My adventures: Oktoberfest 2015

Hello friends!

On Saturday, my usual group and I decided to make the trip to Oktoberfest in München (Munich). I am the only one who has been before, but I do love hanging out with this group.

We got on the train around 1015 and settled in for a long two hour train ride. I tried to get a picture of Dom looking at me while in his backpack carrier thingy, but he looked away at the last second. He really is adorable!

K and I had to get the obligatory selfie picture. She forgot her camera phone (as usual) so T and I gotta take all the pictures for her to share with her family. If I don't take pictures like this, it's doubtful that I will make it in any pictures at all. 

For some reason, it's really difficult to get C to smile in a picture. I had to insult him a little for this smile, which his wife thought was funny

One of the few words that Dom says clearly is "up". He likes hanging from the luggage rack, which he did several times over the course of the ride to Munich. C and I said now it's time to teach him to do pull-ups. C demonstrated the pull-up motion with Dom by pushing him up and down while he hung there, which made Dom laugh quite hysterically.

Our first stop off the train was Starbucks for T and K. They both wanted a pumpkin spice latte, and I just wanted a croissant and some hot chocolate. Then, K saw this hat that she wanted, so we got it before continuing on our way to the fest. I made sure to get a side view so we could show it was a beer mug in the Bavarian flag colors!

Oktoberfest is the largest fest in Germany, and it happens over a several week period starting at the end of September and going into October. The festplatz is HUGE! There are 4 major beer tents that you have to buy a table for the day to get into, and that can be kind of costly. Last year, I went with the rest of my team, and we got a table for several hours with two beer tickets and a chicken ticket.

There are several smaller "tents" to chose from for food and beer, but you aren't supposed to take the beers out of the tents. Each tent has it's own theme or style, and they are all pretty awesome. Since T is pregnant, Dom was with us, and I was using my cane, we didn't try to get into a tent, that is something they want to save for next year when T can properly drink. 

There were SO many people at this fest (not a surprise) that it actually set C and I on edge a little bit. We didn't ride any rides (although T took a picture of every fun house and cheese 80's horror ride there were- apparently she does this everywhere we go and I just found out about it), but C and I played a couple games. It took us forever to make the walk around the fest anyways, there was SO much to see.

One of my favorite parts of the fests are the fries (in German, pommes). Thankfully, this time, they had the proper fest seasoning, which made me super happy. This was a large thing of fries, so big that K and I shared them and we still didn't finish the entire thing. They were super cheap though, only 4 euro for this big thing, super warm, and super yummy.

I bought several souvenir's this time around (last year I only brought enough money for a pretzel and a mug). This year I bought the necklace above, a mug (cheaper then the one I bought last year), two postcards, two stickers for my travel book, and a t-shirt that I saw last year but didn't get. T also bought me a gingerbread cookie thing that says Oktoberfest on it. 

While you can only get beer in the tents, they have several places to get liquor and other cocktails. Right before we left, C and I spotted a place to get mojito's (he really loves them), so we both got one. This one was MUCH better then the one we got at the Nurnburg fest a couple weeks ago, the bartender actually mixed the ingredients instead of just throwing everything into a glass and hanging it off. I liked the glass, so I took this one home with me as well. It's a harder plastic and I like the Captain and Cola symbol on both sides of the glass.

Oktoberfest has more roller coasters then the other fest's that we've been too, and the one above was themed with teddy bears. I wish I had taken a picture of some of the stuffed bears that were amongst the souvenir shops within the fest. 

Overall, we had a great day. It was slightly chilly, but for the most part I didn't wear my jacket until we were on the train. There were a LOT of people, and they aren't very considerate of people's personal space, but that's nothing new. 

After we get paid, we're making a trip to Ludwigsburg for the Pumpkin Festivle, which is another trip that I took last year, but want to take again this year with my favorite group! I'll be sharing a post about my travel insert here soon once it gets caught up.

Until next time,

Happy travels everyone!

"I Love" Sunday's v.43

Hello dear friends! I hope this post finds you well.

How was your weekend?

** I had 4 days off starting last Saturday, worked part of Wednesday, and then was off Thursday through today! It was absolutely amazing! I was lazy on most of Monday and literally didn't do anything but movies and watch YouTube planning videos on Tuesday. On Wednesday I worked from 0730-1130 and then was off for the rest of the day. Lazy days are the BEST!!!

** Was contacted by my dear friend Ashes and have been asked to help her get her blog started, for which I am pretty stoked. She wants to do a beauty blog (which is a little out of my element), but I am pretty good at at least getting blogs started. I am even working on making her a blog planning book, which I will show you once its finished and she has it in her possession! 

** So last Friday, this past Monday, and this past Wednesday, K and I got to hang out with my buddy M while he was in Graf for training before moving on to training in another country! M and I went to high school together, meeting in NJROTC. We had a lot of the same friends in high school and we've kept in touch over the years, once he graduated West Point Military Academy. I saw him back at Christmas at a little party that I had, and once he got to Graf he contacted me about possibly hanging out. Friday and Monday we just hung out at the food court and then at the parking lot near where he is staying because everything else was closed after 2000 on post. Wednesday, K and I went to pick him up, and brough him down to Stella's (one of our favorite places to eat) to have dinner with C, T, and their son. Afterwords, K and I had to drive him back to Graf, were we hung out for a little while before heading back home (I had homework and it was almost midnight).

the lighting in the parking lot was terrible and I forgot to get a picture while we were at the food court
so this is the best that I have. I was sitting on the hood of my truck.

** Thursday started the Creative Holiday Planner Workshop hosted by Christ Tomlinson and it is pretty awesome! If you don't know what it is and you're interested, check out the link above for more information. I already watched the Halloween videos and absolutely loved them! I even sent my mom to go check them out (she does crafty things too). Thanks to these videos I watched some Halloween themed stamp sets from Amazon! I can't wait until they get here! ((I am annoyed that some people won't ship to my APO address.... it's a freaking NY address even though we're in Germany.... grrrrr))

They have videos for Halloween, Fall, Christmas, and Winter decorations.
I definitely plan on using some of these ideas in my own planner decorating!

** I also signed up for Christy and Cori's Creative Planner Online Class as well! Pretty happy about this because they go in depth about dashboards, dividers, pockets, and what not for your planners (to include travelers notebooks) and I get inspiration from everywhere, so I am looking forward to this class as well. I think this will help keep me occupied during rotation and keep me from getting too bored when there isn't anything going on at work but I still have to be there.

** Thursday night K and I headed over to C's house for movies and homemade chili! Pretty stoked about homemade food and good friends. I love watching The Avengers movies, the one liners in those movies crack me up every time! T and I made some Salted Caramel Brownies!!!

** Yesterday we went to Oktoberfest. We took a train to Munich (it was easier then driving- and I ran out of gas rations for the month... and I am not paying the Euro price for gas). While it was super overcrowded with drunk people when we got there at noon, we still had fun. We literally walked around for about 4 hours straight without stopping to sit, so believe me when I say I am exhausted today and in some serious pain. It was worth it though. Be on the lookout for a post tomorrow dedicated solely to this adventure.

K and I on the 2 hour train ride to Munich for Oktoberfest

.: Little Loves :.

|| Dr. Pepper | Planning for Halloween | Candy corn | Monster Rehab Pink Lemonade | dear friends | Facebook messenger talks with my mom | technology | time off | Nightmare Before Christmas | Disney/Pixar | Avengers | Home cooked food | Fest fries ||

What are you loving about this past week?

My Adventures: Nürnburg Medieval Fest 2015

Hey dear friends! I hope this post finds you well!

Like I mentioned on Sunday, my usual gang decided to make an impromptu trip to Nürnburg to see the medieval festival that was going on at the Nürnburg castle, this weekend only.

We had to make the trek across Nürnburg to get to the festival, and we made the walk up the steep hills to the top of the castle grounds, only to find out that we had to go back down a ways and around to the back of the castle to get to the festival. This was K's first trip to the castle, and first trip to a medieval festival, so it was worth the walk (I had to keep reminding myself of that on Monday, when I was feeling like total crap! I was out of spoons by the time I got back home, but had to force myself to finish a stupid homework assignment before I could relax)

K, of course, forgot her camera, so I took this picture for her. This is a statue on the wall near the base of the castle. It's got a dragon hanging from a knight's feet.

While waiting in line to pay (this is the first fest I've ever had to pay to get into, but it was cheap), we happened to see this sign. The fest was just for this weekend, and we're so glad that C's neighbor mentioned it when we got home from Vilseck. C and T really love medieval festivals, and I haven't been to one other then the Esslingen Christmas Market (I really really love the Renaissance Festival), so we couldn't pass this up.

One of the two newest fest glasses that I have added to my collection. I usually don't drink when I go out, but this fest had Met (pronounced mead in English), and I couldn't pass it up! It was awesome!!!!

K got a glass of non-alcoholic beverage so she could get a glass to take home too, because she got a bit of motion sickness on the way to the fest, so she needed to settle her stomach. The cool thing about German festivals is that when you get a drink, you pay a deposit on the glass (I paid 3 euro for the mug in my hand). When you finish your drink, you can either return the glass and get money back, or you keep the glass (it's what the deposit is for). It's hard to tell in this picture, but my glass is a little taller then hers, and quite a bit wider.

Dom missed his nap today so we could go to this, so he was all about cuddles with his dad. T was talking about how she is always the one taking pictures of the boys, so she is hardly in pictures.... so I made sure that I took a picture of the three of them. I need to remember to do this more often, so that way she is in more photos!

K wanted to get a picture of herself in the stocks. It was quite comical to me. This reminds me of the Tampa Bay Renaissance Festival from a few years ago. I actually have a picture like this with my chorus teacher from high school, just without the glass.

Once we finished walking through the festival, we decided to stop for gelato on the way back to the car. I couldn't get any gelato because I had to wait 2 hours after I ate to take my GERD medication, which made me a little sad. Instead I sat on the stoop and waited for everyone else. I wore my hair up in a hair clip, since it was warmer today, so it looks like my hair is shorter then it really is. Once they got their ice cream cups, I offered to push Dom's stroller so T and C could eat their gelato while we headed back to the car.

We always park next to the train station when we go to Nürnburg, so we had to walk through the train station to get into the city. Apparently I've missed this painting each time we walk through, but it caught my attention today. It's a pretty cool replica of all the churches and the castle in the city, surrounded by the inner city wall!

I love going on little day trips with this group of friends. Since T is pregnant and they have Dom (who's not even 2 yet), I know that I won't have to spend all day at the fest. They understand my limitations of when I need to sit down and take a break, and they understand when I say that I am tired and done for the day. They don't judge me at all, which is nice, and I know that I don't have to deal with a bunch of alcoholics. 

 

 

Until next time!

"I Love" Sundays v.41

Hello friends

Happy Sunday! How're you today?

**  Today is my parents wedding anniversary! Yay to them for being married for over 10 years! A quick super kudos to my dad (a man that never wanted kids) who stepped up to take care of two children that weren't his. He is the best dad that my youngest brother and I could've asked for!

** I recolored my hair this past Friday night because I was tired of it all being multiple colors. I wanted it all to be a single color. It's a little darker then I expected, I think that it looks more brown then red, but K disagrees (she dyed her hair as well) and says it looks more red. It'll lighten up after a few more washes and hopefully be the exact color I was hoping for. 

** K and I went to Nurnburg to go to a store called Underground (a place full of gothic style clothing) yesterday, it was pretty awesome! I got a new shirt!!! There was also a street fair going on (it was like a GIANT yard sale covering the entire city of Nurnburg) that was pretty cool. I got some cool stuff for reasonable prices! There was also a store in one of the buildings in the city that was a geek store! I bought a new Snape wand and a Hogwarts tank top! Later on in the day, I bought a mini guitar to give as a present to a friend of mine as well.

The little guitar that I picked up for my friend!

** Figured out that Netflix works on my work computer, which will help me make it through long boring night shifts. It meant that I got to catch up on Disney movies that I didn't know were around. I know that that sounds weird for me to say, I'm watching Netflix at work, but working night shift... that means there is nothing going and I need to stay awake some how!

** I bought the Disney Infinity 2.0 game for my Xbox finally (I have some of the figurines already), so I started playing it on Friday since it was my day off. Other then the fact that the screen is kind of small because it's pulled back to cover a lot of the area, I like the game so far.

** I'm almost done cleaning, purging, and organizing my room! Most of my craft supplies are all in their proper places! For the first time since I've been here. Sad that I'll be leaving here in a couple months, but better late then never I guess. It's mostly thanks to all the craft tour videos I've been watching.

** Today, I had to take C to Vilseck to get a new mattress for his son, D, since he's kind of outgrown his crib and he has a baby sister on the way. That was an adventure! The awesome part is I got a 12X12 organizer to hold my loose scrapbook paper! There were some other things that I got too, that were all about organizing.
Once we got back to C's house, we found out that there was a Medieval Festival going on near the Nurnburg Castle. So of course, we collect C's wife and son, and then collected K, and made our way to the castle. There will be a post about the festival later on this week!

.: Little Loves :.

|| friends | German McDonalds | Harry Potter | planning | penguins | bread | candy | Pinterest | gatorade | traveling | crafting ||

What about you? What are you loving from this week?

My adventures: Nürnburg Volksfest 2015

Hey friends!

Happy Tuesday everyone.

 

 

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend in honor of Labor Day, so Friday we took the girls to the Nürnburg Volksfest. We had an absolute blast

 

 

This is the entrance view from the parking area. I don't remember seeing this last year... but that may be because last year we took a train from Parsberg to Nürnburg and then a tram thingy from the train station to the fest grounds.

 

This is over by the entrance from the Tram thingy, which I remembered. My buddy C had to go get some Euro, so we walked halfway around the fest just to find an ATM.

 

I love ancient Egytian culture. This is the side of one of the fun houses in the fest. We didn't go in, because we were all hungry, but T wanted to stop and take a picture.

 

This is the beer that C ordered... I just thought the glass was cool. It was tall and skinny... usually beer mugs are shorter and wider.

 

The most unique Cola class I have ever seen. It was so cool... I wanted to take it with me... but I don't think that I was allowed... so I was a good girl, and left it there.

 

We played a horse racing skeeball type race game as a group and I somehow managed to win. I got 200 points, so decided to get these because they were 100 points each. The little nerf gun had three bullets and was harder to load then I was expecting... you have to put them in the nozzle and then shoot one before you put in another one.... it wasn't as cool as I thought it was going to be.

 

C, K, and I went and got Mojitos from here... but they weren't that good. They just dumped sugar in there instead of using sugar syrup, didn't crush up the limes at all, and didn't crush up the mint leaves.... it was actually gross. Which made us all sad.

 

N and I got on one of those giant swing sets, so I showed her what we could see of Nürnburg from the fest grounds. It was incredibly chilly up there, and I didn't warm up after that. We had fun though.

 

This is my prize from the last game C and I played. It was like that game where you take a rubber mallet and hit the target to try to ring the bell... but a much smaller version of that game and there were a bunch of numbers. If you hit all five of the 100's (they were each a different color), then you could pick any prize that you wanted. On my last try, I got the last 100 star, and I chose this little monster His tag said his name was Bullseye. He is soft and cuddly, and his arms are kind of flappy.

 

After we left the fest, we took them into Nürnburg, where we walked around and then got some gelato. It was super yummy!!! I was just proud of myself for remembering to take more pictures. I won't bring my dSLR camera to fests because there are too many people, so I have to use my cellphone.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Be on the look out on Thursday for a post about our trip to the Nürnburg Zoo!

 





"I Love" Sunday's v.40

Hello friends! Happy Sunday!

As usual, I hope this post finds you well.

** I've done something nearly every day on this four day weekend so far, thanks to having two new soldiers in my unit. It's nice having new friends. On Friday, we went to the Nurnburg Volksfest to show the new girls what fests are all about! There will be a post dedicated to that fest later on this coming week. Saturday, one of the girls and I went to the Regensburg Mall. Today, we went up to Graf for dinner, Starbucks, and to finally pick up her PS4 that she's been wanting. I helped her get set up before we both came back to my room and watch Netflix. Tomorrow we're going to the Nurnburg Zoo.

** I've uploaded two new videos to my YouTube channel, which has made me super excited. I've already got plans in the works for more new videos. I kind of like this thing! Check them out and leave me some love! I am also working for a banner for my channel and a kind of intro thingy for my videos.

Picture of my favorite planner supplies for one of my latest videos

**  I got to photograph a retirement ceremony this week for a captain that I knew from Afghanistan, the award of the Honorable Order of Saint Michael to a departing crew chief, and a promotion for my friend N.

** After a 2.5 hour Skype call with my parents (which was amusing and much needed), I began to work on ideas for creating some hand decorated inserts to sell (my mom is hand making her own Travelers Notebook covers and I thought why not make something to go with them?!?). It's been an interesting process already, now I am just waiting for some notebooks to get in for me to decorate. I'll share more about those in another post.

** I started to clean up, organize, and purge stuff in my room. The nice part is not only am I finding things that I kind of forgot that I had, I am also putting stuff together to send to my mom, and I am creating an entire "craft space" that is more centralized and dedicated to my crafts!

.: Little Loves :.

|| Fest fries | Gaterade | Time with friends | Jamming to Disney songs on road trips | warm, clean sheets | Rice Krispies | German bread | German Vanilla Coke ||

What are you loving from this past week?

My adventures: Regensburg Volksfest 2015

Hey dear friends! I hope this post finds you well. If you guys were around last year, then you will remember that I used to blog about fests and stuff that I went too, and decided to start doing that again, since I'm starting to get out more.

 

So on Saturday, we went to the Regensburg Volksfest with the two new girls. We decided to meet up with a friend of mine as well (but he didn't spend much time with us because he was baby sitting someone from his unit. Sadly, I didn't take many pictures, but we sure did have a good time.

 

These are our two new females in the unit, K is on my left and N is on my right.

They were in Germany for like 3 days when this happened.

I was told by my CSM that I needed to take care of them, so I decided to start showing them German cultures and festivles.

 

The first thing we did was stop in a beer tent so C, K, and N could get beer while I got some fries. I love fest fries! Last year they had this cool seasoning on them... but not this year... so I was a little bummed out about that.

 

After that we walked around a lot, they all did a fun house thingy while I stayed with the stroller and stuff, and then we did some bumper cars, K and N rode one of those rides that spins you in circles and stuff.... it was cool.

 

My buddy's wife, T, decided that before we left she wanted to get a chocolate covered pear that was made to look like a cute little mouse

 

Once we were done at the fest, we decided to take the girls out for dinner, we took them to The Thai Place (that's what it's called) that we love. We had to walk across a bridge to get back to the main part of Regensburg, so I snapped this picture of the river.

 

 

This is the side view of one of the churches as we headed back to our vehicles to leave Regensburg.

 

 

Over all, we had an absolute blast. Everyone was super tired once we were done. It was about a 45 minute drive home, but its always nice to go out and hang out.

 

Stay tuned next week for my post about our trips to Nürnburg Fest and the Zoo