Jamie, Author at North of Something

The BEST Info on Oktoberfest + A Bavarian Giveaway!

21/09/2015 by Jamie 37 Comments

We have been in Germany for almost a year now and I’m gearing up for my very first Oktoberfest! Two of my sisters and my brother-in-law are flying in for the occasion and I can’t wait to explore this famous festival for the first time. This year Oktoberfest runs from September 19th through October 4th and as usual they are expecting upwards of 6 million visitors.

So! I have searched the interwebs for the best info on Oktoberfest and here is the best of the best:

How To Survive Oktoberfest by Nomadic Matt

His best tip: Don’t reserve a table for daytime hours unless you plan to be sitting down the whole time! He does recommend booking a table for the evening hours since that’s when it’s nearly impossible to find seats.

Oktoberfest: Everything You Need To Know by the Economical Excursionists

“In many parts of Europe, including Germany, sharing a table with strangers is no big deal. If you see a table that has people on it but think you can squeeze in, just ask if those spots are free. If they are, you are in luck! Pop a squat, order a beer and start chatting it up with your fellow table mates! Most people at Oktoberfest will be able to speak English, but if the people at a potentially free table are clearly German speaking, just ask, ‘Ist das frei?'”

19 Essential Tips for Celebrating Oktoberfest by Samantha Angell

“Bring plenty of cash. Most-if not all- of the tents will only accept cash, and even at that the exact change is preferred. On top of wanting to have cash to purchase food and drinks, you will also want cash for the various attractions at Oktoberfest grounds, transportation, and tips.”

Gearing Up For Oktoberfest by the Oxford Dictionary Blog

Here you will find 18 essential German words and phrases for Oktoberfest! Here’s a few of them:

Bayern (das) German name for Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria. It is the largest of the 16 German Bundesländer (states), with Munich as its capital.

Lebkuchenherz (das) A gingerbread heart. These are very popular at Oktoberfest and also generally at German fairs and Christmas markets.

Prost German for ‘cheers’ (not only useful for Oktoberfest). Alternatively, you could also say ‘Zum Wohl’ (‘To your health’).

Maßkrug (der), short Maß (die) A Maßkrug is a beer jug, either made out of glass or stoneware, which contains exactly 1 litre of beer. All you have to do is order a Maß.

Oktoberfest With Kids by Must Board First

“Go on Family Day! Tuesdays during Oktoberfest are family days, which means rides and games cost less. This doesn’t mean that the beer-loving crowd won’t be there, but it does mean there will be tons of other kids there as well (so you won’t feel so guilty bringing your own) and you won’t spend as much keeping the kiddos entertained as on the other days.”

Now it’s time for a Giveaway!

In the spirit of the season, I have joined forces with my friends at MilliGfunk and the Economical Excursionists to giveaway some very festive Oktoberfest gear!

Items to be included:

One (1) Leiderhosen Apron

Two (2) Authentic Munich Hofbräuhaus beerhall Maß

One (1) Mini Maß filled with local Bavarian gummies

One (1) Satchel printed with the Bavarian Flag

One (1) Package of mini Bavarian Chocolates from local Bavarian chocolatier

One (1) Faux Lebkuchenherzn Necklace made from local Bavarian Chocolates “Gruß vom Oktoberfest” (Translation: Greetings from Oktoberfest)

One (1) I (heart) Germany tissue packet

One (1) Bayern Postcard showing daily life and scenes in beautiful Bavaria

Total estimated retail value: $50 USD.

Eligibility: For this giveaway, only U.S. residents with U.S. or A.P.O. addresses are eligible to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don’t forget to check out the amazing blogs of my friends below!

MilliGFunk blogs about travel, healthy living, and home at MilliGFunk.com. Follow her on Bloglovin’, and Instagram!

Economical Excursionists are experts in all things budget travel and travel hacking related

Follow the Economical Excursionists on Pinterest and Facebook! Here’s the link to the blog: EconomicalExcursionists.com

The Suomenlinna Sea Fortress in Helsinki

14/07/2015 by Jamie 8 Comments

On our last day in Helsinki we took the Silja Ferry to the historical Suomenlinna sea fortress. The six island UNESCO World Heritage site was built starting in 1748. It has been in Swedish and Russian possession before it finally belonged to Finland in 1918. You can read more about the history at the Official Suomenlinna Website.

The ferry ride was fun and the views were gorgeous. Of course it was FREEZING but it only took about 25 minutes to get to Suomenlinna.

Scandinavia is full of archipelagos (that’s for you Karin!) and the coast surrounding Helsinki is full of random, miniature islands that appeared to be inhabited.

There was a really nice playground that we spent some time in while the rest of the group wandered around to find where the tour would start. Swings, rocking things (what are they even called?), and a castle-like fort for the kids to play on. My son was playing with some Finnish boys and they got along well enough with the language barrier. Good guy vs. bad guy playing on a playground fort is fairly universal!

We thought these birds looked like a mix between geese and penguins! Turns out they are Barnacle Geese who mainly live on the Arctic islands of the North Atlantic. Written about by medieval writers centuries ago, these birds are the stuff of legends. In the 12th century the rumor started that these geese were “born” of barnacles on driftwood, therefore they were A-ok to eat during fasts (because they aren’t really meat you guys!!), but eventually it was discovered that they breed in the Arctic and don’t make it down to Scandinavia for the British Isles until they are big boy geese. If you love geese legends, you can read more about them on the Smithsonian Environmental site.

While we waited for our English group tour, we wandered through the semi-creepy toy museum and Uncle Jordan gave Scott more candy.

Inside the museum there are some neat photos of the islands in the winter, completely covered in ice and snow. Here are two pictures to compare the islands between seasons.

The group tour was really informative, but the tour guide seemed to got lost in thought a few times and one time had to google something on her phone…. Weird. I’m pretty sure English was her first language so that wasn’t the issue, she might have just been new. Either way we wandered off about halfway through the tour so didn’t even hear the last half of it. I don’t think we missed much.

Also, Pringles and Aunt Lindsey to the rescue for keeping my son quiet during the group tour.

Augustin Ehrensvärd commanded the fortress for a time and he also designed much of the city. He is buried on Suomenlinna and his grave is epic.

We heard that many Finnish families enjoy taking the ferry out to the islands to enjoy a picnic on nice days. It’s definitely a gorgeous spot for a picnic!

Ok so here is the really cool part of the islands… the hobbit-like rolling hills with “buildings” hidden in inside. The idea was to make the islands look uninhabited so most of the outward facing cannons were hidden inside the walls and they left a lot of the rocky beaches untouched.

Here is our wonderful traveling crew: Karin, Brian, Lindsey, Jordan, and Kyle!!

Before we took the ferry back to Helsinki we had a meal and some beer at a local restaurant. The menu was not in English at all, but the staff was really friendly and helped us all find something we could eat. We even got to enjoy a lively song during a staff meeting of some Finnish group – about 30 men and women singing their hearts out at their restaurant table. Very interesting to witness/hear. Jordan took a video, dude send it to me!

You can pin this article for later using the image below!

Exploring Helsinki, Finland

10/07/2015 by Jamie 6 Comments

Exploring Helsinki, Finland in mid-spring isn’t the BEST time, because it’s still freezing there, but we enjoyed a long weekend checking out the city at the beginning of May. My sister and her friends were traveling around Russia and we planned to meet up for 3 days in Helsinki. What can you do in Helsinki for 3 days? Plenty! If you don’t mind freezing your butt off and getting rained on…

This was my son’s first time exploring Europe with his Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Kyle. He always had a hand to hold and someone to buy him a balloon or candy. Including our friends Jordan, Karin, and Brian who were on the trip, we were a group of 7 adults and one kid. The poor little dude was outnumbered most of the time on places to go and things to do. But with 7 adults it was fairly easy to keep him entertained amongst ourselves.

Our first stop was the downtown district near the harbor. The Helsinki Cathedral, built in the early 19th Century, loomed above the other buildings and we got to check out the inside. Well, not all of us, there was a strict no balloons allowed policy so my son, his balloon, and me hung out on the steps while the others explored the church.

We kept him entertained during dinners and stops at breweries by putting together transformers. Brian got the award for making the activity last the longest, clocking in at about 25 minutes, while Uncle Kyle used his super-hero, Rubik’s cube abilities and put it together in about 2 minutes. Boo!

“Uncle” Jordan was excited to buy some candy for ~~himself~~ the kid. P.S. Jordan won a Grammy this year for his contributions to the album Winds of Samara, which won New Age Album of the year. Jordan’s contemporary folk band Erwilian is pretty amazing, too! But mostly he just really likes candy… and the Seahawks.

Our next stop was the main train station with the famous statues holding illuminated globes. I saw photos of these on Pinterest before we came and I just had to see them in person!

In the Taka-Töölö district there is a beautiful park (that is probably even more gorgeous in the summer and fall) that has monuments and statues that you can see if you walk around.

According to the official Tourism website of Finland, the Sibelius monument was designed by Eila Hiltunen, unveiled in 1967, and “comprises tubes resembling organ pipes welded from acid-resistant steel and an adjacent bust of the composer.”

While my heart was set on seeing the magnificent National Library of Finland, we were told when we got there that the whole thing is closed down and not open for visitors for the entire year. Such a bummer! We did find a really cool modern bookstore with the top floor dedicated to the life and work of Jean Sibelius (he’s kinda popular in Helsinki)!

Angry gargoyles guarded/held up this building… very intimidating.

The artsy crew we traveled with dragged us to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was actually pretty cool.

They even had a wall where you could draw or write something and the museum staff would tweet the images. This poor guy just wanted to tell the world to chase their dreams, but got shut down. We laughed and laughed.

These people couldn’t get enough of the design district in Helsinki! But I did find an awesome cloth bag at the gift shop of the Design Museum.

We had a great time exploring Helsinki, Finland! I would recommend going in the summer for better weather, which basically applies for anywhere in Scandinavia.

I still need to write about our day trip to the Fortress of Suomenlina just outside of Helsinki. It was amazing!

Weltenburg Abbey on the Danube

09/06/2015 by Jamie 6 Comments

The Weltenburg Abbey on the Danube is a monastery and brewery that has been brewing beer for over a thousand years. Not only are they respected throughout Germany for the cultural and historical aspects, but the on-site brewery has won a few highly respected awards in the world of beer drinkers. The Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel received the “World Beer Cup” as the best dark beer in the world in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

We parked across the river from the Brewery and took this ~~ferry~~ raft across to the peninsula to the brewery. When we got to the other side my son yelled “Lower the anchorrrrr!” and the guy laughed and then almost took out the kids with his enormous anchor on a stick he kept swinging from side to side. It takes about 5-10 minutes to walk to the brewery from where the raft lands (depending on if you have small kids with short legs) so it took us about 15 minutes which included various stops, including one to pose on top of this rock.

We arrived at 11am and the Beer Garden was already hopping and the beer was flowing. As far as facilities go, there’s a really nice bathroom, but no ATM in sight so do yourself a favor and get cash before you get on the raft, because you will need it for the tour, the beer, and any souvenirs you might want.

The Brewery Tour is available April through October and it’s in German, but if you smile and nod a lot, you’ll blend right in. Plus, for 11,80 Euros per person you get quite a bit of beer at the beer tasting part of the tour and your own Weltenburger beer glass to take home.

My favorite beer was the Weltenburger Anno 1050 (one of their lightest), which has won the gold medal with the “European Beer Star” in the German Style category. My son’s favorite is the apple juice (Apfelsaft)!

There are about a million flat river rocks, perfect for skipping, along the banks of the Danube. It was a really hot day in Bavaria so we cooled our feet (and one of us accidentally cooled our butt) in the very chilly water. There were people in kayaks and other various floating-intertube-type things enjoying the slow-moving river.