WEBMU 2012, Berlin bound

The votes have been tallied, and the host city for WEBMU 2012 is....BERLIN!!. The Berlin delegation jumps for joy and roar with excitement, throwing their hats in the air and giving each other high fives and hugs. 

Well almost...The host city for WEBMU 2012 has been announced. Now it is time to vote for a time to hold it. There are plenty of considerations. Should it be held at the same time as another cultural event? What will the weather be? Where will be the TQEQE be going this year? So many questions.

If you have some of the answers, why not get over to the WEBMU discussion forum and put your two EURO cents in. You have to be blogger and an expat living in Germany.

Talk soon...

Berlin or Münster for WEBMU 2012

OK Folks, the discussions for the 2012 edition of WEBMU has started in earnest. The candidate cities have been nominated, and there are Berlin and Münster.


So if you are an expat and want to be part of the fun. Jump onto the expat bloggers in Germany website, sign up and get involve in the discussions. The voting for choosing the city finishes at 1st April 2012, 8pm. Time is running out if you want to put your vote in.


Personally, I would voted to visit Berlin. It is one of the cities in Germany I would like to visit. Although Münster is a much nicer town, German wise, Berlin has more recent history than Münster. 


It is also the biggest city in Germany. Large city in Germany is quite rare. Most of them do not get much larger than 1million people.

WEBMU 2011, what a blast!

The WEBMU weekend came with much anticipation. After much planning, debate, polling, discussion and planning (yes, the planning was quite thorough), it finally started. I was not able to make the Friday night dinner at the Cologne's tex mex, but I heard that the mood was good and the conversations were fantastic.

On Saturday, we splited into two groups. A bunch of us brave the cold and the heights, and headed into the DOM cathederal. The other group stayed on the ground and did a tour of the city. Although I have lived in the area ever since I arrived in Germany (2009),  I have never been on a tour of the DOM, although I have been inside the DOM many times. The tour gives a different perspective on the DOM.

The tour is a climb into the upper layer of the DOM. 

There are things that you can see up here that you can only really appreciate from down on the floor.


The tour was led by a very knowledgable fellow, and he did his best to explan that various facts about the DOM. One of the fun facts he mentioned was the carvings near the top of the DOM are not only of kings, queens and religious items, chickens and football players were also carved in as well!

The DOM tour did not go to one of the two tallest spires at the front, but we did climbed the tallest point at the rear of the DOM, which gave us an incredible view of the city of Cologne.

After the DOM tour, the two groups joined together, visited one of the many churches, and broke bread. It was at a delicious Turkish restaurant at Heumarkt. Excellent choice. It was here that I truly understand why WEBMU is such a great event. As Cliff1976 mentioned to me, "it is the people that attends the WEBMU that makes it", the event such as the DOM tour or the city tour is almost secondary.

I had a chance to talk to CNHeidelberg, German Gems and Snooker in Berlin. It was really fascinating to understand their motiviation on what they blog and what brough them to Germany. Their tales are quite engaging.

We had a free time for the afternoon, after which the dinner was planned at the Paeffgen brauhaus in the Belgium quarter of Cologne. I had a Haxe, and it arrived with a rousing cheer from the party. Our waiter did his job well by keeping the Kolsch flowing nicely.

The annual tradition of the TQEQE (The Queer Expatriot's Queer Experience) was led by Adam into one of the many great bars in the Bermuda Triangle (Cologne Gay district). 

The Sunday was the farewell brunch at Cafe Litchenberg in Neumarkt. It was casual, and late enough for those recovering from the TQEQE. It also gave everyone a chance to say their goodbyes before next year. 

Frau Dietz did an exhaustive post on the event. This post has all the attendees.

German Gems wrote a post on it.

Cliff1976 did a photo post of the event.

Zurika did a excellent post on the event. Great photos, really capture the ambience.

I just want to thank Cliff1976 for being driver for this wonderful event, and the ResidentOnEarth and Fultile Diatribes on their hard work for organising it with me.


If you are expat living in Germany and write a blog, come and join in the banter next year. Head over to expatbloggersingermany.com and sign up for more information.

By the way, sorry for the lack of photos as I forgot to bring the camera along and only had my phone do the photo snapping.

final countdown to Cologne for WEBMU 2011.

WEBMU 2011 @ Köln will finally get on the way this weekend. WEBMU is a gathering by the expat folks who blogs and lives in Germany. It occurs annually and this year, it is in Köln.

It doesn't official kick off until the Saturday, some folks will be arriving on the Thursday or the Friday. So they will doing a side trip to Aachen. Dinner is Mexican, Köln style.

The first official event is either a city tour of Köln or a tour of the DOM on the Saturday morning, your choice. The city tour is with an English tour guide, so it is bound to be entertaining. The tour of the DOM will include a climb to the top. The view from up there is going to be spectacular. The afternoon is free with no set plan. After dinner, The Queer Expatriate Queer Expedition is on. 

The farewell brunch on Sunday will take place in Cafe Litchenberg. 

All the details can be found in this agenda.

It is not too late to join in the fun, make some new friends and enjoy Köln.

Thanks to Köln hosts (Resident on Earth, MusikKöln Media, Futile Diatribes and Cheap as Chips) for organising this. And also to TQE for keeping a tradition going.

If you are an expat blogger who is currently living in Germany, consider joining the forum at http://www.expatbloggersingermany.com.

Time to commit

I know that committing to something can be tough, especially for something in the short term future. It's tough when you don't even know what you are doing tomorrow!

Well, for something as fun as the upcoming WEBMU 2011, this is a no-brainer. We are a bunch of expat bloggers getting together for a bit of chat and a laugh! This year the event is being held in Cologne around October.

There is poll up on the expat bloggers in Germany forum asking fellow bloggers to commit, this is mostly to get an idea of the numbers so that certain events can be booked.

If that has piqued your interest, head over the forum and show your commitment.

By the way, the details for WEBMU 2011 are

Location: Cologne

Date: 22 Oct - 23 Oct, however a kick off dinner is the Friday evening 21 Oct.

The forum also has a list of possible hotel options as well.

The Cologne host team Resident on Earth, MusikKöln Media, Futile Diatribes, TQE and Cheap as Chips will be posting a full agenda for the weekend, and I hear that there are some fantastic events planned :-)

WEBMU 2011 accommodation options are up

If you are planning to visit Cologne around October 2011, and you are an expat blogger, why not consider meeting up with other expat bloggers at the annual WEBMU, 2011 edition. 

The Cologne host team Germany Doesn't Suck, Resident on Earth, MusikKöln Media, Futile Diatribes and Cheap as Chips, came up with a list of accommodation recommendations. The list consist of wide range optons, ranging from hostels to high end hotels, and also in a variety of locations around Cologne. It also has recommendations for different size travelling groups (singles, couples to family groups).

If you are interested, join in at the Expat Bloggers in Germany, be part of the fun.

WEBMU is scheduled to started on the weekend of 22 October 2011, but some items are being planned for the Friday 21 October 2011. Possible options are a shopping trip around the Belgian Quarter, a side trip to Aachen or a visit to Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces of Brühl.

By the way, WEBMU is Whinny Expat Bloggers Meet Up, well we really get together for a fun time and experience a new city.

Update on WEBUM 2011

The planning for the 2011 edition of WEBUM is well on the way.  Let's do a quick recap on what is already planned.

Place: Cologne

Date:  22nd & 23rd of October 2011

Although the "official" dates are 22nd and 23rd, there will be some events planned for the Friday on the 21st as well.

 

The current poll is to decide what activity to do on the Friday. On offer we have either 

• the Augustusburg and Falkenlust palaces of Brühl
• the Old Town of Aachen

So if you are a non-local living in Germany and have a blog about anything, consider joining us at WEBUM 2011. More information the expat blogger. 

WEBMU 2011 - to be hosted in Cologne

After 3 weeks of much jockeying and debating among four possible cities, the host city for WEBMU 2011 has been elected. It is Cologne!

The next step is to come up with a range of possible dates and put them up to the vote.

If you haven't heard of WEBMU, it is a meet up for Whiney Expat Bloggers. If you are a blogger and an expat in Germany and want to meet other expat bloggers in Germany, consider joining up to WEBMU and come along.

WEBMU 2011

WEBMU 2011 is getting some nice discussions happening. The current list of cities are... 

-Magdeburg
-Frankfurt
-Cologne
-Aachen
-Cologne
-Münster
-Somewhere in the Ruhrgebiet
-Nuremberg
-Düsseldorf
-Stuttgart
-a smaller town perhaps in the countryside
-someplace Ian can cycle to
-Anywhere
-Berlin

I am rooting for Cologne with the obvious bias, but it guess it will be the activities associated with the event that will make it a winner.

By the way, if you are a blogger and an expat living in Germany, feel free to drop by at WEBMU for a quick discussion, especially if you have a town or a city in mind.