Oktoberfest 2006 (short version)

I have been waiting to post about my first Euro-trip from this weekend to the beer drinking Mecca known as Oktoberfest in Munich until I get some pictures from the other folks in attendence. However, those pics have been slow to come in (and there are some great ones), so I figured I would just throw out a few here to appease my demanding public.

Long story short, I hopped in a car very early saturday morning with Matt and Agnes (Matt is one of the 3 Americans in the office, and Agnes is his girlfriend) as it is a 6 hour drive to Munich. On our way out, we picked up Robbie and Laura (two more Irish kids) who live just across the border in Germany. That right, I was the proverbial 'fifth wheel'. Here is the whole crew minus the big guy (Matt, Agnes, Robbie, Laura from left to right):

It was a long and cramped drive, but it went by quick and before we knew it we were at Oktoberfest and enjoying the sites.

Really Oktoberfest is just like a giant carnival with massive beer halls and copious amounts of beer and food being consumed (and I think other cultural celebrations, but we focused on the beer and food portion). Well there are several key pictures that better document our brief time, but basically we wondered around for a little bit, eventually got into a beer garden and did this,

over and over again. We sat in this beer garden for about 7 hours and met a lot of different people and drank many, many, many liters of beer. Good times were had by all.

I will add more when I can, so be sure to check back. I am off to London tomorrow to visit my good pal Timmy, so I imagine I will have yet another post to shove down your throats here soon enough. Cheers.

The big guys apartment

Alright so I wanted to introduce everyone to my new apartment here in Luxembourg. Most of you probably are not too familiar with what a 1,600 dollar a month apartment looks like (granted it is furnished), so this should be educational.

First a bit of background. I am living in the Belair district of Luxembourg. Apparently this is the fashionable neighborhood to live in…good houses, clean, and good access to other areas. Of course, it seems you can say this about most areas of Lux. But I am only a 10 minute walk into the Centre and I think this is a pretty sweet location. The actual apartment was definitely the best of what I saw, it has lots of room but feels very cozy. It has high ceilings, all wood floors, it is right next to a cool bar, and once I get everything set I think it is going to be great. Maybe not worth the price I am paying…but I really have no choice in that due to the insane market here in Lux. So onto the brief tour:

Here is the view from outside. I am on the 2nd floor of the one in the middle with the satellite dish.

Okay, so I seriously only thought these keys existed in old movies. I guess not.

So here is the view of the kitchen/dining room from inside the front door. Kitchen is nice, even though I have no clue on how to operate the dishwasher.

And if you turn to the left there is the bathroom. What I want to point out is the shower. Yes, that is the whole thing. There is a tiny glass partition that is almost head level on one side, and nothing else. Ultimately having an open side to your shower isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it adds a lot of stress to a time when you are typically sleepy and could do without such pressure.

Turning back right from the kitchen area is the living room. Those couches are more ridiculous then they initially appear (but they are decently comfortable). And there is that ironing board again.

Lastly there is my bedroom and my horrible bed. This thing is terrible, but the landlord is purchasing me a new mattress and I am in the process of making a few slight modifications (including gluing slats together and putting stops on the legs to keep it from sliding) that should make it okay.

That is it. I know that was quick and you all want more pictures, so if that is the case you can click HERE for a few addtional glimpses. All that is left now is to have some visitors so I can show it off in person. Cheers.

New and improved!!!

Guess what everyone, my blog now has some pictures!!! I made a few changes to my first post, added some pictures, and I am now ready to add some additional posts in the next few days on my house and my upcoming trip to Oktoberfest. If you don't believe me, ask this guy with the ironing board and Euro-cool pink tie:

Ryan's First Week (now with pictures!)

Following the lead and suggestions of a few of you I've decided to keep an online diary of my adventures living here in Luxembourg. I hope to keep this up-to-date with notes and pictures of the fun experiences and significant events of my time abroad, so for the 2 or 3 of you that would actually care you can check back in periodically and see what a mess I have become. These first few posts will be a bit of a catch-up on what I am doing and my new life here, but after that I promise it will be a tiny bit better. Oh, and this first one is a bit long, and for that I apologize.

So my adventure started after taking off from Seattle on Monday, August 28th. After the extreme exhaustion of the past week and staying up until 4:00 in the morning and getting only 2 hours of sleep the night before my departure, the flight to Amsterdam (then to Lux) seemed quick and was full of sleep. A big thumbs up though for the video on demand in each seat…significant upgrade over having to watch whatever crappy movie the airline decided to show, when they decided to show it.

Well after getting in the next few days were a blur. I only had 2 days to get things together before starting work on Friday, so I scrambled around trying to find internet cafes or a wireless connection (there are really no functional wireless places here, very disappointing), I was driven around for ½ a day looking at apartments, and I spent time just walking around the city trying to getting to get acclimated. The weather was fairly crappy, much like Seattle in the fall, but I avoided any major rain showers during my walks so I guess that was good. Yeah, I am already talking about the weather, what a loser.


While I was busy, the walks I took were amazing. I was staying in the ‘seedy’ section of town in Gare (seen here on the left from my hotel room...it is the main train/bus station area), which is kind of like the seedy section of Disneyland, as Luxembourg has like a 0% crime rate and everything is really clean, and it was only a 10 minute walk to the Centre.

On my walks into the Centre I could cross either of 2 bridges across the Petrusse Valley (home to what has to be the worlds least imposing river), which is not in fact much wider than my foot anymore:

and 1 of the bridges is actually still the largest stone arch bridge in Europe. Yes, I have been reading my tourist guides....

As I walked in, I saw the Beck Bastion, which is part of the remnants of the old fortress:

(and the view from Beck Bastion back at the other bridge which isn't the largest stone arch in Europe):

All in all my personal walking tours were a great way to see the main city for a few days (photo below looking down unto Grund, home of several good pubs), and in a stunning upset I actually consumed at least twice as many cups of café au lait as I did diet cokes during this time. What might not be surprising is that my first real big purchase was an iron and an ironing board. I figured with all the suits and stuff I would be wearing it would be a good investment, and I am a fan of ironing so why not. Of course I didn’t think about the fact that I would have to carry the fracking ironing board with me (along with 5 heavy bags) as I changed hotels and eventually moved to my apartment. I think I gave some people on the street some good laughs.

The big and very good news for me was that I was able to find an apartment before I started working. I used a ‘relocation specialist’, who was worth every penny (although technically I am still not sure how many pennies that will be), and I found a cool 1 bedroom, furnished place in the fashionable neighborhood of Belair. I was surprised to find out later when describing the location to the people in the office, that it is also about 50 yards from a fairly popular dive-type bar (the other night I had the first of what will probably be many beers there). I was not able to move in until the 11th which was disappointing, but to have found a furnished place that I liked so quickly was a bit lucky, and I am just really digging being out of a hotel and starting to lead a bit of a normal life. I will have a separate post on this shortly, so for now all you get is the view from outside the building (mine is the one in the middle with the satellite dish):

Well after all this I had my first day of work on September 1st. It was actually an ‘induction day’ for about 125 new hires for EY: only about 20 of which were higher than 1st year staff, only about 15 of which didn’t speak French as their primary language, and only 1 of which was American (yup, me). The good thing is though that the language of the office is English, so everyone has to speak it. But the downside is that while I can engage in a conversation in English well enough 1 on 1, all the sudden my table would go into a big group discussion in French and I just had to sit there twiddling my thumbs and feeling like a tool. Everyone though was really nice, and I think it helped that I was coming in as a manager so several people already started to kiss my butt a little.

The best part of the day was meeting up with a group of Irish kids who were starting that day as well and who knew the guy in the office who was from Chicago (and whom I had been talking with over the past few months). We all went out to a great dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse, and then hit the town in search of pints of beer. Our search went well, and after a few stops we ended the night at an Irish pub called The Pyg (there seems to be a large Irish population here), and a few hours later after wondering 15 minutes the wrong way, I eventually made it back to my hotel room around 5:00am. Nothing like a little early morning walk to end your first Friday in a new city/country/continent.

So that is all I have for my first post. There will be a few additional posts on my new home, not to mention the fact that starting this weekend my European travels really start so hopefully there will be lots of good stuff from that. Probably not, but I can always hope. Cheers.