Home Sweet Home

On September 15, 2005, I became the proud renter of my very own Flat. I couldn't have been more excited - not that living at work was very convienent, but it's always nice to have a place to call your own. It took awhile to find the "perfect" place for me, but I am glad I waited and didn't take the first place I saw. Verena Mueller, a co-worker, knew of an empty flat in her building. I gave it a chance and loved the place.

There are about 10 people who live in the house - everyone is in their 20's or early 30's so it is "young" house. Everyone is very nice.

The house sits on a quiet little street. The exact area that I live in is called Plittersdorf. It's about 15-20 minute bike ride to work in the morning - A little farther from work than I wanted, but I really enjoy where I live. I have everything near me that I could need - a gym, 2 grocery stores, a couple of restaurants, my bank. It's wonderful and it is very, very cloase to the River, which is wonderful for running.


A View from my front door overlooking the Rhine River and the 5-Star Hotel up on the top of the Hill












Just Kidding...This is the view from my front door


















The House















My Door



















My Living Room















More of my Living Room














My Kitchen














My Toilet Room (I have two seperate "Bathrooms" - One for the toilet and one for the shower. The Shower is connected to my room whereas the toilet is near the front door.
















My Shower Room



















The Rest of my Shower Room



















My Bedroom














My Dresser



















My Closet



















My first Dinner Gathering















And After Dinner, we went to the basement of my house and played Kegel Bahn - 9 pin Bowling. Yes, I have a "Bowling Alley" in my basement - a major selling point for me!

So, as you can see, I am now set up for visitors. It's not very big, but it's cozy, and I can call it home for my stay in Germany.

I hope everyone is doing well. I look forward to hearing from you all.
~Betsy =)

Weekend Seminar in Ancient Bavarian Culture

OKTOBERFEST
To Drink, Sing, and Be Merry – the Ultimate Goal in Life.


The day before I left for Paris, my fiend Clare asked me if I would be interested in going to Oktoberfest with her the following weekend. After pondering the invitation for about 10 seconds, I said that I would love to join her. After all, when in Germany, do as the Germans do.

It’s 29 September 2005 and Clare and I know what we are doing, how we are getting there, but we still have no idea where we will lay our heads at night. We are supposed to be leaving the following day and we did not want to rely on luck to find a place to stay when we got down to Munich. On my bike tour in Paris, someone had told me about this website called CouchSurfing.com. Now, this might sound a little crazy, but it is a giant database of people who have signed up to say that they have a free couch for people to sleep if they are coming to their town. So, a little reluctant, I entered my information and signed up to “find a couch.” Clare and I both a little apprehensive about what we would find, we ended up calling a guy in Munich – Daniel. Daniel said that he had some floor space for Clare and I to sleep on if we wanted to. Clare said that he sounded nice as she did the talking because she speaks German. So, we had officially found a place to stay in Munich for the last weekend of Oktoberfest.

Our ride picked us up at 2:00pm on Friday, September 30, 2005. Our ride down to Munich was another interesting story. There is another website (the name I can not pronounce or spell) where people note on there that they have extra space in their car going to and from a city. You can then contact those people to try and set up a ride. It’s much cheaper usually than taking the train because you are just chipping in for gas.

What should have been a 4-5 hour ride ended being about an 8 hour ride. There was so much construction and traffic on the road. We found our way from the train station where our ride dropped us off at to Daniels house. Clare and I were both a little nervous walking up to Daniel’s building because we were not sure what we were going to get, but we figured that we were together. He said that he had several other people also staying at his place as well, and if we didn’t feel comfortable, we could always leave and go find a hotel. The cool thing about Couch Surfing is that the surfers are not obligated to pay anything and the provider does not expect anything in return. We rang Daniels’ buzzer and he let us in and we were welcomed very warmly by him. More at ease, Clare and I found ourselves going to sleep on the floor of this random guys flat. We were excited for the next day.

It was 8:30am and we were leaving Daniels on Saturday, October 1, 2005 heading towards Theresienwiese – the Oktoberfest grounds. The first Oktoberfest was a wedding celebration between Ludwig I and Therese in 1810. In honor of the bride the Oktoberfest grounds were called Theresienwiese. Everyone agreed it was a really wonderful celebration, so it has been repeated every year since. Nowadays it attracts 7 million visitors each year who manage to eat 100 oxen, 500,000 chickens with 6.5 million steins of beer (which is an average of less than 1 beer per person). Oktoberfest always starts on the 2nd to last Saturday in September and ends 16 days later on the first Sunday in October.

Sal and Jeremy who were also staying at Daniels went with us to Oktoberfest. We had been told that in order to make sure that you can 1) Get into a tent and 2) get a table, you must get to the Oktoberfest grounds very early. Our first experience at Oktoberfest was in the Hofbrauhus Tent. It was 9am in the morning and Clare and I each have a liter of beer in our hands. What are we going to do with a Liter of Beer? I can barely drink 12 ounces of beer before it gets to warm to drink. The excitement of the day grew with each passing hour. And with each passing hour, I ate more and more pretzels. I might have eaten more than I drank, which is not a bad thing, being that the pretzels were so yummy. The cheers and the songs that people would start to sing we so random. I heard the song “I wanna know if you wanna Be My Girl” more times than I can count. However, it was so much fun being there.


I can't believe the amount of people that one tent can hold -anywhere from 8,000-10,000 people.















Tired of drinking and dealing with the 15:1 ratio of Men to Women, Clare and I decided to take a break from the Hofbrauhaus and go outside and enjoy the fair grounds. After walking around and taking a ride on the Ferris wheel, we searched for another tent to go back into. It was about 6pm and we were quite ready to go back home. Not having much luck flirting our way back inside any of the 12 tents, we started to head to the train station. Wanting to give it one more try, we went to a side door of the Spatenbrau tent. This tent just looked fun because it had a giant roasting pig on the outside of it.
A security guard came outside to get a group of people and Clare and I decided to join that group. We started to follow the group inside and right as we got to the door, the security guards started to stop us but allowed us through. After all of our hard work, Clare and I had made it to one more tent. The music in this tent was so much fun. It was all sing-along music – all from the US might I add. There was even a Dirty Dancing Medley. Seriously, this group loves the old tunes. It was great fun though. The music stopped at 10:30…we made our way out the doors by 11pm and we were on our way back to Daniels. It had been 14 hours of fun - but it was time for bed. We made it through day one.















It was at least midnight when we arrived back at our sleeping quarters and Daniel, Sal and Jeremy were sitting around talking. Now, Daniel has the complete set FRIENDS – yes, all 10 seasons. It was a must that we watch at least one of them while I went to sleep. So, we watched the very last episode – which I don’t know why – it is kind of a tear jerker.

The next morning, very tired like, Clare, Sal, Jeremy and I made our way back down to Oktoberfest for another day of festivities. Another day filled with fun new friends from all of the world, lots of songs and dancing on the tables, and lots of pretzels. Clare and I called it a day about 4pm and headed off to figure out the rest of our weekend plans.

How many beers can one person hold?















Seeing many of the German folk in traditional costume. I thought to myself – I have to have on of those outfits. So, the next best thing – a t-shirt that looks like one.















I don't look very nice here - I didn't get to wash my hair that morning!

By the way, I can balance a beer on my head!




















Look how much fun folks are having.















Our original plan was that we were going to go to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle – The Castle that Walt Disney based his famous castle on. However, our ride back from Fussen to Bonn fell through. Not wanting to be totally stranded in Munich – not that we weren’t having fun – we decided to try and find a ride back. Luckily, one of Clare’s friends from Bonn, Mark, was driving back the next day and said that he had room for the both of us. So, Clare and I luckily found two empty beds at a hostel, used up our free drink coupons that the hostel provided and went to sleep.

The next morning we walked around Munich for a couple of hours and then made our way back to Bonn with Mark.

Overall, it was a super fun weekend. Oktoberfest is one of those events that I am so glad that I got to experience, and I think that everyone should experience at least once. It has such a great atmosphere and attitude about it and most of the people are so nice and everyone is there to have a good time and to celebrate their culture. I hope to make it back to Oktoberfest in the future.

Prost (Cheers in German),
~Betsy

Paris, France

So, my first big sight seeing trip by myself was to Paris. I absolutely fell in love with the city. Although the weather was not as nice as I wish it would have been, it didn’t rain. So, I guess luck was on my side.

There are several budget airlines in Europe/Germany. One of them is called German Wing. They have direct flights from Cologne/Bonn airport to Paris. I left on Saturday, 24 October at 7am in the morning and arrived in Paris one hour later to what looked like was going to be a very rainy morning. After walking through the Charles de Gaulle airport following signs to the trains to the city, I was finally on my first Paris train. The first stop: Metro station St. Paul. After much searching on where to stay that would be not only safe, but some what central for doing touristy stuff, I found a bed at a hostel called MIJE. It was pretty nice. The hostel is in a 17th century residence that was located in the Marais quarter of Paris. It was very close to the metro stop and only about a 10 minute walk to the prestigious Ile St. Louis and the Notre Dame Cathedral.

I made it to my hostel, checked-in and dropped of my luggage and then headed off with a map in one hand and a camera in the other to see where my day would take me. It was 10am and I was in Paris.

I started my tour with a trip to the Notre Dame. I had heard that the cathedral offers English speaking tours in the afternoon and after asking and finding out that I was correct, I decided to come back in the afternoon for the informational tour. I hoped on the metro near the Notre Dame and made my way for the Louvre.

Now, many people had told me that the Louvre is a waste of time. Maybe it is, but you can’t go to Paris and not see the great art works of da Vinci and the famous glass pyramids both in and outside of the museum. I had bought a museum pass when I arrived in Paris, and I’m very glad I did. I didn’t have to wait in any lines to buy tickets and I could bypass most lines (except security) and enter sites. It was a really great way to save time. I only saw one wing of the Louvre – as you could spend days in that place and still not see everything. I went into the Deleny Wing which houses ancient Greek and Roman statues, and of course the infamous Mona Lisa. I had been told that the painting is much smaller than you would think, and it was. However, you can’t help but stare at it and hope that her eyes will follow you (which they kind of do) or that she will wink at you if you are patient enough.


The Glass Pyramid outside of the Louvre















The Louvre from the Outside















Looking from the end of the The Tuileries Garden near the Louvre up the Champs-Elysées towards the Arc de Triomphe




















After the Louvre, I made it back towards to the Notre Dame for my afternoon tour. About 20 minutes into the tour, I had heard the same informaiton that I read in my travel book. The tour lady talked very slow and I kind of felt like I was going to fall asleep. So, instead, I went and climbed the stairs to the top of the Notre Dame for a view of the City.


My favorite Gargoyle on top of the Notre Dame















A view of the Latin Quarter















The Eiffel Tower in the distance




















After my own tour of the Cathedral, I made my way back to my hostel to freshen up for the evening. I made my way over towards the Eiffel Tower district and was dazzeled by the impressive piece of work that laid before my eyes. One can look and look at the Eiffel Tower in books, but to see it in person, is truly spectacular.

I tried to get a picture of myself in front of the Eiffel Tower, however my camera was having some difficulties in taking pictures with the low-light.




















After finding some dinner at a small cafe, I went back to the South Leg of the tower to wait for my evening festivities. I had decided to take a Night Bike Tour of Paris to see the sights of the city lit up at night. The company is called Fat Tire Bike Tours - however they are in no way affiliated with the delicious Colorado Brewed Beer Fat Tire. There were about 25 people in our tour group. After everyone was gathered, we made our way back to the Fat Tire Store to get bikes and proceed with the tour.

Then we were off.......

The tour had started. It was dusk and we were biking through the streets of Paris, led by our trusty tour guide Chris. Trying not to get run over by a Parisian driver while speeding along with the cars, our group of 25 tourists occasionally took over the road. Our first stop was the Notre Dame where Chris told us about the history of the Church and the Isle in which the church sits. Do you know the purpose of the Flying Buttress on the Church? After our brief history lesson, we stopped for ice cream at the original Berthillion shop, which is famous for it’s ice cream. The ice cream was very good…and not only did I have it on the bike tour but I also stopped and got some the next evening too. It was a fun treat.

The bike tour proceeded to all of the “famous” sites in Paris that are lit up at night. The Louvre might have been my favorite. As we rode our bikes into the quad, I was blown away by the stillness of the air as you passed through the walls. It was gorgeous. Once again, I wish my camera took good low-light pictures. After seeing many of the sites and riding all over the city, we found ourselves parking our bikes and boarding a cruise boat for a night-time cruise down the Siene River. The tour even provided wine for us as we cruised along for the next hour. The Eiffel Tower is magical at night. As the evening ended, we made our way back to the bike shop. Then some of us from the tour went out and got some drinks. A fun end to a fun evening.


The Eiffel Tower at Night




















With me in the picture




















Me and my Fat Tire Bike (Do you like the Reflector Jacket we had to wear)















The next day (Sunday, September 25), I made my way to the Orsay Museum which houses impressionist’s artwork by artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir. After making my way through the museum, I went to the Eiffel Tower.

Some people told me not to bother going up to the top, but for some reason, I don’t think I would have been satisfied if I said that I went to Paris for the first time and did not go to the top. After standing in line for about 45 minutes (the museum pass unfortunately does not cover this attraction), I got my ticket and was on my way up. The top has some beautiful views. The next time I go, I want to go in the evening when it is dark and the Eiffel Tower is all lit up.


My favorite picture from atop the Eiffel Tower is the one below of the Arc de Triomphe















The next morning (Monday, September 26), bright and early in the morning, I found myself staring at the Arc de Triomphe. I thought it opened at 9am, but I was wrong and it opened at 10am. So, I sat outside and watched the circle of traffic. This monument has 12 streets that lead into. And, in the morning when everyone is trying to get to work, I can not imagine being behind the wheel of a car in that mess. For those of you who don’t know, the Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate his great Army. It’s 165 feet tall and 130 feet wide. Quite impressive. It makes a great entrance to the Champs Elsyee. After going to the top, I strolled down the famous street and window shopped and people watched.


The Arc de Triomphe















A Distance View of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe




















After my little jaunt down the Champs Elsyess, I made my way to the Sainte-Chapelle. The bike tour guide said that if we have time, that we should go into the church as it was breathtaking. He was right. Built in the 13th century, the chapel is made entirely of stain-glass windows. Well mostly, except for the small slabs of concrete in between the windows. The chapel was originally built to house the relics of the Christ’s passion, especially the Crown of Thorns. Two-thirds of the stain glass windows are original glass and all of the windows together tell the biblical story of mankind from Creation to Redemption through Christ.


Outside view of Sanite-Chapelle




















I had some time to kill before I headed to the airport, so I went to the Sacre-Coeur in the Montmartre section of Paris. As well, I was able to find Moulin Rouge and the Le Chat Noir. It was fun to kind of walk around that little area. I didn’t spend much time there – didn’t feel the safest, but the Sacre-Coeur was beautiful. Montemartre and the Sacre-Coeur sit up on top of this giant hill and the church, all white, is spectacular both close up and far away.

The Sacre-Coeur (Close-Up)















The Sacre-Coeur (From Far Away)















Moulin Rouge















Le Chat Noir















I was making my way back towards my hostel to get my luggage when I decided to browse through the Old Opera House. After having to pay to get in, they were out of the English Guide Brochures. I was upset because besides knowing that it was an opera house, it would have been nice to some of the story with in it. Also, when I went to look inside the actual theater, they had the lights off as they were doing a stage light check. So, I didn’t get to see the inside of the theater either. Maybe next time. It was very pretty. I can only imagine being all dressed up in my formal attire making my way up the marble stair case.

The Opera House















I ended my day at the Pompidou Center which is the Modern Art Museum. I would not have gone into the museum if I did not have the museum pass, but I’m glad I did. Who knew that a piano smashed to pieces, and glued to a wall was art?

I made my way back to the airport to check-in for my flight. I had three full days in Paris and enjoyed every minute of them, even if I was by myself for most of the trip. I hope to make it back to Paris sometime and spend a weekend like a Parisian would…picnicking along the Seine River with some bread, some cheese and a couple of bottles of wine.

~Betsy