before my trip

(gera and eurocup tickets)

So this will probably be my last Zurich post for a while, since I am going to Minneapolis on Wednesday and then to Mexico, and wont be back in Zurich for 6 weeks! (can you say “va-ca-tion”?)
I have some stuff to tell you about before I leave, so here it is:

Remember the EURO cup tickets? Gera signed up for the raffle to purchase them, and he got a pair of tickets to a game in Zurich on June 9th (france-romania). This was last year, btw. So this year we find out the tickets are re-selling at high prices, which makes us start thinking about maybe not going and just taking the money. AND THEN we find out that we wont even be here for the match anyways (Gera goes to Denver to a conference, more on that later), soooo … I sold the tickets on ebay for a nice sum. (yay for us!). Too bad we wont be here for the EUROcup festivities (some trams are all festive and “football-y”), but on the other hand its good we wont be here for the chaos. We already received the tickets and are currently on their way to France.

I am super excited that I will be reuniting with my grad school friends in Minneapolis. Somehow most of us will be in the area so we plan to get together and have a good time (like old times!). (sorry Kate you wont get to be there )

Gera and I went to a FIFA youth stars soccer tournament. It is held here every year and it was free! It was even within walking distance from our house, so we enjoyed a couple of fast-paced games (they only lasted 40 mins) and who knows, maybe we got to see a future soccer superstar.

On a sad note, I am currently desperately searching for my wedding ring… I don’t know where I left it… I’ve looked in all the usual places. I’ll keep you posted. (on the other hand, it took me almost 8 years to misplace it, as opposed to Gera who lost his less than a week after our wedding).

Well, I am going back to packing. See you soon (some of you) and keep in touch!


(abril sent Gera a knitted poop for his birthday, it was hilarious!)

constance & Gera's Birthday

photos HERE

Last weekend was Gera's birthday, and to celebrate we went to the city of Konstanz in Germany (almost on the border with Switzerland). We have been wanting to go there for a while because we knew it would make a nice day trip, so this was the perfect occasion.

I must start by saying that this was probably the worst trip we've had in all our time of Europe sightseeing. It started badly and only went downhill from there. Dont get me wrong, Konstanz was a very nice place, and the Island of Mainau nearby was very pretty too, and we couldn't have asked for better weather... but... it was just a bad trip.

(9am) It all started when we arrived to the tram station only to see our tram leaving... ok. we'll just wait for the next one.
10 minutes later we're leaving on the "new" tram, when Gera asks "did you pack our passports?"..... "no".
We get off the tram at the next stop and WALK home to get the passports (and our stash of Euros, which we had also forgotten). By now we missed the direct train we wanted to catch, but we could make another one that left 30 minutes later but it was not direct. (9:37) Since we still had to buy the tickets, we BARELY made it to the train... (on hindsight it could have been worse).

We finally arrived to Konstanz (11am) and started walking. Kosntanz is the type of town where there isn't much else to do but walk, so we walked for a couple of hours, until we were tired and hungry. We stopped to eat at a restaurant we found on our way (which turned out to be very good, so there again, things could have been worse).

So with our bellies full and our bladders empty, we headed north towards the island of Mainau (a green paradise). According to the guide I had printed, you could walk there. so we walked and walked. And since we had crossed a bridge at one point, we thought we were ALREADY on the Island.... but something was off, and the map of the island did not make sense... weird. But we kept walking along the shore line and came across a couple of bathing areas. Nice. Kept walking. At one point we came to the conclusion we were NOT on Mainau yet, and somehow we were lost.

We walked some more trying to get to a bus station, or a ferry port. We eventually got to a ferry port, where they had a map and there we realized how much we'd walked and how more we still had to go. We boarded a ferry (after buying a one-way ticket) thinking it would take us to Mainau (or to Konstanz where we could catch a ferry to Mainau). We just wanted to stop walking... Turns out the ferry took us across the lake to another town... so we quickly got off the boat, bought another ticket and got back on. Then we ended up again in the same place. Then we took a bus and after changing buses once, we were finally in Mainau. (5pm) Only 3 hours after setting out on foot).

Mainau was a very nice place, but after going through so much just to get there, it was nothing more than a glorified city garden. We were charged 1/2 price for the entrance because it was so late (another good thing). Once there, the map we had made perfect sense! We saw some plants, tulips, fountains and butterflies. It was all very pretty but we were so very tired... and then we were looking for an ice cream place and found none... Another thing that happened here was that Gera lost his return train ticket (he had it in his pocket, and then he didnt). Finally we left Mainau and took a bus back to Konstanz's main station, but since we werent sure the bus went all the way to the city center, we got off at a point were we recognized the area and could walk. Then we saw the bus keep going in the same direction as us... oh well...

So we ended up doing some more walking, but that gave us a chance to find an ice cream place. (7:40pm) We got to the train station and after Gera bought another ticket we found out that the last direct train to Zurich had left like 45 minutes ago. There were no more trains to Zurich for the day (!!), only as far as Wintherthur (about 20+ minutes away). (8:00pm) Oh well... by now we just laughed at all the misfortunes... We arrived in Wintherthur and the direct train to Zurich was delayed!! OMG! will it not stop?! so we took a "regional" train that stops at every single town... so it took forever to get to zurich....
We arrived home at around 10pm. We were tired and hungry, but as I write this i i am grateful that we had good weather, good food and good sights, because things could have been a lot worse!


(the red line is what we walked, the green is the bus we took, the blue is the ferry)

On Gera's Birthday we just stayed home, resting and eating. I made him pancakes for breakfast, and a very yummy General Tso's chicken for dinner. And of course, the 3-milk cake he requested, that was the best!

I am going to Minneapolis!!

(Holding a package abril sent me for my birthday. Thanks sis!)

It is set, I have plans, I have tickets! I am going to Minneapolis in May!
Abril lives there, so I will be spending lots of time with her, when she’s not at school, cooking away… but we’re starting to make plans of all the things we’ll do together, like the good ol’ Bloomington times! Gera has a conference in Denver, but after that, he’ll also fly to Minneapolis and we’ll all be there together. I cant wait. Even though my trip is only 6 weeks away I have not taken out the suitcase (like last time). I am waiting for the weather in Zurich to get better, so I can take all my summer clothes out too (right now its rainy and cold).
Gera’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I have been experimenting with a recipe for his birthday cake, he wants “tres leches”. This 3-milk cake is a regular white cake cooked with extra eggs to make it harder, and then soaked in a mixture of 3 milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated, and whipping cream, all topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries (or shredded chocolate). It is YUMMY!. The first try was quite good, but the cake part was a bit too hard, but I think the secret is on the milk mixture and as long as that is good it all tastes great!

Fussen Germany

Fussen Germany
Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein castles.

find photos HERE

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to Germany (gotta love living in Europe!). We went to a town called Fussen (4.5 hrs by train), to visit the (very famous) nearby castles of Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein. Prince Ludwig II (prince of Bavaria) had a “thing” for castles, and he built a few. Then he was later declared crazy, and a day or two later was found dead (along with his psychiatrist, go figure). Neuschwanstein caslte was never finished, but it was opened to the public only a few months after he died (can you say “ka-ching!”?). It is grand and majestic, and was the inspiration for the Cinderella castle at Disney World! The other (less grand) castle of Hohenschwangau was a sort of summer residence, and that is where the prince grew up and lived.
The day we arrived was snowy and rainy, and we almost regretted going. But the second day was great and sunny, and everything looked so much prettier with all the fresh snow, we were happy we made the trip.
We took a trail up to a bridge where (according to the guidebooks) you could get a very nice view of the castle. Everythingwas white and beautiful, it looked like Narnia. We had to ignore a few warning signs and closed paths to get to the bridge. Because of all the snow the day before, some paths were closed, but people were just going through (under the fence), and so did we!. It was totally worth it!

Lenzerheide

photos HERE

Less than a week after I got back from Juarez, Gera’s lab organized its annual ski trip (Jan 21). We didn’t go last year because we were in Sicily at the time so this year we had to go, before all the snow melts!
We went to an area called Lenzerheide, near the city of Chur. We knew we didn’t want to ski, since Gera has a bad knee and I am too afraid to do it alone, plus you need to take classes and it would be more time consuming and expensive. So we decided to try sledding instead! The weather was great, sunny and not too cold. We took a 90 minute train plus a 30 minute bus to get there. We payed for the ski lift and rented a couple of sleds. They were heavy, wooden, with no breaks, and no steering.
We got to the start of the run, and we, well, just started sliding down… I had no idea what I was doing, and I kinda just started gaining speed. We got to a point with a very sharp turn, and I couldn’t make it! But before I fell off into the woods, I jumped off and the sled kept going, until it was stopped by a tree. That was the only accident we had. After that, I was more careful and we got the hang of it: you have to steer and brake with your feet. The run was long, 3.8 km long! And when we reached the bottom, we got back on the lift and did it all over again. I think in total we did it like 8 times, but we also took a walk, and had lunch at the cafeteria. We thought about having some fondue to make it more swiss, but they didn’t have any…
It was a great day! We were so tired by the end of it, we could hardly walk. And the next day I felt like I was hit by a bus!

december trip recap

Sorry it took me a while to finally get this posted,…

the pictures are still HERE.



I will not bore you with many details of the 26 days I spent in Juarez, so I will split up my vacation into categories and talk about that in a more general way.

Family
I was super happy to see my parents, I don’t think I had ever spent so long without seeing them. My mom just started a new job as head nurse in a new fancy hospital in Juarez, and she is super busy getting her nursing degree AGAIN! (when she went to nursing school it was just a technical career and no degree was given, so she is studying it again! Way to go Mom!). She was a bit sick and hospitalized in November, so I was glad to see that her health is great and she is as pretty as ever! My dad is planning his first ever trip to Europe this july! I am super happy for him and most of his Christmas presents were trip-related (Ger and I got him an awesome day-trip bag). I hope I get a chance to travel a bit with him when he’s there.
We spent Christmas at Gera’s house. We ate turkey and had cheesecake for dessert. We were all together for the first time in years (by “all” I mean Gera’s parents, brothers, and nephews and my parents and siblings). Then we spent New Year’s at my parents’ house. We had tamales and carrot cake. Roberto’s plane left early on January 1st, so we had to celebrate midnight like an hour later, so they could be at home and in bed before midnight.

Friends
I had lots of time to visit with friends, and go out to parties. I even got to go to a Quinceañera!! Of course, the time spent is never enough and I was very sad to leave, specially because I left my very pregnant friend STILL pregnant (we were hoping she would pop while I was there). She had her baby almost 2 whole weeks later! Since I don’t have a car (nor a driver’s license, hehe) I spent a lot of time at home, and pretty much depended on friends to come pick me up (or on my sister to come home from work so we could go do something), so even though I did go out and had fun, I also spent a lot of time at home alone watching TV (hey! contrary to what you might think, the world does not revolve around me, and everybody has a life!)

Food
We ate a lot! We got fat, we knew that would happen and were ok with it. I fulfilled all the items on my list, except 1: yoghurt ice cream from a special place in Juarez (it was cold and I never really felt like ice cream…). Everything else was crossed off, sometimes even more than once! (Taco Bell, Arbys, dominos pizza, McDonalds, Sonic, Wendys, Hardees, Birthday cake, steak, shrimp/seafood, Barbacoa, tacos al pastor, tamales, sushi, carne asada, flaming hot cheetos, blue moon, root beer, vanilla coke). It was, as I said before, a gastronomical fest, and we enjoyed it all. Gera of course ate other things as well, like lamb and buche, which I really don’t like. Now that we’re back in Zurich, we’re eating better and going out for walks 3 times a week. I think we’re almost back to our initial weight, which was high to begin with, so we’ll keep going until we are thin, fit and fabulous!

Shopping
I’ve said before that stuff here is expensive… so when I went shopping in Dallas (and El Paso) I was going crazy with the super low prices!! And I wanted to buy everything! Of course I limited myself to things I needed, like clothes. Oh, and a luggage set, and a small shopping bag with wheels. And shoes. And Christmas presents. And hair products. I was concerned that my bags would be too heavy, so I really did not go overboard. Really.
The bags were not too heavy, and I even got to bring back a couple of mini blocks of Valveeta cheese (there’s no yellow cheese here! Its killing me), a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (for wings), and a few packets of cornbread mix (thanks Adri!).

my vacation is over

(photo: belgian wafles, before going to the airport in El Paso)

I've added a lot more photos to the flickr album


My vacation is over…
I write this waiting for my flight back at the Dallas airport. I arrived just a “bit” early…. 3 hours early … I could not be dropped off later due to schedule issues, but early is better than late, and it gave me a chance to write the blog, so yay for that!.
I had a super great time at home, and I was really sad to leave, but it was time to say good bye and be reunited with Gera, who has been back in zurich for a week.
A big part of our vacations is food. You will be able to see by the pictures on flickr that besides the mandatory family/friends catch-up our trip also consisted of a sampling of all kinds of culinary delights, from junk food like flamin’ hot cheetos, going trough fast-food, traditional Mexican, and mom home-made… and it was all delicious! The bad news is that all that deliciousness really shows! I guess we really need to start the year on a diet (like every year).

As I mentioned before, Dallas was a blur of a shopping spree and an fast-food frenzy. After that, I traveled to Louisiana (dec. 12-17), where I visited friends from grad school. We were honored to be asked to be godparents to their daughter, and that made the trip even more special. In Louisiana I had an amazing time just visiting my friends and spending time with them and their kids. They are a wonderful family and I am lucky to count them as friends. All this time in Zutrich I had really missed hanging out with friends just having dinner and talking. Our Ruston visit really brought back memories of Bloomington weekends. The baptism ceremony was beautiful and everything happened without a glitch (no crying baby!). Gera had arrived by car on Friday night, the baptism was on Sunday and we were on our way back to Dallas by car on Monday december 17th. I was on a plane to El Paso the very next day! (Gera would wait until our family in dallas traveled by car to el Paso right before Christmas to catch a ride with them).

I arrived to El Paso late on Tuesday Dec 18th, and Abril, Baba (my sister), and Paco (my brother) were there to greet me. It was an emotional reunion even though I had seen them (my sisters) a few months before when they visited Zurich in May. They had set out to cross the border to El Paso before dinner (because it usually takes more than 1 hour to cross) so by the time I arrived they were starving and so we headed to Whataburguer (a burguer chain popular in texas). Then we finally headed to Mexican soil! It took us a while to get there because we had to stop at the bridge and find out if I had to return my I94 or not (permit that goes along with my visa), but I was finally in mexico like at 2am! (I had been away for14 months and 14 days).

I am a bit sad to report that my reunion with Huevo was not as I expected. He was a bit hesitant to greet me at first and it took him a couple of seconds to recognize me, but once that little light bulb in his head went on, he was happy and jumping and all over me. He is very well taken care of and is very good friends with one of the Chihuahua dogs my parents have (they had 3 at that moment); they sleep together and keep each other company. While I was there I made them all new beds (sewn by hand!) and gave huevo a good bath (the weather was so nice I did it outside). Guilt was heavy in my heart, so I bought him lots of rawhide bones, and big cow knuckles no chew on. The morning I left I said goodbye to Huevo… I hope his little head understands that I will be back for him someday.

Gotta board my plane now, more later!

so far...

FIND MORE PHOTOS OF THE TRIP HERE (i'll be updating that album)

It has been a crazy week, filled with shopping, traveling, visiting friends, and eating!
I’ll start with the shopping.
While in Dallas I tried to get over the tremendous jetlag by going shopping. I found some great bargains, but hey, compared to Zurich, everything was a bargain!!! I had to buy new luggage because the bags I brought were wheel-less, and in search of luggage I found a small shopping bag/cart ideal to haul groceries from the store on the bus. It was $3.99!!! I had to get it, so I did. I also got some tops, shoes, and gifts, among other things.

I traveled by plane to Louisiana to visit our very good friends (and now compadres) the Wan-kers (their self-imposed nickname). We were godparents to their wonderful little baby girl. It was an honor and a privilege to get to be there with them and visit and chat. It was great! (thank you for your hospitality!)
Gera arrived to Dallas 4 hours late, after many phone calls and delays. Needless to say, he did not make the 3:15 flight… well, technically he did, only that the flight did not take off until 7:00, after being boarded and then unboarded. The important thing is that he made it in one piece and his luggage was on the same plane. He drove to Louisiana (4 hours) to be there for the baptisim, and then we both drove back together to Dallas yesterday (Monday). Today (Tuesday) I fly to El Paso, and finally get to cross the border and see my family. I am so excited, I am all packed and ready to go.

I had a bit of an eating problem right after arriving from Zurich. The problem? I wasn’t hungry… There were so many fast food places I wanted to go to, but I just wasn’t hungry. Stupid jetlag, it not only messed up my sleeping pattern, but also my eating schedule. After a couple of days of only 1 meal a day (granted, it was a big meal), I tried to make myself eat on a schedule, and it worked! So now I am eating just fine! So far I’ve been to McDonalds, Taco Bell, Sonic and Wendy’s, and I’ve had vanilla coke and root beer. I’ve also eaten pseudo-Louisiana food and cornbread. Today we’ll go to the Chinese buffet before I go to the airport (mmmm, sweet and sour…)

airport adventures

Today I woke up at 6am local time, 12 pm “my” time. Can you still call it jetlag even if you did not fly on a jet? Well, I thought I’d me more tired and wake up later than this, but I guess not. Last night I went to bed at 4am “my” time. I made it to Dallas!

Yesterday was a very busy day. It all went very smoothly… at the beginning. We got to the airport on time, I checked in and now they ask you all sorts of “new” questions now, like “did you borrow something from someone?, where did you pack your bags? How did you get to the airport? Where were you sitting in relation to your bags on the train?”. I went through passport control and through security in less than 40 minutes, not because there was a line (there wasn’t) but because the airport is so big I had to walk a while to get from one place to the other. We boarded and took off. 3 episodes of House, 1 top chef, 1 Fraiser, and 2 movies later (not to mention a pack of peanuts, a chicken meal, and a sandwich and chips) we got to Newark. The flight is 9+ hours and I did not sleep a wink. I was super glad that we were actually 20 minutes early arriving in Newark. Have you ever heard of a plane being early?

Once in Newark I stood in line for Immigration. Those lines are worse than at Disneyland!. I thought I’d be fine with the extra 20 minutes and the not-too-bad fast-moving line but I wasn’t. I started to worry when 45 minutes in when I wasn’t even half way through the line and I still had to go get my bags, go through customs, check the bags in again, go though security and make it to the gate. A guy was letting people with children skip ahead in line, so I asked him about my flight and if he thought I would make it. “Nah! You wont!” “WHAT!” I said. That was all. He did not even try to give me a chance… I was not bumped to the front of the line. The rest of the wait was shorter because people started piling up (I guess another plane arrived) and they opened twice as many stations. I was already prepared to miss the flight, but after seeing the time after my passport had been stamped (that was pretty uneventful), I thought I’d give it a shot. I had 30 minutes!

I ran to get my bags and got a cart to move them because after an accident in Zurich now they were both missing a wheel. I found the bags, loaded them and ran to customs. I saw that people we were just handing off their filled out forms, so I kinda got in front of a guy who was looking for something in his bag (you snooze, you loose) and gave the form to the officer and ran again! I thought: “If I am supposed to stay or have my bags checked, they will call me”. They didn’t so I kept going. I found the line for baggage check-in and it was not too long. A lady was asking people when their flights were, and a couple in front of me had a flight at 3:20, and she said “oh, my! You probably wont make it” and she took them to the front of the line. Mine was at 3:15. I followed them, even though nobody told me to, and when she saw me there she tried to send me back to the line. I showed her my boarding pass:
-Me “Mine is at 3:15!!!”
-Lady “you probably wont make it”
-Me “but I have to try
-Lady “well, the bags WONT make it”
-Me “I don’t care”
Someone took my bags and I took off running

I still had to take the monorail to get to my gate. Follow the signs, follow the signs. I got to security and the line was not too long. I guy behind me told the attendant “My flight leaves in 15 minutes, can you call and tell them to wait?” the answer: “NO”. I showed my documents and was let through. The guy ended up in line behind me and I asked him if they had done anything for him. Turned out we were on the same flight. We started asking people to let us get in front of them in line, and we made it to the front (it was only like 10 or 12 people). I put my bags (and everything else I had on the x-ray machine and walked through. I beeped! I forgot to take my passport pouch off, also my shoes. Went back thorough. This time I was OK. As I was packing my bags again the guy said “if you make it there before me, tell them there’s one more person coming”. I didn’t even put my shoes on properly and started running. I could see the gate. There was no one in line. Did everybody board? It was already 3:15 and boarding had started at 2:40. So I got to the counter:
-Me “did I make it?”
-Guy at the counter “made it where?”
-Me “made the flight?”
-Guy at the counter “oh. We haven’t boarded yet. We’re running a bit late”
-Me “…”
I had made it!!! That was my Amazing Race moment for this trip (so far)

last zurich post of the year!

hello all!
I am super excited!
In a few hours I'll be on my way to Dallas!
i have my bags packed, and my passport ready.
See you soon (some of you at least!)
ciao
jazibe

blast from the past: wedding

This post is better suited for our anniversary, but since i just found the CD with this pictures (i thought I had left it in Mexico), i will share them now. Our wedding was 7 and a half years and many many pounds ago! (July 29th, 2000- except the civil ceremory, which was a few weeks earlier).
I continue packing, or rather just throwing stuff in the suitcase, i will sort and pack later. I made a big calendar for the wall with special notes and reminders (take out trash, pay bills, etc) to leave everything sorted out when Gera heads out (we really dont want to repeat the cucumber incident of 2002, when we left a cucumber in the fridge during our winter vacation, and when we came back it had exploded and the whole fridge smelled horrible!).
see you soon!

Oktoberfest!

As promised, here’s the scoop on our Oktoberfest adventure!

Oktoberfest photos are HERE

We went to the Oktoberfest on the very last day (it’s called “oktoberfest” but it actually takes place the last 2 weeks in September and up to the 1st Sunday on October). I did a bit of research beforehand, and found out that we did NOT need reservations for the tents (the BIG drinking halls), because they only take reservations for groups of 10 or more. I also looked a bit into public transport, and city sights, but in the end I was so rushed getting all the visa stuff ready, I did not print out anything but the hotel reservation. So off we were with no maps, and a few notes on my notebook.

We took a train early on Sunday, and arrived in Munich around 11:30 am. We decided to go straight to the fair grounds and not to the hotel, since we packed very light and only had a backpack and my bag to carry around (and it also meant more time for beer). In retrospect (and as Abril pointed out), it was a bit silly to think we would be able to get to the hotel at night with a few beers on our system and without a map… but more on that story later.

So we easily made our way to the fairgrounds (just follow the crowd), and made it there a bit past noon. The place is like a HUGE fair, with booths, and food, and rides, and lots and lots of people. We bought a huge pretzel and whole fish to eat. They had them cooking right in front of you, and even though they didn’t look very pretty, they were delicious. A lady asked me if it tasted good, I said “ja!”, then she asked if they were not too salty, I said “nein!” (this conversation was in German, and I was happy that I understood).

We walked around a bit, and went into a couple of tents. At first we didn’t quite know what to do. I had read that you just sit in a table where there’s room, and make friends with the other people there. Even though it was still early, some of the tents were pretty full (at least their “no reservation required” section). Then we found a very lively tent, and found a table, so right away we sat down and started ordering beer.

The tent was full of young people, and they were all singing and dancing on the tables, and after the first few sips, we were singing along too (to “sweet home Alabama”, if you can imagine). We stayed there for a couple of hours (or a couple of pitchers, however you want to put it), and then moved on to another tent. The next tent we visited was a bit less “happenin’ “, but fun too. We stayed there a couple of hours more, and then headed out for dinner on the fairgrounds (rotisserie chicken). We had a great time in both tents, talking to the people on our table, we found some Swiss drinking buddies. We were also very happy to know that our German is not as bad as we had thought. I fact some people said it was very good and we could even have small conversations with them. (maybe it was the beer)

After dinner, we decided we had had enough, and headed to the hotel. This is where I miraculously found our way to the hotel, without a map, and just relying on asking people (in german) “where is…?” And I was so happy that I even understood their answers (not just their signs when they pointed “that way”). Maybe it was the alcohol in my system, hehe.

The next day we found out that sadly our “recovery” time increases with age when we stayed in the hotel until noon!! After checking out, we just walked around the “old town” part of the city, visited a few churches, and had lunch in front of the Rathaus. Most of the museums were closed (because it was Monday), and we were too tired to enjoy them anyways. We were back in the train station and ready to leave by 6:30. Since the Oktoberfest was the main attraction of the trip, we did not feel too bad about not leaving a lot of time to see the city. After all, we got what we wanted: An awesome Oktoberfest experience!

It was “le-----wait for it---- gendary!!!” (<<-- from “how I met your mother”)