sugar, maybe the most helpful addition......movies in Zoe's room

(An ipad + a computer monitor = a fab pair!  Thanks Logan for the continued "Home IT" brilliance)

But, in the end, the festive people are what made our final 2013 Oktoberfest fantastisch

And proved you don't have to be German to get in the Bavarian spirit 

Sunday, we said 'auf wiedersehen' to Oktoberfest, put away the beer steins & Bavarian trumpet player decorations......then welcomed a few more additions to the house:

Zoe's kitten "Snow Salt McDougal"

His brother - Quincy's kitten - "Yang Pepper McDougal" 

And Xavier's more contained furry friend "Hammy" the hamster

Oh, the irony of spending $50+ for this guy and all his supplies while paying $50 a month in Chicago to ensure nothing of this sort lives on or near our property!

But the smile does it every time!

Here's to the festive spirit of Oktoberfest & being a sucker for your kids' smiles!

Fab Munchen & Festive Oktoberfest

We LOVE Oktoberfest and are a mere 2 hour flight away from Munich.  So when our German friends from Kiev asked us if we wanted to join them at their friend's table in the Augustiner tent (incidentally our favorite German beer), it was an easy decision....we made a family weekend of it. 

Bursting at the seams with festivity

While Munich is always fab, Oktoberfest really brings out the spirit. The place is literally bursting at the seams with it

Trachten is everywhere.  You might guess that only the die hard Bavarians don durndles or lederhosen, but honestly you stand out more in "plain clothes" than in "trachten".  How can you not love a party where thousands of people dress up?!

We took a crack of dawn flight to allow time to shop & update our outfits.  

Well worth the 4:30 wake up I'm sure you'll agree....

Total family fun

And while many people associate Oktoberfest with just beer, its so much more!

 The festival is a cross between 6 Flags, a food festival and a keg party.

Not surprisingly, the kids like the rides part best.  
And since we were celebrating Xavier's 8th birthday, we agreed to go on 8 rides

(I wasn't so convinced about a Log Ride while it was in the 50's)

(Warning, the pricing is certainly NOT frat party - came home with significantly lighter wallets!)

Impressively controlled chaos

You'd think a festival that includes ~7million liters of beer & almost that many people could be ugly.  But damn - the city's preparedness is impressive. 

Our hotel was a block from the festival grounds. Yet the metro (or "U-bahn"), was totally calm - likely aided by the extra security.....

And while things got a bit messy by the end of the day, each morning the place was scrubbed clean and spotless....

(Each of these 2 pictures was taken at ~7:30 am - one on Saturday morning, the other on Monday.  Guess which is which?!)

As if Oktoberfest isn't enough, Munich itself is crazy fab....

Bikes Galore

Give me  city with a bike lane, and I'm ready to go visit.  Give me a city with a wide, smooth one like this & I'm ready to move 

We all loved the biking city tour

They even had rental tag-alongs!

Permanent Beer Gardens Galore

And while Oktoberfest only lasts for 16 days, there are loads of permanent beer gardens.  Including a fab one in Munich's version of Central Park - the English Garden.

Food & drink on one side...

Playground on the other...

(Once again, appealing to the interests of the whole family - genius!)

Delish Food Galore

OK, while you wouldn't be able to buy any fitted clothing eating this stuff everyday, there's no denying its YUM!

Here's to Oktoberfest, Munich, turning 8 & Kirsten and Holly for the inspiration

Prost!

Respect your noun nuances

Most people agree that Russian is a tricky language.......2+ years in, my fair share of botched appointment times & misunderstandings can attest to that.

In Russian, nouns just aren't nouns.  They change depending on the context.  

An example:
School = 

• школа  "Shkola"
• школу  "Shkolu"  (when you are going there)
• школе  "Shkole"   (when you work there)

As an impatient pupil, I tend to just slur the ending an get on with it.

Today, I learned to respect the nuances.    I headed out to get the car serviced at a dealer on "Moscovska street".  Plugged it into the GPS and was ready to roll.....

...thru so many neighborhoods I started to wonder

90 minutes into the 20 minute drive, I learned to heed the nuance of those endings.  

The neat star shaped route I took highlighted in light blue....

When it comes to car servicing, I often don't know exactly what they are talking about.  
But when I was presented with this recommended repair list, I mimed out a few clarifying questions, then simply nodded, smiled & got out my wallet

I felt a bit taken advantage of & wondered if it was all necessary or even done.....


Rest assured, in Ukraine they seem to know you are dubious & proactively take steps to prove they have done the job

The technician saved & showed me the packaging from the new parts used.....

As well as the old ones that needed replacing.....

(don't know what it is - but sure looks like a wise call to get a new one)

I reminded me to respect the small things - as you certainly don't want to be the person responsible for something like this....

(Sign from expat clinic in Beijing - sent by a friend's friend who lives there - thanks Kirsten!)

Have a fab day & here's to minding the details