For personal reasons it was lucky that I was unable to attend the 2006 Whiney Expat Bloggers’ meetup in Bonn, but to make up for it I had a great time with many of Germany’s English-language bloggers in Dresden last year.
Now that we’re all having to decide where to meet up in 2008, you may be forced to get out a map to find the town of Wiesbaden because the voting seems to be headed in that direction. Wiesbaden? Where? What? And perhaps above all: why Wiesbaden?
Is it because the place is famous for and dominated by a huge spa? Do you realise that if we were to meet in Wiesbaden and not go to the spa, it would be like squeezing into a small diner for lunch never once mentioning that 800-pound gorilla plopped down in the corner?
And of course you all know by now about German spa and sauna etiquette, right? I know some of us like to bare all online, but…
Anyway, I haven’t heard much of the place, so I thought I’d ask my wife and favourite German for her opinion, seeing as how I was pretty sure she’d never been there before.
So have you ever been to Wiesbaden? Never.
What have you heard about Wiesbaden? Pretty, with rich people.
Why rich? It’s not that far from Frankfurt, but it’s smaller, – anyway, not nearly as ugly as Frankfurt.
What have you got against Frankfurt? It has no soul. It’s just business and banks.
Would you go to Wiesbaden? Why should I?
Well, there’s going to be a bloggers’ meetup there. At least that’s the way it seems to be going. Are you going to this meetup?
I’m asking the questions for now. If you were to pick one place in Germany you think we should meet, where would it be? Hamburg.
You can’t pick Hamburg. (laughs) OK, Leipzig or Weimar. They’re two cities I’m interested in getting to know.
By the way, I like your haircut. You look very good at the moment.
So there you have it. Hamburg balcony poll results confirm a swing in sentiment away from Wiesbaden and toward Leipzig or Weimar. Besides, how can you not trust the opinion of someone who makes an observation like that? 
And now: A few bloggers I’d like to meet who weren’t there last year. Not a complete list and in no particular order:
- Charlotte of Charlotte’s Web. That is, if we don’t interfere with her novel-writing.
- Headbang8, the man behind Deutschland über Elvis
- Jen of HeisseScheisse. Yes, I know you were in Hamburg long enough for us to meet but it didn’t work out.
- Tatiana.
- Beaverboosh. He’s actually blogging from Norway, but being Canadian he gets a free pass, if not ticket.
- Cathy, the woman behind the blog and the book Planet Germany.
- Jul.
- Indie of Indeterminacy. OK, we’ve already met, but it would be great if he could attend.
- Click-clack gorilla.
- And last but not least, azahar, who is going through a rough time.
Oooh, kind of a stealth meme. How did that happen?
Ooh, thanks for the mention. Wiesbaden is close-ish to me, so maybe I’d come for the day, to meet you and Ms Mausi (and the lovely others, of course). I’m just put off by the “Whiney” moniker. Do you guys really whine? Or do you just drink lots of wine? If it were the latter, I’d come …
hey where’s my invite?
Thanks for the post, Ian. Nuremburg, here we come (I hope). Wiesbaden puzzled me too.
nurse – you mean you’d come all the way from Oz just to be with us? Well, c’mon down! Err, up. Or over.
charlotte – there wasn’t any whining last year. i think it was just a handle that stuck from the first time they met.
j – Nuremburg works for me.
Last time I looked Bremen had taken the lead!! If Bremen does win we should really try to persuade some of the southern bloggers to make a weekend of it. I ,too, would love to meet Charlotte, among others.
Would enjoy meeting you, too! I hope to come wherever it ends up being. Well, as long as the first evening does not take place in a sauna (it’s the heat, not the nudity…).
one day…..
You’re quite right…. you wouldn’t want to meet me in the sauna!
I hope I can make it to the meet up … though I’m not really a whiney person!
Ian-There was WordCamp Hamburg not all that long ago (Jan?). Did you go?
Why yes, I did! I also guest blogged about it for The Blog Herald – or was it Lorelle on WordPress? In way too much of a hurry right now to dig out the link for you, but I’ll get if for you later today.
And here it is: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/wordcamp-hamburg-germany/
Found it on my own, thanks. The workshops looked more interesting than ours here, but I think we might have had more attendees, at least at the start of the day (the wifi crashed from the number of live-bloggers). The DE venue looks much more interesting!
I’m a maverick. I don’t like to meet people. You’re the only exception I made in about 21 years.
Hi Indie. You’d enjoy meeting these, I’m sure.
Geesh, I’m not on your list!!! Sigh, Wiesbaden is a nice little city though (check Wiki) and the thermal baths are lovely. Wherever you have it though I’m sure a good time will be had by all…ciao
rositta – not that i wouldn’t want to meet you, but you’re over the pond in Ontario, right? Well, if you think you can make it, by all means…
i’m all for wiesbaden because i am lazy and extremely poor and live close to there. the real question is, how do i manage to find out when this meeting takes place? i don’t exactly have my finger on the internet pulse these days. also: i was extremely flattered by the mention. woot!
hello ccg! It’s all happening on J’s blog Germany Doesn’t Suck. First we decide where, then when. I’d prefer the when to be decided asap, but can’t move things faster than everyone want to move, unfortunately. Hope you can make it!
Eewwww… I wouldn’t like to meet me in the sauna either.
But I’m sure we’ll see each other some day!
Expat Meet-Up rules: NO saunas, NO bowling. That’s it. Anything else goes.
Ian – I think J is going to close comments on the location post on Friday and then a date can be decided upon ASAP. I think we’d all like to know sooner than later.
Oh no – you mean mud wrestling is on then?
christina – sooner we get the date decided the better. The place really isn’t as important.
No bowling. Sigh.
Bremen it is, so those of us in the centra and southern part of the country get flat-butt-syndrome this year.
Date post early next week.
Oh cool! Let’s get the date nailed down soon.