Lazing on a sunny afternoon

Disclaimer: Apologies! I honestly didn’t realise just how long it has been since my last post. It’s a good sign that I’m keeping busy, though I guess it means another essay-length post! I will try to keep it short and sweet from now on.

Now where did I leave off? Ah…yes, another trip to Stuttgart! This time with slightly better intentions than just drinking beer at the Wasen ;) I set off on Saturday afternoon, as I was a little tired from our get-to-together the night before. Although public transport here is generally quite expensive I’m quite glad Germany has so many special travel tickets, otherwise I would have spent a fortune already just travelling to Stuttgart. 

Tip for Erasmus students: With a Baden-Württemberg ticket (22euro), for one day you can travel with the regional trains anywhere in B-W. At long last there is also a new long-distance budget bus service (meinfernbus), so book in advance and you get tickets for about 8euro, which works out better if you want to stay a little longer. There is also mitfahrgelegenheit, which is a little like car-sharing, so you can search online if someone is offering a place in their car to whatever town you’re looking to go to. When I lived in Stuttgart, I was able to travel to Berlin and back for only 55euro. So generally good value but it can be rather hit and miss in regards to company. The first time I used it I had to endure 6 hours of silence, occasionally broken by the driver and his sister talking about me when they thought I was asleep. Awkward!

After getting stuck in some horrendous traffic I eventually arrived in Stuttgart around 6:30 and headed to a friend’s place, who had very kindly offered me their couch.  I was spoiled rotten by his culinary skills over the weekend. There are few better ways to start a morning than with pancakes, bacon and maple syrup! After a great dinner, we suited up and headed out to meet up with a group called the Stuttgart Expats. This group was my lifeline when I first moved to Germany. It is a group I found on Facebook of international, English-speaking people living in Germany. They have events almost every week - a great way to meet a lot of new people, and discover different parts of the city. I hate to keep going on about Facebook, but also as an Erasmus student it’s a really good way to make friends, find out what’s going on and get answers to any questions you might have. Toytown is also a good site – it’s a sort of online forum for English-speaking people living in Germany.

It was a nice evening, though a little disappointing that there were so few people left that I actually knew. Though I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. Most people that I met in Stuttgart were either aupairs, interns, Erasmus students or people in the military; all rather temporary positions. Still, it was good to see old friends again.

Sunday was really quite a lazy day. As much as I wanted to revisit my favourite spots, after 2 weeks solid of socialising I was exhausted! I did head out again in the evening though to meet up with one of my old colleagues. We made Maultaschen (a Schwabisch speciality – similar to giant ravioli), watched some crazy Austrian comedy sketches that I didn’t understand, and then headed out to watch the closing ceremony fireworks at the Wasen.

 It was a lovely evening though my poor friend probably didn’t understand very much of what I what I was saying. I was just so tired that my ability to speak German completely disappeared. It might also have had something to do with speaking too much English in StuSie. There’s a surprising amount of students here who don’t actually speak German, so when we meet up we tend to revert to English unfortunately. I’m going to try harder though to speak in German with those who I know can understand. It’s my, somewhat ambitious, goal to be fluent by the end of my year here!

On Monday I headed back to the school I used to work in – the Freie Aktive Schule Stuttgart. I had such a great afternoon there. Apart from there being a couple of new faces it really felt like I had never left. I loved my job there, and would happily have stayed there had I not been convinced that it might be important to have a degree. I felt really sad leaving the school that afternoon; it was almost like I felt homesick. I had planned on staying on another day, but being emotionally drained combined with being completely exhausted I decided it was best to head back to Freiburg and have an early night.

Sleep definitely helped.  I felt so much better the next day. I can’t even think what I got up to apart from catching up with people so I will skip a few days to my first adventure to the lake at Titisee. Yes first… I really need to get a new sim for my phone so I can use the internet. I am literally lost without Google maps. My problem this time was that there are two stations – Titisee and Titisee Neustadt. For some reason I had it in my head that the lake was in the Neustadt. It wasn’t. Nevertheless, it was nice to walk around the town taking photos, and for once there was actually a little bit of sunshine. 

I missed the train back to Titisee by 5 minutes, so was stuck there for another hour, in which the sunshine decided to disappear. By the time the train came I was cold, hungry and tired so decided to give up for the day and head back home.

I was not to be defeated though! The weather was beautiful on Friday so I decided to try again. This time I found it, somewhat irritatingly easily. After investigating the many amazing products available from the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), I hopped on a boat tour of the lake. It was lovely to just sit back, relax and admire the beautiful scenery.

That evening we invited the rest of the house to join our flat and make pizza from scratch. I made my first ever pizza dough, which was incredibly fun in a rather slimy, gross way. I think in the end there was about 20 people who joined in, and at least 10 pizzas. Apologies but I was too hungry to take photos! :P

Yesterday was another heavenly day; blue skies and about 24degrees J It finally dawned on me that I hadn’t actually explored the lake park which is directly beside Stusie. 

I was surprised at how nice it is. I’m really looking forward to Spring/Summer, and being able to lie on the grass and study by the lake. Well, minus the studying part. I was also surprised at seeing a couple of naked men sun bathing beside the water. Definitely was not expecting that! I didn’t deem it appropriate to take photos. Though I did find this:

Determined to make the most of the sunshine I then met up with Rob and took the cable car up to Schlossberg. 

We hiked up the forest to the big tower there, and then, after many pauses were I freaked out about being high up, we eventually made it to the top of the tower. I’m glad I conquered my fear. My photos don’t really do it justice but the view was stunning.

Today the good weather ran out, so I’m back at Café Extrablatt by the river. Tonight will just be a relaxed evening watching movies, as classes start tomorrow! Along with the general anxiety that I might not be able to understand, I’m still feeling a little uncertain about my timetable as I could only sign up to half my classes online. And I had to pay for French which I was not happy about. As for the other half, after talking to as many people as possible, including emailing the lecturers themselves, I think that I just have to show up to the first lecture of each. Hopefully there I should be able to enrol properly. If not…well…pray it doesn’t come to that!

Wish me luck!