Greg Wesson's Esoteric Globe

I have recently returned from Sydney, Australia. I was down there on business for just a few days. A full day of flying either way, but at least it was productive time down in Australia. In addition to work stuff, I spent a little time site-seeing.

The Sydney Opera House is potentially the most iconic image of all of Australia, though Uluru, koalas and and kangaroos probably rank high up as well. Like a few places I have been before, I was surprised when I got up close to the Opera House. I had always thought it was solid white, like a giant stucco building. It's not, it is covered with tiles, which are varying shades of off-white. It is also smaller than I had expected.

Second on the list of Sydney sites is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sharing space with the Opera House in this photo...

The bridge crosses from Sydney to North Sydney, and as I was staying in Sydney and had work in North Sydney, I crossed it a few times - both in cars and via the CityRail train service which runs across the bridge. You can also walk it, but I didn't have time. It is the fifth-longest arch bridge in the world, and visible from many angles in Sydney, making for some interesting photos.

Below the bridge on the Sydney side is "The Rocks." The Rocks was established during the settlement of Sydney in 1788. The original buildings were made mostly of local sandstone, from which the area derives its name. Originally a slum and area of "recreation" for visiting sailors, who liked their drink and women cheap, the area has now been revitalised into an area of swank shops, high-end markets and bistros, though the outer edges of the area still have their problems with poverty.

Just south of The Rocks is Sydney's Central Business District. Shiny tall buildings and straight, fast moving streets give the place a very American feel. It's like Seattle without the rain.

Adding to the feeling of the place being like Seattle, Sydney and Seattle share that curious form of transport - elevated Monorail. Just like Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook!

Just to the east of the CBD is the botanic gardens and "The Domain", which I walked south through on eventually into Sydney's Hyde Park. Plants, statues and lots of birds featured on the walk.

An Ibis, bird with a long beak.

St. Mary's Cathedral, just east of Hyde Park

At the south end of Hyde Park is the ANZAC War Memorial. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps. They mostly fought in the Mediterranean, and famously during the Battle of Gallipoli, where many died on both sides. This memorial to those soldiers, completed in the 1930s in an Art Deco style, sits alongside a reflecting pond at the south end of Hyde Park.

South of the Central Business District, and close to my hotel in Darling Harbour, is China Town. There are many Asians in Australia, and lots of opportunity for good Asian food, including a number of restaurants in China Town.

Bondi Beach, to the east of the CBD, is a famous and mostly touristy beach. One day after work, I headed over there for a couple hours to enjoy the sunset by the seaside.

Like all trips, mine ended up at the Sydney airport, waiting to come home. They have a nice (but noisy) outdoor bar area just off the terminal building, where I enjoyed my last gasps of Australian autumnal weather before heading back to early spring weather in London.

And thus ends my first trip to Australia.

Butch: I got a great idea where we should go next.

Sundance: I don't want to hear it.

Butch: You'll change your mind when I tell ya.

Sundance: Shut up.

Butch: OK, OK.

Sundance: It's your great ideas that got us here.

Butch: Forget about it.

Sundance: I don't ever want to hear another one of your ideas. All right?

Butch: All right.

Sundance: OK.

Butch: Australia - I figured secretly you wanted to know, so I told ya. Australia.

Sundance: That's your great idea?

Butch: Oh, the greatest in a long line.

Sundance: Australia's no better than here.

Butch: That's all you know.

Sundance: Name me one thing better.

Butch: They speak English in Australia.

Sundance: They do?

Butch: That's right, smart guy, so we wouldn't be foreigners. They got horses in Australia. And they got thousands of mountains you can hide out in. And good climate. Nice beaches. You could learn to swim.

Sundance: No swimming! It isn't important. What about the banks?

Butch: They're easy. Easy, ripe, and luscious.

Sundance: The banks or the women?

Butch: Once you've got one, you've got the other.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969, Written by William Goldman

Easy, Ripe and Luscious...

While in Munich, recently, I went to the Hofbräuhaus. The Hofbräuhaus was founded in the 1500s by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria, and is an absolutely massive beer hall. It has multiple rooms over a number of floors, and long communal tables. It was generally quite busy, and you just find a place where you can.

I made two trips to the Hofbräuhaus. The first night, I sat with two Italians and a Polish couple, both of whom were in town for a sportswear conference in Munich. The second night, I sat with a couple of Brits, and a group of 6 Indians. The Brits were on holiday, but the Indians were there for the sportswear conference. Its nice at the communal tables, especially as a solo traveller, as you wind up meeting people and talking to them.

In addition to the company, you also get musical entertainment, in the manner of an oompah-pah band. The blaring brass is good beer drinking music, and the Hofbräuhaus even makes an appear in the well known drinking song In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus. Ein, Zwei, G'suffa! (In Munich, there's the Hofbrauhaus, one, two, drink!)

The strange thing is, sitting in that beer hall in Munich reminded me of another experience I had years ago in Montreal. There used to be a bar in Montreal called the Vieux Munich (Old Munich), which was a Munich-style beer hall. Apparently an offshoot of the popular German pavilion at Expo '67 (which featured a beer garden), the Old Munich was a communal seating beer hall, where you sat at a long table, drank beer and listened to Oompah-pah music.

I first went there when I was 18, in 1988. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where I grew up, the legal drinking age was 19. However, one province over, in Quebec, the drinking age was 18. Therefore, for my 18th birthday, I travelled with some friends up to Montreal to celebrate. It was a bit of a hazy weekend, admittedly, with lots of drinking. The Vieux Munich, though, stuck with me. I loved the happy atmosphere, the celebratory nature of the place, the music and the people.

Leaving at the end of the weekend, still with my cardboard Alpine Hat on my head, the Vieux Munich was my favourite part.

I next travelled to Montreal in the mid-1990s with another group of friends, and despite my hopes, we never made it to the Vieux Munich. "Oh well," I thought, "next time."

Since then, I have travelled to Montreal often. I never did manage to find the Vieux Munich again. I would often search for it, asking hotel staff and locals, but no one seemed to be able to direct me to it.

Turns out it was because the bar closed in 1994. Over time I started to even doubt that the Vieux Munich was as I remembered it. I began to think I imagined the communal tables, the folks singing along with a brass band and clinking glasses. I started to chalk it up to the sepia-coloured quasi-fantasy of nostalgia, believing perhaps that I was over romanticizing my first legal drinking experience.

Then I went to Munich, and to the Hofbräuhaus, and suddenly I realized that the Vieux Munich had been real, and had been as great as I remembered it. I sat in that beer hall in Munich, clinking glasses with a Polish couple and two Italian t-shirt manufacturers, and smiled as I looked back on my 18 year old self, doing the same thing six timezones and a half a lifetime away.

Perhaps it is because of the number of American military bases that are in Germany thanks to the Red Menace (deceased), but American Football seems to have taken hold in Germany more than anywhere else outside North America. An American Football Bundesliga was formed all the way back in 1979, and Germany was one of the few countries to embrace the NFL Europe experiment. By the time NFL Europe closed in 2007, 5 of the 6 teams were based in Germany.

The American Football Bundesliga was renamed the German Football League (GFL) in 1999, and consists of 14 teams. One of those teams is the Munich Cowboys, whose love of American Football is not just about playing it, but also watching it on the satellite from America. As such, they hosted a Superbowl Party in Munich, open to all who wished to come (and could afford to pony up the €8 to get in). The party was hosted at Kultfabrik, a former noodle factory which has been turned into a warren of bars, clubs and gentlemen's establishments.

The party, befitting a team called the Cowboys, was wild west themed, with attractions like a calf roping game and mechanical bull.

This being American Football, American food was on offer. Burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings and nachos were all being scoffed down by the crowds.

And crowds there were. A good selection of American expats and German fans. The two teams playing this year were Pittsburgh and Green Bay. About 75% of the crowd seemed to be Green Bay fans, with many supporting Green Bay merchandise, including the Cheese Head hat, worn as Wisconsin (where Green Bay is located) is famous for making cheese.

After some chatter from a host, including interviews with a few local football players, they turned over to the American coverage for the singing of American the Beautiful and the National Anthem, and then the game got underway. Superbowl XLV pitted the Steelers against the Packers.

Oh, say can you see

The game was a good one, with the Steelers drawing it close at the end, but the Packers were too strong, and ended up winning the game 31 to 25 to win the Vince Lombardi trophy - a trophy named after a legendary coach from Green Bay's past. The crowd, largely Green Bay fans (at least by the end of the game, if they weren't at the start), was happy.

Me, I was happy, too.

It was one of the best Superbowl parties I have been to during my "Superbowls Around The World" wanderings. The crowd was excited, the food spread was excellent and there was a good selection of alternate activities - from bull riding to Xbox to Sky's 3D TV on trial - to keep you entertained during the long pre-game show. Plus, as the S-Bahn runs 24 hours a day, I was able to get back to my hotel without any fuss and bother.

So congratulations to Green Bay for winning, and also the city of Munich and the Munich Cowboys for putting on a good party.

I may not be a Worldwide Player, but I am a Worldwide Watcher at least.

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For other experiences viewing "The Big Game", check out the rest of my Superbowls Around the World blog entries

Since my first visit to Paris in 2005, I have been waiting to do this...

For those who don't see the "radio, video," boogie with your suitcases over to Youtube and watch it here.