Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Friday was hot, sunny and perfect for Munich beer gardens, 2 hours after waking up we were at the new Allianz Arena (Bayern Munich's new stadium and host for the opening World Cup 2006 tournament match).



After cruising by the stadium we picked up Leo and got down to business, straight to the English Gardens:



We decided that it was too hot at noon to go hiking through the foothills to Andechs so we stopped for a beer in the shade to wait for a later afternoon departure, Leo's trying his terminator look here...



...and his "leave it to beaver" look here: ;-)



The place was packed, of course, long weekend here in Germany:



Well after meeting one of Leo's Russian friends at the Chinese tower place (and having a few more masse) we decided a change of view was in order. At this point hiking was still on the bill officially, but a pitstop at the SeaHaus for a beer before leaving would soon demolish those plans:



As we were driving downtown for some din-din (the Andechs hiking plans totally discarded at this point) we saw this guy stumbling along in the grass and actually collapse and pass out right on a lawn downtown, if I could have gotten my camera out sooner I'd have one of the funniest videos of all time! Keep in mind that it was only 9:30 pm at this point!!



Throwing a penny into the wishing well for luck, yes my wish came true...



...I wished for a great ride, and got one ;-)



Grandma hadn't been to germany before so we totally had to do the obligatory Hofbrauhaus for a beer. As always tons of drunken tourists, polka music and fat waitresses with bigger arm pipes than Hulk Hogan serving up to 10 Masse glasses at a time. Our buddy Martin (who's a shaggin good salsa dancer now) joined us for a round.



Time to ride to the next stop:



Um... ok drinking since noon large 1 litre masse sometimes mean that you end up with strange photos on your camera the next day that arn't really easily explained. This would be one of those times. At least a 9.5 for the synchronization.



Scheiderweisse is the best weissen :-)



Um, walk like an Eygption? Actually practicing my moves as we were off to meet Martin at the Salsa place:



I was drunk, she looked hot at the time, I made a mistake, I'm ok with that ;-)



I wished for one and got two rides ;-) Notice the hiking clothes still in full attire as we totally get lost trying to find the Salsa place:


After nearly getting thrown in the slammer we decided it was time to put up or shut up, back to Leo's for some REAL Russian vodka:



And as always, all good things must eventually come to an end:



That's the weekend folks, in a somewhat mixed posting order, still waiting for the pics from Leo/Martin and Grandma. Let's just say getting up for strategy class at 8am was not pleasant, although I was only 10 minutes late despite being so tired that I actually got on the wrong bus for the first 3 stops!

Looks like the week's goal is to hit thesis hard, get the case materials for Strategy class on Thursday completed (if you want a digital copy of the notes then pitch in 10 euros and they're yours, saving you the 55 euro charge!) and get ready for another great summer weekend in Germany!

Quick update for any who want to join us, tomorrow hockey at the tennis courts 5:30, Quiz night at Irish at 10pm, Wednesday night we're doing a group running training session 8-9:30 then probably out for a coffee/beer, Thursday busy, Friday beer garden 20 minutes outside Pforzheim (on good authority that this place is the best beer garden this side of Baden-Wurtemburg!, karlsruhe gang it's only 10 mins for you to get there so if we could hook up then instead of on Sunday my liver would most appreciate it!), Saturday strategy class all day, Stuttgart circle beer place afterwards and maybe a capper at crazy cool beard guy place. Drop me a line if you're around for any of that and we'll hook up. Until then, safe travels everyone!