I met up with my old chemistry colleague Vikas in Tübingen, Germany. We met at the University of Otago many years ago and it was nice to catch up once again. We had some genuine German food from the region and had a beautiful view of houses beside the Neckar river. Tübingen is a beautiful university city with beautiful old historic buildings; I highly recommend visiting if you are in the area.
I visited München (aka Munich) in the heart of Bavaria. I made a new friend called Jen at the hostel I was staying at. With the help of Jen’s amazing timing, we saw the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel, a strange feature on the München town hall which chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century to amuse passers by.
I tried the famous Oktoberfestbier. It tastes somewhat like other beer except it was served in a mug.
I visited the Kölner Dom (aka Cologne Cathedral) in Köln with Julian Münster, an old hockey friend of mine. I went again the morning after and climbed to the top. For future reference, I suggest leaving your luggage behind before deciding to embark on climbing the staircase :/
We also headed to the Gaffel brewery to try the local brew called “Kölsch”, a slightly strange beer which is traditionally served in little 200 mL glasses.
Gaffel Kölsch – photo borrowed from somewhere on the internet
I visited Bonn, Germany around 2009, but I was mostly just passing through on my way to Köln just north of there. This time around I had a proper look, including taking a bus tour (note: bus tours in Germany are for old boring people and are best avoided). Whilst in town, I had some awesome beer, including a slightly strange but tasty brew called a “kristall weiss”, which is basically a regular weissbier, but it’s filtered so it looks like regular beer.
After having more beers than is a good idea, I headed over to the Bonn Münster, a church in the Bonn city center. It looked quite spectacular in the evening. It was built in the 11th and 13th centuries.
I moved into my current apartment because I knew I would have awesome flatmates. Three awesome girls and a cool guy. My room is 23 m2, ie: very big! I am moving out because I am moving to Berlin.
If you know of any males looking for a room to rent or are looking for one yourself, please get in touch 🙂 Rent is 5670 NOK per month plus electricity and internet and the bond / damage deposit is 12000 NOK. Rent starts December 1st.
For an extra fee of 5000 NOK you can also have the whole place totally kitted out with furniture, including a nine month old double bed, a couch, large mirror, large Plasma/LCD TV (not sure which), big chest drawers, a bookshelf, a desk, two free standing lamps and two giant bean bags (useful if you have lots of visitors over).
The apartment is situated between St Hanshaugan and the Royal Palace, easy walking distance from bus, tram and subway routes. We have two bathrooms, a very large kitchen/dining area and we have tons of storage room.
I had an awesome time in Amsterdam after WordCamp Europe with Ivelina and some of the other WordPress geeks. We went to Brouwerij”t ij, a small micro brewery with great beers and went out for dinner in a really awesome Chinese place. I didn’t think Europe had any good Chinese restaurants, but it turns out I was wrong 🙂
I stole this from Ivelina when it popped up in my Facebook feed 8 years later.