I did not think this would be the post that brought me back into the blogging world. My list of post ideas is a kilometer (oh hey, acculturation) long and there's so much I want to share about my new chapter studying in Munich. I miss blogging and the blog world loads. I manage to find time to read blogs on my tablet during commutes, but commenting on a tablet is too time consuming and writing a decent post on a tablet is even worse. I absolutely plan to continue this blogging journey, but school, work, (yep, got a job), and finding time to squeeze in a social life put blogging in the back seat. However, after seeing countless lists of ridiculously priced stocking stuffers I just can't stay silent any longer. I mean, seriously, who gets Kate Spade in their stocking? Not me, and certainly not the 99.9% of other stocking unstuffers.

A photo posted by Alex Butts (@abuttsy) on Nov 11, 2014 at 9:43am PST

(Ok, so I did find time to decorate for Christmas.)

Take for example one a blog I've followed for years, The College Prepster. I admire so much how Carly carried TCP over post-grad and transformed it into a brand and a career. So Carly, although you are too big to ever find yourself on this page, I a apologize that I chose your "Stocking Stuffers" post as my example. Below are the adorable items Carly picked out to stuff this year's Christmas stockings. I dig that framed print and there's nothing I'd like more than a entire new set of Hanky Pankys, but let's pump the breaks for a second and get real:

First, how big is Carly's stocking because my mom hung some big-uns over the fireplace when I was young, but it'd take a small shopping cart to hold all of these things. Could your stocking hold a small handbag, or am I missing something?

Second, not sure how much you spend on stocking stuffers, but this set totals $688!!!! According to Gallup polls, Americans will spend $781 on Christmas gifts this year, so that is almost someone's entire Christmas gift budget filling one (massive) stocking.

I really do think so highly of Carly and her blog, so I'm done haters gonna hate-hate-hating on her stocking stuffer suggestions. It's a fashion/style blogger thing and I realize she earns money off these items, so in that case I guess I'd put up more expensive items to gain affiliate commissions from as well. Never mind all of that, it's time to put my money where my mouth is and appease those who know a wanderlust-filled person with an empty stocking and need some more budget-friendly items that actually fit in one of those boot-shaped pillowcases. My mom shaped me into a stocking pro. When I was last home for the holidays (sigh, not going home for Christmas for my second year in a row), my mom sent me off with a $20-per-stocking budget. People got a whole lot of Walgreens in their stockings, I can't even lie, it was less than thrilling to open, but that's what Christmas Eve shopping does to you. My mom who is on top of everything always manages to forget to stocking stuffers, but alas...

Today, I'm going to do you a bit better. Adult stockings are much more difficult than childrens' stockings, which you can stuff with the likes of Play-Doh and bubbles. However, adult stockings are doable. Why? We adults are pragmatic and enjoy the feeling of getting not only things we want, but things we need.

Cheap Stocking Stuffers for Wanderlusters

 

Durable luggage tag $6.79| Portable backup device charger $16.99 | Passport cover $4.69

Febreze To Go $5.95 | Moleskine pocket notebook $8.82 | Universal travel adapter $7.99

Quirky earbud wrappers $4.99 each | Purell key chain $2.33 | Travel movie on DVD $5.00

Water resistant, drawstring storage bags $6.16 per set | Burt's Bees lip balm $2.49 each

I did not quite hit my mom's ambitious $20 budget, but I also think it's better than a pile of toiletries from Walgreens, and coming in at $66.51, it sure beats the $668 list that doesn't even fit in your stocking.

What are your best stocking stuffer ideas for travelers?

My 25th Birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year. For my birthday, I usually like to force my favorite things upon my friends. Therefore, my birthdays usually consist of food, drinking, and games. I enjoy a good themed event too and decided to integrate a little Easter into the birthday festivities. I decided to leave out the extreme preppy element instilled in me growing up and not heavily encourage my friends to wear pastels, but there was plenty of Easter left to go around.

Egg Dying

Who knew how much egg dying evolved? Not me. Instead of dipping into cups filled with vinegar and dye, we were rolling dyes and metallics around in our glove-covered hands to make tie-dyed, sparkly eggs. The best part was after it was all said in done, informing everyone that these eggs were not hard boiled and we would be using them for the "mysterious" egg toss.

Easter Beer Hunt

I'd always heard rumors of integrating alcohol into Easter egg hunts, but I still was not sure exactly how to do it. I heard about Jell-O shots (or regular shots) in plastic eggs, hiding beers that participants had to drink upon finding, and more. Ultimately though, I decided I wanted my guests living for the rest of the party.

Supplies (for 10 people)

25 beers (preferably green bottles for camouflage, we used Beck's)

25 little alcohol bottles (we used Kleiner Klopfer)

1 "golden egg", a small, special bottle of alcohol (we used Havana Club Especial)

10 buckets (€1 each at the Euro store)

Paint pens or permanent markers

Prize (in this case, an Easter mug filled with chocolate bunnies)

Ice (optional)

How It Works

A volunteer hides the items throughout the garden and entry area to the house. In the meantime, every one decorates their bucket. The buckets are used to collect their findings.

The hider, then explained the boundaries and the rules. Each beer and small bottle was worth 1 point. The gold egg was worth 3 points (although you can allot your own amount).

Let the hunters loose. When everyone is struggling to find more items, regroup and count found items to figure out how much is missing. You don't want any kiddos finding the booze later.

Our Easter Beer Hunt was particularly funny. Our hider did almost too good of a job, which was surprising given his small parameters to hide the "eggs" within. When we walked out ready to race, we found two children in the sandbox holding beer. Oops, that was two found! Otherwise though, we had to gather and figure out how many were missing. With the help of the hider, we were able to find the missing drinks. Then, you can dump ice in each bucket and everyone has their own party favor to drink for the evening or to take home!

Egg Toss

The Egg Toss was maybe my favorite part because egg tosses are apparently a pretty American activity. Everyone thought I was joking when I told them the eggs were in fact still raw and that they would bust open if not handled properly during the event. Everyone specially selected their tie-dye egg and partners and we lined up in the garden, initially about 1 meter apart. With every toss, the left line moved a step backwards. This continued as teams were slowly eliminated as they failed to catch their eggs. When 3-4 teams were left, we were out of room to move! That surely never happened as kids. We were at about 20 meters now - an intimidating distance for eggs hurling your way. So, we decided to make it even more interesting and use our non-dominant hands for tossing. That eliminated the rest of the teams, leaving one winner egg free and the rest of us cleaning up the mess (which was actually super easy on the grass, just scooping up the remains with paper towels).



 





The remainder of the day consisted of introducing more people to chile con queso (they loved it, naturally) and grilling up some burgers. Simon was the winner of the day, winning the egg toss, Easter beer hunt, and eating 4 burger patties... although I got second in everything (well, not burger eating) and you know what they always say...

First is the worst, Second is the best

and by they, I mean fifth graders and playground politics.

Burger Porn

I may have chosen to skip out on the beer festivals this year (see 2012, 2013), but dang it sure was a good day. I never thought birthdays were supposed to get better with age, and maybe that haven't gotten better, per say, but they've sure stayed consistently on top. It's days like this that make me so thankful. I moved abroad knowing no one, and while it can be sad to realize that most people at my last birthday party are no longer here (expat life), I'm all too thankful for the new people in my life that made this day perfect.

I'm feeling good about 25.

Yep, nearly a week ago I mentioned that the sunshine is getting in the way of my blogging... and not just my blogging, but also my afternoon Gchat sessions with friends at home, my itinerary planning, and general room cleaning apparently as the Freund commented that my place is starting to look like his (he lives in a disaster zone).

Anyhow, the guilt is finally catching up with me, and here I am to tell you about the madness that was St. Patrick's Day. When I decided to give up drinking for Lent, I did not even consider the fact that St. Paddy's fell within the 40 day period. I immediately decided to make this holiday an exception. I know I am not Irish, but I have put in the hours at the Irish pub and you bet I was not going to miss celebrating this holiday properly.

Germany does not do St. Patrick's Day quite like the USA. No one will pinch you if you are not wearing green. Heck, we had people show up at the pub saying they just saw it packed and wanted to see what was going on, completely unaware what we might be celebrating. I actually had to work this evening, but it was one of those rare, all-hands-on-deck evenings, so we could enjoy ourselves while also making sure customers had drinks in their hands, too.

I did not have to work until 6, so I decided to hit Flynn's Inn, the Irish pub in my neighborhood, for their festivities, which involve teaming up with Scruffy's Irish Pub for a parade. The weather was simply perfect, as per the standard lately, and all the pub-goers decided to take their drinking to the street. I enjoyed myself the only Guinness of the day here, as I am normally a cider-drinker in the pub scene. I had to depart for work before the parade, but I hear it was fantastic.

Upon arrival at work, I enjoyed a quick bowl of seafood chowder before joining the madness. We opened the beer garden for the first time this season and it was as packed-as-ever in anticipation of Seán Treacy. Seán plays in an awesome cover band throughout Germany, but he brought his Irish roots right into his local hangout to celebrate the day. Seán also has some original songs, and I'd been encouraging him to sing "Search 'Till You're Blue" for sometime. He invited my coworker and I up to sing along, since we know every word from it being on the pub playlist, and it was incredible!



After Seán's show ended around 23:00, things began to chill out on the random-customer end as non-creatures-of-the-night like we pub-people had to work Tuesday morning, but the party certainly did not stop. The regular customers hung around, and the guys from the neighboring bars, whom we usually keep up after hours, kept us open extra late instead. The night ended at 6 am, with me somehow managing to close the pub. My bike ride home was slightly different from the average 3 am cruise, with people already out walking their dogs and buying warm bread at the bakery.

Oh, and how was drinking again you ask? It ruled. I enjoyed my fair share of free cider, Green Spot whisky, and Baby Guinness shots. The following day certainly made it easy to go back to not drinking for a bit though. I will write a whole post on being around drinking all the time and not drinking when this is all said and done, but not drinking, especially during certain occasions, sucks, so I'm glad I made this holiday the exception.

Did you celebrate St. Paddy's Day?

Sometimes Germany feels much the same as the US, but holidays are definitely not one of those times. Deciding to forego the expensive trip home for Christmas, I knew things would be different. In special thanks to technology and my fierce independence, I have never been truly homesick. In fact, my first summer as a 9 year old at my month-long overnight summer camp, my mom called the directors to check on me because I never wrote letters home. Christmas is my favorite time of year; I knew if homesickness would ever strike, it'd come with being away over the holidays.

As my Karlsruhe friends headed to Wherever, World for their holiday time, I was left in Karlsruhe with work at the pub and my one other friend sticking around, Lauren.  Luckily, for the 23-25th, one of my first friends in Germany, Simon, invited us to join his family for their festivities. Germans actually celebrate on the 24th instead of the 25th. The Christkind (not Santa) comes around 6 o'clock in the evening and gifts are opened immediately following. Since we were actually the youngest present at this holiday celebration, we did not actually do Christkind thing. We simply had a grand dinner and opened gifts following the meal. For dinner, we enjoyed Raclette. Raclette is a traditional holiday meal in Germany, France, and Switzerland. It provides a fun, community dining experience by placing a warm grill in the middle of the table with trays to melt raclette cheese beneath (at least, this is how the home version is done, there are alternative methods). We threw shrimp, pork, chicken, and a variety of vegetables atop the grill. My favorite part was loading up my cheese tray with onions and thai red chilies. No German dinner is complete without wine, beer, and schnapps, so of course we indulged there, too.

The real sadness it on the 25th. Lauren and I arrived back in Karlsruhe and I began talking with everyone at home. I missed the big Christmas morning breakfast and watching everyone tear through the mass of gifts under the tree. I missed heading to my other family's for an evening of drinking and eating too much and excessively quoting National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I missed sitting around a fire pit in the backyard. I threw myself a bit of a pity party, but come the 26th, things were back to normal. Well, almost, I still have to wait at least another week for my crew to return back. For now, I am enjoying the time with myself, the blogosphere, and Netflix streaming "Parks and Recreation".

Pictures from the 24th in Eisenbach, Obernburg, Germany

Daniel and Simon played clarinet and trumpet as children, so each Christmas they dust off their instruments for a bit of a Christmas production. 

Lauren and I even got to open gifts. Simon gave us Nike sweat suits to match his for all the lounging around we did over the holidays.

I couldn't leave without trying out the trumpet, too.

Wherever you are, I hope you had the happiest of holidays!

Have you ever spent Christmas away from home?

Carnival season, called Karneval, Fastnacht, or Fasching in Germany, has come to an end. This year, I spent Saturday - Monday of "The Fifth Season" celebrating this grand occasion in Cologne, Germany. In fact, the first carnival parade in the world took place in Köln in 1832 [source] and Cologne's celebration is still the biggest in Germany. After attending Mardi Gras, I would say it is similar in the concept of drinking at all hours of the day, crowded streets, and overly friendly people, but it also had a little Halloween vibe with all of the Halloween type costumes and candy.

Dressing in Costume

A big part of the carnival tradition is dressing up. Initially, I thought people would just dress up for the parade, but everyone was dressed up all weekend, no matter what time of day. When we got into the city, people continually asked where our costumes were and we ended up returning to the hostel to get into character. All over the city, you will find people dressed as pirates, Indians Native Americans, giraffes, sailors, cowboys, and more. It was chilly, so I thought the animal onesies were certainly the smartest choice. We dressed up as characters from the game Guess Who? and it was also a pretty good plan since we could layer up in whatever clothes we wanted and add accessories. The frames were a bit of an issue at the crowded bars, but they held up well.

Rose Monday Parade

The big event is the carnival parade, which occurs on Rose Monday, which over 1 million spectators attend each year. The parade kicked off at 11 am and seriously trucked on until 4 pm. At the parade, there are many groups filling several floats, marching bands, and men, women, and children in costume. They throw candy, and not just any candy, but often huge chocolate bars and flowers. These flowers often don't come without a kiss on the cheek from one of the gentleman in the parade.

Tip: we arrived for the parade at about 1030 am and had a great view and front row spots at the parade on Schildergasse near the Krebsgasse intersection. 

Things to Expect

- Throughout the weekend, you will hear shouts of Kölle Alaaf!, a phrase means "Cologne above all!" You will first hear cries of Kölle and the crowd will respond by shouting Allaf! and throwing one hand up in the air.
- People will kiss you. This will happen countless times. Just accept it. However, if some random Turkish man unzips your jacket to rub his scruff on your face and kiss your neck, you can then draw the line with a big fat NEIN.
- It is cold. Layer up and then stuff heat packs in your pants. Ok, I didn't do this, but I should have - SO DAMN COLD!
- Don't plan to do much of the traditional Cologne sightseeing, the cathedral and most museums shut down for days during the carnival festivities.
- This song is the anthem of the weekend. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

They boarded it all the storefronts lining the parade route. I am not sure if this was to protect from the flying chocolate bars or drunk people, but I'm thinking it's probably both.

Drinking a Kölsch bier in my Karneval costume - do you recognize it? The game Guess Who is called Wer Ist Es (Who is it) in German.

Why yes, we did go by Maria and Anita the entire weekend.

Our Spanish friend - our Spanish skills did not suffice, so much for 7 years of that in school.

Maggie lost her costume frame at the bar, at least this Frau was kind enough to not stand on it. Don't worry, it was recovered with only minor injuries.

Kölner Dom - largest facade of any cathedral in the world and second tallest spires

Hohenzollern Bridge has several train tracks over it, as well as a pedestrian foot path, where people have hung thousands of love locks since 2008. The bridge is 410 m long.

view from Cologne Triangle Panorama, 3 Euro entry

Always fun to run into others from Karlsruhe when you're traveling!

We accessorized but accidentally left the costumes at home this night.

Pretty fierce police car huh?

Rosenmontag Umzug

Oh how we wished we had their view at times - it was cold!

Have you ever visited Cologne?