Oktoberfest

What is the translation for "O'zapfts is"? Hard to say but it really doesn't matter... words like "eins, zwei, suffa" or "Gemuehtlichkeit" seem to be international... at least here at the Oktoberfest in Denver, apparently the biggest in the mid-west.


As you can see it was quite big, two blocks of street were blocked off for the beer tents, music and dancers. When I was queuing for a beer I had a chat with I girl in my line. And after a few sentences she asked me: "Are you German? Cool!" and high-five-ed me. Apparently I still can't hide my lovely accent ;-)

Even though in my home town nobody would wear this kind of dresses and dance like they did it felt strangely familiar. Maybe because we went to last years Oktoberfest in Munich?! Anyway... all what matters is having a great time... and a great glass (Stein) of beer :-) Prost to everyone!

Second visitor

What a great weekend again! Not only Ireland won their match in the Rugby World Championship versus Georgia (thus our green outfits) but also I had my next visitor: Niamh called over from Ireland for a week in Colorado! After the rugby we also had to experience a truly American sport... baseball!


So we went to my new home team The Rockies who have a very nice stadium downtown Denver, Coors Field. They were playing the Florida Marlins for a place in the playoffs which sounded like a exciting match. As I know the rules and like to watch baseball from back in Germany (go Corbacher Colliders!) I expected a bit more then the 2-10 score for Florida.


On the other hand I was warned, everybody over here seems to think that the Rockies suck. But it was not that bad at all... we had a great time eating nachos, drinking beer and watching the match.

I was just a bit surprised by the Rockies mascot... is this a little dinosaur? What happen with these fellas again? Not that I want to draw some parallels here ;-)

Thanks Niamh for calling by and the great time we had watching the sports and climbing the mountains!

Golden Gate Bridge

To bust the myth that I went to San Francisco without taking any picture of the Golden Gate Bridge once and for all... here it is:

It is much harder then you think to take a clear picture of it... San Francisco is really foggy place in the morning and only in the late afternoon it clears up.


And the surely-not-photo-shopped proof that I was really there:

On this side of the bridge it is flying over an old military fortification which was planed to get knocked down at first. Later plans simply extended the bridge over the fortress.


I really have to say that this is the most amazing bridge I saw so far, espiecially when you take in account that it was finished in 1937. The painting of this 2.7 km long construction is a full time job: When finished in the 30s the painting crew started all over again on the other side. This is going on till today.

Funny License Plates

Alright, not everybody can have an 'Ekki' license plate and I am sure there might be some people out there who think that this is already a bit funny. But I hope that even those people (and the whole Mac community which is a bit bigger over here then in Europe) agree with me that writing 'Ipod' on your license plate is a bit mad. I wonder if these very same people wrote 'VCR' or 'WLKMAN' on their car after this devices got popular. Or maybe 'toaster' because it was a quite significant invention too. Let's wait till Apple presents the 'iToast' which might be just around the corner ;-)

The tourist thing in San Francisco

San Francisco's time as center of the love and peace community is long gone... at least I couldn't find any traces while I was there. Famous places like Haight & Ashbury are more a tourist then Hippie magnet nowadays. Even though the financial district looks like most American downtown areas there is still something special left in this city... something you wouldn't find in lots of other places...

Like Lombard street which is famous for its windy and narrow road downhill. Apparently the decline was too steep for cars therefor this zip-zag road was introduced. Nowadays it is more like a joyride with cars queuing up for going down this famous road used in many TV shows. I did it three times ;-)

Alright... it doesn't get more touristy then fisherman's wharf. Hundreds of tourists and even more lobsters, crabs and other fish dishes. Delicious! Just the parking is a bit of a rip-off... $30 for 3 hours?! You must be joking! I think even my hotel room was cheaper hour wise :-)

Party time

After all this time we finally had a house party. To make it more interesting Rachel (Justin's sister) suggested a fancy dress... Cowboy and Indians theme party. Yeha! So we saddled our horses, loaded our revolvers and rode West... well... to West-minster anyway ;-)

Meet Doc Cigar "quick-draw" Justin. As the owner of the ranch (commonly known as the palace) he played a key role for making this party a success.

Also meet Sheriff Ekki "Hotshot" the Kid who made sure that law and order was enforced on this party.

Apart of us two outlaws and gunsels there were a bunch of Cowboys, cowgirls, Indians and even a cow there. And lots to drink, eat and a TV in the garden. It can't get more Wild West(minster) now ;-)



What can I say... the reason of me having only these three pictures should convince everybody that we had a great time. At 2 o'clock in the morning the last piece of cattle was burn-marked and the last drop of firewater drunken... and our heroes could ride into the sunset... ehem... sunrise of course. John Wayne would be proud of us!

Welcome to the Rock!

The first place I visited was a place not everyone wanted to see in the late 50s and early 60s... Alcatraz, also known as The Rock. Well, an amazing place everyone should visit while over in San Francisco. Interesting enough you should book your tickets well in advanced... the only tours available at the box office on Saturday morning were for Monday afternoon!

But Alcatraz was of course not always a tourist attraction, again attracting lots of Germans as well. It was a high security state prison, and the Rangers still insist on the label break-out resistant. Even though in its short time of operation 39 attempts were done. Most famous one made it into a film with Clint Eastwood. But because they never found the three escapees it doesn't count as a successful escape. I was confused by that... does that mean Hollywood is lying to us?! What's about Independence Day then?! Or Godzilla for that matter?! A lie as well?? ;-)


And this one of the many cells there. Just enough space for one person. If you think about being locked in there for 23 hours a day... not surprising that its most famous prisoner Al Capone left this place mentally instable. In 1963 they closed this prison finally down because of cost reasons. Nowadays its attracting far more then 5,000 tourists a day!

If you're going to San Francisco...

To continue the story from my last post... I traveled to San Francisco on the following Friday and I nearly felled asleep everywhere I went but that is another story all together ;-) Of course I went there to see the world famous Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz, Hippies, Mythbusters... I am still amazed how small this town is but how much it has to offer! You can be anywhere by car in 15 min!

The car... well finally I was able to break the Sonata spell. As most of you already know I am stuck with the very same rental car every time I go for one, the Hyundai Sonata... not a bad car (I am driving one at home too) but sometimes I would like to drive something else. Mission accomplished by simply going with another car hire company. Got a sparkling new Chrysler Cruiser PT which looks nice but likes to drink petrol... swallow patrol would describe it better I guess...

But I didn't go to San Francisco only because of buildings, roads and cars. I also went there to meet a good friend of mine and an Irish expat, Dave! And where else to meet then in an Irish pub, having a Guinness and talking about the good old times ;-)

ATB is in town

Oh my! What a great weekend I had... and it started off already unbelievably! Exactly a month after my favorite rock band played Red Rocks (Snow Patrol), my favorite DJ was playing my favorite nightclub downtown! Just by counting the 'favorites' in my last sentence you will understand how ecstatic I was ;-)



And what better venue then an old church housing now a nightclub! The name of the nightclub is a no-brainer, The Church ;-)

ATB, what a great show; especially 'Believe in me' at the end. By then the crowd was already mad but that even topped it. I would never have guessed how popular he is over here!

What a great party till 2 AM on a Thursday night. I was soooo tired on the plane the next day but this is already the story of the up-coming post(s).