This year is an especially good year for me… I’m in the middle of buying a new house with my girlfriend, just got a new puppy yesterday, and got relatively good job news from a couple of people in the family. Unfortunately not everyone is as lucky as me or most of you. And this time of year can be especially hard as its supposed to be a good time of the year. And the people that feel it the hardest? It’s the children. This is where the Save the Children organisation comes into play.

Save the Children

A Global aid organisation, its aim is to create “real and lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world”. The organisation spans 28 national organisations and works in 110 different countries. You can read more about the organisation and its mission here. A worthy goal, no doubt about it.

What can I do?

You can donate over here of course, or if Christmas is hard for you financially, you can give to the community and let the community donate for you. The good people over at tutorial9 are running the Gift of Knowledge Giveaway where the technical, witty, and excellent writers and bloggers among you can submit entries, and give to the community, and in turn a very, very, worthy cause. It could be a very easy and excellent way to maybe help your good karma at this time of year! Their aim is to give $5,000 dollars away to this excellent charity, and I think that everyone should help, in any way that they can. Remember, it doesn’t have to be monetary, and everything helps! Even if you don’t have enough or don’t want to help in this way, there are many other charitable organisations or ways to help and in the end it will all, hopefully, help someone who needs it, especially at Christmas.

So there you go, to all those that read this – a very Happy Christmas to you and yours.

Thanks, Dan.

We arrived last Thursday and had a few beers at the hostel. Then some food in the Augustiner brewery restaurant (Would recommend that you check this restaurant out if you ever go – also they keep the beautiful black horses that you will see at the festival in the stables right beside it. They even have a window so you can see them while you are eating!) and then off to the tents. Of course the tents were very busy, so we didn’t manage to get a seat – and the only way to get served is to have a seat. So we wandered down to the Paulener tent and sat outside – And the first Maß round was bought. How cool are Steins? Very! We joked about how boring pubs back home were going to be when we couldn’t bang our drinks off the table(and no spillage or breakage!) and sing hilariously loud songs! Anyway, just after the first round was bought, one member of our group headed for the toilet and promptly broke his arm! He slipped and fell and snapped the bone in the upper part of your arm and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance, and that unfortunately was the end of his Oktoberfest as he spent the rest of the trip in a bed in hospital.

The hostel we stayed in was The Meinenger hostel just about a 2 minute walk from where the tents are and was a really good place to stay. The bar they had didn’t seem to have a closing time and a number of night we’re pretty sure we saw dawn the next morning! Great fun was had by all in this hostel, and would recommend it if your going with a group of lads. TV’s in the rooms, comfortable beds and friendly staff make this the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in. It was a little on the expensive side – €200 for the 4 nights including breakfast but being so close to Oktoberfest probably warrants that.

I’ve been to Munich before and found it one of my favorite cities to visit. Its very tourist friendly and the people are always nice. I was there last year for their Christmas market with my lovely girlfriend and it was amazing. I stayed in the Arabella Sheraton Bogenhausen, which was a little expensive but very luxurious and perfect for a weekend break with your partner. This trip on helped that view as again I found the bavarian locals as very friendly and helpful. Even the police were ultra friendly (unless of course you’ve done something wrong and then you can expect a world of efficient pain!). It has loads to do, and one of those things that I’d recommend is a trip to Dachau concentration camp. It’s an eerie place, that teaches you a lot about what went on. Myself and my girlfriend went at the end of our trip and we recommend you do that unless it taints your view of the people you meet on the rest of your trip. The people that committed those crimes can never really be forgiven but its in the past and I really wouldn’t want it to taint your view of modern Munich as a beautiful friendly city. It can never really escape its history but can be proud of the city that it has become. All in all, I can recommend Munich as perfect for a weekend trip with the lads or the partner.