Munich Oktoberfest in numbers

This year's Oktoberfest, or "Wies'n" as the locals call it, is coming up.

For quite a while now it hasn't just been a local thing anymore, people from all over the world come to say "Prost!" and "Mahlzeit!" which results in some crazy numbers:

• 95 gastronomical companies feed the visitors

• Oktoberfest employs 8.000 fixed and 4.000 changing workers

• the biggest tent is the "Hofbräuzelt" with 10.000 seats available (including the beergarden)
• all in all there are 14 big tents and 21 little ones (the smallest has 60 seats available) and together they offer 105.000 seats

 

 2011

• had 6.9 million visitors
• 7.5 million liters of beer (Maß) were consumed 
• 522.821 chicken and
• 118 oxen were eaten
• 4.750 things landed in the lost and found office including a Viking's helmet and some fake teeth

Wies'n Hendl

entrance of a tent called "oxen roaster"

even crazier: in the previous year 2010 the same office had to deal with a pug dog, a bunny, riding crops oh hello Christian Grey! and more hearing aids and fake teeth.

the poor dog found in 2010 - who would even bring one to Oktoberfest?!

 

200 people ask here for their lost phone DAILY!

Thought.

Have a nice weekend, everyone! Hope, all of us get to hear the music.

Flying with Delta part II: Never again

So, we arrived in Ottawa one day later than we had thought. Spend 10 great days there, visiting family and friends, hanging out at cottages, eating, drinking and relaxing.

When the day of departure came, we were driven to the Ottawa airport, which is very nice, clean and you even go through customs there already, so you don't have to do that after your actual arrival in the US, waiting in lines for hours. Super convenient.

You might see it coming: After three hours of waiting, our flight was delayed and then -surprise!- cancelled. Due to a storm in NYC. Well, we were quite bummed out, but at least we knew we could just call family and stay with someone until the day after, for our rescheduled flight in the early morning.

This time, we were smart enough to recheck our flight online in the evening. And again -who would have guessed?!- it was cancelled. At least we didn't have to go back to the airport, waiting there for nothing. Our next flight was supposed to leave the same day at 2 pm, but checking again online on both airport's and the airline's homepages, it appeared to be cancelled on one of them. So we called the airline and the airport but nobody could help us. Nobody knew what was going on. So we went there anyways, but we were pretty pessimistic about the outcome of this anew attempt. We felt like we were just not supposed to go to New York.

And we were surprised again: This time the plane took off almost on schedule. We made it to New York, had two wonderful days there and there was no problem whatsoever with our flight back to Europe.

By the way, asking our cab driver in New York about that storm, that was supposed to have caused the cancellation of two of our flights, he said, that there was one in the morning the day before, but since then the sun had been shining. And other airlines flights had gotten in just fine and on time.

What remains is our declared intention to never fly with Delta Airlines again and an odd allergic reaction hearing the word combination "air traffic problems".

A nightmare comes true: Flying with Delta part I

Well. Well. So far I have been pretty lucky travelling around, I guess. I've never had a flight cancelled or delayed. I have never been stuck at an airport. My travelling plans have never been interfered by giant ash clouds or similar. Really lucky, I know!

This summer though - when I decided to fly with Delta Airlines - the travelling gods turned on me. And this is what happened:

We decided pretty late to hop over the big pond to visit friends and family in Canada and attend a wedding in NYC. The best choices we had for flights were with Turkish Airlines (really cheap, with a layover of about 9 hours in Istanbul, yuck!) and with Delta Airlines (affordable, direct flight Venice - New York JFK, airport change to La Guardia and from there to Ottawa). So we went with Delta - a direct flight from Venice, which is only a three hours car ride from our little mountain town sounded pretty sweet to us!

Our first flight was delayed one hour (ok, no biggy). We made it to JFK and from there to La Guardia in time for our connecting flight to Ottawa, checked in in no time and were just hanging out at a little airport restaurant, watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games in London. Then, an hour before boarding, our flight was cancelled. Back to the Delta counter, we met the girl who had already done our check-in - really nice, really helpful and sympathetic. She told us, that the flight was cancelled due to "flight traffic problems", cause there had been a storm on Tuesday (it was Friday?!).

Anyways, cause it was "out of the Airlines control", they wouldn't reimburse our expenses for the overnight stay in New York. The Delta-girl felt so bad for us, that she called a hotel and did a reservation with a little discount from her private cell phone. Saying goodbye, she tried to console us, saying: "You know, it's a hard night for me, too. I have to be at a date in 10 minutes, and I still have to get ready!" Yeah, but really: Thank you Delta-girl, you really made us feel a little better.

We made it to the hotel, slept for good eight hours and got our connection to Ottawa the morning after (which was delayed, too) with unbowed optimism.

:-[==0

September

for some reason, always a sign of fall for me

Wow, it's already September!

I know, smart observation. Round of applause for me!

But apart from the big 9 in the calendar, there are some unmistakable signs creeping up, that fall is close.

fruit & vegetables

When I went shopping yesterday, I couldn't help but notice the highly visible change in the produce offered. Instead of cherries and strawberries, there were plums, pears, cabbage and grapes. And they all seemed to scream at me: Ya, summer is over, you sun-addict! Kind of scary. And before you all start to wonder now what the heck I must 've been doing before I went in the store to see blabbering fruit: relax! I have just been really busy the last couple days / weeks, so it came as a surprise to see the first signs of fall in the stores.

temperatures

For me, summer started when I came back from Denmark at the end of May. The weather in this northern kingdom was nice and sunny, but obviously nothing compared to the temperatures in the northern part of Italy. To make a boring weather report short, it just got really hot here in the middle of August and after about 3 darned hot weeks, there was some some rain recently and the temps fell significantly.

Funny enough, I was jealous the whole time when my man was in Canada and told me about the boiling hot weather ( he hates it). I thought it wasn't fair that the summer in North America should be warmer than in Italy, but being a nice person, I thought that at least he would be more comfortable when he finally came here. Guess what, few days before his arrival, summer heat got here, too.

view

We're lucky enough to live surrounded by mountains. Every year, usually in the end of August or the beginning of September, it rains for a day or two and the view over the mountains becomes much clearer. It almost seems as if they would have come closer. Im sure, there's some scientifical explanation for that phenomenon. Feel free to enlighten me, if you know!

view from my balcony today

Obviously, there are many many more signs of fall to come and to write about. And we will, as for example about the wine culture in this region, the ongoing harvesting, fall recipes and what kind of weird tradition"Törggelen" is.

What's a sign of fall for you?