Goodbye BBQ at Casa Cammon

As I said earlier already: everything has to come to an end someday... even though I certainly had a blast in Colorado! But the plane ticket was booked, suitcases packed (I wish!), the rest of my belongings sold and everything was set for a most dramatical end. And even the heavens started to cry which kind of messed with my BBQ idea... oh well, who looks back in anger right? ;-)

But regardless the bad weather everything was set for a party to remember. 80 burgers, 40 sausages and a beer keg were waiting for my guests (not sure if it was 40 or more... something along this lines I guess). The only disappointment of the night was that I had some leftovers... 40 burgers! Oh man! My friends are obviously not very good eater... but much better drinker :-)

And of course better cooks, too. Thanks for all the different salads, salsas and... cakes. As you can see on the left: Bich-Khe and James made a delicious cookie-cake for the party! Including the German 'goodbye' icing in the national colors of Belgium ;-) Still very, very tasty... thanks for that!

And to proof how tasty it actually was: my (ex-)roommate Justin seemed to be very happy with the cake. Or was it the beer? Well... I bought a keg of my favorite 'New Belgium Brewery' beer: Sunshine Wheat! It also was a huge success and we were able to finish the keg already at around midnight. Lucky enough we had plenty of bottled beer, Whiskey, Vodka and also...




Jell-O shots. Those are not known in Germany and you can see the surprise written in Torstens face discovering them at the party. What you can't see is that after having a couple of those Torsten was dancing to the music... on his own. Well it was entertaining for all of us :o)






But even the longest and craziest party has to come to an end. And I have to say thanks to all of you... for being such good friends over the last years!!!

And in the end it wasn't only the heavens who was shedding some tears :-)

I hope to see you all at my welcome party in Germany!!!

Bloody (Mary) Sunday Morning

It doesn't happen that often anymore that you go out for some early drinks in the morning. Lucky enough there is the European Meet-up-group of Denver... so we had a Bloody Mary Sunday at 11 o'clock. Sweet :-)

On the picture you can see the hard core of that group after moving to the next bar at 4 o'clock. That brings back memories of Dublin... :o)

ATB rocks Denver

Finally my favorite DJ from abroad was back in town... After seeing ATB last year at the Church nightclub he finally made it back to Denver. This time at the beta nightclub and needless to say... he rocked this place big time too! I am still amazed how many people over here know about him... the venue was sold out once again.

And also a dream came true for real fan like myself when I meet ATB in person! And I even got somebody taking a picture of us! Fantastic! Thanks Jason! And thanks ATB for a fantastic night ;-)

Beerfest 2008 - Home Edition

Every year it's the same! There is this huge Beerfest downtown Denver with several hundred brewers from all over the country, free sampling and lots of fun... but they run out of tickets before I even get a chance to buy one :-( That's why this year Annika, Pete and I had the Beerfest 2008 - Home Edition. With 22 different beers from all over the world ranging from Oktoberfest beer over Chili beer (with a little chili in the bottle) to Marble syrup beer (my favorite).

To summarize: a great evening with great beers (and a little hangover at the next day) ;-)

Invited to the Russian Consulate

And finally solving the mystery fro my last post: why my friend and I were dressed up for the riot police downtown Denver. The answer is quite simple... we were invited to the Russian Consulate for a private concert of the Russian King of Rock and Roll, Denis Mazhukov!

On the way to the consulate we also met a very attractive Russian girl caught in between the protestants too who joined us to her own consulate. A really mad story but that's how it went... downtown Denver there were protestants fighting the riot control forces while the three of us were listening to great rock and roll music in the Russian Consulate. A unforgettable night!

B-BBQ

Well... I am not stuttering... B-BBQ simply stands for Birthday BBQ which I had on Saturday! Thank you everybody for showing up and enjoying my world-famous Burgers ;-)
For the readers of my blog... here is my secret: Read carefully, I am not typing it again :o) The secret ingredient is... fire! Lots of it. Without it you would eat a pad of raw meat! And it wouldn't look as spectacular as it does of course ;-)

Despite some of my guests might have had second thoughts about my extensive use of the special ingredient especially on the roof (just kidding!) we had a great time. Even the youngest visitor with sweet 6 months was enjoying herself and stayed up till late.
But I am still not sure why she refused to try some of my fantastic burgers... it seemed like she was more interested in the beer bottles on the table. Kids start drinking early these days ;-)

And have a look at this fantastic birthday cake. Unfortunately you don't really see the 'fog' coming out of the middle... this special effect was archived with dry ice which kept the bigger boys entertained for the rest of the night! Thanks Christine for both, the yummy cake and for the entertaining ice :-)
If you are counting the candles right now... I turned 18 that night and I am officially able to drink in public... except in the US of course :-)

Party on top of the world

The title may sounds a bit 'over the top' ;-) but that was exactly what was going on at the last weekend in Breckenridge, which is a little ski resort up in the mountains. A good friend of mine had her 7th leap year birthday which needed to be celebrated the proper way.


And what better way then renting a ski lodge up the mountain and celebrate for a whole weekend. By lodge I mean a 6 bedroom house which easily accommodates 30 people ready to party.

Apart of this astonishing view we also had two hot-tubs, plenty of room, lots of birthday cakes and of course booze.

Well, what can I say after a three days party in a top-notch ski resort in the Rockie Mountains? I have to come back and this time I have to ski actually... ;-)

Feuerzangenbowle

Well, once again one of these very long words German is known for. But in this case it stands for a really tasty German tradition... a punch made of red wine, rum, herbs and this burning sugar cone. While it is burning the caramelized sugar is dripping into the punch and gives it this fantastic taste. And it looks pretty as well :-)

So last Wednesday I had one of these with my friends, talking about all these long German words and the old cult movie from which every German student knows this tradition of burning sugar cones... and of course the headache at the next morning ;-) Prost!

Cosmic Gate

Interesting enough it seems like I am seeing more German (and European) top DJs here then back home. This time around it was Cosmic Gates turn playing my favorite nightclub here in Denver, The Church. And let me put it this way... they rocked this place.




I am still surprised how well European Trance music is accepted over here. But even though lots of people show up for acts like that it is still a quite familiar atmosphere. So I was able to meet both DJ from Cosmic Gate up close which wouldn't be possible even in my little hometown nightclub. Awesome ;-)

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!

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!

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).

Snow Patrol

Ten days ago I went to my favorite band's concert here in Denver. After all this sold-out concerts in Dublin I was happy when I got the tickets for them quite easily... the venue is just astonishing, it is called Red Rocks and it is a natural amphitheater a few miles out of Denver. According to Snow Patrol it is the nicest place to play in but they might say that about every venue.


They also had time to mess around with the audience. When Gary was joking about that he is as bad in playing football as Beckham nobody in the crowd laughed. Then he turned around and said... sorry, I forgot that I am in the States and you don't know anything about football... ehem... soccer. I was laughing! But obviously not loud enough!


It was a great concert in a great venue. Just the remarkable view over Denver was already worth going there. But with songs like "Chasing cars" and "Setting fire to the third bar" it became a unforgettable night. I had a great time and so had the people around me :-)