Lok Man in Germany

Between 17th July and 27th July my family came to Europe to visit, and together we did some travelling in Munich, Berlin and Paris. One feature of this trip was the heat - the top temperatures were between 30 and 38 deg C every day, which is rather abnormal for this part of Europe. Luckily my parents have paid for some classy hotels which had good air-conditioning. Phew. The journey started in Munich, where we first visited Andechs, the monastry brewery that is near my residence. People go there and view the buildings, monastries, but most importantly, drink beer and eat lots of pork. They just introduced a new apple juice and wheat beer (Weissbier) combination, which sounds quite interesting. Later that night we went to the national theatre to watch an Opera. I bought some horrible seats in the back row on the top floor (I think the 7th) where the stage was barely visible. The Opera was Orlando, sung in Italian with German subtitles, so it was all lost on us. But for 10 Euros we got t...

The World Cup in Germany has come and gone but many of the memories remain - there are still German flags on some cars, souvenir shops trying to clear their world cup souvenir stock, and the poster of the world cup draw is still on the office wall. For me, the world cup meant lots of Aussie visitors since our team qualified for this world cup, and therefore a lot more excitement than usual. This also brought many friends from my high school (North Sydney Boys) over here, some that I have not spoken to for almost 9 years. It was fantastic to see them and hear their stories. Michael Wrathall stayed with me for a few days and it was great to have another Aussie to watch the matches with. The second highlight was rather unplanned. I managed to get a ticket for the Australia vs. Italy match in the second round! My friends Hong and Marlene had just arrived in Germany after Australia's qualification by beating Croatia, and they called me to say that there were tickets on sale in Stuttgart...