Celebrating Spring in Stuttgart

Everyone in the world knows about Oktoberfest-- the big festival in the Fall which has been going on for hundreds of years in Munich. Did you know it started as a celebration for the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese? Well... every year something similar happens in Stuttgart, a city in the adjoining state of Baden-Wuttemberg, not only in the fall but in the Spring as well...aptly named Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival)

http://www.stuttgarter-fruehlingsfest.de/

Dirndl's in Action

So, if you want to be authentic, one needs proper trachten (costumes) to have for Fest. This is dirndl's for the ladies and lederhosen (literally meaning leather pants) for the guys. There are of course the cheaper halloween ones but in Germany there are stores especially for them-- ranging from reasonable to downright expensive!

Walking into Fest is like walking into an amusement park-- there are plenty of sights, smells, and sounds catering to young and old. There are rides ranging from the calm and serene to the white knuckle roller coasters. Never trusting the games (and my German being a bit bad) myself I am sure they are like any games you find in an amusement park. And the food! You have your typical plump sausages (wurst), dried fish, fries (pommes), pretzels (brezeln), and of course for the sweet tooth, plenty of candies and chocolates!

One of the many tents in Stuttgart's Fruhlingsfest

However, the real excitement is walking into the Fest Zelts (tents). The slightly stale smell of beer stained into the wood, mixed with the salivating aroma of the hendl (chicken) turning on the spit. This... is fest!

It starts with one maß (liter) of beer. Thats when you dig into the chicken. The slight buzz pairs nicely with the salty chicken skin and moist meat. The Prosit (cheers) song starts and everyone sings along and raises their glass. Be sure to look at everyone while you cheers-- it bad luck otherwise!

The evening continues-- more maß's are imbibed, more songs are sung, and before you realize you are up on the wooden table seats (not the table itself, thats a no no!) dancing and swaying to the music. You look around, everyone is up with you... everyone is laughing and singing along. Fest is definitely one of those experiences when is does not matter if the person next to you speaks a different language. All you need to do is raise your glass to theirs and shout "Prost!"

Hash House Wha??

So one of my friends has been trying to get me to hash (if you dont know what it is check it out here!) for a while now. And since I am leaving I figured I should give it a shot.

Now, I do not really like running too much-- I did it a lot more in DC and it kinda went on the wayside to hiking and spinning. I figured however it was time to break out the running shoes and see what this was all about.

So I went with the Stuttgart Chapter and I must say I had a pretty good time! First off I saw a part of Stuttgart I am sure I never have seen (nor would have seen) if not for this hash. I am not sure how far we went, all I know is that there was a beer stop in the middle, some beer at the end (in the circle), and then a biergarten afterwards. It was a great way to get a run in, socialize, meet new people, and drink beer. There is no real pressure to drink beer either, although I am pretty sure its sacrilegious to go to a biergarten and not have a beer :)

So all in all a great day-- finished and submitted my paper and got a run in. So to all the hashers I say... ON ON!!

12 Kilometer wandern en Stuttgart!

Sometimes you do not have to go too far to find some awesome places where you are living. This is so true in Germany. I decided it was high-time I just walk around and see all the things there are to see, and the best way is to climb some steps...

I bought a booked called "Treppauf Treppab in Stuttgart" (Ascending, Descending in Stuttgart) and it lists about 12 hikes in Stuttgart using the famous steps (Treppen).

So the one I chose started at the Hauptbahnhof (yay mass transit) and I hoped that there was an U-Bahn or something near the end! Anyways, you can see my meanderings.


View Treppen en Stuttgart in a larger map



If that doesn't work, try this!

What I learned was there is A LOT more green space in Stuttgart than I thought. I definitely found some nice walks amongst tons of trees and some pretty nice views. In the summer time I also found some excellent looking restaurants!

Good way to spend a overcast Sunday :)

However, I got another blister... that makes me VERY nervous. I will have to do a hike with a band-aid on that spot and see if one forms there. This was the same spot as the one I got on the Westweg :(

Great Weekend!

So despite going to a very fun party for Kos on Friday night (and maybe getting a doner on the way home), I still managed to walk to Esslingen on Saturday. I think I did fairly well, although I cannot say the same for the GPS on my Blackberry. It did not work for a very good portion of the walk, and it started working around mile 6 (only after a hard restart, man I hate Blackberry's sometimes). Anyways, if you really the lowdown, here is all the info but I found out my mile is about 19:45, which is what I thought. It was not that hard, my back felt a little 'meh' though with my pack but I think with some back exercises I can fix that. Also most importantly, I felt fine the next morning, and my feet were not in pain walking around in Ulm. All in all, about 3.5 hours for 10 miles, including stopping and shooting some photos, which you can see here.

Today I went to Ulm and climbed the World's tallest church steeple, which is a 768 step workout, (1536 steps if you count going down) which I completely negated with the beer I had for dinner... never mind, sometimes you have to treat yourself :) FYI the gemusestrudel in Ulm is -amazing- and I highly suggest it.

Oh and thanks to Wikipedia I found out its the birthplace of Albert Einstein. Awesome!