Milan, baby!

I’m off to Milan tomorrow, woohoo!

It’s only for the weekend but as I have never been to Italy before, let alone Milan I’m pretty excited. My brother is currently doing the gap year thing of travelling around Europe. He’s doing it on his own and is basically undertaking a trip around the Med. He started in Nice and wants to end up in Istanbul by the summer, via Marseille, Milan, Zagreb and Split among other locations. As Milano is only a short (haha) drive away, a mere 5-6 hours (or so…) from Munich I’m heading down to meet him for the weekend. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him for a bit and to seeing Milan!! I don’t really know anything about the city but I’m sure Tourist Information will be more than helpful.

This week has been pretty packed. On Monday I moved into my lovely new WG. The move itself was pretty painless; we only needed 2 trips and my flatmate Alex carried the fridge all by himself!  We ordered in pizza to celebrate my arrival. I now have everything just about in order

Tuesday, I had to hand back the keys to my room to Kolpinghaus and make sure that I got my deposit back.

Wednesday was an excellent day, I found out that we won the pitch I’d been working on the previous week which put me in a really good mood and I arranged my trip to Milan this weekend. In the evening my flatmate Aleks and I cooked Lentil curry, a very simple but effective recipe that I have never got round to trying before.

Today, 2nd April I sat outside at lunchtime. This means that (at last) spring is officially here. It was lovely and warm, balmy almost. I went for a walk this evening to the Englischer Garten (15 mins amble from my new flat) in just a strappy top and it was lovely to feel the warm breeze.

I’m really glad to be living near the Englisher Garten. It’s practically Munich’s lung and it does me good to go there and smell what I miss from home. Tonight it smelt of cooling grass, rising dew and sweet soil. Early spring smells.

Now I just need to pack my rucksack…

Ciao bella!

WGs Galore

This week I visited a total of 5 apartments, 3 of which were yesterday afternoon. Of that 5, 4 were WGs and one was a flat for two for Victoria and I. We are simultaneously searching together and separately. Each of the flats will get back to me over the next week or so so we shall see… I have 2 more lined up for next week but today I’m taking a break, day of rest and all that.

That took up a lot of time this week, as did work. Alex came back from his 2 week sejour in France on Sunday so I ventured down to Klinikum Großhadern where I had never been before, it being far too far to bother. It was nice to have someone else cook for me . A couple of my friends live down there and it is really in the middle of nowhere. People live there and get on the U6 to get into town if they want to actually do anything. There is also a cemetery cunningly disguised as a park, slightly disconcerting when you come across the first graves…

As I said, yesterday was spent rushing around in the snow looking at flats, charming the occupants and trying not to seem too desperate. I am also in the process of compiling the 268 photos and 52 video clips I have of Fasching into something resembling a short, watchable video.  When I assembled it all it was 22 minutes long. It’s now down to 13 but it still needs cutting…

After intense photo editing and intense flathunting I went to celebrate Caro’s birthday in the Trinkhalle. Caro is a colleague of mine and I and a couple of others went along, never one to pass up the opportunity of a cocktail, she is also lovely, which is of course the more important reason for going . However, due to my current no alcohol thing it was strictly virgin cocktails for me.

I really liked the Trinkhalle. It’s near Frauenhoferstrasse and pretty small. The seating is intimate and by the time I turned up at 10pm it was packed. There seemed to only be one menu in the whole place but that is not a problem because you can either give the waiter the order of your favourite cocktail or he will make one up for you. I told him, no alcohol and sweet and he made me a drink. It was green, so I assumed apple, I took a sip and was surprised. It was delicious, everyone agreed, but there was a hint of basil, unexpected in a cocktail. I then noticed a basil leaf and a slice of mango perched on top. He had given me a mango and basil cocktail. It was lovely but I would never have thought of it. I was smitten. 

The link is only available in German I think.

http://www.muenchen.de/verticals/GastroGuide/Gastro-Highlights/205170/trinkhalle.html

Post cocktails someone mentioned going to Bergwolf, apparently a bit of a legend in Munich, the best currywurst in town. I’m not the world’s biggest currywurst fan but it was good, and packed.

http://www.munichx.de/essen/restaurant_kurzinfo.php?name=Bergwolf&strasse=Fraunhoferstr.&hnr=17

This is the review:

Ein Muss für jeden, der in dieser Gegend am Abend oder nachts unterwegs ist. Man bekommt auch noch zu später Stunde eine der besten Currywürste Deutschlands (Dönninghaus) in drei Schärfestufen. Wiener, Pommes und Bier gibt’s natürlich auch zum Mitnehmen. Doch dann verpasst man das urig gemischte Publikum und die gesellige Stimmung im winzigen Kult-Imbiss im U-Bahn-Eingang!

(Summary: Classic post club/bar food)

Spot on

Today I’m playing catch-up with blog entries, emails etc. I’ve been for a run and now I’m going to try to finish my video so I can upload it. Karaoke at the Irish pub later .