Executive summary

Just checking in quickly to contribute a bit to the general worldwide information overload… Had quite a busy time the past few days with which details I won’t unnecessarily bore you… You are most welcome to just skip to the end of this post

The short summary of it all is that I had done the following things in the past few days then scooting off to the city centre again with Karin to her place to do some admin stuff (post my application for Stockholm university!!!!):

- ran on my own on Wednesday from Karin’s flat, without getting lost, a route of just over 10km to an through the gardens of Schloss Nymphenburg (what an incredible route it was: running through these stately gardens with a number of small castles hidden away all over and then the grande finale, the Nymphenburg castle itself)

- had dinner on Wednesday with Karin and a friend of hers, Stephi (whom I have met previously)

- on Thursday traveled to the Bavarian countryside with Karin’s mom (area of Fischbacchau) where we went for another unbelievable excursion (I can’t honestly understand why would Bavarians want to visit SA with its brown veld landscape if one sees the beautiful lush green forests here) – walking up the mountain (actually more climbing as it was quite icy and hard to walk at a number of places) with the most unbelievable views (I’ll post a photo online when I have a bit more time). It took us all of Thursday to walk to the top (1266m) and back down (stopping at a mountain hut with a small restaurant service – only Bavarian foods though, like Kaisersman, Strammer Max, Leberkase, etc). For all our hard work we went to a (apparently one of the most famous) coffeeshop(s) “Winkelstuberl” on our way back, filling ourselves with some real Apfelstrudel and Schwartzwaldkuche [black forest cake for the illiterate people in the vicinity]. When I asked why the place is famous I learnt that it had the biggest portions (think Mugg & Bean portions) for EUR5 per piece and that the place belongs to a famous Bavarian actress.

(Beautiful views)

(Made it to the top!)

- Did some work yesterday at the San Francisco Coffee Company (SFCC) on Odeonsplatz where they have wifi internet access – checking on bond instructions for our firm while the firm is closed. It is actually quite amazing to be able to do that from here – perhaps something to consider when they really bring the “home office” concept to the legal profession

- Had quick McD’s dinner with Claudia and then going for some drinks in Munchen somewhere with Karin and a friend of hers.

- Met some drunk South Africans on Roserheimerplatz (coming from the Hofbrauhaus) who were very happy to hear some Afrikaans...

- Did some work again today at SFCC (some procedure, getting better at it now). That being said, I really am getting into this holiday thing – didn’t realize today is Friday until checking my calendar a few minutes ago (sorry Julia for that dumb sms!)

OK, boring stuff done, here comes some promise of exciting stuff: TOMORROW WE ARE GOING SKIING IN OBERTAUERN!! More reports to follow….