Sachrang, Germany & Kufstein, Austria

EPISODE III: OMA'S
On Monday evening, Joe's friend Drew came back to Munich to pick us up and we drove out of Munich about an hour to his grandmother (Oma's) house in a little town called Sachrang. There, we met Oma and she made us a drink of beer and lemonade (really more like Sprite). She said that it was a drink that Germans would enjoy after exercising since it was refreshing and well, it was beer. After that, we hit the hay.

The next morning, we woke up to this:


It snowed! Katie was pretty excited cause she hadn't seen snow for probably two years. It had snowed all night and then it didn't stop the entire day. After breakfast, Joe and Drew shoveled the entire driveway. We had a pretty relaxing Tuesday in Sachrang and Drew drove us around a bit to a neighboring town called Aschau. We got some really good gelato in Aschau. Leave it to the Americans to get ice cream when it's snowing outside. Drew also took us across the border into Kufstein, Austria (only about 10 minutes from Sachrang) and we bought train tickets to Florence that left at midnight.

We had a late lunch of different meat and cheese with bread. It was really good. The Germans know where it's at. Then Oma made us a really good dinner that night of meat and dumplings. It was delicious and filling. After dinner, it was snowing so much, that Drew drove us back to Kufstein to wait for the train there before the snow got too deep to drive. But before we could get out of the driveway, we had to shovel again. So much snow...

Meier kids outside Oma's house; Sachrang, Germany

EPISODE IV: THE BOLERO OF KUFSTEIN
So there we were. In Kufstein, Austria at some bar called The Bolero across the street from the bahnhof (train station) for a good three or four hours waiting for our night train to Florence. We had to endure a terrible jukebox of the same songs playing over and over included multiple songs from the musical Grease, "I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, and "Scheisse, Scheisse, Baby" — a German version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby."

Me, having the time of my life in The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Joe enjoying those summer nights at The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Those few hours in Kufstein sure racked up quite a tab (around €30). Then we walked back to the bahnhof around 11:00pm I think to make sure we didn't miss the train to Florence. Killing some time, I walked down the road a bit to take pictures of the castle in Kufstein. It was pretty cool at night.

Kufstein Castle, Austria

And thus, we boarded the train for Florence. The train ride is its own story in itself, so we'll save that for the next installment of the Meier Sibling Axis of Evil Tour. Until then,

Dachau, Munich

Morning accidentally came too early and we fumbled out of my apartment and took a taxi up to the airport to fly out to Munich. I walk on the plane and it was rockin' like there was turbulence, except we were still at the gate. It wasn't a huge deal except that I didn't know it it was the plane or me that was wobbly. I fell asleep before we took off and didn't wake up until we landed in Munich. I'm pretty sure everyone on that flight was hungover. But it was good to finally be in Munich.

Matt Meier or Ted Kaczynski?

EPISODE I: EXTREME DORITOS
We took a train into the city and met Joe's friend Drew and he hung out with us that afternoon. The four of us decided to take the train to Dachau Concentration Camp. So, we're waiting in the Hauptbahnhof Central Station waiting for the next train to Dachau and Joe decides to find a bathroom. He leaves and we're waiting and waiting. And the train is coming. And he's still gone. And we're still waiting. And the train came. And just as it's about to pull away, Joe shows up. But it was too late. The train left us in Munich. Best part is — Joe never found a bathroom.

So, we had twenty minutes to kill before the next train showed up. We decided to make some sandwiches right there in the dirty subway stop. But there were no places to sit where we were, but there were plenty of seats across the tracks on the other side of the platform. Of course, there was no way to get to them. Unless you're Meiers. When the next train showed up we got on, walked through, and out on the other side. We sat down, made our lunch (complete with Extreme Doritos!) while all the German people standing on the other side looked at us like we were the stupidest Americans they'd ever seen.

As the Dachau train was approaching, Joe decides to take a picture of Katie, Drew and I. I was a little edgy that he'd make us miss that train too. (Hence my concern).
But we made it on the train and to Dachau. We explored the concentration camp for a few hours. It was really cool. I don't know what else to say about it, so I'll just post some photos to say it for me.

Front Entrance to Dachau

Hallway in the Barracks

Original Crematorium

After Dachau, we just went back to our hostel (The Wombat — Probably the best hostel in the world) and had dinner and our free "welcome" beer in the "WomBar." Katie and Joe played pool and hung out there all night and I was so exhausted that I went up to bed. Which leads to...

EPISODE II: THE AUSSIES
After I went to bed, Katie and Joe started playing pool with Ceara and Tiernan, another brother/sister duo from Australia who lived in London. They were there with their friend Nick and another guy from New Zealand that randomly joined up with them named Mark. (Or Spikey Mikey, or Sparky Marky, or any combination of the previous). The six of them hung out that night in the WomBar and made plans to meet for breakfast and hang out during the day (Monday).

After breakfast, all seven of us walked to Marienplatz to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel go off. It's a huge clock in the platz that has little people that move around like a giant cuckoo clock, I suppose. It was pretty cool cause it was built in 1908.

We left Marienplatz to see the Jagd-und Fischereimuseum (Hunting & Fishing Taxidermy Museum) for some reason. It was completely random, but apparently this was all planned out the night before over Jäger shots.

After the museum, we wandered to the Viktualienmarkt. And man, oh man. Ceara bought some salami sticks that were so good. And Katie bought a brick of cheese and Tiernan cut it with a giant display knife that was outside the cheese shop. We walked around the outdoor market and we all bought food—bread, sliced meat, Turkish spread stuff; found a picnic table and had a little lunchtime snack with our Aussie friends. It was really cool to hang out and share everything.

We had our good German food and now it was time for good German beer. The Aussies took us to the Hofbräuhaus for one liter steins of beer. I had a giant pretzel with my stein and we invented a game of flipping coasters onto the tops of our steins. I got 18 on my stein. I won.

Tiernan, Ceara, Joe, Katie, Matt
Mark, Nick at the Hofbräuhaus, Munich

After one or two beers, we rushed out because Ceara, Tiernan and Nick had to catch their flight, but even still, Ceara was insistant on Jäger bombs for everyone. So we hurried back to the Wombat so they could get their luggage and over to the Hauptbahnhof (train station). We found a bar there, but they didn't have any Jäger. So Sparkey Marky bought us all a shot of Bailey's, Kahlua & Rum. We made Ceara play us a quick song on her guitar — and then they were off back to London and Mark was off wherever the wind blew him.

We were back to three.

St. Patrick's Festival!

Sorry for such a delay. A week with the Meier siblings is not an easy recovery.

Joe flew in on the 16th and us three got to bum around the city a little bit, hit a pub or two, but eventually the jet-lag got the best of Joe and we got an early night.

Meier kids at the Palace Bar; Dublin, Ireland

Good thing too. Saturday morning, we all woke up, made breakfast and headed into town for the parade. Despite giant green hats in my face, I got a pretty good view of the parade as I schooched my way to the front of the crowd. The parade was very colorful and theatrical. It was really fun to watch. A lot better than all the parades in Great Falls! (Sorry the pictures are so small. If you click them though, they'll get bigger. A lot bigger.)

Giant Puppet in the Parade

A flock of flying nuns!

Flags

Not sure what a fish has to do with St. Patrick, but I'll take it.

Giant, looming eyes...

No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a Drag Queen singing "I Need Hero!"
This colorful woman couldn't fit through a door.

Brother was in the back...

Boats and giant Dutch people?

Yes, the Irish are this white.

This puppet guy was really cool.Cool horse ... things.

After the parade, we wandered to a Burger King for lunch and then ended up in the middle of a céilí (Irish Street Dance). There was a live band and hundreds of young people in the street just dancin' up a storm. It was a lot of fun. We danced at the céilí until it was over and ended up walking back to UCD, pub-hopping the way home. We ended up at a pub called Kiely's in Donnybrook for most of the night. It was great craic as the Irish say.

Meier kids, St. Patrick's Day at Kiely's; Dublin, Ireland

That's about all for St. Patrick's Day. We got home pretty late and had a rather early morning leaving the country. But that's another blog for another day when I don't have an essay I should be writing.

Until then,
Matt

Harlaxton & London

Katie is here!

On Thursday morning, I left Dublin for London and made my way out to Harlaxton to see UE's manor and everyone who is there for the semester for a few hours before they had to leave for Lake District. After they left, we went out on the town in Grantham.

Harlaxton Manor


Friday, Springer and I made our way into London and walked around the Theatre District for most of the afternoon and that night went to a play called The Woman in Black. That was really cool. It was a thriller with two guys and it was really good.

Saturday, we got up semi-early and went to TKTS and scored tickets to the matinee of Cabaret and I bought a ticket to Phantom that night. Both shows were phenomenal. For Cabaret, we had really good seats, so that was cool, but for Phantom I was in the very last row of the top balcony, but I still enjoyed the show.

Sunday morning, I got up really early and made my way to Heathrow airport to pick up Katie who was flying in from Zambia. It was so good to see her! But I think she got shorter in the past year and a half. So, we bummed around the city for a while visiting McDonalds, The National Gallery and the sites...

London Eye

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

And the Tower Bridge

Sunday afternoon, we got tickets to The Lion King and that was really cool. I really enjoyed it. It was definitely a theatrical experience not to be missed. After the matinee, we met up with Springer and Meg and we all got some Italian food for dinner.

Monday, we got up and just kinda bummed around London a bit more and met up again with Springer and hit Shakespeare's Globe and Pizza Hut. (Buffet for 4.99!) We killed some more time around the city and made it up to Gatwick Airport and had a picnic of Orange Juice, Dr. Pepper, Vita-Snacks and Gummi Colas before our late flight back to Dublin.

We didn't get back to my apartment til about midnight and we made some Hoops (Bad Euro Spaghettios) and hit the sack. We were so exhausted from all the travel, walking with huge bads and train problems. Today, we're getting our fill of internet and going grocery shopping at Tesco later. We might be going to Galway this week, but I guess it depends when Joe comes in on Friday.

More Meier Adventures to come...

Belfast, Northern Ireland

This past weekend, we ventured up to the UK with Arcadia. We were in Belfast from Friday to Sunday. We got in Friday night and they gave us dinner at a hotel. Afterwards, we went to a few pubs including "The Crown" which is the oldest pub in Belfast. After that, a huge group of us went across the street to this place that had music and a bit of a dance floor, so we all were out dancing Friday night.

Saturday morning came too early when we were put on a bus up to Giant's Causeway. It's an area on the northern coast of Northern Ireland that has all these geological formations. There are all these rocks that have split into hexagonal shapes. It was crazy. Of course, the more popular version is that a giant named Finn McCool lived there and decided to fight a Scottish Giant. Well, he chickened out and hid in the baby's crib. When the Scottish giant walked over the bridge made by the stones, Finn's wife told him that Finn was out, but he should see their new baby. Taking one look at the size of the baby, the Scottish giant didn't want to stick around to see the size of his father and ran back to Scotland, pulling up all the stones behind him.






After we grabbed lunch in Portrush, a small town nearby, we drove back into Belfast where I took a nap before dinner. After dinner, we came back to the hostel and tried to figure out what to do. We all (a huge group of Arcadia kids) went out on the town to a pub called Auntie Annie's and upstairs was a club that had music and dancing. So, for hours we were there cuttin' a rug until we were all so exhausted that we had to go back to crash. Drinks were expensive and the pound made them even worse, so I wasn't drinking at all that night. The five pound cover cleaned me out of all the sterling I had. But it was still a lot of fun. I took a lot of pictures of people dancing.

The next morning, we got up to go to a lecture on the murals of Belfast. Ever since there was tension between the Loyalists and the Republicans, there have been murals to promote one or the other. After the lecture, we got a bus tour of the city to see the murals and other sites around Belfast. We finished the tour and hit the road back to Dublin and arrived around dinner time. It was a fun trip and I'm glad that we went with everyone from Arcadia. We all kinda do our own thing for the most part, so it was fun to all be together and go out together.

Thursday I leave Dublin for England where I will spend Thursday night at Harlaxton Manor (UE's British Campus) and then I'll stay in London a few nights. Katie comes in on Sunday morning and I can't wait to see her. Then on Monday evening, we'll return together to Dublin and possibly take the bus around Ireland for a few days and be back by Friday when Joe comes from the US. We'll then celebrate St. Patrick's Day here in Dublin on Saturday before heading off on a European conquest of Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Italy the following week. It's going to be awesome, but I don't know if Europe is prepared to handle three Meier kids at once.

Buffalo are Here!

The other day, I bought a bag of "Buffalo Flavoured" Hunky Dory chips and this is the excerpt from the back of the bag which I found amusing...

BUFFALO FLAVOUR — Buffalo are here!
You've seen buffalo grazing the plains of North America in countless Westerns, but would you believe that these mighty animals which can weigh up to two tonnes now graze the plains of ... Co. Meath. Yes, Ireland has a buffalo ranch. But don't expect to hear beating drums or see smoke signals in the vicinity of these buffalo. These hairy giants are farmed in much the same way as conventional cattle (except stronger fences). So now thanks to Hunky Dorys, you can saddle up and try a taste of the wild west.

Ingredients: Buffalo Flavour Seasoning

Suitable for Vegetarians


What?!

Echoes Of Our Blood

Hello everyone,

I don't know if you knew, but to meet people in UCD's Drama Society (DramSoc), I submitted Echoes of Our Blood for Original Writers Week. Echoes is a script that Krystina Thiel and I compiled from old war letters in 2004 for the Montana State Thespian Festival where we won Best Ensemble.

So, I cast, rehearsed and performed the show in a week. It was a rough week. I had four girls and three of four guys. Right away, one guy dropped out leaving me with these two guys who didn't even go to UCD. One girl never came to any rehearsals, so I replaced her with Aileen who I cast in another little four minute skit: "The Sidikiboyo Workout Video." (Along with another girl named Áina) Then, after the first read through a week ago, I never saw the two non-UCD guys again. So, who knows what happened to them?

So, I had no guys and four girls — Caitríona, Roisín, Nessa & Aileen. I asked the girls to bring in guys, so a few came into one rehearsal Monday, Sean and Eamon. I called Brian Nerney, a guy that came to UCD through Arcadia with me and he agreed to jump in at the last minute. Now, I know what you're thinking... that's only three guys and he needs four. Well, yeah. I had to step in and perform which I wasn't too excited about, but I'm glad I did because it's been too long since I've been able to act.

We barely had a run-through right before the performance this afternoon at 3pm.

And surprisingly, it went off very smoothly. And I think I made some friends in the process. DramSoc is pretty intense with all the shows they do (two a week), but it was good to be back into the blood of a theatre department. It makes me excited to work on The Secret Garden this summer (July 12-14, 18-21; Tickets $18; Call 455.8514... but not til May or June).