Wine and Canvas in UB

The first part of the day was all about sleeping. Literally! I got out of bed around 12:30pm! Wow, was I surprised. Apparently I needed a good sleep :)!
After waking up I started to write my stories from the past weeks. Man, am I behind schedule! I think I can write for days in order to complete everything. After finishing my Moscow and the first parts of the Mongolian Road Trip stories, it was time to take a shower and get myself some groceries.
For the first time since my stay in Ulaanbaatar I truly experienced the poor air quality. Due to the large amount of smog it was difficult for me to breath. This made the walk to the supermarket a bit uncomfortable. When I got back at the hostel it was already 4:30pm. I still needed to collect my train ticket to China so headed off to the Shukbataar Square. Without any direction but the name of the tower (this is usually enough) I asked around to find the right place. Nobody seemed to know the building. A bit annoying, but not a huge problem. I still have enough days to collect the tickets. Probably the best things to do is to call their number to make an appointment.
Now it was time for the main event of the day; the Wine and Canvas class! Held in the Marshall Luxury Tower.  The lady from the art center had given me bus instructions on how to get there from Shukbaatar Square.  Standing at the wrong bus stop, someone was so kind to walk me to the correct bus stop. When we arrived there the bus was just there so I ran to it and pushed myself in the bus (again super crowded) Knowing this ride would take approximately 15-20 minutes I patiently waited before asking if this was the ‘River Garden’  bus stop. Twice people said ‘no’ and then It turned out this bus wasn’t going to the River Garden at all! Man! It’s so difficult to find your way around in this country! Not comfortable at all!
A boy recommended me to just take a taxi instead. I checked a Mongolian lady ordering a taxi (just stand next to the road and wave your hand) and then I followed her example and did the same thing. After a short while a taxi stopped and brought me to the Marshall Luxury Tower Village, which indeed looked like a complex of houses and buildings! It was already dark and difficult to find the way between all the houses and tall towers. But in the end I made it to the right tower :)!
Arriving just a little after 06:00 pm, I was about an hour too early. I took this time to grab some food and waited for the class to start.
The class itself was fun! Indeed, there was wine, snacks and canvas. A lot of woman were attending to the class. The setup to me was really easy; you pick an image you like and the teachers give you the paint that match with the colors of the image. They give you a small instruction about how to paint the image (in my case really minimal like; sketch first and then paint) and then you can start.
Three Mongolian girls asked me If I wanted to join them at their table. Of course J I was in good company! We had fun painting the pictures and having conversations about painting, Mongolia and the Netherlands. It seems like all attendees were able to finish their painting within the three hour course. Although Nyumushka and I could have continued for some time in order to perfect our paintings. But it may be said; I’m very happy about the painting.

After this Nyumushka asked me to join her for a beer in the city. She knew a great location at the top floor of a building looking over at Sukbaatar square. We drank the Mongolian Chingges beer and we made plans for coming Friday! Great to have her as a friend. After the drinks she and her boyfriend drove me back to my hostel.  That was kind and a good ending to this artistic day. Cheers! (picture of Chingges beer + square)