at the München Oktoberfest

The season has come where 5-6 (or more) million Germans and tourists come to gather in Munich and amazingly consume up to 7 million liters of beer. Amazing right? Welcome to the  largest festival in the world, the Oktoberfest!

It was the last week of our vacation in Munich and of course how could we ever go home without taking a peek at Bavaria’s world-famous festival. We had the chance to visit Oktoberfest during the “Italian weekend”, where purportedly the festival was dominated by Italians. Italian men, specifically drunk Italian men,  are infamous in the festival for being more unruly than a regular drunk person. We knew of the warnings but we had no other time to go. We went there early in the afternoon to supposedly avoid the enormous crowd at the start of peak hours. However, it doesn’t really made any difference. There were just too many people. We had a hard time forwarding towards the center of the festival and decided to not pursue anymore when a drunk man stumbled and fell almost hitting little Johann.

As early as I thought it  was, some visitors were already knocked-out in the corners,  locally dubbed as ”Bierleichen” (German for “beer corpses”), while some were just starting off grabbing cases of beer on one corner. Being a festival where drinking itself is celebrated and people drink like there’s no tomorrow, you know what to expect.

A whiff of Parisian air

Paris, not Hilton.

Located in the north of the country on the river Seine, Paris has the reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities, brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food and design. Dubbed theCity of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capital of Fashion, it is home to the world’s finest and most luxorious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint- Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L’Oréal, Clarins, etc. A large part of the city, including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second highest number of Michelin-restaurants in the world (after Tokyo) and contain numerous iconic landmarks, such as the world’s most visited tourist sight the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Moulin Rouge, Lido etc, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world with 45 million tourists annually. — Wikitravel, 2010

. . . and yey! I’ve been to Paris!

A day spent in Salzburg

❝ The hills are alive with the sound of music

With songs they have sung for a thousand years . . .

Yes, the lines are from the celebrated movie [of our childhood], probably translated into multi-languages and even made into cartoon versions. Salzburg for one thing, is famous for being the setting of “The Sound of Music”. The movie was based on a true story of Maria von Trapp, a nun who lived in Salzburg. When you search online, there are actually tours offered around the city themed that of the movie. In lieu of  the pop culture fame, the movie of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz entitled “Knight and Day” was also partially shot at Salzburg.

[Original poster by Howard Terpning (1965). Source:www.impawards.com.]

A memorable train ride

Our train ride going home to Munich from Venice was by far the best ride I’ve ever experienced. Our route:

Sta. Lucia, Venice station [Trenitalia] ➤➤ ➤➤ Verona, Italy [transfer to OBB] ➤➤➤➤ via Innsbruck [Austria] ➤➤➤➤ Munich

Verona would have been a very fine destination. Second to Rome, it has magnificent remains of the ancient Roman empire. Also, it is the backdrop of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The view from Verona to Innsbruck changes dramatically. We passed by vineyards and apple orchards sloping on a hill. The meadows looked endless. The view of the mountains is truly incredible. Enormous mountains of what appeared to be made of solid rock sits atop the inclining meadows of Alpine trees. In certain instances, I don’t know which part, an occasional medieval castle/fortress is perched on top on one of these mountains. Truly a surprise, I can’t stop pointing my finger.

 

graphing paper + bus + Gimp

one of my pastimes

I've been practicing with Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a share software for image editing. I haven't got hold of Adobe Photoshop yet, so I'm starting over with Gimp – I like the sound of it /gimp/. I've been doing my sketches manually and I am so intimidated by Adobe Illustrator. I feel like a total moron the moment I open it. I'm still starting with Gimp and I have no idea if I can draw vectors with it as easily as Visio – how I missed … Read More

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