Christmas shopping and Tollwood

At the weekend me and Jorg ventured into the (very busy) centre of Munich to do some Christmas shopping! It was cold and snowing a little bit; which just adds to the Christmas charm :)

 We also got a side tracked and did a bit of shopping for ourselves, we went to United Colours of Benetton and I personally love this shop! But not because of the women's clothes; in the men's section whilst I wait for Jorg to try stuff on I can sit down and look at the window which overlooks the street between Marienplatz and Karlsplatz. It's so busy down there and yet this shop is never really full so I find it relaxing! The glass has some odd criss cross pattern hence the blurriness.

 A photo of us with our shopping, and Jorgs new Christmas jumper!
















In the evening we met up with Jorg's family and friends  and headed off to Tollwood - the Christmas Festival. I forgot how much I enjoyed it last year! It's in the same place as Oktoberfest (Theresienwiese) and there are huge tents for different things eg one for present shopping and another just for food. We started off in "The Bazaar" where I purchased a cashmere scarf, then wondered over to a bar called "Tief im Wald" (Deep in the Forest) where we got mulled wine and sat on pigs and donkeys to watch a band. The tent had actual trees in it to match the name and the pigs and donkeys were carved out of wood.

They sell the star lights behind me and I desperately want one!

A tree sculpture

 On the way to the "Food Plaza" tent we ran into these guys. I actually have no clue why they are here and at night they look terrifying. There were three of them and luckily I managed to get a photo of them (I didn't actually take it.. I was hiding behind Jorg and he took it for me). Someone tried to explain to me that they represented some kind of ghosts?! They were double so tall as a normal person and I'm glad I wont be seeing them again!

What I love most about Tollwood is the food! Everything here is Bio and although Oktoberfest food is also good, there are much more vegetarian (and vegan) options here. I sadly didn't take photos of the food we ate as I was too quick, this was the only photo I took of one (that's blurry) and I've forgotten the name. As you can tell I would be useless as a food blogger! This was however extremely yummy and was like a doughnut but in a cylinder shape, covered in cinnamon and sugar.

I love Christmas!



A visit from England

On the 1st December something exciting happened (other than opening the first door on my advent calendar).  My sister and her Husband came to visit me for 4 days. Here's a bit of what we got up to!

The Christkindlmarkt at Marienplatz has a Christmas tree that's HUGE! I've never seen one so big! It actually goes up to the roof of the town hall!

 Drinking Mulled wine!


















I stayed at a friends flat as there isn't enough space for all three of us at mine! In the mornings the view from this window was so nice - the photo doesn't really do it justice. You could see the sun rising over the rooftops of Munich.

Getting arty!



Why the long face?

If you want to see more photos, I'm sure my sister Connie will put more photos up on her blog http://hennahaare.blogspot.de/ (they also went to a concentration camp in Dachau and we all went to "KatzenTempel" - a café where you can stroke cats!)

It was lovely having you guys here and thank you for buying so much food and stocking up my fridge!

December is coming!

For the last few weeks I've been saying that this year I want to buy an advent calendar that actually has good chocolate in it; otherwise what's the point of getting excited everyday to open your advent calendar if the chocolate tastes like the cardboard that its packaged in? (Apart from the cute pictures that are usually behind the chocolate). So today I got a little surprise from Joerg...

A Lindt Advent Calendar!

It's the same size as my upper body and the back of it shows 10 different chocolates that are hidden behind each door. It's all dark chocolate and nut free! Perhaps the only sad thing is that I only have 24 doors as in Germany the 24th of December is Christmas, but as I will be flying back home on the 22nd Dec it doesn't really matter that much :)

I'm already excited that in two days I will be able to open the first door!

Larissa

Skype

I'm writing a post about Skype because it appears impossible to actually send a complaint to them. Since MSN and Skype combined (although really it's more like MSN no longer exists, and Skype is the same as it was before) it is possibly the worst instant messaging programme ever. Okay the video calls are still okay - apart from 70% of the time when I try and call my family the camera refuses to work, and if I'm logged into hotmail.com and Skype and someone calls me I get double the ringing on my laptop; but instant messaging isn't instant at all, its slow, delayed and frustrating. I reinstalled Skype in the hope that maybe it would help these problems, and when it didn't I tried to write an email to Skype telling them how bad their system was.

However trying to write a complaint to them is maybe even more frustrating then the instant messaging! Instead of just having an email address to write to, they have lots of drop down menu's that you have to choose from (and the problem you have is never in any of them) and then afterwards you can either write in the "Skype community", which is where all the same complaints are but no one helps or you can get "Chat support" where someone talks with you - although there is a wait time.
If technology is so high to create Ipads and phones that are basically a computer, then why can Skype not get a lousy instant messaging service to work correctly, like MSN has done for the past 10 years?!

After this rant here is a photo of a bunny with an ice cream cone on it's head to calm me and other frustrated Skype users down:

Stuffed Peppers

Just a short post on stuffed peppers that we made yesterday.

Stuffed with rice served with ahem more rice (we accidentally made too much!) and a tomato and basil sauce.















Yum!

Museum Mensch und Natur

After our trip to Botanical Gardens we walked over to Schloss Nymphenburg to go to the "Museum Mensch und Natur". This is basically a science museum that's also suitable for children. We went at around 15:00 on a Saturday so it was pretty busy with lots of little children - a contrast to the peaceful Botanical Gardens.
It's only 3 euros to get in and will keep you entertained for quite some time!

It starts off with how the world started...

Then goes onto to tell you all about Minerals and rocks...



Then Dinosaurs and Evolution...
It goes on further to the more Science part of how our brain works etc and at the end there's a fun room full of quizzes and games! My favourite part - although little children kept wanting to join in our quizzes and generally messed it up.






Seeing Botanical Gardens and the Science Museum was quite tiring, and we left just as the sun started setting (which is really early now!)

Botanischer Garten

On Saturday me and Jorg went to the Botanical Gardens in Munich. As it's already Autumn, the majority of the plants outside are gone but you can still go inside and have a look around. It costed only 4 euros to get in.

 There are plants from all around the world!

We went on a Saturday lunchtime and surprisingly they weren't  many people there (probably because it's no longer Summer). In some rooms we were the only people and it made it so peaceful and quiet.

Every room is like going into a mini jungle, with plants and  trees everywhere, in this particular room there were even plants hanging from the ceiling!

There are no annoying flies or insects inside, which is a plus; however there were cute turtles! 

Compared to normal tourist locations, Botanical Gardens is really peaceful. It's probably better to go in Summer so you can see the gardens in full bloom, although inside does get quite hot (even in Autumn) so I don't want to imagine what it's like in the Summer and with more tourists!

Halloweeeen

So this year I decided to dress as a mouse for Halloween. Not very scary, but I didn't feel like going out and buying an entire costume, so this is my DIY Halloween costume! Last night I went to the Halloween party in our bar downstairs; where I discovered the sweets bowl (it was considerably lower after I was done with it) and there was free punch called "Blood Bowl" (it really did taste as horrible as it sounds).

Before the party a friend came round to mine where we made mulled wine and got ready

In Germany you can buy pre made mulled wine like this one, where all you have to do is heat it up. Mulled wine is my favourite drink in the winter, if you want to make it too all you need is red wine and some spices! Here's a recipe I found: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/mulled-wine--4584

I made my mouse ears out of my hair and although I did get mistaken for an anime character it was quite a success! Here's the Youtube tutorial that I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH3mbWIyDZQ

In the morning Jorg came round and we made a (veggie) English breakfast! Oh how I've missed it.

(Tomatoes and fried bread are hiding underneath)

Happy Halloween!

Homemade Hat!

To get ready for the winter I've decided to start crocheting. After reading the book "myboshi Mützenmacher" and watching a lot of youtube videos I finally got the hang of how to make a hat!

My first attempt on Sunday turned into a children's hat..

That sadly didn't even fit on my head.

Yesterday I started from scratch and although my next attempt was still a bit small (I still haven't figured out why?!) it fits my head!!

I also made my own pom pom for the top it :) Now I just have to wait for the winter to come and I can actually wear it!

Birthdays at Los Bandidos

On Friday night we went out to Los Bandidos - a Mexican bar and restaurant. We celebrated my boyfriend's birthday (which was on Monday) and his Mum's birthday (on Thursday). The atmosphere is great and by the end everyone is standing on chairs and tables dancing. We also had some Burritos whilst we were there (there are a lot of veggie options!) which come in big portions with rice and salad. Although the food was pretty good I generally wouldn't recommend coming here just for dinner as the music is so loud it's not very relaxing. It's very popular by younger people eg uni students and if you don't get there at 6/7 when it opens you will have to book (and I believe that goes for any day!)

The candles were in tequila bottles and were on every table, it gave the place an authentic feel.. but maybe not so good when everyone's drunk and dancing on the table?!

The bar closes at 1/2am so me and Jorg went home - although his Mum and friend decided to carry on to a different bar!