a day in the life

By this point, you probably recognize that Ryan and I are taking as many opportunities to travel and explore cities and countries across Europe as possible. But I promise you, we are really enjoying living in Munich, too! Rather than only show you other cities, I thought I'd give Munich the spotlight for (at least) one post.

The sunrise from our back deck

Our apartment is located in the northern part of the city, in an area called Schwabing. Our front door is literally 100 yards away from the U-bahn, which is incredibly convenient. Schwabing has some great restaurants and bars, and we have spent many evenings out in this part of town. Our favorite pizza and Mexican restaurants are located in this neighborhood, as are all of the stores we generally go to. Recently, a coworker asked me what I was enjoying about living in Munich thus far. My initial and very honest response was that I really love the supermarkets here! Despite the obvious language barrier, which sometimes results in me wandering around the aisles of the store using Google translate, I really appreciate the combination of price and quality. I have been on a total yogurt bender over the past three months, with my only hope being that I completely overindulge and get sick of it by the time my Amazon rotation is over. It is so good and so cheap, I can only imagine how much I will miss it when we move home! Also, the wine here is also really cheap! Generally, the bottles we buy, including German, Italian, French, and Spanish wines, are between two and five Euros. The 5 EUR bottles even feel like a splurge! It's amazing! (Am I using too many exclamation points?)

Ryan and I are trying to keep up with one of our favorite hobbies while living abroad. At times, Ryan and I would see a movie per week while living in Seattle; our rate has slowed significantly, to say the least. We have found two movie theaters in town that generally only show "Original Version" movies (i.e., English). However, movies are typically released a month or so later than they are in the US, so it is a bit painful knowing a new movie came out but we can't see it for weeks. Rough life, I know. On the plus side, all theaters here serve beer!

So what is a normal work day like, you ask? I usually mosey down the street to work around 9 AM and come home at 6 PM. The Germans are pretty strict about working a standard workday and work week - overtime is heavily frowned upon! When we work a Saturday or a holiday here, we get an extra comp day to take at a later time. This is basically unheard of in my past experiences. The Amazon office is a little over a mile from our apartment, so I have three options for my commute. On a nice day, I ride my bike or walk. On a rainy (or, perhaps, snowy) day, I can take the U-bahn one stop north and then walk the rest of the way. It's a very easy commute, but Ryan's got it even easier. He generally wakes up, showers, puts on his cozy bathrobe, and walks down the hall to the guest bedroom/office. The end. Oh, and Marley lovingly follows him and curls up on his lap. I think he really likes his new coworkers.

Mikey enjoying his limited outdoor time on our 4th floor balcony. He jumps up on the rail every time we are outside, usually trying to walk across into the neighbors balcony, so we only let him out when we can watch him.

Marley being weird. She's back to normal, folks.

Every day for lunch, my male coworkers all take an hour and head to a restaurant. They diligently rotate between an Italian restaurant and the local canteen, which serves standard lunch fare and German food. Everyone tells me Germans only eat one hot meal a day, so that means that these men would likely be eating a cold dinner at night. However, given the amount of people I see out at restaurants at night, I find this hard to believe. Which brings me to my next point: how is everyone here not 500 pounds with the heavy food they are constantly eating?

The ladies in the office (my team, plus one other British girl) usually walk two blocks to, you guessed it, the supermarket. They have a Whole Foods-esque salad bar which does not get refilled during the day. Therefore, if you snooze, you really lose. Sometimes when I'm late I end up with a very bizarre salad (lettuce, green beans, beets, and mozzarella, mm). One thing to mention: salad dressing options here suck. Really, its just olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a bunch of crap.  I really like olive oil and balsamic but I just got so sick of it that I ordered powder packets of Ranch and Caesar dressings while we were in Seattle at the end of September!

Sunset at the Amazon offices. Yes, it looks just like South Lake Union with cranes everywhere. 

On the weekends we are in town, we usually take a stroll or bike ride through the Englischer Garten, which is a five minute walk from our apartment. When the weather is at least decent, the beer gardens are open and we enjoy eine halbe Hendl und eine Maß (a rotisserie half chicken and liter of beer). Occasionally, Ryan will order a pork knuckle, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is pictured below, on the right. The hendl is on the left. I'll stick with the chicken, please.

At the Chinese Tower - the largest and most popular beer garden in the English Garden.

Since our sea shipment arrived, we have also been riding our bikes on the weekend. Recently, we rode to Olympiapark, home of the 1972 Summer Olympics. I was expecting to just see some athletic facilities, but this is a gorgeous, huge park area. We also grabbed some beers to accompany us on our ride, since we forgot our water bottles.

Well, that's basically the gist of it. Sounds a lot like our lives in Seattle, huh? More to come on Munich as the seasons change - The Christmas markets open on Thanksgiving day!

Until the next post!

xoxo,
L & R

five

"You're going where?!" My parents were slightly concerned and less than thrilled when we told them that we had booked a trip to Turkey to celebrate our five year anniversary.  I can see where they were coming from... no parent would be thrilled to hear that their daughter and future son-in-law are off to visit a county that borders Syria AND Iraq. However, we quickly reassured them that we were headed to the opposite side of the country in a touristy area that was only a 30 minute ferry ride to Greece. With their blessing, we were off to explore the sunny beach town of Cesme in the Turkish Riviera!

The trip was off to a bumpy start when we arrived at the airport to find that our flight was delayed about five hours. I bet you can guess how we passed those six hours in the Munich airport. Yep, we played Gin Rummy. Oh, that wasn't your guess? Don't worry, we didn't disappoint you. We drank several liters of beer, too.

We arrived in Izmir after 10 PM, hailed a cab, and headed for our hotel in the city center. Despite the time, we had yet to eat dinner, so we immediately asked for a restaurant suggestion and hit the town. We didn't have to walk far to find a great Turkish restaurant. Quick side note: I can't believe I went most of my life having not really experienced Turkish food. It is pretty easy to find in Munich as there is a high population of Turkish people. However, our recent trip now affords me the opportunity to go into detail about just how much I love it. Let me explain. Some of my most favorite foods include pizza, cheesy bread, and Spanakopita. On this first night in Turkey, I ordered some Pide. Plain cheese, of course. It may as well have been the stuffed crust of a stuffed crust pizza. I can eat this the whole trip and not even feel bad about it since it's the "local cuisine"? Deal. I was in heaven.

The next morning, we faced a bit of a challenge trying to navigate our way from the hotel to the Cesme bus. Where is the Metro station? Nothing is in English nor does anyone speak an ounce of English. Where can we even buy tickets? You get the picture. Once we finally found the bus station, it was a quick 30 minute bus ride, and we had arrived at our resort for the next three nights. Since we were now in the off season, we basically had the resort to ourselves. I will try to refrain from bragging about our trip too much, but to sum it up, here is a list of things we enjoyed during our stay:

Virtually private sandy beach
Swimming in the warm sea
Buffet breakfasts
Massages
Thermal spas, pools, and hot springs
Saunas
Turkish baths
Romantic private dinners at empty restaurants
Ryan wearing pashminas at dinner
Sunsets over the sea and Greece
Impeccable customer service
Stray cats (hey, I said "we" and this has got to be one of Ryan's favorite things)

The only thing that could have improved our trip was if the neighboring water park had been open.

Now on to the photo evidence.

anniversary dinner

a stray.

attack!

Until the next post!

xoxo
L & R

Wies'n

For those of you who have attended an "Oktoberfest" in the states, pssssh. We've been attending the Leavenworth Oktoberfest for the past couple of years, and while probably as close to authentic as it could get, it still doesn't even hold a candle to the Wies'n. We missed the first two weekends of the Munich festivities due to our trip back home for a couple of very important and special weddings (we love you, Richens and Kellys). However, fear not, we were able to arrive back in Munich just in time for the closing festivities and enjoy our first true Bavarian Wies'n.

Once again, Ryan's aunt's sister's family (what a mouthful) came through big for us. Christine and David offered us two tickets to join them in the Lowenbrau tent with their food & wine tour. To kick of the tour, they were taking the group to the closing day of Oktoberfest, Sunday, October 5. We gladly accepted their offer, put on our brand new Lederhosen and Dirndl, and hopped on the U-Bahn (underground) to the Wies'n.

Dressed the part, ready to go

Cheesin' up the U-Bahn

We arrived two hours before we were supposed to meet the group to take in the whole fairgrounds. And it truly is a fairgrounds. There are rides, games, food vendors, beer gardens, "tents" (more like huge, wood buildings), and more. We made a lap of the whole scene, took a ride on a surprisingly fun roller coaster, and then headed for the Lowenbrau tent.

Bar + Carousel = Awesome

Foot long!

Ryan and a few people from our table decided to ride Skyfall after a few Maß

It is hard to put into words what this experience was like. We were seated at our reserved table, which is the only way to get into a tent on a busy weekend day. Unless you arrive at the crack of dawn to wait in line for the opening, the major halls are typically so full that it is difficult to find a seat. And if you don't have a seat at a table, they will not serve you. We were lucky to have all the work done for us!

Throughout the course of the afternoon, there was much beer drinking (obviously), eating of giant pretzels and chicken, standing on benches/tables and singing, and of course, some amazing people watching. After about four hours, the tour group took off and we were left to our own devices. We stuck around for another two to three hours, ordering more beer and making friends with random strangers to find a new table to sit at.

Lowenbrau tent, from the floor. We were seated in one of the balconies.

View from our table.

Herr Boyd

The band came up to our section to play 'Amazing Grace'

And then proceeded to serenade the section

Frau Menne

By the end of the day, we were completely worthless human beings (are you surprised?). We stopped at a pizza place on our way home to grab some food, and needless to say, I couldn't even remember paying for dinner. And let's be honest, at this point, Ryan couldn't even walk straight so he was no help to me. The next morning, being the accountant that I am, I counted our remaining money and compiled a list of all of our charges from the previous day to determine if we paid. This is one of our favorite restaurants that we frequent often, so I am happy to report that we did pay our bill - phew!

Mark your calendars: next year's Oktoberfest is September 19 through October 4! Our guest room is filling up fast so make your plans early!

Until the next post!

xoxo
L & R

Maybe it won't rain on us this weekend?

Think again. It rained.

As a follow up to our weekend visiting Christine and David in Berchtesgaden (see previous post), we took their excellent advice and went on a quick weekend trip to South Tyrol, Italy. The beauty of South Tyrol is hard to beat and hard to describe.  It is a series of towns along a winding valley with almost every acre of land terraced for vineyards or apple orchards and surrounded by the Dolomites on all sides. We were a bit tired from traveling weekend after weekend, so we decided to stay in on Friday night and then leave for South Tyrol early on Saturday morning. After a few hour drive that took us through Austria and over a mountain pass, we arrived in South Tyrol around 11am.  And what else would we do at 11 AM? Wine tasting of course. I found a quaint family owned winery through my Google efforts which led me to a random Brit's foodie blog. Weingut Hans Rottensteiner was run by an older gentleman who must have been one of the owners, because his picture was all over their pamphlets and wine guides. He didn't speak an ounce of English, but gave us many free tastings.  Although we did slightly feel obligated to buy just based on his generosity, we wanted to buy a couple of bottles because they were so tasty! We even walked out of there with Ryan's pride and joy - a magnum bottle.

After wine tasting, we drove to downtown Bozen/Bolzano (another fun fact: this area used to be an Austro-Hungarian territory until WWI, when this primarily German-speaking territory was annexed by Italy and now they speak and use both languages).

Bolzano (the Italian name), is home to a really fascinating artifact and archaeology museum. In 1991, a body was found in the Dolomites covered in ice, whom they now refer to as Otzi, or Frozen Fritz. After a semi-botched recovery of his body and much research, it was determined that this man is over 5,000 years old and lived sometime between 3350 and 3100 B.C.! His body, clothing, weapons, tools, and other artifacts are on display at this museum. Yes, I said his actual body! He is kept in a giant freezer type room where you can view him through a window. He and his belongings were so well preserved in the ice, you can still see his skin, tattoos, nails, teeth, and they could even tell what his last meal was which was still in his stomach (an early form of wheat-porridge)!  He and his belongings were so much more advanced and sophisticated than previously thought that he alone changed anthropologists timeline of human history by over a thousand years! I could go on forever (Whitney had to sit through a long story telling session in person already) because I get so excited just thinking about it, but I will end with a declaration that I thought this was one of the more fascinating two hours I've spent in a museum in my life. We weren't allowed to take pictures but here is one that I stole from the museum's website.

This does not even do it justice!

After the museum, we continued our whirlwind trip and hit the mountains for a hike. We took a gondola up the mountain and stopped for lunch (and to hide from the rain) in an Alm. The Alm was recommended by Christine and David and was well worth the trip. They served a delicious wild mushroom lasagna covered in wildflowers!

the wild mushroom lasagna with wildflowers

accompanied by a frothy mug of beer

Until the next post!

xoxo,
L & R