Thank you, thank you, thank you, to our illustrious hosts for a great weekend of culture, gastronomy, history, and — most importantly, in my book — general merriment. This was the 4th annual WEBMU event we’ve attended, and every year it’s such a pleasure to chat and laugh with those faces and voices we otherwise only get to read.
To everyone who couldn’t make it this year: here’s hoping next year works out for you. This was a blast.
As noted on expatbloggersingermany.com, there are just three weeks left until WEBMU 2011 in Cologne is officially underway. (Unofficially, it gets started with a side trip to Aachen one day earlier.)
Our knowledgeable hosts have designed a stimulating agenda, made accommodation recommendations and even summarized the local Kölner ÖPNV* system for you — all on our discussion board over at http://www.expatbloggersingermany.com/meetup/. Sign up there today, if you haven’t already, to get the full scoop. Any expatriate in Germany blogging in English is most welcome!
*I love how some concepts, like “mass transit” are expressed in English sometimes with just a few syllables, but have huge German counterparts, like Öffentlicher Personennahverkehr. But they retain that reputation for efficiency, deservedly or not, for compacting those ten syllables down to just four in everyday usage. Similar examples:
| English | German (full) | German (shortened) |
|---|---|---|
| Trainee | Auszubildende(r) | Azubi |
| Public broadcasting fee collection agency | Gebühreneinzugszentrale | GEZ |
| Technical Inspection Association | Technischer Überwachungs-Verein | TÜV |
| Terms & Conditions | Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen | AGB |
The Whiny Expat Bloggers MeetUp in Cologne this year now has its own agenda.
If you live in Germany, and blog about that (or other stuff) in English, then come visit Cologne with us in October. We’ll whine collectively while touring and eating and laughing. Sign up on our discussion board to get the full load of details — and they’re looking really good, thanks to your hosts.
On our discussion board, you’ll find ideas about where to stay, how to get there and — the best part — who-all will be attending. I can’t wait to see old pals and meet new ones!
There’s a poll up at the ExpatBloggersInGermany.com board seeking your input. Just a real basic question — “Are you coming to the Whiny Expat Blogger MeetUp 2011?” — and Yes/No/Maybe options for your response. You can change your vote as often as you like while the hosts are planning the agenda.
If you’re an expatriate living in Germany blogging in English, come on out to Cologne in October for a weekend of laughter and comiserating. If you’re new to our discussion board, you can register right there too — just don’t forget to mention your blog’s internet address and your (rough) location in Germany.
The lovely and talented CNHeidelberg remarked this week that WEBMU 2011 is fast approaching, like a locomotive, chugging along down the track, which we are powerless to impede.
Speaking of which, you can buy train travel to there from anywhere and back, now that we’re less than 90 days out. It officially gets rolling on Saturday, October 22. If you’re an English-language blogger, living in Germany, come on out and put some faces and voices to those fonts and images you’ve been reading.
For our tranpsortation, we personally were leaning toward flying, thinking that would be cheaper in terms of outright cost or at least time spent traveling, but this turned out not to be the case for us. We’ll be spending perhaps an hour more in transit each way in total, but saving more than 50% off the travel costs associated with air travel for us.
We’ll be training it out Thursday afternoon to Cologne, in plenty of time for the Friday pre-event — whatever that ends up being (a visit to some palaces in Brühl, the Aachener Altstadt, or perhaps some swanky shopping, all hosted by local residents).
Details are on the bulletin board at www.expatbloggersingermany.com/meetup. Register there, if you haven’t already, get access to all the accommodation recommendations and forthcoming agenda. Don’t forget to mention your location in Germany (roughly, at least) and your blog’s URL, so that I can approve your membership.
This just in — we now know both WHERE and WHEN WEBMU 2011 will take place.
Answer: Cologne, October 22-23.
If you’re an expatriate who blogs in English in living in Germany, come over to the discussion board and get the details as they develop. Your WEBMU 2011 hosts are hard at work planning the details of the event, making travel and accommodation suggestions, and even discovering whom to bribe to guarantee splendid Herbstwetter as we converge upon Germany’s fourth-largest city.
Bis spätestens dann!
Just an update for those of us planning out leisure travel for the rest of the year already: the Whiny Expat Blogger Meetup (WEBMU) in Cologne later this year still has no firm date.
A poll on the the topic over on the discussion board has been open for just about two weeks, and as of this writing, we currently have a tie between two weekends. As a result, we can’t close the poll just yet. We need more input.
If you haven’t yet voted on when WEBMU 2011 should be, but you are an English-language blogging expatriate in Germany, head over and let us know which weekend best suits you. It doesn’t matter whether you know at this point whether you can attend for sure or not. Your vote matters anyways!
Perhaps you’ll tip the scales and we can get the week off to a good start after this glorious weekend.
Hot off the presses!
Cologne is the city of choice for WEBMU 2011. If you are an English-language blogger located in Germany, sign up on our discussion board to get all the details as they unfold. Soon we’ll be nailing down a particular weekend. Sign up (if you haven’t already), introduce yourself, and have a look around while the hosts in Cologne put together a list of suitable weekends for the members to vote on.
See you there!