Even better than the real thing

You all may or may not know this, but Stuttgart has an Oktoberfest of its own. It's called the Canstatter Volksfest, and takes place at roughly the same time as Oktoberfest. Even though it's not quite as grandiose in size, it's still the second biggest beer festival in Germany, and many Germans prefer it to the "real" Oktoberfest. Probably because there are fewer tourists...

We were fortunate enough this year to attend both festivals: Oktoberfest (see below) and the Volksfest. I still think Oktoberfest is awesome for a number of reasons, but in some ways I liked the Volksfest better. For one, I didn't feel like a tourist because it was local, and second, I liked the band a lot better. They played a nice mix of traditional German festival songs and cover songs that any sorority girl would love, like "I Will Survive". The other difference was that we had a big group of people that we crammed into our one reserved table. The more the merrier is right. :)

Actually, Melissa and Vicky were also able to experience both festivals, having taken a trip to Italy after the Oktoberfest trip and stopping into Stuttgart for one night before heading home. What better way to spend your last night in Europe than at a German beer fest?

Me, Melissa, and Andy "Prosting"

Melissa, me, and our friend Rebecca
(stole this pic and the one below from Rebecca's
husbands webpage...nice pictures, Victor!)

Our friends Mike and Kathleen.
Note Mike's Lederhosen...totally upstaged us! :)

Certainly there are some things that Volksfest doesn't have, like not as many rides and not as friendly waiters (ours was a real jerk...oh well). It also doesn't have nearly the selection of beer tents. Stuttgart has 3 large tents and 6 smaller tents, while Oktoberfest has 14 large tents and 19 smaller tents. Plus some would also argue that Bavarian beer tastes better than Schwabisch beer (and I'd be inclined to agree), but I don't know how much it really matters. Most people don't come to savor the beer....they just come to drink it. :)

Clarktoberfest 2007

Ah, yes. Our annual Clarktoberfest celebration has come and gone. We are now both one year older, and one year wiser....Er, I guess that last point is debatable. At least we know more about Germany than we did one year ago--that's something!

As many of you know, we spent our birthdays this year with Andy's family on a grand German adventure known around the world as Oktoberfest. What a rush. That place is crowded! And crazy! You've all got to promise to come next year.

We started our adventure in the humbler city of Stuttgart. We mostly took it easy, taking strolls downtown, shopping, visiting the Ludwigsburg palace, going to the top of the Fernsehturm, and visiting Schwabisch restuarants for the family's mandatory introduction to Maultauschen.

The Schlossplatz in downtown Stuttgart

Andy and Melissa in front of a Schlossplatz fountainStuttgart's opera houseDuck that was fascinated with Colin's camera
Night out for Schwabisch cuisine

After a few days in Stuttgart, we hopped in a rental car, drove to Munich, found our rented apartment, dropped of our bags, and raced to our reservation in the Hippodrom tent at Oktoberfest. Phew. Once there, we had €144 in vouchers that we needed to spend (you are required to buy these to get the table reservation), so we promptly ordered a round of beers.

Round of beers at the Hippodrom

Inside the Hippodrom Tent... Big, huh?

2 1/2 hours and €100 in vouchers later, our reservation was up. Vicky and Colin wandered the fest, Andy went home (he was sick with the stomach flu our first day or so in Munich...), and Melissa and I went to the Spatenbräu tent to have some beers, sing songs, and dance.

The next morning, we came right back to the Hippodrom to use up our remaining vouchers on some traditional Oktoberfest roasted chickens and some Weisswurst, all washed down with...you guessed it, beer. We then walked around and soaked in the fest a bit.

Horses outside the Hofbräuhaus tent

Inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent

Looking out on the crowd

We went back the next night to hang out some more. We hung out in Lowenbrau's beer garden for a while before trying to get into the tent. Unfortunately, Friday night entrance without a reservation proved a bit difficult. Andy and I ended up wandering around, playing carnival games, and people watching.

Showing off the bear and rose that Andy won for me. :)

Popular Lebkuchen hearts native to every German festival
You buy them for your sweetheart, and they wear it around their neck.
Mine said: "Suße Maus"

Although we were there for some portion of every day of the trip, we didn't spend all of our time at Oktoberfest. We also went to the Deutsches Museum (largest technological museum in the world), saw the Glockenspiel clock in front of Munich's Rathaus, visited a typical German cafe for breakfast, and spent an evening at the oh-so-festive Hofbräuhaus. That place is like Oktoberfest every single day of the year: meat & potatoes, pretzels, Maß of Bier, and traditional music.

A Munich favorite: Pork Knuckle with Potato Dumplings

We also took a side trip on our last day there to Neuschwanstein, the castle of Crazy King Ludwig. It's the one that the Disney castle is based on. Very over the top and, I thought, wonderful. We actually visited two castles: Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig grew up, and Neuschwanstein, the castle Ludwig built for himself just up the hill from his childhood home. The story goes that one day, before the castle was finished, King Ludwig went to see a doctor for a check-up and was declared "unfit to rule" due to insanity (if you saw this crazy castle, you might understand why). The next day, he and the doctor were both found dead in the lake. Supposedly no one knows exactly how they died. The castle was never completed after that, but several of the rooms were finished and they are all magnificent. Gilded, and mosaic'ed, with intricate carvings and elaborate paintings. Ludwig definitely had a vivid imagination.

If you'd indulge me, I'll tell you one of my favorite parts... In Hohenschwangau, there was a bedroom that was Ludwig's father's. This father had the ceiling painted with a bright blue sky with clouds. Ludwig, upon becoming king and taking the bedroom for himself, had the sky repainted to be a night sky. He then had holes drilled from select stars all the way up to the floor above, where those holes were connected with oil lamps, so that he would see twinkles of light across the ceiling as if he was sleeping outdoors every night. I thought that was neat.

Ludwig's childhood home: Hohenschwangau

Ludwig's creative masterpiece: Neuschwanstein

So, that was our trip, in a nutshell. A very good Clarktoberfest indeed. I'll leave you with my favorite pic from the trip...something you'd only see in Germany!

Girl in a Dirndl aiming a pellet gun

Help! I need a Porsche! It's an emergency!

So we've known for a long time that the number for emergencies in Europe is not 911, like in the US. Over here you dial 112 if you need help. What I didn't realize until now, is that in Stuttgart "911" is actually the direct extension to call Porsche Headquarters. Hilarious. Can't you just see a confused American with a flesh wound calling 911 for help, only to be talked into buying the new Carrera? I guess in a way a new Porsche would be therapeutic.

A conference with cow bells, what's not to like?

As some of you may know, I'm in the middle of a whirlwind of conferences. At the moment, I'm two down with one to go. Just to give you a recap, in the past two weeks I've presented one poster, given two talks, attended upwards of 60 talks, visited 4 poster sessions, met and memorized the names of 30 new networking acquaintances, and eaten 20 restaurant meals. Conference time can be exhausting.

The good news is, that sometimes you get to visit a place that's cool, like Braunwald, Switzerland. This tiny little village is perched some 1300 m (4265 ft) up along the side of a mountain. It's quaint character is increased by the fact that no cars are allowed, and the only transport up there is a cable car from the town of Linthal in the valley below. It was really a beautiful place to be, surrounded by rolling green hills and glistening white mountaintops.

View from the hotel over the Glarus Valley

Cows Grazing

This cow had a particularly loud bell

Riding scooters down the mountain.
A group of us took another cable car 200 meters further up,
then rented these scooters to ride back down. Super fun.
Here I am posing with Dan, a fellow post-doc
who works in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Green hills in contrast with white mountains

I have to say though, one of my favorite things was the cows. As you many know, it's common to tie a cow bell around the neck of each member of your herd, so that you can always locate your flock. Multiply that times dozens of cows spread over dozens of farms, and you've got a continuous little cow bell symphony each day. I took a video to try to demonstrate this effect:

My other favorite things was the fire hydrants, which were painted to look like miniature people:



All in all a very nice conference. I think it's inspired me to look into Switzerland as a weekend getaway option. Either for hiking in the fall, or skiing in the winter. It may be an expensive country, but when you see how pretty it is you really don't mind.

The Doktorhut Tradition

Nothing against the US, but Germany does PhD defenses way cooler. Believe it or not it all boils down to a hat: the Doktorhut. For weeks before the PhD defense, co-workers and fellow students feverishly craft a giant morter board hat to surprise you with after your defense, covered in pictures and symbols of your time in grad school. For instance, if I had had one, it might've had: pictures of friends, something to do with the beerathon, a bar of chocolate, an homage to Panera, and a mini thesis titled "wedding planning."

Since our friend Guillaume just graduated this summer, I can show you what his hat looked like. It had a suitcase because he had a saga with lost luggage last year, the Eiffel tower because he's French, a wine bottle with a label from his family's vineyard, pics of friends, images from his research, etc., etc. It was a masterpiece:

Granted, Guillaume's had to be the most complicated Doktorhut ever to grace this green earth. It had two layers, played music, had LED lights, a steel reinforced cylinder....in other words, this thing weighed a ton! Thus the reason that Guillaume needed help to keep the thing on his head during the obligatory picture:

I think the reason that I like the defenses so much more here, is that they make such a big deal out of it. The whole department gets excited. Families come in town to celebrate. Everyone goes to see them give their talk. When the successful candidate passes and comes back upstairs to greet everyone, they are presented with their hat (with the obligation to determine what everything means), followed by a champagne toast and a big party. Of course, you have to pay for the party yourself, but it's a small price to pay for the fun and excitement of the day.

Pink boas never fail to draw a crowd

Who says you can't have an "early" bachelorette party? My friend Shravanthi got engaged over Christmas, and even though the wedding won't be until next year, Petra and I wanted to throw her a bash in Germany before she heads back to the US in a couple of weeks. So, we gathered up the girls, made a list of dares, got on a train to Munich, drank some Martini Bianco, donned some pink boas, and headed out for a fun and crazy night. We didn't really get to do any sightseeing...unless you count drinking beer at the Hofbrauhaus...but we definitely took advantage of Munich's laid-back style and plentiful tourists, which, as it turns out, were crucial to Shravanthi checking off all the dares we had planned for her:

-playing hopscotch on the street and getting a child to join you
-challenging someone to a "wheel barrow" race
-doing your make-up in the men's bathroom
-going up to a guy, pretending like he's famous, and asking for his autograph
-ordering something gross from the bar, like a hefeweissen with milk (yuck!)
-...and many, many more...

What made the bachelorette party even cooler was that we incorporated the German tradition of the bride raising money for drinks for the evening. Early in the evening, we hit the streets with a soccer ball and make-shift goal (large piece of cardboard with a hole cut in it) in tote. Players (usually men trying to show off their machismo) got two chances to kick the ball through the goal for a 2 Euro fee. If they got one in, they got a shot of liquor, if not, we simply kept their money. This turned out to be really fun and fairly lucrative. For about 11 Euros worth of alcohol, Shravanthi scored 50 Euros in sales....enough for a round of Maß (liters of beer) for all 8 of us at the Hofbrauhaus. Not too shabby.

Some pictures from the weekend are included below for your amusement. By the way, let me know if any of you are interested in a pink boa of your own...I've got two left. :)

Melanie, Petra, Shravanthi, and Katie on the train to Munich. We actually were in the same train car as a bachelor party, which added to the festivities.

Here's the gang posing at the Augustiner Keller, where we ate a hearty lunch together. It's important to fill your tummy before a night out in Munich!

We did a little pre-partying in our room a the Pension Wombat before heading out. Here's Shravanthi showing off her outfit along with the Coors Light (nostalgia!) that Katie managed to get from the US army base.
Our first successful soccer game customer, picking out his shot of liquor.
Shravanthi playing hopscotch in the street near Marienplatz. It turned out to be a bit difficult to convince parents to let their child play hopscotch with a crazy stranger wearing a pink boa...but eventually Shravanthi managed it.

Our wheel barrow race in the bar at the Pension. Shravanthi and I totally won. The other guy was too drunk and dropped his friend within 2 seconds.

Putting on make-up in the men's bathroom of the Hofbrauhaus. Definitely surprised a few patrons with that one...

Perhaps my favorite dare of the evening, ordering a Hefeweissen with milk. It was worth it just to see the look on the bartenders face. He carefully explained that in all his years of bartending, he had never had anyone request that drink. When Shravanthi told him, "No, I hear it's really good," he told her he thought someone was "pulling her leg". Still, we convinced him to make the drink, and Shravanthi took one brave, "take that" gulp. What an all-star!

Another French Getaway

We're back from the coolest weekend adventure I've had so far: The Wiederhirn Western Wine Weekend! We hopped in Petra's car on Friday afternoon and headed West to France, excited for our highly anticipated weekend visit of the Wiederhirn Family vineyard in Riquewihr, part of the Alsace region of France. Alsace is a popular wine producing region of North Eastern France (very close to the German border) with beautiful country towns. The majority of the wines (as far as I know) are whites, examples including Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Blanc. My pictures don't bring deserved justice to the relaxed life and history of the region we visited, nor the natural beauty of the villages and surrounding land. Take a quick peek from my perspective:

A distant shot of Riquewihr, the nicest country
village we visited this weekend. Note the grape
vines in the foreground as well as behind.

And another..

For perspective..LOTs of grapes

A pic of Riquewihr's "Old City". This
was once a double-fortified city, and
had the chance to see part of the wall
still remaining and completely stable
which was built around 1200 AD.

So many details to list makes it hard to focus on anything in particular. I can, however, say that we were honored to spend the weekend with a fabulous local family, the Wiederhirn Family of Riquewihr. Their generosity was outstanding, and we had a great time sampling the wines they've produced for over four centuries. I'm already planning our next trip.. Can't Wait!!

I would encourage any of you traveling through the Alsace region (and specifically Riquewihr) to take a few hours to explore the beauty of the town and local culture, and especially search out the Wiederhirn Cellar. By the way, the local cuisine was very favorable (and meaty!). To be sure, there's plenty of space for hiking (lightly or otherwise) or biking after you sample a bit too much, be it a local Pinot Blanc, some Flammkuchen, or a nice slice of Rhubarb pie. Until next time..

Oktoberfest Sneak Preview

You may or may not know this, but Germany has more than just Oktoberfest in its repertoire of beer festivals. For example, here in Stuttgart there's a pretty big festival each spring in Bad Canstatt, called Fruelingsfest or Canstatter Wasen. Most people here described it to us as a mini-Oktoberfest, and if that's the truth, then I really can't wait for the real deal. It was crazy fun. Or as the Germans say, "Es war der hammer!". :)

Basically the festival is set up like a regular carnival or state fair: carnival rides, roller coasters, food stands, people challenging you to play their game and win giant stuffed animals, etc, but with the added bonus of "tents". In the tents is where potent beer is served in giant liter glasses, where a live band plays music, and where hundreds of happy patrons stand on their bench seats and sing & dance & drink all night. It was actually a little exhausting to sing and dance and drink the whole night, but hey, I guess someone's gotta do it!

The carnival part of the festival

Txema showing off his liter of beer (ein Mass)

Me taking my first swig
(note my rotated hand---it's too heavy to lift the normal way!)

Early in the night, as people started to stand on their benches for the songs

Later in the night, when everyone was standing on the benches!

Svea and Melanie singing along to our beloved "Cowboy" song
(mentioned before in this post)

Marcel, Achim, and Daniel raising their glasses for a "Prost"

Gute Fahrt!

So this post is probably long overdue, but I thought I would tell you about the "false friends" of the German language. By this I mean phrases that sound or look similar to ones in English, but mean something totally different.

For example, "Gute Fahrt!" does not mean "Wow. You are awesome at cuttin' the cheese!" It means: "Have a good trip!". Other favorite confusing German words include:

- bald = soon
- Chef = boss
- Gymnasium = high school
- Pickel = pimple
- Gift = poison
- Beamer = a projector
- Schmuck = jewelry
- Handy = cell phone
- Fahrt = drive or way
- Gummi = condom

Of course, in normal conversation it's usually pretty easy to distinguish the meanings, but we still giggle whenever we see an entrance with a "Fahrt" sign.

Cheesy, but Awesome

As we've mentioned several times, there's a store here called Tchibo, that has all of these wonderful, fun, themed items that change every week. Their slogan is "Each week, a new world." Since I'm on their mailing list (of course! they're awesome!), I get little magazines every now and then with a preview of what'll be sold in the coming weeks.

Well, the ads are always a bit cheesy, but this latest one takes the cake. The theme for next week is "Miami Weiss"...pronounced "Miami Vice", but translated as "Miami White". Very clever. It's all kitchen wares with a clean, white theme. So they have these two men dressed Miami Vice-style modeling all of the new kitchen wares. My favorite page of the ad layout is shown below...note that the "gun" the guy on the left is holding are really salad tongs. :) Just hilarious. Gotta love it.

I've got tongs and I'm not afraid to use them!

April Fish!

So, last Monday I was in Strassburg, France for the day. It's only a couple of hours by train, and since we got a group together (Emily, me, Shravanthi, Katie, and Kathleen), it was only 10 Euros a person, round-trip. Not too shabby, considering a ticket from Chicago to France would be at least 50 times that!

Anyway, we kept seeing these beautiful "fish" chocolates in all of the bakeries. They were shaped like Chinese goldfish, and the chocolate used to make them was swirled with red and orange. Since it's close to Easter, I figured they had something to do with the "loaf of bread and fish" story from the Bible.

Chinese Goldfish

Well, as Guillaume later clarified, it's actually because of April Fish Day (aka April Fool's Day). In France, the traditional prank is to tape a picture of a fish on someone's back and see how long it takes them to figure it out.....with bonus points for successfully putting an April Fish (Poisson d'Avril) on a teacher's back. You learn somethin' new every day. :)