Cannstatter Volksfest

Now that I've caught up on the trips to Munich, I thought I'd write about Stuttgart's answer to Oktoberfest: the Cannstatter Volksfest.

On one of the last nice (20 degrees+) days of the year, Ze (an internet friend who was visiting me) and I took a train to Stuttgart. There we met up with Rosie (a girl from Perth who returned there after doing the six-week language course with me in Stuttgart and is now back for her year abroad) and her friends, and went to the Wasen (the Schwäbisch answer to the Wiesn).

I again had the overall feeling of the Royal Adelaide Show, just with more beer and roasted almonds (mmm, gebrannte Mandeln). Overall, it was fairly similar to Oktoberfest, just smaller and with more Germans than tourists. Also the glasses looked way cooler and weren't as expensive. It all led to dancing on tables, singing Sweet Caroline and Das geht ab, and shouting PROST!. That first night was a lot of fun. Then we went to Tübingen and stayed at Rosie's to have a tour of the town the next day.

Our Wednesday group. Note pretty glasses!

One of the excursions with the Stuttgart course was to Tübingen, but we went at night (for some stupid reason), and also it was winter, so seeing it at the end of summer in the day time was just lovely. There were lots of flowers out and it was really pretty.

Unfortunately, that Thursday was the day that the bad weather started. Just as we were finishing our (pizza) lunch (eaten on the wall with our legs dangling over the river), it started to rain. Home I went (Ze flew back to London), and woke on Friday to really quite a cold day (by the standards of the weather we'd been having).

Rosie and me enjoying delicious
(cheap) beverages on the Wed.

But, back on a train I hopped and went back to Stuttgart to meet up with Rosie & co. for another day of drinking shenanigans. We found her friends at a table in quite a large hall, which was reserved from 5pm, so we still had about an hour. Some German guys came and sat next to us after a while and we talked to them a bit, they were kind of strange ("no we can't eat chips, our bodies are all that we've got, we've got to take care of them!" ... yet they were drinking beer?), though the one sitting next to me thought I was actually German, so YAY for that. Though they were also excited to find out that Rosie and I are Australian.

Crowd dancing on benches :)

Once it got to about 5, we left in search of a table somewhere else, and I ran into a few friends from Heidelberg! They'd been there since quite early in the morning so much emotional hugging was had. We parted ways and continued our search. It was really unsuccessful, being a Friday night, so we went back to the Heidelberg group who had a table outside, but it was just cold and miserable, so eventually just decided to give up. I caught the train back with Tanya, Laurence, and Neil.

The next day, Rosie came to visit and we made Käsespätzle.

Thursday (as in, two days ago), I had my second Translation class. I think it's my favourite class (at this point). It's really quite challenging, especially as I'm the only native English-speaker and I don't speak British English, nor do I speak fluent German, so a lot of words have to be explained to me, but it's still really good. Also, I don't have to buy the textbook because it's about differentiating English words that are similar.

I wanted to go with some of the English to a film in Mannheim that night, but was unfortunately let out of class a few minutes late so couldn't make the bus, plus it was raining and I'd forgotten my umbrella, so just decided to give up and go home. It was an Erasmus-party that night, so after pre-drinks where I met a bunch of Americans and Canadians at an Irish girl's WG, we went to Ziegler's and partied on down.

The music wasn't as awful and stuck-in-the-80s as most of Germany seems to be - I think they played songs that were released if not this year, then definitely last year! Very exciting times. Also they played D.A.N.C.E. which was played a LOT during our nights out (...at Shotz...) in 2007 when I still required loads of alcohol to have the desire to dance... oh how times have changed. Anyway, it was fun, split a taxi (finally have met people who live out here!) about 2am, then stayed up on fb chat with Mum for a little while.

Taken from the bus window on Thursday evening.
Apparently when it rains, everyone decides to drive, which caused a massive traffic jam on Brückenstraße!

Waking up on Friday morning was painful - not because I was hungover, just because I hadn't had enough sleep. I had to get up to work on a group assignment for German, though it turned out to be pretty easy. One of the people didn't turn up so after 15 minutes of sitting on a freezing metal bench (it was 4 degrees out), Emily (NZ) and I decided to just go to the Mensa and do the assignment while eating some delicious food. We basically had to get into groups and 'research' a German newspaper - target audience, difficulty of language, that sort of thing - but luckily Emily already reads Die Zeit, so pretty much knew all of the answers. Easy!

I then went to Kaufland to do some grocery shopping (I'd been putting it off for a while, really). Last night I made minestrone soup and also a chocolate self-saucing pudding, both of which were delicious (surprising, given my lack of cooking skill and need to substitute German ingredients for Australian ingredients, where the recipe comes from (and yes, it does make a difference. Brown sugar. Just sayin'.)) and both of which I will be eating for a while! Clearly the best thing about cooking for one - a recipe serves four, or lasts me a week! :)

Haha, I just went onto YouTube, and one of the pre-roll ads was for.. I'm not even sure what. But the amount of English in it actually me think it was an English ad for a second. Then it got to the second thing and I realised that it was just another case of English being everywhere. (Make-up basics, tolle looks, tipps & tricks.)

Now to return to my translation or to Doctor Who... decisions, decisions...