Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300 First Class Experience

WHUUUUUT.

The title of this post SHOULD HAVE BEEN "Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300 Business Class Experience."  But more on that in a minute.



Mom and I hopped on the train down to Munich to spend the night down by the airport before our early morning flight to Dubai.   When you book a business class or first class ticket on Emirates out of Munich, they will purchase your train ticket for you (also first class.)  So of course, we did this because... free train tickets!  Leave it to me to be cheap when we are flying business class on Emirates!  But it's better than driving, and you can buy beer.  Just don't bring heavy suitcases like we did!  Thankfully, a couple of nice German men helped us with the bags.



We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express at the Munich airport and took a cab to our terminal sort of early the next day.  Why?  Because I need the TOTAL Emirates experience, and that includes the Munich business lounge.



My entrance ticket to the Emirates lounge. Business class, baby!



The Emirates lounge was pretty quiet early in the morning.



Croco needed to get a little CNN International viewing in before our flight.



The Emirates Lounge in Munich is kind of circular in shape (just keep taking a left and you'll find the breakfast buffet!)  What?  Don't mind if I do have a little Veuve early in the morning!



Eeeek, baby mustards, mayos and ketchups! 

I liked this little display of breakfast foods and juices.



Everything was just so beautifully displayed!



Time for some Veuve!

My Mom disappeared for a bit and went to talk to the lady at the front desk.  She came back with this. I'm like, "Mom!  There was literally no need to upgrade us to first class!  That was so ridiculous (and ridiculously nice!)  How different can it be?"  Well, according to her, it was VERY different.



Well then... let's leave this lounge and go check out this airplane!

Um.  YES.  It was WORLD'S better up in first class!  We each got our own little suite!  I was really blown away by how much better first class was than business class.  And this first class puts many of the American airlines to shame.  Not that I've flown first class in several years!

Meanwhile, back in business class... you know, where the poor people sit...

Those of us up here in first class?  We're sipping on champagne!

The snack basket only sits on my table until takeoff. Then they take it away, but don't worry... it comes back later!

Dude.  Fresh flowers - and one of my favorites!  Right here in my suite!

Before we took off, we got a moist towelette. I wish I could bottle up this smell!!!!  And don't you just love the word moist? I know my Mom does!

Why hello WAY OVER THERE!  Mom and I had a nice glass of Moet before takeoff.

There's a little button you can push in the area next to my (three) windows and out will pop all kinds of non alcoholic refreshments!

This might have been the very best part of flying first class on Emirates.  You get a delicious cup of Arabic coffee and a date that has something that resembles an orange slice in it.  The coffee is more like a very fragrant tea. It sounds kind of weird but it all went together beautifully.

Kay byeeeeeeee Munich!  See ya in a week!

I don't know which of my three windows to look out while we take off!

Hey, no need to even look out the window!  Just turn on the live feed from the underbelly of the aircraft!

I'm tired of this world. I'm just gonna close my automatic doors here.  Night night!

Just kidding.  I opened my suite back up because it was time for happy hour.  The flight attendant came around with the menu, and listed in it was two different types of Dom Perignon.  So he asked me what I wanted to drink and I foolishly said, "Wait... do I have to pay for this?"  And he kind of laughed at me and said no.  WHAT???  Free Dom Perignon?  YES PLEASE.

I chose the 2006 Dom Perignon Rosé, duh. 

"Mom - pretend like you're reading the menu!"  I mean, who looks that cute and poised reading a menu.  My Mom.  That's who.

Not a bad selection at all.  But weirdly, I stuck with the Dom.  For the entire flight.  As in, I drank an entire bottle of the Rosé, and then a glass of the 2008 vintage.  I mean... I've never had Dom Perignon in my life.  And I googled it:  That bottle of Rosé was about 300 €.  So heck yeah I drank that entire bottle.  I'll never get another chance to do that again!  (Except next Saturday, when I fly first class again....)

Why yes, I will have some more Dom and some appetizers while watching the clouds go by.

The screen alternated between English and Arabic.  Only going Mach 0.83 right now in this 777.

Nah, you don't have to put that on my screen.  TMI.  Ignorance is bliss.

Gah, that's even worse! I don't want to see any of that!  Are we crashing? Well, at least I'll have snacks.

My mom went with the cauliflower soup for her appetizer.  Only she and I both never got past the appetizers.  We Swales ladies aren't known to eat much!

I went with the traditional Arabec mezze and it was huge. And this was the appetizer!

Flying over the Black Sea, a place I'll probably never get to.  I've been to several countries that border this sea, but have never actually been to it.

Mom was all "peace out Cub Scout" as she put her lie-flat seat down.  She never closed her doors though, but she woke up a couple of hours later and the flight attendant had put a blanket on her. SO sweet!

So I just shut my doors and cozied on up in my dark little suite as we flew over Turkey.

At this point, I thought we were going to fly over Iran... and it was already weird enough to fly over Iraq, but Iran too?  Hmmm.  

Iraq kind of looks like Mars in some parts.  Maybe a little less red.

It's amazing to me to think that much of our civilization started in this region. 

I know my Dad will never get to go to Iraq (nor would he want to) but I know he would have thought it was pretty cool that we were flying over it.  So I let him look out the window for a little while.

The Tigris River, the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia- the cradle of civilization.

In northeastern Iraq, there is a large lake called Lake Dukan and it's the largest lake in Iraq.  Superlative, check!

Just to the left, and off screen (darn!) is a mountain called Jabal Birah Magrun (or as some know it, Mount Nimush.)  Some historians think this might be where Noah's Ark landed after the flood.  The larger city you see in the middle of the picture is Sulaymaniyah, a city of about 675,000 people in the Kurdistan region.

The landscape in Iraq was so unique.  This area is where the African and Asian plates come together so there's a lot of earthquake activity down there.

I think this was the city of Kalar, but don't quote me on that.  It differs from what I see on Google Maps, but that isn't really surprising given that I doubt Iraq just lets Google take aerial imagery all that often.

Skirting the Iraq border and heading south to the east of Baghdad. All of this was just crazy to me.  In the end, we didn't actually go over Iran.

I took a video of the bathroom because it was just so much nicer than any bathroom I've ever been in on an airplane.  But this was the only picture I took.  There's also a bathroom lady who cleans it and makes the toilet paper into pointed triangles after EACH person uses the bathroom.

You guys, that's actually the Tigris River!  You learn about these things and school but you  never really expect to see them in person!

Proof that I was looking at the Tigris River. I love looking at the landscape below and trying to figure out what cities or landmarks I am flying over.

Although we didn't fly directly over Iran, we did, however, get to "see" Iran.  It was just on the other side of the Persian Gulf.

Probably as close as I'll ever get to Iran, too!

Around the world, this is known as the Persian Gulf, however most Arab states that surround it (ie: from Iraq down to Oman and everything in between including Bahrain) call it the Arabian Gulf. This is mostly a recent thing with the rise of Arab nationalism in these countries.  Because the US Navy has a base in Bahrain, they tend to use the term Arabian Gulf to appease their host nation.

Cool little thunderstorm popping up over the Persian Gulf.

I loved watching the different views from the airplane (especially after a bottle of Dom when it didn't freak me out as much.)  Here, I was watching what was happening below and ahead of us and I saw several of these tanker ships.

Finally, we were ready to land in Dubai!  They have lots of pinkish sunsets due to the reddish sand.

Preparing to land in Dubai.  Did you know that Emirates ONLY flies to the Emirate of Dubai?  It does not fly to Abu Dhabi or any of the other five Emirates.  The Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah all have their own airlines and they do not fly to the other Emirates!

I spy the runway ahead!  Country number 44, here I come!

Arrived!  What an incredible experience!  If everyone could just do this once in their life, the world would be a better place ha ha.  Did I mention I drank an entire bottle of Dom Perignon?  

Until next time, Emirates Airlines!

Adult Oktoberfest 2019

September 28, 2019, a day that will live in infamy.



First though, I need to preface it with the happenings of the day before, after we got back from Pilsen.  First... it was Friday, so I had to do recycling (since Todd, Brian, Mikey and I were going to Munich early Saturday morning and wouldn't be able to do it then.)  So of course, I dragged the guys along to help me.  You know you've been indoctrinated into German culture when you're doing work at the Wertstoffhof.  Here is Brian recycling the dosen (aluminum cans.)



And now that my mom was here, we naturally had to have some beers.  And with that, Mikey discovered Grant's Soviet hat.



And then, in a weird ironic twist, he also discovered one of Grant's mega Nerf guns.



But THEN!  Then there was a war.  It was Brian vs. Grant with a couple of crazy Nerf guns.  And Brian, despite not having any sons of his own, was really good at this game.  He even took a hostage!



It's a pretty good start.  These crazy guys kept saying they had been training for this.  I'm not sure they could handle all this German beer.  It's stronger than what they have in the States!



My mom is not amused at all.  But there was sausage and Kartoffelsalat.  I'm not gonna go any further than this, because we later watched BeerFest and drank out of Das Boot.  These moments aren't fit for a family blog like this.

We had to get up pretty early, much to everyone's chagrin.   All I know at this point is that the train is coming and I took a really blurry pic.  I think it was a sign of things to come.



We had to stop at the hotel first to drop off our bags, but then we took the U Bahn back to the Oktoberfest grounds.  These guys aren't excited at all.

After switching trains in Nuremberg and getting on the fast ICE train to Munich and going to the hotel and taking the U Bahn back to the fest grounds, we finally arrived for the main event.  Oktoberfest: this way.

When we arrived, we went into the Ochsenbrateri tent - which was already full, but Brian and Mikey asked a waiter if there was any space and they MADE SPACE FOR US!  So we were able to sit down at a table and of course, immediately order a Maß!



Prost!  Let the fun begin!



This is when we were all sober and hadn't made friends with our tablemates yet.



The tent we were in was the Ochsenbrateri - which is known for (you guessed it...) ox tail!  And of course, that is what Todd got.  Brian and I got a half a chicken and Mikey... well, Mikey decided he wasn't going to eat right now and would "order something later."  Rookie mistake!



This ain't our first rodeo.  We know it's a marathon and not a sprint.



I titled this one, "Raise your hand if you've had five Maß" - only I never had anywhere near that.  But this guy did.  I had to move across the table because some of our butts were too big for the picnic tables in this tent.  In the end, it was musical chairs here - but this way, everyone had a real seat for their butt!



This was a series of pictures that Todd took of me and Brian with surprised, sad, excited and happy faces.

Row 1 of Table 2 at the Ochsenbraterei was the best row and the best table at all of Oktoberfest.

We arrived at the Ochsenbraterei at around 11:30 (and as I mentioned, it was already mostly full.)  This is what the app looked like around 12:30!

We met some guys from Hungary at our table and one of them took a bunch of pictures of us.  (Also: Best Oktoberfest waiter EVER right behind me and Todd!)

This guy at our table from Hungary took honestly, like 30 pictures of all of us, but this was my particular favorite of Brian.

We also liked this guys luxurious locks.  You never know what you will see at Oktoberfest!



This entire picture is the very best.  Mikey is pondering what is going on behind him as this kid is really close to passing out at the table.



Extreme close up!  Night night, termite.



Mikey didn't eat any lunch, something we definitely advised against.  Instead he waited a bit, and then he had a giant pretzel that was bigger than his head!



There's always lots of great music playing in the tents. It's a mix of oompa music and pop music.  And at some point, I noticed Brian and Todd were dancing together.



The very best part of our day was meeting this Hungarian guy at our table who looked like Rob Gronkowski (formerly) of the Patriots!  We kept calling him Hungarian Gronk!



There was a lot of prosting going on with the Hungarian Gronk.



By about 2:30 pm, things were getting a little wild with the Hungarians.

At this point, one of the Hungarians started to tie my shoelaces together.

Legit the best and most patient waiter at all of Oktoberfest!



And now a selfie with my new Hungarian friends.

Well, you'll be glad to know it wasn't one of us.  Or the Hungarians.

Finally some of the Hungarians left our table and these nice American au pairs who are living in Germany joined us.

And then... Bri got the hiccups.  And he had the hiccups for what seemed like an hour.  I really felt for him cause they seemed to last FOREVER.

Brian decided to drink more beer in order to get rid of his hiccups.  At this point, I think he's trying to make a plan for what we are going to do next.

But first... the rest of this beer.



And then Mikey started to fall asleep at the table.  And that's when we got kicked out of the tent at Oktoberfest.

Of course after we got kicked out, we had to take a picture (into the sun) out in front of our big tent!  I'm not sure Mikey ever opened his eyes after this!

People passed out on the grassy hill at Oktoberfest.  SO FUNNY.  So glad none of this happened to any of us!

Does anyone know who this poor guy is???  Geez people, get it together!

This literally was happening EVERYWHERE.  Wake up, dude!  At around 4:30, we decided to send Mikey back to the hotel in an Uber.  We really didn't know if he was going to make it, but he did just fine.  Then as soon as I walked Mikey to his Uber like... 2 miles away... Bri decided he wanted to go home too, so we sent him over to the cab stand and Todd and I stayed and partied some more!  Ok ... maybe we didn't party. But we did get to ride coasters and have some dinner!

And we got to enjoy the beautiful sunset!

I swear I didn't filter these.  The sky was literally this color!

 After riding a couple of coasters, Todd and I found yet another Hofbräuhaus mini tent.  Of course, it ONLY served Weißbier, which Todd doesn't like at all.  But he hung in there while I enjoyed it (it's one of my favorites!)

And it was decorated so pretty with fake grass and flowers!  Don't forget the hops!

The funniest part of the evening was that as we were heading back to the hotel on the U Bahn, Mikey was texting me and telling me he was ready to rally!  HECK YES.  So Todd and I met him at the hotel bar, where they were still (oh so sweetly and generously) serving.  You know me and how underwhelmed I am by beer.  Thus, I naturally made the switch over to my favorite drink, bourbon!

We really had a blast at our adult Oktoberfest!  In fact, Mikey and Bri tackled TWO MORE DAYS at the worlds biggest beer festival. Gotta pat them on the back for that, as I was pretty much done for after one day (although I'm very proud of myself for knowing when to say when!)

What do you say guys... next stop, a bourbon tour of north central Kentucky in 2021?  That should give us enough time to recover...

Until next time, Oktoberfest!