Exploring south Germany

So Germany has not been kind to my blog, and I apologize for that.  Sadly it has not been due to lack of internet for once, but rather a lack of time, which I  view as a good thing.  Too many amazing things going on to have time to write. 

On Friday, Jen and I spent the day getting ourselves down to Stuttgart, Germany.  Allison, has been living here for work and will be for several months more, and she invited us to visit her.  We tried to come on this particular weekend as Collin and Kori were also going to be there for Oktoberfest, and we were all going to go out together for the festivities.  

We got very lucky coming into Stuttgart, as Allison arrived 5 minutes before us at the Hbf coming in from a work trip to Paris.  So she was able to show us where the S-Bahn was and which routes to take to get to her apartment.  Collin and Kori and Allison's friend E had arrived earlier that day and we all had fun catching up a little and having a beer in Alli's living room.   Collin even taught us how to do "cheers" or "prost" properly in Germany, as he had been taught by a 6 year old in a bar earlier.  You must do it as a group, not one person at a time as we often do in the states, and you must make eye contact with people.  I guess this kid had thoroughly chastised him when he had done so wrong.  Then he offered to share his McDonald's hamburger.  

We decided to go get some food (it was already 10:45, as our train hadn't come in until after 9), and went out to see what was open.  Eventually we ended up at a Kebob restaurant, and after getting some communal food and some more beers, we sat around and just had a great evening.  I don't think we got back to the apartment until after 1.  

The next morning everyone was heading to Munich for Oktoberfest.  Jen and I would be coming back that night to stay at the apartment, but the others were sharing a hotel room and were driving down.  So Allison gave us her work cell phone so she could call us when we all arrived and meet up.  We figured Jen and I would get there earlier since the train didn't have to deal with traffic.  

When Jen and I arrived at the train station, we went to turn the phone on and realized it had a pin to use it.  So we found a Starbucks, got on the internet, and sent Collin a Facebook message telling him what the deal was, and that we were heading to the main entrance to Oktoberfest where we would keep an eye out and try to access internet again if we could.  

After waiting for 20 minutes or so, we decided we should go explore the area. So we scoped out all the beer tents with their masses of people waiting to try to get in, all the wonderful food (both of us were eyeing the bratwurst that was in an entire baguette.   There were rides, beer, food, games.  It was like a giant carnival for adults.  Since we still hadn't heard back from the group at this point, and the train station was so close, we decided to go back to the Starbucks and check to see if they had messaged us the pin #.  Unfortunately, the internet there was on the fritz and wouldn't let me sign on to check.  We finally just said whatever, and went back to the park.  Our thought was we would just keep an eye out for them and if we found them in the crowd, good for us.  

After consuming our brats, which were delicious, we found a stand with chocolate covered fruit kebabs.  Easily one of the best ones I have had, just because the fruit and the chocolate were both so good!  I debated doing a ride, but it had started raining, which unfortunately just tends to make fast moving rides painful.  We ended up in the mass exodus of people leaving to get out of the rain.

Once out of the park, we sat on the curb for a little bit to people watch.  We saw a girl passed out on the sidewalk, with a guy watching over her, people stumbling around who had obviously gotten sick all over themselves and were to drunk to notice or care and were continuing to drink, medical personal rushing around with gurneys, a British guy talking on a cell phone confusedly about a fight he'd been in while blood ran down his face, and another guy trying to use his phone but was so intoxicated, this was a huge task to take on.  

We decided at this point, we didn't want someone to accidentally get sick on us, and to take our leave.  As we walked a new direction to the train station, we passed a store selling traditional German outfits.  The dresses with aprons and blouses, and lederhosen. 

Jen tried on the lederhosen, and I went for the dresses.  At first I put on the wrong type of blouse underneath.  I could tell it was wrong, but I didn't know why.  When I came out to ask the girl, she took one look at me and just started laughing.  Then she pointed me in the right direction.  I'm glad I could make her day better though.    I had a lot of fun trying them on and found one I loved!  If I wouldn't have had to ship it home, I likely would have gotten it, as I could have easily used it for a Halloween costume for many years to come.  

My favorite part of the day was at the train station though.  As Jen and I were waiting to cross the street back into the hbf, we overheard an Australian girl talking to her friend.  "Oh come on.  Let's just go to McDonalds and get ourselves a bier."  You first have to imagine beer being said with the German pronunciation, but the Australian accent.  It was wonderful.  We've then looked at every McDonalds in Germany, but never found one that served beer.  This was oddly disappointing.   

Eventually we made it back to the apartment in Stuttgart, where we found a message from Allison exclaiming that she forgot to give us the pin, and then later received a note from Collin where he stated he had only just received my message about the phone.   While it would have been fun to be there with them, Jen and I had fun on our own too.  I guess the others had made it into a tent, but they had to wait for 45 minutes to do as such, and didn't get any of the awesome food we did.  I think we got the better end of that deal.  

The next day we were planning on keeping low.  Jen was feeling a little under the weather, so I told her to take a sleep day and drink tons of water.  Collin, Kori, and Allison had made friends with a couple at the afb, and they had offered to  take them to buy goods on base.  E and I got bored and decided to go explore downtown Stuttgart.  I finally even found a Starbucks card for my friends back home too!

After a little bit of wandering, we decided to try to hit the Stuttgart Oktoberfest.  Now this was what I had been expecting!  We got what was essentially German sausages, and then headed into a tent, where there was no line and we immediately found a table.  There was music playing, which I guess there was none of in Munich, and everyone was standing on tables, dancing, singing, and drinking beer.  We quickly ordered a couple and joined into the festivities and called everyone else and told them they had to get over to this one.   

By the time the others had shown up, E and I had moved up to one of the front tables and made a lot of new friends.  There were a bunch of Venetians at our table, Fabio in particular was trouble.  He only spoke a little English, and kept trying to tell me all Italians kiss on the lips in greeting.  I just gave him a look and told him, "Mi familia es Italiano. "  He knew he was caught and laughed and then tried the same line on the two girls near me.  I gave them fair warning too and all he could do was laugh.  I also hung out with a really sweet gal from St. Petersburg, Ana, who was married to a guy from Stuttgart.  She only spoke Russian and German, but her husband spoke English.  So we mimed, and cobbled something together, and occasionally asked him for translation.  It was so much fun!  I also hung out with a group of four Australians who were planning on heading to Salzburg the next day, same as us.  I exchanged emails with Scotty so we could try to meet up there.  

They would regularly do the same drinking song too, but we could never get anything but Prost, Prost, Prost! at the end.  So we made up our own lyrics based on English words that sounded similar so we could sing along.  We ended up with:

I'm drinking! I'm drinking! I'm drinking lot's of beer! Prost!  Prost! Prost!

Probably not highly accurate, but very fitting we thought.  We stayed all night until the tent closed down and then grabbed some last food before leaving.   While we were eating, we met up with an Australian gal and her four English friends.  Actually one was Welsh, but we were informed his parents were both from London, and he was barely from Welsh territory, so it didn't really count anyway.   Allison got one of the English gals info, because I guess her job will be sending her near her home soon, so she was going to try to visit.   Basically it was another late night, but worth every second of it!

The next morning we were all supposed to be heading out of town.  Collin and Kori were driving to Paris to see Francois, Allison was flying to Russia for work, and Jen and I were going to head to Salzburg.  But the hostels were all full for us, so Allison kindly let us have her key and stay an extra night at the place.  So instead Jen and I decided to do a day trip to Zurich.  

I was a little disappointed in Zurich, compared to other Swiss cities.  It was just too industrial with too little culture.  And since we had such a short time there, we weren't able to wander far enough to find a better area of town.  I didn't dislike it, but it is not high on my "to return to" list.  I would much rather see Interlaken or Lausanne again, or go to Bern!  We managed to catch the last train of the evening back to Stuttgart, and got back to the apartment late once more.  I took time to upload all my pictures, since that can be hard to do in places where the internet is not as good.  We booked hostels in our next two cities and went to bed.

Today we got ourselves all put together again and packed up.  Allison had let us do laundry and we had taken full use of her shower too.  We both feel fairly human again, and Jen is sounding much better now.  I walked to the local bakery for breakfast and lunch, and then we headed for the train station here one more time.   Of course, the earlier train had been delayed, and was pulling away as we walked up to the platform.  We hadn't been planning to catch that one, but if we had only been one minute earlier we would have made it.  Instead we sat at the little cafe inside and had some coffee and people watched.  It was also quite enjoyable, if not as time constructive.  

Our train into Salzburg was a tiny little thing with unusual open compartments, and smelled a little funny.  But as we zipped through southern Germany with it's rolling hills and into Austria where the hills were turning into the mountains, and couldn't be bothered with that at all.  I spent the whole time gazing, delighted, out the window.  And as we rolled into Salzburg, all I could think was 'Thank you John, for his recommendation.'  

I don't know that I have seen a more picturesque place, especially when you're leaving the train station.  Mountains, castles, beautiful blue river.  Salzburg is truly stunning and I was instantly charmed by it.  And the dinner we had, oh the dinner!  Jen had Wiener Schnitzel and I had a pork rump roast with a huge bread dumpling and homemade sauerkraut.  Our server was wonderful, and recommended a beer to go with my dish that it was actually cooked with.  It was a wheat beer, and it was perfect with the dish.  And when we saw how beautiful the city was at night when it was shadowed, we instantly made plans to get up early so we could see it at first light.  And thus began our adventure in Austria.