112…Edinburgh

When I go to Edinburgh, part of me feels like I am coming home. My sister Laura moved here for Uni about 4 years ago so I have made quite a few visits to see her. I remember the first rime I went to visit while I was in Uni I came back to Cork, logged onto Monster and applied for about 15 Edinburgh jobs so that I could move over there! Now when I go up the city is so familiar  – I think I’m even getting used to the cold 🙂

Aside from my airport drama, I had the best weekend! I arrived at Lauras house tired and hungry at about 10pm on Friday evening. Laura, the amazing host that she is, had cheese, crackers, white wine and mushroom risotto in front of me before I could take off my scarf.

After this we went to a really cute bar called Bon Vivant for some wine and catch ups,

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Oktoberfest

After shaking off our tequila-induced hangovers, we put on our dirndls and headed for Oktoberfest! This was my nutritious breakfast of a salami roll, chips,  and a half litre of beer…. My first beer of Oktoberfest!

The festival itself was huge, much bigger than we expected. There were 35 tents overall, 14 biggies and 21 smallies – with the biggies having the capacity for over 6,000 people. Inside each of the tents are rows and rows of long wooden benches where you just plonk yourself down and get to know the people sitting around you. I had read online that it would be extremely difficult to get into any of the tents without a reservation, so we were prepared for a lot of queuing. Luckily this wasn’t the case, we didn’t have any trouble getting into tents or finding seats. I wouldn’t recommend that you book seats if you go as this will just tie you to a tent and there is a lot to explore.

Stopping off for a bite to eat, Mozzerella and tomato flatbread with Basil – I went back to this stall 3 times over the weekend because the food was so good!

Gabbs had her eye on something larger…

And Stephen went for the pork knuckle with potato dumplings, a speciality in Germany.

 

A quick ride in the dodgems before we headed home for the night…

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41…Guten Morgan

The countdown to Oktoberfest has begun! Just 10 days left until I fly off to Munich with Nikki, Gabbs and Lynn for four days. I am equal amounts excited and unprepared, I have spent most of this morning searching for something to wear. The most authentic dresses are shockingly expensive and the cheapest ones make you look just that, cheap! I found some female lederhosen which I love, and a pretty red & black dirndl on Ebay. I have decided to embark on a pre-holiday detox, as I am on antibiotics for the week I can’t touch alcohol anyway so it shouldn’t be hard. Although I’m not so sure that abstaining from alcohol before a beer festival is the best idea..

For breakfast this morning I ate diced pinapple with vanilla yoghurt.

For lunch I grabbed food from the canteen. Grilled cajun chicken with salad, and tomato and garlic bruschetta. I also snacked on celery and carrot sticks throughout the afternoon. I love eating these at my desk but I doubt my neighbours enjoy the noise of me crunching away all afternoon.

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