Author: Jacob Thomas

The times you know you should be doing something else

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I’m always surprised at the times I tell myself, “You know you should probably get back to writing.”  I then think I should be working on getting something up, I have been to Greece, Spain, back to Belgium, and back to Berlin. I however hadn’t been able to get myself into doing the actual task.  I mean the reason is pretty much I’m a perfectionist.  I’m far from being perfect, for me to go into the reason why would take longer than I really want to get into.  In any case, I’m actually writing something.  I’m working on a true system, so I can do this a whole lot more.  I like writing though actually doing it is the real problem. The first thing to get to is where have I been?  For those of you that haven’t paid attention to the calendar, it is October, which means, it is Oktoberfest time. Unlike last year, when the government was shutdown and I decided to spend a Friday in Munich for Oktoberfest, I’ve only actually been …

The road to a new life alone in Germany

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In one of my last post, I wrote how I had been away from the blog for a little while.  I also thought I would get myself back in the swing of things.  I however forgot the fact oh I had a lot of things to take care of with my move to downtown Stuttgart.  This meant we had to say goodbye to the Leonberg house, which is above.  Not to mention slowly getting myself into the proper mindset of starting a new life.  The life of actually for the first time in about five years of living on my own.  In some ways the time had some.  However I wish it hadn’t had to come in such a surprising way. As I mentioned before, I always thought I would have another year with my parents but alas, that wasn’t the case.  My mom, stepdad and Jada flew out on Sunday, the 7th of July.  To say that I was sad, would be a complete understatement.  The bond between my mom and I is a …

Wine, Esslingen, some amazing views, oh and good friends to

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Do you like wine?  Do you like seeing where the wine comes from?  Would you like to walk through hills that have wine carts setup, which let you try said wine, oh and see some amazing views?  If you answered yes to these very important questions, then the Esslingen Wine Walk is for you. A few weeks ago it was that lovely time again when a bunch of my friends and I trek our way to Esslingen on a Sunday afternoon, and take part in the Weinwandertag Esslingen or in english the Esslingen Wine Walk.  Esslingen is a lovely city right outside of Stuttgart.  People love coming here because its just a nice place.  It has a great river, where you can find a cafe and sit outside and just enjoy yourself.  This is truly my favorite event in the early part of the year.  Why?  Mainly because it lets you walk through the wine vineyards in Esslingen, take some really awesome pictures, and just enjoy being outside.  Not to mention that its pretty much …

The traveler returns

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So its been 106 days, or 15 weeks and 1 day, or well, I was going to do the hours and minutes thing, but you all get the point.  Its been a minute since I last put something up.  I actually have a few drafts that I started during that time.  Alas, they never made it up, so the simple question is, what happened?  Well, I got a little sister.  Jada Jenae Johnson was born in April.  I’ve been an only child for 30 years, my mom and stepdad were able to do this amazing thing and I’m pretty happy with it.  It is really funny to be a big brother now.  Jada is so cute and its interesting to hold a baby. My other interesting change was the fact while my mom was pregnant, her and my stepdad told me they were going back to the states for his job.  What did that mean for me?  Well, I’m staying in Germany for the near future.  Along with that news from my parents, I also …

Stuttgart a pretty solid view

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Living in Germany you can see some pretty cool things.  Today the rage amongst several of my friends was this solid time lapsed video called Stuttgart in Motion by  Sebastian Weitbrecht.  Mr. Weitbrecht put together this video that consist of over 18,000 still photos.  This took him over a year to do this project.  I have to say in watching this allowed me to see things which I see all the time, along with new things I hadn’t really paid attention to before. Sit back and watch this 3 minute video.  You won’t be sorry. Stuttgart in Motion from Sebastian Weitbrecht.

This is how to celebrate New Years in Germany

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Happy 2013 everyone!  I spent my new years eve with friends and got to see an excellent fireworks show at a local pub called the Maulwurf in Stuttgart.  Every year they do a pretty awesome show.  Here in Germany fireworks are legal to purchase and use during new years.  I’ve attached the video I took during the show.  It is a little long, but totally worth the time to see the craziness that ensued. I hope everyone has a great start to the new year.  I know I can’t wait to see and do so much more in my career, personal, and travel life.  Happy New Year!!

Munich, they know how to give you some Christmas markets

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Last week started the personal quest to see some of the best Christmas markets, oh and see if I can follow the schedule I made up to.  First on the list was München (Munich).  Like so many of my friends, we love going to Munich.  It is a truly an international city, which as I found out knows how to do some Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets). Going to check out this market was an idea by John, he mentioned it to me and our friend Anna.  He told us they have a lot scattered through the city, along with a gay one called Pink Christmas.  We were totally excited, I mean its Munich, who doesn’t love Munich, then you mention Christmas markets and a gay one, you know its going to be a good time. The plan was to leave on Friday, maybe see a few things that night, do up the town Saturday, with a nice brunch Sunday, and finish by seeing some more, then come back in the early evening.  I was ready for …

The most organized thing I’ve ever done, my Christmas market schedule

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It’s December and do you know what that means? If you don’t, then you don’t live in Europe or Germany for that fact. It’s one of the most interesting times during the winter.  Christmas markets (in German its Weihnachtsmarkt) have started.  What is a Christmas market you may ask? They are great reason for you to not go to the mall or any other random place. The Christmas market allows you to do a lot different things.  First of all you can find gifts for your friends and family, get oraments for your tree, oh and try out some very food and drinks.  Now if you are looking for awesome electronics, then this isn’t your spot.  You will find simple things, like socks, shirts, kitchen stuff, and a lot of other random things.  Last year I bought my dad a pair of socks, along with finding some very cool necklaces, oh a cool ring.  The thing for me was the fact it wasn’t crazy expense. I know some of you might be thinking, “Isn’t it cold …

Less than 24hrs in Bamberg with a side of Smoked Bier

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Over the Columbus Day weekend I decided to do something different.  That thing for me was to take a Friday off, which gave me a four day weekend.  I didn’t know where I wanted to go, I just knew it had to be a nice place, where I hadn’t been before, oh and it needed to have decent weather.  In October that’s asking a lot. The first location was Basel in Switzerland, the second was Bamberg in Southeast Germany, in the state of Bavaria.  Not only would you find Bamberg, but Munich as well in this region of Germany. The trip to Bamberg was spurred on by the fact that our friend Chris preparing to move back to the Michigan, so our friend John suggested Bamberg.  What’s in Bamberg you may wonder.  That’s simple, Rauchbier (smoked beer), along with other things.  If you ever wondered if it was possible to get a beer with a smoky flavor, the answer is yes.  In Bamberg you can get Rauchbier at a lot of different places.  They have …

A cocktail to start the weekend with

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We all have those weeks in which you just want it to end ASAP.  For me that was this week.  Sometimes living in Germany can be the best thing in the world, while other times it can just be a little annoying.  In any case I wanted a cocktail to start my weekend off right.  That’s where I remember a wonderful cocktail I had in Frankfurt back in October at the Luna Bar.  It was a ginger julep.  A few of my friends know my love of ginger, so once I saw this, I was sold. Now a traditional mint julep, which you would generally find during Kentucky Derby time, will have mint, sugar, and of course bourbon.  However for the one at Luna Bar, they used vodka, mint, ginger, lime juice, and soda.  Funny thing is I didn’t realize this until after I made my own, especially since every recipe I looked for to make mine said bourbon. You have several different ways to make a ginger julep.  For this time around I made …