Well, 24 hours after leaving Mick's place in Munich yesterday morning, I'm finally back in Los Angeles after many delays.  The flight home was even worse than the flight to Rome two weeks ago (not for the guy who had the heart attack on the plane though).  My last full day in Germany started early on the train from Altenbuch to Munich.  Sabine's 2 husbands (Alan & I), rode with her to the Landshut station where we said our goodbyes:

Mick & Miggl met us at the train station in Munich and we had a quick lunch before Alan had to catch his train to Switzerland.  After that, Kurt met us at a coffee shop by the Isar and we hung out with two cute kids, Helena & Julius:

Comparing retro shoes with Mick

Then we biked home and Matthias came and picked me up for dinner.  Beate cooked a delicious Thai meal, as good as any I ever had in Thailand!!

Saying goodbye to Kurt

Was it MURDER???

Mick & Miggl's balcony...one of the reasons for their 5 star accreditation and entry in the Fornia family of fine boutique hotels!

Master chef Beate cooked a great last supper to end my trip!

In the morning, I walked to the train station and headed to the airport, where the outdoor beer garden was already busy.

I had some time to kill in Chicago as everything was delayed, so I relaxed and enjoyed seeing the artwork for the city's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.  Good luck!

 

All in all it was a great trip.  I visited old friends and made many new ones.  I relaxed by the sea and traversed the Alps.  Another memorable GLY gathering.  Special thanks to Bine for organizing everything and to Massi for letting us stay in his beautiful Tuscan villa.  I've got a bunch of videos that I'll have to compile and post later.  Ciao Bello!

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I've been coming to Germany many years to visit friends in the GLY gang, but I haven't been back in 3 years since the World Cup.  Munich is such a great city.  The days here always start with a trip to the bakery for Bavarian Bretzels, which I favor with Nutella:

No trip to Latin Bavaria would be complete without a visit to Mick's childhood home where her parents ran a successful bakery for years.  I even learned how to bake bretzen in that very bakery back in 2000!

 

Traditional photos with Mick's Mom over the years...with the red hood my friends gave me as a gag gift because my ears are always cold!

Mick's parents always prepare a delicious treat for us!

Mick's parent's lovely garden


I picked some flowers for Bine's Oma (grandmother).

Another mandatory stop for me in Bavaria is the home of Sabine's aunt and her 90 year old grandmother.  She always has hand knitted socks ready for us:

One of the best surprises of this trip was getting to see little Patrick.  I haven't seen him since January in San Francisco, and his language skills have exploded in the past six months.  I can now hold full conversations with him.  We had so much fun while the adults visited with each other!

Then we went into town for dinner.  When we came back at 11 PM, Patrick was still awake!  The poor little guy had jet lag and didn't get to sleep until 4 AM like me!

Wide awake at 11 PM!

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We made it through the Alps in Youenn's little car!  I must admit, I had my reservations:

...but the trip was breathtakingly beautiful.  I've done it a few times now and the scenery never gets old.  The weather was gorgeous most of the way through Florence and all of Italy.  We hit an awesome storm in Austria, but emerged to blue skies soon enough:

Click for full size

We're in Munich now, staying with Mick & Miggl and I must admit it's nice to have high speed Internet again and a long hot shower (the beach house's hot water didn't last long with 20+ people staying there!).  It's unseasonably cool in Bavaria, but feels good after the heat and humidity of Italy.  Today Alan and I headed to the Marienplatz to buy him an iPod Touch.  His poor wife Bine is about to become an iPod widow.  Boys and their toys!  Tomorrow we will spend the day visiting Mick & Bine's families and get to see Tom, Cathy & Patrick who just arrived from San Francisco.  I'm looking forward to seeing them all.

Miggl prepared an amazing dinner for us upon our arrival in Munich.

The girls made paella for lunch.

And we had yet another delicious meal together!

Mick's aunt, the soccer playing nun, even stopped by from her Swiss mountain abbey and brought Toblerone!

 
It's Gay Pride in Munich this weekend.

Mick's 68 Beetle is still going strong!  Here I am reenacting the time I had to push it at the World Cup three years ago.

 

 

Say gute nacht Carey!

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 Tomorrow morning, my friend Youenn and I will be driving through the Italian and Austrian Alps in his 22 year old Renault 5!  Wish me luck!  We're heading to Bavaria to meet up with a bunch of friends.  We're taking the scenic route, so it will be a 14 hour drive, but it should be beautiful.  The weather here has been gorgeous, and with the beach just a walk away, we always have a nice ocean breeze.  Yesterday we celebrated Sabine's 40th birthday by visiting Il Giardino dei Tarocchi in Garavicchio.  It's not something you'd expect to find  nestled in the Tuscan hillside, yet there it is, like Disneyland on acid.  Today we explored the Etruscan Necropolis in Tarquinia; a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring remarkably well preserved tombs dating back to the 7th Century B.C.  The paintings in the tombs weren't exactly G Rated.  Let's just say the Etruscans were a wild bunch!  I'll write more after I get to Munich.  Until then, here are some of my favorite photos from the past two days.  They're all uploaded here. 

Massi and his angels:  Bine, Eva & Lindsay

The Tuscan Hills are alive!

Don't flatter yourselves! 

I've been calling Lindsay "principessa" (princess) all week! 

What are those in the background??

You've gotta love those Etruscans!

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Update:  Sabine & Alan's wedding party was a sumptuous feast for all the senses!  The Tuscan hills will be whispering about this party for years to come!  About 35 "GLY" members old and new were in attendance from 7 countries and a good time was had by all.  The air card I have for Internet here is pretty expensive and we're pretty remote, so keep checking this link for new pictures as I won't always be updating Xanga.  Until next time, I leave you with our party pictures. 

Happy 4th!  We're celebrating Bine & Alan's marriage in grand style.  The party is in full swing at our Tuscan villa.  We have 6 Americans, 1 Czech, 3 French, 1 Togolese, 6 Italians, 1 Englishman and 12 Germans.  I can't begin to describe how difficult it has been to get these pictures uploaded.  Suffice it to say, it was very involved, nothing is easy in Italy.  I think we've got it worked out now though, so here are the pictures from yesterday.  I've had to shrink them to a small size to conserve my SIM card credits, but you get the idea.  We're having a lovely time...hope everyone else in the States is having a Happy Independence Day.  Sorry I'm not going to have much time to comment back or email.  Thanks for all your well wishes though.  And a special thanks to David for making this all possible!  Ciao!

Update:  I made it to Rome, but sadly, someone on the plane didn't.  They had a heart attack in flight.  When we landed we had to wait on the plane for medics to come on board.  Bine, Eva, Alan & Lindsay met me at the airport and we headed towards the coast.  More when I get my Internet SIM card....

Claudio & Chazz came down tonight to "help me" pack and get ready.  This was them 3 hours ago:  LOL

I hope to be updating my blog from our Tuscan villa.  David was nice enough to send me a European phone and an air card that I can tether to the phone from the remote Italian countryside.  Trust me, it's not easy dealing with Italian bureaucracy.  I even needed to get a taxpayer ID number to get a SIM card in Italy.  And today, after DHL arrived with my international shipment, I discovered that my laptop didn't have a PCMCIA slot.  It had one of the newer slots that wasn't compatible.  Since there was no time to order an adapter (and they're hellishly expensive), Seth was kind enough to swap laptops with me for 2 weeks.  So...if all goes well, I'll be connected.  It's been a comedy of errors so far though, so if you don't hear from me for a while, you know why.  I hope everyone in the States has a Happy 4th.  It's my least favorite holiday, so I'm happy to spend it abroad. 

Here's where we'll be staying.  I'm not sure where we're all going to sleep.  There will be 25 of our friends from all over the world.  Should be fun!  I best get to bed.  Luckily I'm flying first class.  Thank goodness for frequent flyer miles!  Ciao Bello! --Carey

Earlier today, while the rest of the world focused on MJ's funeral plans, (some are saying up to a million mourners could pour into Los Angeles, making it bigger than Elvis and Princess Diana...I sure am glad I'm leaving for Italy Thursday!!) Farrah Fawcett was remembered in a private funeral mass downtown.  I was in the 6th grade and had just turned 11 years old on September 22, 1976 when Charlie's Angels premiered on television.  I was instantly smitten with all of the "Angels" and Farrah Fawcett held a special fascination for my prepubescent self.  Perhaps it was the diva in her that attracted me, but nevertheless in that Bicentennial year, it was all "Angels" all the time for me and much of America.  I collected photos and clippings from every magazine I could find, and kept them in a special box that I made that looked like this:

Hubba Hubba Baby Doll!

I had actually forgotten about that box until recently when I opened a childhood safe that my brother recently came across and delivered to me from Chicago!  Taylor was nice enough to film the big event:

Here are some other photos from the weekend.  Claudio & Ryan are coming tomorrow with Chazz. Claudio will take me to the airport Thursday morning to catch my flight to Rome.  Ciao Bello!

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20 years ago, I worked for a bank in Chicago that used a vendor that I worked with extensively.  Eventually, I became friends with one of the vendor's employees, Todd, who lived in Portland, OR.  One thing led to another, and long story short I went to work for the company, and worked there for 13 years while traveling the world.  When I met first met Todd and his wife Laura, they were newly married and had no kids.  17 years ago, Taylor was born.  He and I were always close, and when Oreo died, Taylor was only 5 years old, and he took it particularly hard.  He had a stuffed animal that he had also named Oreo, and he wanted me to have him.  I convinced him to take care of "his Oreo" for me while I traveled and he faithfully did. 

 
Taylor & "Oreo", 1997 and Taylor, and his sisters, Katie & Sarah with me in 2001

Fast forward 12 years, and Taylor is going to be a senior in high school!  He's in the Future Business Leaders of America and is staying with me for a few days to see the sites and look at college campuses.  He wanted to see Michael Jackson's star, so this afternoon we braved the crowds and headed to the Walk of Fame.  Later we went to dinner and to see The Hangover, which was hilarious.  I'm dog sitting again, so we took Garbo & Ruby for frozen yogurt at midnight. 

We thought it was funny that Elmo was wearing a "RIP Michael Jackson" T-shirt.  LOL

Thriller moment!  Was that Michel or a zombie??

You could barely see the star!

Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate while Superman poses behind her.  Only in Hollywood!

We got to see the cars from Transformers...then we took Garbo & Ruby for frozen yogurt!


Tay had to try the "Lesbionic Tonic"!


Garbo & Ruby!

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The LA Film Fest is in full swing and tonight Vince and Wendy were nice enough to invite me to a screening of "I Sell the Dead" starring Dominic Monaghan (of "Lost" and "Lord of the Rings" fame) and Ron Perlman of "Hellboy" fame). 

In 18th century England, Arthur Blake is a day away from the blade of the guillotine. Charged with a lifetime of grave robbing, Blake confesses his past crimes, but his stories quickly turn from standard cadaver thefts for science to peculiar things that go bump in the night. Juggling a mad doctor, a nefarious rival gang, a beautiful but ambitious apprentice, and a scary spectrum of creatures, Blake and his partner Willie Grimes somehow always lived to tell the tale . . . that is, until the pesky death sentence was served.

Filmmaker Glenn McQuaid's gleeful period comedy horror romp portrays its heroes as two average men simply trying to make a living by trafficking the undead. A marvelous cast of veterans skillfully treads between laughs and cries, including Ron Perlman, Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, and even Phantasm's Angus Scrimm. Meanwhile, McQuaid pays homage to Hammer Horror with foggy graveyards, bustling taverns, and creepy characters, while comic book flourishes recall the eerie delights of 'Tales from the Crypt' in this film that is certain to thrill boys and ghouls alike.

I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, but this was really well done and had something for everyone.  It was deliciously macabre, frightful at times, and laugh out loud funny.  All in all a great night.  Thanks Vince & Wendy! 

Here are some photos from the Q&A with the cast and producers:

I found Charlie from "Lost"!

Angus Scrimm, Dominick Monaghan, Ron Perlman and director Glenn McQuaid

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ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“MySpace has fired 60 percent of its workforce. They notified workers as fast as possible. They left messages on their Facebook pages.” -- Craig Ferguson

Chazz hasn't been sleeping well the past few nights.  When I asked him what was wrong, he finally admitted that he's been a little freaked out by the recent news that Cher's daughter, Chastity Bono is undergoing a sex change operation to become Chaz Bono.  I tried to explain to him that he is Chazz with two Z's and that no one could ever take that away from him.  Still, his melancholy persists; to the point where I've had to go public just like Cher did to People magazine:

 

To which I replied:

It's kind of funny that Chastity might actually be the lucky one if such an operation were possible!  I'm just sayin'.  In the meantime, Chazz's summer vacation has come to and end.  I'd say it was a pretty successful month.  He met Drew Barrymore and President Obama.  He hob knobbed with Chelsea Handler and learned to solve the Rubik's Cube.  He even celebrated Christmas in June and discovered he was as thin as a shih tzu!  And tonight at the dog park he was approached by a talent scout who gave me a card for a free screen test.  LOL

I didn't tell the gal that Chazz was already very close with Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black,
what with the sex scandal and all! (Don't click with kids around.)

Claudio & Ryan come back from Brazil tonight; we're picking them up at the airport midnight.  It will be lonely around here without Chazz, but starting next weekend, I'm dog-sitting for Garbo & Ruby, so I won't be sleeping alone long!  Here are the final photos from Chazz's summer break.  We had a great time at the beach this weekend with Paul & Emili and a lot of fun at the dog park with Sophie!

A full moon at the dog park, and the dogs were howling!

Paul & Emili playing in the surf!

We went to see "The Proposal" at the Arclight.