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 ;-)