Pinky the very loving cat
July 27, 2007
We’ve been toying with getting a cat for a bit, and today I came across pinky the very loving cat.
Read more
Gripe of the Day : Budget Car Rentals
July 26, 2007
Soon I am going to be getting a name for myself about these things, after my dealings with Sixt….
The Story
Me and L picked up a car for the 12 days we were in the states from Budget Car Rentals. And I noticed there was some problems with the bill. There was a charge for an extra hundred bucks, so I contacted the customer care people and got an email back 10 days later. The funny thing was, I got a refund for 1/2 of what I though I was due. So I looked at the bill again and saw that they was also the associated tax charges of 11.11% and 5% (compounded) so I send them and email (cc’d their CEO) to tell them about my whole experience and asking for the $70 they still owe me. I also showed them my calculations in case they were having calculator problems. 
Picking up the car wasn’t that nice either, here is an excerpt from my mail that I decided to write, seeing as I was already complaining about them not processing my bill properly, I thought I would describe the picking up the rental car ordeal.
The Email Complaint
We had order a “standard class” car, and on getting to your agency they offered us a ’small SUV’ . This turned out to be a dodge nitro, some thing that my 5 foot girlfriend would never be able to drive. I returned to the desk and we were given something akin to a taxi (sadly I don’t know what car model it was). I liken it to a taxi because it was dirty, smelled of cigarettes and had a water mark on the front drivers seat. I didn’t want to investigate what this was from, but it did smell. So the third car, was a nice new Ford Taurus that had only 7 miles on it. But the whole picking up the car process lasted the best part of an hour and was rather unnecessary pressure after flying 8 hours already that day.
So let’s see what these guys say…
Oktoberfest Building gets underway
July 23, 2007
Today there are just 61 days until the magical Oktoberfest 2008 starts. It’s time to drink beer and be merry with 110,000 other happily drunk people. I’ve gone for the past 5 years, and the magic is still there. In fact 2 years ago I had the great luck in meeting L there.
Here is a still from today taken from this webcam.
fast-swing-10 is the new theme
July 22, 2007
Finally I got sometime to fix up the blog and to make it that little bit nicer. It’s called fast-swing-10 and it I must say I like it.
So, back to more important things, myself and L are back in Munich after over almost 4 week long holiday. We hit Boston,NYC ,Athens & the Greek Islands. The flights with BA were much better than with LH the previous year. One the return flight from Boston they even had on demand (which got me hooked on Entourage TV show) !
Heaven knows how far we actually travelled, driving,flying,sailing & walking, we did drive almost 1k miles in the US. The 1 week cruise (with EasyCruise) around the Greek was just fantastic. It’s great to wake up every morning and to have a whole new island (and a few pages of Lonely Planet to read) to discover. Here is a list of the Islands we hit.
- Piraeus (Athens)
- Milos
- Ios
- Amorgos
- Naxos
FolegandrosParos- Serifos
I think that Ios would have to be the nicest place we visited, followed by Naxos. These are the two biggest islands on the trip. EasyCuise was nice for the price we paid, we ended up paying about €200 for the both of us for the week, which was pretty cheap. Or bar & drink (& coke) bill was closer to €350. There was a few situations where the staff didn’t really act so professionally, and didn’t have that polished appearance. Maybe this is due to their lack of training, or maybe it was just a big difference from coming the US to their. One of the strangest things, and most dangerous was on a planned trip organised by the boat staff. There was a mini bus that could hold 18 people. But 19 people had signed up. So these two people were forced to sit on extra chairs brought onto the bus. Once chair was positioned between the driver and the front passenger and the other one was in the gangway in the middle of the bus.
That being said we had a great time, and met some really nice people (hi to Matt & Paula, Chris & Holly, Glen & Lisa). The beaches in Greece were great, and the water was perfect for snorkelling. If you ever get the chance to go to Greece do ! It’s a great place and the people are super friendly. Once on the subway in Athens, L was lugging her baggage down a few steps and a young girl asked her did she need help ! So that’s a few words about the holiday (email me if you want to see the pics).
It’s good to be back in Mucich !