That wasn't long, was it? I'm back from Munich with an emptier wallet and a several new German words in my vocabulary. It's definitely a town worth visiting at least once in your life, especially if you are a fan of beer and shopping. The beer part is probably a no-brainer but I was positively surprised by the shopping possibilities Munchen has to offer. It might not have as many stores or as large selections as places like New York, Rome and London, but that's only a good thing. Almost everything you could ever ask for is within a walking distance from Marienplatz (central square), so unlike in massive cities, you actually have some energy left for shopping. I didn't take many pictures but as requested, here is at least something:


View over Neues Rathaus and the northern city from Peterskirche. Can you spot the massive iPod ad?


Speaking of churches, Asamkirche sure was a flashy one.


Random U-Bahn station.


Well-known art...


Beautiful women...


...And handsome ones

We naturally had to check out the Pinakotheks but unfortunately were too exhausted after thoroughly examining Neue and Moderne to still go to Alte. We should have skipped the modern one because I've never been a fan of Picasso and cubism. Of course there were plenty of interesting works too but I can only imagine what kind of treasure cave Alte Pinakothek is. If you are wondering what I'm babbling about, Pinakothek is an art museum divided into three individual buildings. Like the names suggest, Alte is for old art from 14th to 18th century, Neue focuses on Impressionism from 19th century and Moderne, surprise surprise, on modern art (and design and architecture) from 20th century to present. We also planned to check out the Kandinsky art gallery that happened to be in town but we weren't the only ones.


The line was a bit too long...


...by a few blocks.


Yes, I can feel your pain, weird Gothic ornament.



While rest of the city was watching the Bayern Munchen football match, we went to see the upstart jazz trumpetist Christian Scott. Even though it sometimes felt more like a rock concert (I guess that's the jazz of 21st century), it was a good and inexpensive gig. Scott is a very talented player. And of course nothing beats live music and beer together. My music taste has been quite varied lately. I've been to a heavy metal concert, opera and now a jazz concert this winter and next up is an a capella ensemble. Maybe I should go to a rave after that.


Chris and the ensemble getting it on.


Best. Music store. Ever.

I mean what I said, at least when it comes to classical music. While the dames were going through the department store Ludwig Beck's four floors of women clothing, I decided to check the music department in the top floor and boy, was I awestruck. They didn't have anything else than jazz and classical but what they did have was the best and largest selection of music I've ever seen. Thousands upon thousands of quality records, some of which can't even be found on Amazon. You could spend days just going through the covers, weeks if you sat down to listen to some of them. Most of the cases were open and there were sofas with CD players and high-end headphones reserved for the valued customers. How I wish we had stores like that in Helsinki.


My gaming loot.

I already owned Jade Empire before, but I had to buy it again because I wanted to know what's inside the weird case (even if looks like it from that angle, it's not one of the big old PC game cases, it's longer, wider and slimmer) and it just happened to be dirt cheap. Turns out there's nothing in there except for the game disc in a jewel case, Germany is one of the rare places where they are still used for PC games. Instead of Jack Keane, I was first planning to buy Perry Rhodan but because of the very mixed reactions I've heard about it, I decided to go with Keane in the end. After I'm done with it, I should get A Vampyre Story.

But that's all for now. Auf Wiederschauen!