Day 35

Today I got up around 9 and had a shower then came online for a bit and wrote some emails and blogs and stuff like that. I took it reasonably easy for a while, and at 11:30ish I went down the road with Mrs Kirste to the local butcher. The butcheries here are great ay!!! they smell amazing, and they have so many varieties of different meats and cheeses :) its great. Most are made on site or by the company too, so its always different and stuff when you go around. One thing I noticed that was odd to me is that all 4 butchers there were female. In New Zealand my experience has been that the vast majority of butchers are male. I thought that was quite cool, there are a few reasons it could be.. or it could just be how it is over here. Anyways.. We loaded up on cheese and wurst and headed back home. Oh we also bouht 4 home made pizzas they sell for lunch.

Once home we waited around till arnulf was home, and after a little bit we sat down for the pizza lunch which was delicious! After this I went downstairs and listened to a sermon, and went swimming with Arnulf. We didnt play any offical game this time round, just kinda a friendly throw around with the ball which was fun. After I dried off Mrs Kirste came down and asked if I wanted to go to the 'Zadarlie Ausstellung' (thats what I heard even asking her to repeat it :)) I knew Ausstellung meant exhibition so I said sure.. And after a while I clicked we were going to the Salvador Dali exhibition in Stuttgart (that kinda thing doesnt happen much.. but did today). I had been wanting to see the exhibition, so that was great!! I guess she said Sa - Dali Ausstellung, maybe thats what they abbreviate his name as here :).

We got to the exhibition and started looking around. I knew Salvador Dali was a little loopy, and I'd seen his melting clock oil paintings and ones like that (knew he was surrealist), and I woulda been happy to just see a bunch of those.. But this exhibition had a real variety ay!! It had all sorts including some sets from story books, and portfolios and everything. Not only the well known ones like Id seen, but also some cool more sketch-type ones (like this here.. this was actually on display.. http://www.fundaciondoctordepando.com/PINTURAS/SALVADOR%20DALI-quixote02.jpg ), and ones done using.. argh, whats it called.. you carve out the design, then put ink down and roll it thru a press.. mmmm.. the words ecsaped me.. But anyway, there were a bunch of those too (often with extra ink painted and spalttered ontop) (arr does it start with S? I keep wanting to say stenciling or sketching but both arent it.. AHHA!! ETCHING!! - I think..). There were also sculptures and photos.. all up very very cool!!

Anyways, I slowly made my way around the exhibition. Man his works were amazing.. totally whacky sometimes.. It was like walking into some kinda of dream.. But there was so much to look at and think about.. it was great!! He was pretty big on butterflies and moths too! But he could make them really creppy and use them to symbolise all kindas of stuff, it was quite clever. Some sets I really loved like this one that must have been a story book about this dude and a rotty old donkey/horse.. It was great!! And the etches were all awesome, and also an Alice in Wonderland set.. Some of the paintings really didnt do it for me tho.. some were a bit over the top and had all these subtle sexual themes running through them and stuff.. and I dont find that kind of stuff very clever at all.. Even if it is a comment on something (or a whacked out bizarre dream). But yeah.. by and large it was amazing!!!

The only thing I could say bad about it was that it was almost too big. In the time I had it was too much to take in. After about a third of the way through my brain was so full and stimulated it was hard to cram more in.. And to make matters worse at the end the aircon had broken.. so it was muggy and hot too.. :S. Anyway. I sat down for a bit and watched some whacked out video of him in a bubble painting the walls with fans on the outside going all mental.. I dont remember him being alive.. but you older people reading this probably know.. he seemed pretty whacky!! On the way out I fought the temptation to photograph the awesome painting at the entrance (I totally loved it.. Ill try find it online quickly..) grr cant find it.. altho looking round was cool seeing heaps of the paintings and sculptures and stuff I saw. It was a cool kinda of self portrait one with other stuff going on around the place including a elephant kinda deal like in the right on this picture.. http://www.jmthivel.com/autre_obj/dali/Salvador-Dali-Tentation.jpg .. and a bunch of other stuff. The frome it was on was equally whacky and cool.. Awesome!! My other favourite was this one called metamorphosis.. VERY cool!!http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c169/reflectedparadox/Salvador-Dali-Metamorphosis-of-Narc.jpg
It had a creepy german poem that went with it too.

Anyhow after this we went home (I was gonna go into Esslingen and do some shopping but I was on overload from the exhibition, and the weather looked like it might get bad.. So instead I just came back home and played with Andreas Björn and Arnulf for a while, then came here and wrote todays blog.

Germanys great! I wish I could speak even better and that I didnt have to leave so soon :(

Bis bald