...expanding my brain...

So not having a job in this new city of ours allows me to wonder the streets all day and look at all things beautiful.

Today I went to the Alte Pinakothek, which is an art museum situated in the art area in Munich. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings. The museum galleries were designed to display Rubens's "Last Judgment" , one of the largest canvasses ever painted, (size 608,5 x 463,5cm). It is amazeballs.

The name, Pinakothek, alludes to the time period covered by the art — the Neue Pinakothek covers 19th century art and the recently opened Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art, all galleries are part of Munich's "Kunstareal" (the "art area").

The Last Judgement, 1617. Peter Paul Rubens.

and here are some other masterpieces I saw today...

Peter Paul Rubens, Albrecht Dürer & Leonardo Da Vinci

Next week I am doing the Neue Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne. Its really exciting and fun.

...just for you Debs...

So the other night we were sitting outside playing this board game and I heard a rattling in the garden. When I looked I saw a hedgehog, yip a real life crawling cute little spiky hedgehog in Sven and Colleen's back garden...we tried to feed him some lettuce but had no luck, then took out the camera and snapped away...check it out.

...couch/bed/hello guests...

Wollie and me have been strolling around furniture shops to find a suitable couch for our new flat. We want a big nice comfortable couch that can also be used as a sleeper couch, so that we have space for all our friends. I just found this one on Pinterest...if we get this then 2 extra guests can sleep in our new housie.me loves it!

...beerhangover 2.0...

On Monday and Tuesday, Colleen's friend Vanessa came to visit and we did some exploring on Monday and ended up at the Hofbräuhaus Munich on Monday late afternoon. Its one of the biggest tourist attractions of Munich and oh boy I understand why. We drank so much beer and shots and ate traditional german food while listening to another Umpa band. It was too much fun.

Then we had to leave because we started banging on the table and the "bouncer" came and reprimanded us and Sven started to get all cocky with him so the "bouncer" told our waiter to not serve us anymore beer. oops.

We had to find our way home which turned out to be a bit of a struggle, as we all wanted to get onto different trains.

The following day we were all super hungover and couldn't get much done. The boys ended up working from home in their PJ's and we watched numerous episodes of Glee. But later in the afternoon we got off our growing butts and went exploring again.

PS: Jlo...I found your favourite street and cannot wait to take you there....

...Belated birthday, I love presents...

Yesterday Colleen and me went to meet her friend, Colleen, at this shopping center in Trudering. After the coffee date we just had to go to H&M and look at all the prettiness in the shop. I walked out with this pretty ring that Colleen bought me as a belated birthday gift. I love it! Thanks friend!

 

I also bought these awesome little socks at the DM, which is like clicks, check it out they even have pads at the bottom so your foot has some protection...me likes!

...i want to ride my bicycle...

This is the bicycle I want to get for my Germany days....with a big basket in the front and then I can cycle around town in minty green style.

...apple pie...

On Tuesday we decided to make apple crumble, which is totally easy. Colleen has a theory...she says  the reason people here in Germany eat so much apple pie is because the apples taste so horrible. So in order for them to eat the apples, they need to make something out of them...therefore they make apple pie, so we also tried it. Check it out, it was delicious and we stuffed our faces!

...official duties...

Sven and Colleen have this massive garden and now the boys have to mow the lawn one a week. It was so funny and I just couldn't resist taking pics.

The following day I saw this super old man moving the lawn and tried to take a picture, but it came out really badly, but here it is anyway!

...weekend 2.0...

Another great weekend in Munich...this weekend was so nice and warm it felt like a day in SA. On friday night we had amazing ice cream at Sven's favourite place in Trudering (the area where they live).

Then on Saturday we went walking around in the city cause Wollie needed a new suit for work. His office is so fancy schmancy here and everyone goes to work in a full suit, which he doesn't have, so we had to go and spend some cash in H&M ( Jlo's heaven). I also needed new running shoes cause I will turn into a fat little piggy if I don't run, cause the beer here is soooo good.

While in the city, we spotted these crazy Brits soaking up the sun. Unfortunately I have no pictures of our night out, we went to this little club and got nice and drunk.

On Sunday we went to this beer garden down the road from Sven and Colleen and drank 'ein maas bier', ate a huge-ass Brezel and listened to the 'umpa' band do their thing (those guys are good).

Every Sunday here feels like a mini Oktoberfest. Prost!!!

...tegernsee, you pretty thing...

On Sunday, the 6 of us went to this beautiful lake just outside Munich. It's like Hartbeespoort would be for Joburg but colder and you can see the Alps in the distance on a sunny clear day. Unfortunately our day was cold and cloudy so we couldn't see the pretty Alps. Just look at this.

The plan was to have a picnic next to the lake but it turned out to be an insanely cold day so we just had cake and coffee at this cute little restaurant that gave us blankets. And then had the picnic at Sven and Colleen's house on the floor in the lounge. 

...crazy huge flea market heaven...

On Saturday we went to the Frühlingsfest where there are rides and food and a massive huge-ass amazing flea market. It was massive and I had to keep thinking of Koos who would have gone MAD. It's at the Theresienwiese, which is where the Oktoberfest takes place every year.  The food was amazing, unfortunately I couldn't eat cause I had a stomach bug, but the others were chewing non-stop and the best thing is...entrance was free.

Check out this beertent...cccrrraaazzyyy

Anyway, so at this amazing flea market I bought this printers tray which I am going to for my jewelery.

 

 Then we had drinks in the city to do some people watching....

...hello Munich, our new home town...

Sorry for the lack of blogging people, but the last month has been a little crazy. As you all know, I have moved to Munich with Wollie and we had to pack up our little housie in good old Bryanston and move across the see with only a one big suitcase.

When the leaving day finally arrived, I decided that my best friend, my apple iMac, was coming with me and this complicated our travel experience rather severely. Both of us were a little overweight, but thanks to our awesome airline, Emirates (thanks so much pretty people) we were allowed all our baggage. After checking in our big bags, which were a perfect 30kg, we boarded the plane with a 10kg hand luggage suitcase, a huge-ass iMac box (which weighed in at 10kg) and each and extra bag, Wollie's packed to the brim with PlayStation goodies and I had my handbag and camera bag. So you can imagine what we looked like and traveling and stopovers and boarding planes and trying to shop at duty free was not the easiest thing to do...so when we eventually arrived we were super happy and thought we made it but then got stopped at customs, where they were asking stupid questions about my computer...aaanyway, we finally got there and everything was A.OK

So after a VERY long flight we finally arrived in Munich and Colleen picked us up in their fancy-schmacy car and we went exploring....

Then we had dinner at this awesome Italian place opposite Sven and Colleen's house. Feels like I am on holiday all the time.

Sven's friend from school, Robin an his girlfriend Beate, came to visit from Bonn for the weekend and we explored the city together. And look, we had drinks on their stoep and the sun was shining...