Beertopia

Question: How do you meet 5-10 people from Wisconsin, in Asia and all within the same location? 

Answer: Go to a craft beer festival! 

A few months back I was reading about upcoming events in a magazine when I came across Beertopia, a craft beer festival held in Hong Kong. I messaged Ryan about it and without hesitation he told me to buy us tickets. We are big fans of Milwaukee's craft beer festival, Brewfest (highly recommended for anybody reading this that likes beer and is within the area) and were sad we probably wouldn't be able to attend this year. While the craft beer trend in Hong Kong is not nearly what it is in Milwaukee, it is growing steadily. 

So last Saturday, along with Ryan's co-worker and good friend Andy, we made our way down to the waterfront to partake in the 2nd annual Beertopia. We weren't sure what to expect but were very happy with the results. With over 200 different beers to choose from around the world, we slowly made our way through each booth, sampling one or two from each brewer that we were interested in. 

Ryan and I sampling some beer

No better view for sampling some beer

Beertopia in full swing

Ryan was smart and wore his Milwaukee Brewing Company shirt (an intoxicated purchase from last year's Brewfest) which quickly grew attention halfway through the event. Within about 30 minutes we had met 5 people that were either from or had lived in Wisconsin. One guy was even wearing a New Glarus t-shirt from a recent trip back home. At one point, we had all the people from Wisconsin gathered in a group and sharing stories from where we lived, grew up or missed about Wisconsin. Some were just visiting the area while others had been living in Hong Kong for years.

Ryan in his Milwaukee shirt, me in a Sam Adams shirt- representing American beer

Ryan's favorite brewery there, my favorite names of beers

 

The event was broken into 2 sessions, one until 5pm and after that until 11pm. We chose the afternoon one because we didn't want to abandon Ahri all night and we were happy we made that choice. After grabbing some brats and other goodies to soak up the beer, we headed back home to our recovering dog. Ahri was spayed and had 2 teeth removed on Wednesday. She is doing well now and just bursting to get back to the dog park and chase all the other dogs around.

Way too much flour on the buns...but so delicious

Princess Ahri recovering at home

 

 

 

 

 We had a great time meeting new people from close to home and enjoying some great beer. Can't wait until next year!

Dubai Trip

Ryan and I were lucky enough to have a little vacation away over the past weekend. We are still getting used to the Chinese holiday calendar and the times that Ryan has off of work. Recently, the Ching Ming Festival was celebrated over April 4th and 5th. From what I have been told, this holiday is for family members to gather together and visit the graves of loved ones during the spring time.

Dubai has been on our travel bucket list for while we are over here so we took our few days of opportunity to travel over there. After sending Ahri off to the kennel for her own vacation, we took off on a 8 hour flight straight to Dubai. We landed late Thursday evening and head out early Friday morning for our day of site seeing.

The thing we realized early on when researching Dubai is that it is the city of seeing the biggest, tallest and most expensive of everything. Our first stop was the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa comes in at 2,722 feet tall. Though we weren't able to go all the way to the top, we did make it up to the 125th floor to see the views of the city. Since Dubai is a relatively new city, the view is a lot of high rise buildings surrounded by a vast desert. Unfortunately the wind had picked up the few days we were there so we were able to experience a sand storm, though it did limit the view.

Couldn't quite fit me and the building in the same shot

View of the Dubai Mall and the Dubai Fountains

The Dubai Mall 

 After our trip up in the clouds, we walked around the connected Dubai Mall. Known as the world's largest mall, based on square footage, it is home to an aquarium, ice rink and hundreds of other attractions. We were a little excited to see many western restaurants that are not available in Hong Kong (I'm talking Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse, Cheesecake Factory...things you start to miss greatly after being out of the states).

H&M next to the aquarium

We then ventured over to another mall for lunch where we ate with a view of Ski Dubai, a large indoor snow ski resort. It was strange to come in from the desert climate and sit only feet away from people dressed in parkas going down slopes. Needless to say, it made Ryan miss the ski season he skipped when we moved to Hong Kong.

Ski Dubai 

Our next stop was a recommendation from my sister-in-law to see, the Gold Souk. The gold souk is a traditional market in the old section of Dubai that is filled with hundreds of stores selling gold in all forms of jewelry. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the stores were closed on Friday, which is considered the weekend in Dubai. Luckily a few stores were open and we were able to see some beautiful pieces.

Gold Souk 

Bangles, bangles and more bangles 

 After our site-seeing, we went to check into our new hotel for the rest of our trip, the Atlantis. The Atlantis hotel is set on the outer ring of the Palm Islands on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The Palm Islands are a set of man made islands in the shape of a palm tree that were built off the coast of Dubai. Though not fully completed, many of the islands contain apartment buildings and hotels.

The aquarium in the hotel 

After a drink we headed back to town to see the Dubai Fountains, one of the top things to see in Dubai. Set to music, the fountains come alive every half an hour for all the tourists.

The Burj Khalifa at night 

Dubai Fountains

 For our last day we took advantage of the water park in our hotel for the morning. All of the slides are centered around a pyramid that sits on top of an aquarium filled with sharks and sting rays. For 2 of the rides, you are taken through clear tubes within the aquarium and you are surrounded by all the sea life.

Going through the aquarium 

The Leap of Faith 

Finally, to end our whirlwind trip we celebrated with dinner in the Atlantis's restaurant, Ossiana. This restaurant is set next to the aquarium and has floor to ceiling views of the aquarium. It was a great way to end a wonderful trip. Ryan and I feel very blessed to be able to have these experiences so early in our marriage.

Ossiana 

And Ahri attacking the stuffed camel we bought for her...all good parents bring home a souvenir