Goodbye dinner

Well... all good things have to come to an end somehow. And as most of you already know I am planning to move back to Germany. So this goodbye dinner is the start of several goodbye activities...

But first things first... the goodbye dinner at my favorite restaurant: Casa Bonita. Most of you will know this place from a South Park episode and will be shocked that this place is real (at least Paul was shocked when he visited me last year) :-)

But it is real... well, it is even better than real! How to describe it to somebody who doesn't know this particular South Park episode? Something like 'Disneyworld' meets a very very bad Mexican restaurant I would think. And of course... cliff divers! Can you ask for more?

Thanks Torsten, Justin, Dani, Pete and Annika for this unforgettable night ;-)

Starbucks everywhere...

Most of you might know that Starbucks started off in Seattle as one among many small coffee brewing companies which are a quite common sight throughout the city. So it is interesting to see that Starbucks became the multinational coffee empire what it is today... and of course visiting its roots. The Starbucks store #1 is one of the main tourist attractions here in Seattle and of course I had to get my coffee fix there as well.


Also interesting to see is that the Starbucks logo changed over time and on the above picture you can see their old logo which is quite different to what we have today...
Wandering through the different neighborhoods in Seattle makes you understand how the lifestyle of the people living here created this unique coffee culture which got exported across the globe. And I also started to understand why Starbucks is filling other cities with that many coffee shops throughout the world. That is exactly what they did here in Seattle... so you have a Starbucks at every block. Sometimes even two or more! Coming to a city near you soon :o)

This concludes my fabulous trip to Seattle and when I arrived back in Denver most of the snow was already melted. You have to love Colorado for that!

More Seattle

Of course I had to clime Seattle's landmark 'the Space Needle' as well which my tourist guide calls 'the most expensive elevator ride you'll take in your lifetime'. They are right about that but you'll get a fantastic view of the city in return. Also worth doing is the vintage Monorail between the Space Needle and the city... and yes it takes only 5 mins total.

Beside the obvious tourist attractions millions of people see every year I also saw some not that commonly known attractions as well. Like the Fremont Troll for example which can be found not under the Fremont Bridge (too obvious I guess) but the neighboring Aurora Bridge's north side. It took me quite a while to realize that ;-)

And I also saw some destinations around Seattle like the Snoqualmie Fall which is twice as high as the famous Niagara Falls... but maybe a bit less impressive :-)
Anyhow... I really fell in love with Washington State which much looks like Germany when it comes to vegetation and landscape. That's maybe the reason why you find so many Germans settling in this area... including the all-Bavarian town of Leavenworth (with Sommerfest and Oktoberfest) which I didn't have time to see unfortunately... maybe with my next weekend trip? ;-)

Seattle from above and below

And finally I made it to Seattle! No minor blizzard can stop me ;-) Interesting enough I had two fantastic days up in Washington State which is better known for its rain than for its sunshine while the rest of the country had thunderstorms, tornados and blizzard... the lucky shamrock in my Guinness worked already!
But back to Seattle... a very lovely city I have to say. I really like the different neighborhoods which I didn't see like that anywhere else so far.

By walking through the city center I noticed those little windows in the sidewalk at most intersection. What is underneath? Well this is one of the many secrets of Seattle. For more than 30 blocks you have 'hollow' sidewalks which were put in after a huge fire destroyed the entire city in the late 19th century. At that time they decided to rise the street level by one storage which took the city a decade to put in. In the meantime you had already most of the buildings rebuild which actually lost an entire level which went into the underground.

For several decades you had two different levels of sidewalks... one for the offical business upstairs and one for 'other' business downstairs. Nowadays you have guided tours through this underground city. Very interesting! I wish I would have seen this during the prohibition which must have been very very interesting :-) But Seattle had some more surprised for me so stay tuned...

Whiteout on the runway

My next weekend trip supposed to take me to Seattle, Washington. What I didn't take in account was something much closer home then the far north-west of the United States... the Coloradan weather.
As a rule of thumb you can say: every time when you least expect it or really don't need it a blizzard pulls in. Regardless which season :o)

Even though it was just one of the minor spring blizzard we had so far it was enough to bring the entire air traffic to a squeaking hold for that day. And my plane was delayed by 4 hours... with an additional half an hour waiting on the runway to get the deicing. Oh joy. I finally arrived at my hotel at 1 AM. Oh well... at least I made it! And the very next morning I was ready to explore Seattle... that's what I call dedication ;-)

What is a... roundabout?

Coming from Ireland where roundabouts are a quite common sight at your daily commute I was surprised to see that the US went an entirely different way when it comes to traffic control. Traffic lights are more common here than anywhere else I went so far. Even in Germany it is easier to step over a roundabout from time to time ;-) But in several communities over here you can find them if you look hard enough...

Interesting is how different towns and cities explain those to the public over here. One of the more innovative ways I found in Steamboat Springs... a 'traffic circle' apparently is a little one way street spanning around a little circle... or simply a roundabout :-P

Rocky Mountains Oysters

Well... one story remains from our Rocky mountain trip I didn't mention here yet: Rocky Mountains Oysters. Well... I'll not tell you what those are actually are (just in case you want to try them anytime soon and not to spoil the surprise for you) but to be honest now... so far I thought they are a myth or at least something put together for messing around with tourists ;-)

But they are real! It is a real dish served in real restaurants here and enjoyed by real locals and real (unknowing) tourists! And for what they are they are not too bad at all. I was surprised!

And as you can see... we survived to tell the story! Try them on your next trip to Colorado yourself!

Happy St Paddy's Day

It's once again this time of the year when we all start wearing green, watching parades and having (sometimes green) pints of Guinness. Even the local television station reported from the greenest holiday in Denver... the connection they made to how good environmental wise this particular holiday is I really couldn't make myself. Oh well... that's what you call Zeitgeist I guess.

On the other hand we had a fantastic parade downtown Denver. To make it more accessible for everyone (because Paddy's Day is not a national holiday over here) we had the parade already last weekend.

And what a parade that was: 4 hours of marching bands, pipe bands, Irish dancers, horses, lamas, floats and even Denver's mayor which I barely noticed among all other politicians. He also wore a green scarf :o)

But of course it is all about the Irish heritage and I am still amazed about how many Irish dancing schools are in and around Denver.

And about how many Americans which think that wearing a kilt is typical Irish ;-)

But we also had plenty (stereo-)typical American floats like a Native American Pow-Wow, cowboys herding cattle and of course Ronald McDonnald. I still wonder were the King from Burger King was this year ;-)

And like the last three years the Star Wars crowd was there again Which is really funny to see on St. Patrick's Day I think: First you have the marines, the young marines and then a crowd of people dressed in old uniforms (like world war or civil war uniforms) marching... followed by a bunch of Stormtroopers in white :-) I guess in this stage it is now part of the American culture... like the bunch of people dressed up in Stargate (TV series) uniforms who followed ;-)

But all that matters is having a good time: HAPPY PADDY'S DAY to all of you!

After the magic...

But even the best magic has to come to an end someday. And that day came much too soon... like always on vacations I guess :-( So I climbed my little airport shuttle, said goodbye to Mickey and Goofy and left the Magic Kingdom. While I had only some hand luggage there were two girls joining the shuttle bus which basically filled out the entire remaining space in that bus. Have a look on that picture... it seemed like everyone of them had at least 5 big bags and a couple of hand luggage pieces. Amazing! I wish I could have seen their luggage surcharge they had to pay...

The next eerie thing awaited me when I climbed my airplane to Denver. After getting all hyped up in the Tower of Terror I felt a bit strange sitting in an airplane nearly on my own. There might have been 10 people in the entire plane, if that!

Oh well... I live to tell the story... and arrived in Denver... from the... twilight zone :o)

A great vacation indeed! Thanks for having me Mickey ;-)

Around the world at Epcot

The last remaining park to visit was Epcot which is the educational park of the four Disney world parks. It is featuring iconic rides like Spaceship Earth which takes its visitors in a time machine through humankind's biggest inventions, a simulated space launch (which I took at least five times) and of course the world showcase build on the shores of a small lake.

This is actually the nicest part of the park as it allows its visitors to travel around the world in a matter of a short walk. Following eleven countries are represented: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. Every country has its own small exposition, shops and restaurants.

Of course I had to spend some time in Germany. Lucky enough they were selling alcohol in this park unlike the other three parks. Can you imagine Germany without beer? Me neither ;-) But I have to admit the food was authentic. And the German part of the park looked much like Nuremberg and the German speaking waiter and waitress were wearing Dirndl and Lederhosen. Everyone knows that we are all wearing that stuff over there all the time :-P

The United Kingdom part of the park was very well done as well. I liked the fish and chips and the nice English pub they had there... playing some great (American) Rock music ;-)

The only thing which didn't really fit into the whole picture was the St. Paddy's stuff which was getting sold all over the place there. As one of the people beside me correctly noticed... isn't that Irish?

Oh well... I think it is hard to create a world showcase without presenting stereotypes as well. But I still think they did a great job at Epcot. And if you don't have the time or the money to travel to all those countries this might be the next best thing. Much better then going to Vegas believing that you saw Venice or Rome I guess :-)

Animal Kingdom safari

The third Disney park over in Orlando is a crossover of Zoo, safari and theme park. Their latest attraction is a roller coaster which takes its visitors on a trip through the Himalaya to encounter the infamous Yeti. Indeed very well made and the only attraction with a longer queue in the entire park. Except of course the two girls sitting behind me and screaming 'oh my god... oh my god' the entire time!

But even wandering through the park was good fun as it is separated into different parts of the world like Asia (with Nepal, Tibet and India) and Africa. Again everything is well themed and looks like the real deal... as much as I can tell because I never went there... yet ;-) On the other hand I think that most of the audience was never there too... so it worked for us :-)

But of course I was there for the animals so I booked my very own safari which was great fun as well. The main different here was that the safari was embedded in an entire story about our imaginary ranger hunting down some poacher and taking us from waterhole to waterhole in the process. Again very well made and a good chance to see elephants, rhinos and other animals from up close.

Speaking about animals... the last ride I took was in the dinosaur part of the park and presented you alive dinosaurs from up close...

I guess dinosaurs are animals as well... somehow. Oh well, still I had a great time over there as you can see :-)

Premiere at the Hollywood Studios

My next stop was the Disney Hollywood Studios which offers everything for a movie buff like me... lots of movie sets which allows you wandering through New York and San Fransisco at the same time. An interesting illusion which only from up close lets you see the fake buildings and street paintings.


Also very enjoyable are the different stunt shows they have over there. Like the car chase scene which would be quite impressive to see at the movies but live up close... astonishing. Also interesting is that for this short sequence they have already 3 different versions of the same car customized to perform the different stunts. And all cars are Opels made in Germany! I have to try those stunts with my own Opel Corsa back home now ;-)

But these were not the only things to do over there. Of course they had plenty of fun rides too... again heavily themed. Like the Star Tour ride which takes you into a Star Wars set... including an AT-AT walker, Tatooine and Endor set. Oh man... I would have loved that as a kid that's for sure.

Okay... you got me there... I still enjoyed it ;-)




My favorite ride though was the Tower of Terror which basically is a hunted elevator of this Hollywood hotel with a life on its own. Disney also themed this ride around a 'Twilight Zone' episode. Brilliant! I took at least 5 times this ride :-P

And I made it back... out of... THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Ticket to the Magic Kingdom

After 2 very stressful months at work I was in need of some hilarious and mindless fun... so I booked my ticket at Disney world in Orlando, Florida. After enjoying Disneyland in Anaheim, California last year this was the next logical step for me :-)
Arriving at my hotel it looked like they were expecting me. Not only they had the German flag flying but also the Irish... no other flag! That is too much of a coincidence for me... they knew! Impressive!

While Disney has 'only' two parks in California (Disneyland and The Californian Experience) over in Florida they have already four parks... the Magical Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. Each park is heavily Disney themed but has its own charm.

So I started my 4-day Disney vacation at the Magic Kingdom which seems to be the most children-friendly one of the four with not too scary rides and Disney characters found at every corner. But I was there for the roller coasters of course ... and there were plenty of it. And because I was there out-of-season the lines were actual not too bad at all... most of the time I could directly walk up to the ride!

But then I had the chance to meet the only Disney character I wanted to meet for my entire trip: Goofy!

We had a great chat about the Federal income tax form W-2 after taking this picture. Thanks for saving me some money there Goody ;-)

Money, money... and... beerpong?

Something what is really popular over here is themed party's. Maybe I never was on such fancy party's in Europe or I simply didn't get invited. But this weekend Nicki and Dustin organized a great 'money' themed party... and I was invited :-) Here you see me with my roommate Justin, asking him for a few billions bailout money for a poor CEO stuck on the Bahamas.

Well needless to say that he wasn't falling for it and didn't even had one buck for me. Which wasn't too bad as I had plenty of my own money with me. Following the general trend of our times I printed it myself... please note the one-million-Dollar bill with me happily cheering... or the one-Dollar-bill with me looking truly presidential. Also there is a 10 Deutsch-Mark bill and an Iraqi bill featuring... yes... I guess you get the idea... me as well ;-)


Well you might ask what beerpong had to do with it or even what it is ;-) I never saw this game in Europe so I assume that is an American things as well... or again, I never got invited to those party's back home ;-)
Main idea is that you try to throw ping-pong balls in the cups of your opponents who have to drink them in return. Good fun I have to admit! And the winner of this tournament got one million dollar... Ekki-Dollar that is ;-)

Beavercreek

This weekend I was invited once again to a ski trip... well that's what you are doing at that time of the year here in Colorado, with some of the world bests ski resorts right next door. This time Justin's parents invited me to their brand new mountain house right of the ski slope! And as you can see... we were not only there for the skiing... also for the food and the beer. At least one discipline where I could impress my hosts ;-)

Here is the view right of the balcony at their Beavercreek's house. Is there anything more marvelous then simply relaxing in a hot tub after a long day of skiing, sipping beer and watching the sun set? If so... I don't want to hear or know about it because this is the real deal! :-)

Thanks again for having me up there and for your patience skiing with me! I really had a great time!

Germans, Germans... everywhere

A good friend of mine is always worried that I am loosing my German while staying over here in the new world. But don't you worry... there is no reason for that... I am still surprised how many Germans (and German speakers) are living in the US... especially in and around Denver.
Funny though that Denver has at least 5 different German speaking groups, also called Stammtisch which is basically like the English tea time just replace English with German chitchat and tea with beer. You decide which is more fun. I might be biased... towards the beer of course ;-)


But not everywhere you have signs like the one I found in Dallas leading the way to the different hideouts of 'zte' Germans. I was really tempted though to park my car in front of that hairdresser shop which had this sign in the showcase ;-)
A save bet are all the different German restaurants and bars (or should I call them Kneipe) around Denver. Even when Hans-Peter and Mike were visiting and we were looking for a breakfast place along the highway we were running coincidentally into a German restaurant I didn't know of.

So as you can see... don't you worry. My funny German accent will stay with me for quite a while now :-P

Ski trip to Keystones

This weekend I was on a field trip with my favorite group: European's The Real Deal... a party loving crowd of people who enjoys a good drink as much as I do... and also skiing. So why not combining both things by renting a place at Keystones up in the mountains, having a few drinks and do also some skiing? That's exactly what we did for that field trip.

This year I was even up for doing a bit of skiing myself after having a bit of a hangover preventing me from doing that at Breckenridge last year. And I even had a ski buddy with me. Thanks Sabine for all your patients! I had a great time... and a good few drinks as well ;-)

Different Taste 10

Different taste... one of my favorite topics to write about because it combines two things I really enjoy: first of all being advantageous by trying new things and most of the time it involves food as well. A great combination ;-)
This time I speak about cheese which is bit different over here too. Well, you can get French, German and Irish cheese here too but the American version is sometimes... well let's put it this way, surprising! For better understanding you have to know that they have a product called 'I-can't-believe-it-is-not-butter' which is exactly that, not butter. This applies to cheese too. The worst cheese I found so far is the 'yellow fluid 'cheese-wanna-be' which you can pour directly onto your Nachos or burger. Very strange is if you don't need to head it up and it is coming directly out of a dispenser. That case keeps me wondering how many chemicals it takes to keep it in this state in the first place. Under this circumstances you might understand the picture of my favorite frozen pizza brand over here which is advertising 'with 100% REAL cheese'!
What are the other brands using? Unreal cheese? Yellowish fluent wanna-be cheese? I feel that I don't want to hear the answer to this though ;-)

Ekki on top of the world

On top of the world, ey? Well more like on top of a mountain you might say. And other might even argue... only a hill. But 'on top of the hill' doesn't really looks that good as a title. And it doesn't even describe remotely the fun you have skiing down... a hill... fast :o)

So being out on the piste (slope) a second time this year shows you how much fun I have following my new hobby taking me outdoors in the winter time. Usually not the best time of the year to get in front of the door you might think.

And you are right about that. This time was the coldest skiing day I had so far. 15 F (-10 C) is quite chilly when you have snow falling on top of you as well. But brilliant ski conditions with as much new powder snow as you can ask for!

Hope to see you down the slope in one stage :-)