Year: 2009

A long night of Berlin’s museums

Our recent trip to Berlin included the Lange Nacht der Museen. Long museum nights are popular in many cities around Europe (we’ve also been to them in Zurich and Munich). Berlin has two a year, with 100 museums around the city opening their doors from 6pm to 2am. Special events for the evening include concerts, demonstrations, and things like the opportunity to destroy your evil things with a special machine (after first attending the Dinge-Sprechstunde, during which an expert will evaluate your thing for evilness).* 

Read moreA long night of Berlin’s museums

There’s a new lady bag in town

German Company Invents Pocket Toilet for Women Lady Bags became sort of a conversational leitmotiv during the Whiny Expat Bloggers Meet-Up. We think they should market these at Oktoberfest by handing them out to bedirndled women waiting in long bathroom lines. Except they’re going to have to make them bigger, first, since I believe most … Read more

Munich: So many bloggers

Whew, what a weekend. We Munich bloggers had the honor of hosting this year’s Whiny Expat Blogger Meet-Up. Bloggers from the far corners of Germany descended upon us for a weekend of eating, drinking, wandering around, and lots and lots of conversation. We tried to give everyone a glimpse of our city with some unexpected … Read more

Berlin: as enchanting as ever

After almost three whole months (oh, the horror) of sleeping in my own bed, I finally got out of Munich for a few days in Berlin. Berlin is one of the few places I go back to over and over and over again, because I will never get enough of it. It’s so big and … Read more

Dublin notes

[I spent about a month in Dublin this past spring, and wrote most of this post then. I figured it’s high time I got around to publishing it.] What I enjoyed most about this stay in Dublin were the little bits of daily life: the grocery stores, the pubs, the friendliness of the people. Spending … Read more

How should we prepare for Oktoberfest?

Complete the following sentence: In anticipation of Oktoberfest, we should ______. A. Start drinking more, to build up our tolerance. B. Stop drinking entirely, to let our livers rest up before the big event. C. Other (please specify). It’s less than a month away!

Christmas in Munich

A short guide to Munich’s public transportation system

[Note: if you’re not planning on using Munich’s public transportation system anytime soon, I recommend skipping this post. Instead go look at some funny t-shirts from Gatlinburg.] Even Germans are bewildered when they first encounter Munich’s public transportation system in all its glory. The various zones, trams, S-bahns, rings, U-bahns, and Streifenkarten are enough to … Read more