Two weekends ago, we celebrated my beautiful wife's birthday and she and I also got a free trip to Berlin! The weekend started on Friday the 20th, where we celebrated Kathi's 29th birthday at the Frühlingsfest. For those who don't know, the Frühlingsfest (which is translated as spring festival) is like a miniature Oktoberfest, but it's really just celebrated by the people of Bayern. Many of the different towns, villages, and neighborhoods will all have their own festival, with beer halls, rides, foods, and carnival games and events. But the big one is at the Theresienwiese, which is the same location where the Oktoberfest is held each year. So, Kathi and I, and several of our good friends, had two tables reserved and partied all Friday night long! To say that most people there were over the top drunk would have been an understatement! I, in particular, was in a whole new realm of drunk :-) But, all the singing, dancing, dirndls and lederhosen, and of course, many a maß beer, and we all had a super great time!
The next day, Kathi and I were on a plane to Berlin! We were finalists in a contest to see who would be the "face of Israel"... an ad campaign for vacationing and traveling to Israel and they were looking for the right couple to be the ad campaign "face". We were one of 10-15 couples that were finalists, out of more than 350, which was pretty awesome! So, they paid for our flight to Berlin and our hotel room! We spent Saturday just going around the city being tourists. She and I went to quite a number of vegan restaurants and shops, all of which were quite tasty and cool, and had drinks with a buddy of ours that evening. That Sunday, we spent the day with the Axel Springer company (the sponsors), going through the questions and taking pictures. One super cool thing about this place was that the top floor of this building was the personal suite of the late Axel Springer, and it's gorgeous, completely made from hand carved wood, AND, every US president except for Obama has been to this suite for business in the past. Very cool!
This last weekend was basically fun in the sun... and yes, lots of beer too! Friday's are always a bit nice because we are allowed to leave work an hour early, and this particular Friday, I left an hour earlier than that! So, I took Blue on a walk down the Isar (the river that runs through Munich) and we had a nice time doing that. Back home for a workout, then I was off to hang out with a couple of buddies that I don't normally hang with, Riste and Jan, and that was pretty cool! We met on the Isar (again for me), had a couple beers, then went off to the Höfbräuhaus for one more maß beer!
Saturday was Flag Football and BBQ! I did a decent job at QB... for every 5 crap passes I threw, I had one great one for a long TD :-) We played a great game out in the sun, everyone had a lot of fun and then we just chilled and BBQ'd and drank beers! That evening I had dinner at my buddy Keith's house, along with a nice nap on his futon. All in all, a good Saturday.
Sunday was pretty awesome too. Keith took me and Kathi, plus a bunch of us guys, on a hike up to Seekar mountain, where we proceeded to hike up and down for 4+ hours and over 1000 meters! This is not much for some peoples standards, but for some rookies, it was pretty great. The views from the mountain were beautiful and I'm looking forward to heading out for another good hike soon! Another cool thing was that afterwards we stopped at a restaurant call Hirschbachstüberl, a typical Bavarian restaurant, but the hidden surprise was that this was an all vegetarian\vegan restaurant... Kathi was ridiculously happy! The food was good, and so were the beers!
So, now it's Monday and I'm at work. I'm sore all over and sun burnt on top of that! But I tell you, I wouldn't change a thing, except for maybe using more sunblock! Two awesome weekends, back to back. I can't wait to see what's in store next!
