This is What Happens When You're Living Rather than Traveling

Let me apologize for taking AGES to update this.  The problem with traveling all the time is that I usually have more to say than I can fit into one post.  And also that there's not usually any free time (or I'm just too lazy to make time...) for me to go into as great of detail as I could.  But, hey, there has to be some elements left for me to bore you all with once I return to the states.

Anyway, the GOOD thing about traveling all the time (besides, the obvious of, well, traveling all the time), is that it creates very natural, narrative-type entries for this.

Which means that while spending the past month and a half staying put in Stuttgart has been at least as enjoyable as traveling (and sometimes more so), it doesn't necessarily lend itself to neat, tidy, ordered, or even particularly fascinating posts.  I guess it's time for me to recruit those writing skills that I spent four years and thousands of dollars honing.  

But, enough rambling! (see, I'm already losing out on order).  As a result of me spending all my money for the months (and then some...I can only justify so many trips to the ATM pulling money from my American accounts...) in Paris and Strasbourg, I've spent the past month or so exploring Stuttgart.  And by exploring, I mostly mean going out to eat, for coffee, and drinking(this is Germany, after all).  And, to be honest, that stability has been nice.  It's also been great to have finally established a couple of different groups of friends to spend time with.  I adore the family I am living and working for, but, as I've said before, having a group of peers is essential to maintaining sanity.  Especially in the beginning, being here made me long for college, when there was always someone who you could find to give you attention at any time of day (except from between 6-8 am...and sometimes even then).  

But, getting back to business, it's just been lovely to have friends.  There are two groups which I tend to circulate between.  One I've met through Laura, as she's been kind enough to include me in outings with her friends.  They're mostly all other Americans who are also in Germans as au pairs (they all also mostly have, or have had, German boyfriends.  Must have missed the memo on that one...).  And then the other group I also met through a girl named Laura (not confusing at all...).  She's a grad student from the UK, and somehow managed to build up a group of "misfits" (as I so kindly like to describe it...).  There's her, me, a British guy named George, a Croatian girl named Sara, a French guy named Adrien, and a German girl named Martina.  They're all students, aside from George, who teaches English.

I like spending time with both groups, but at the risk of sounding snooty, it can sometimes be a bit more refreshing to not spend all my free time with au pairs.  Because when you get a group of au pairs together, the conversation tends to gravitate toward talk (i.e. complaints) about the family and the hazards of being an au pair.  It devolves into a complaint fest, where everyone tries to one-up the other on who has it worse.  It's really great conversation, and I always come off as snotty since I don't have a reason to complain.  As far as being an au pair goes, I have nothing to complain about.  I am in as ideal of a situation as I possibly could be, and have nothing negative to say about my family.  But that being said, it can be nice to just be silly and hang out with a bunch of girls my own age who are from my country.  No one makes fun of my accent (as George and Laura like to do...because obviously Brits say things "correctly" and Americans are just wrong...), and when I say particularly American things ("This Christmas market isn't as good, it's too small."  "I can't believe they made me give exact change, I'm paying THEM for something."), it doesn't come off as weird.  Though I'm definitely also not on the same page as most of them when it comes to German men.  I will admit that they do tend to be quite nice-looking, but, at the risk of fulfilling stereotypes(but there is some truth in all of them...I frequently am the loud American, particularly once alcohol is involved...), I find their humor to be lacking.  Sarcasm is not a German trait.  Not that ALL of them are not funny; just I personally haven't met a German guy who had me in fits of laughter.

With the other group, the conversation tends to be a bit more varied.  I think between the six of us, we've been to nearly every major city on the globe.  As usual, I tend to bring up the rear when it comes to travel experience, but that's not an issue in my mind.  It gives me an even bigger pool of people from whom I can get insider advice on where to travel, and what to see and do once I'm there.  Plus, Chicago, LA, and New Zealand are usually flashy enough to keep me above water as far as street cred is concerned.

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun getting to know my way around the city (I probably only get lost every other time now) and checking out the cafes and nightlife.  I still think French coffee is better, but it's also more expensive, so it may balance out.  I've yet to find a club that I enjoy in Stuttgart (but it's hard to find a club I enjoy period...), but the bars are a lot of fun.  My personal favorite is called "Tequila Bar."  You get a free shot of tequila with every beer you order.  It's such a good deal (there's the recent college graduate showing again). 

I hope I didn't bore you all too much!  Here's a few photos of day-to-day life just so you all have some visuals to what has been going on.  I'll be writing another post shortly about the "Weinachtmarkts" that are EVERYWHERE in Germany.  Basically, it looks like Santa Claus vomited all over most of Germany at this time of year.  

This is Lina.  She is a Cocker Spaniel mix.  We go on lots of walks.

One of the randomly pretty spots we go through in Kornwestheim.

And another.

Schlossplatz.  It's the most beautiful spot in Stuttgart.  It's all decked out in Christmas now.

The group out on a Friday night.  

Hedgehogs are all over the place in Germany.  They call them "Eagles".  Which is particularly bizarre considering what an eagle is in English.

German 'spaghetti' ice cream.  It is delicious.  Though strawberry sauce in Germany is more like jam than the syrupy version that we have in the states.

Somehow, I Keep Ending Up in France

I've now officially been living in Germany for over a month.  But I think I've seen more of France than of the country which I am currently inhabiting.  I still haven't properly explored Stuttgart (actually, haven't explored it at all, let alone properly.  I don't think one coffee at a nice café and repeated trips through the main station really counts...), but, hey, I have eleven more months to do that, right?  Although, this is coming from the girl who lived in Dunedin for six months and never made it to the Otago Peninsula, which is a mere 20-minute drive away from campus, so anything is possible.  BUT, my excuse for the moment is that I should do my traveling while the weather is nice.  Because one the weather turns, all I will want to do is hibernate, and it will be much easier to summon the energy for a twelve minute train ride to Stuttgart than it will for an extended commute elsewhere.

With the forecast for this past Saturday demanding a day spent outdoors, Laura and I decided it would be the perfect day for a trip to Strasbourg.  I should probably say a bit more about Laura; she is also working as an au pair near Stuttgart, but has been here since November.  She was an architecture major, she's from Austin, Texas, and we became good friends quite quickly.  On account of her longer time here in Germany, she speaks German pretty well, has mastered public transportation, and actually possesses a sense of direction.  I don't actually know what I bring to the table during our trips, but she keeps traveling with me so I won't bring attention to that just yet.

Laura and I on the train.  Look, the sun was out.

Strasbourg (as the title of this post suggests) is in France, just over the German border.  On the slow trains (much cheaper tickets prices...) it takes about three hours to get there from Stuttgart. That is about as far as I would be willing to go for a day trip; any longer than that and you're wasting too much time getting to and from your location to justify the time and expense.  In this case, the travel time was absolutely worth it, as Strasbourg is lovely.  It was everything that I thought Paris should be: quaint, clean, beautiful, and so obviously European that it almost seemed an exaggeration.  Bridges, cobblestone streets, flower boxes, street side cafés, cathedrals...you name it, this city has it.

As usual, the highlight of my day was the food.  We chose another adorable French café, and sat outside enjoying the gorgeous fall day and a lovely view of the river.  Laura ordered tea and a salmon sauerkraut dish; I had quiche and espresso (shocking, I know.  I must also say that France has Germany beat so far as coffee quality is concerned).  Everything was amazing, as usual, and served with a side of French bread, as usual.  I'm pretty sure that I am indeed ruined for bread when I return to the states (which is a GOOD thing...assuming that I don't have to be rolled off of the plane once it lands in Chicago).  

Yeah, I've become one of those people who takes photos of their food.  I would maybe feel bad if I wasn't too busy remembering how delicious it was.

We also went back to the fancy French tea store, Kusmi.  I bought more tea, even though I rationed what I bought in Paris so much that I only drank one cup of it in between Paris and Strasbourg (God forbid I should run out).  I am also now officially a tea snob in addition to my previously established coffee snobbery as I bought looseleaf instead of the bags.  Hot beverages are my weakness, apparently.

After that, we were all set to explore when we happened to stumble (literally...I tripped down the steps) upon this tiny, hole-in-the-wall gelato place.  Naturally, once we were inside, we had to get some (it would have been rude not to, and it was super cheap...less than 2 EUROS).  Laura chose cherry, I chose mint chocolate chip.  It was divine, and I am not ashamed to admit that I nearly wept when it was finished (I did refrain from licking out the cup though, as we were in public and I didn't want to embarrass Laura.  I'm regretting that in hindsight though...).  

Once I recovered my composure, we wandered about the city.  We saw the impressive Strasbourg Notre Dame, resisted the smells of a lot of bakeries, and window shopped at the many expensive stores littered throughout.  

The Notre Dame of Strasbourg

Such a shame that autumn comes at the price of a winter.

It rained all day on Sunday, so we binged on Netflix and tried to make quiche.  It was good, but we accidentally bought pizza crust (didn't I say that Laura knows German?...) instead of the flakier pie/pastry crust that quiche is meant to have.  Laura was a bit dismayed; I actually really liked it that way (must be missing my Giordano's back in Chicago.  I renamed it "quizza" and it will go on the menu of my future restaurant (along with the "squawking taco"...everything on the menu has to have a lame name that I find hilarious).

So, there's my most recent weekend!  I cannot believe how quickly time is passing by...I'll be checking out the Christmas markets before I can blink, and then the next thing I know, it will be summer and then I'll be packing my bags home to Chicago and trying to find another adventure.

Midnight in Paris

I don't know how it happened that me, a girl who frequently had to be bodily removed from the house on a Saturday night (as all my Plum house roommates can attest to), managed to schedule two jam-packed weekends of traveling in a row, but I did.  And am so happy I did.  It woul have been such a sin to miss either Oktoberfest or Nuit Blanche.  A year may sound like a long time initially, but with one month gone already, I know it will go much too fast!

Anyway, this time, I was not lucky enough to find a ride share for the way to Paris.  I had to suck it up and pay the exorbitant cost for the train.  However, that worked out for the best because Laura, another au pair working near Stuttgart, and I ended up chatting the entire time and I'm pretty sure we would have annoyed other people in a car with our incessant talk of boys (apparently, there is absolutely no difference in bonding with a fifteen or twenty-four-year-old girl...).

It was also good for me that I ended up traveling with her, as I STILL don't know my way around the Stuttgart train station.  Laura has been in Stuttgart since last November, so she has a pretty good grasp of German and also how public transportation works in Europe.  Our tickets for the train actually weren't next to each other (not even in the same car, or wagon as the Germans say), but I just illegally sat next to her and never was kicked out.  I know, I'm a daredevil (there are some benefits to being an American...my out was just going to be that I read the ticket wrong if it came to that).

We arrived in Paris without incident, though we did have some issues finding the hostel as our cabbie had no idea where the place we were staying was, and just dropped us off in the middle of the street that it was on.  So, from about 10:30-11pm, we wandered about the streets of Paris trying to find someone who spoke enough English (and was sober enough) to direct us toward while we were staying.  It was actually kind of terrifying; Paris is a different city at night, and not necessarily in a good way.  There was an unsettling contrast between the people enjoying a nice meal outside while 50 yards away there were a group of drunk men lying in puddles of their own urine and vomit.  Welcome to Paris, the most refined of all cities and fashion capital of the world.

Anyway, we did eventually find the hostel and once there, had another unexpected surprise.  Since we had booked so late, we had to get a private room (which actually was fine because then there's no worry about theft or who else is going to be in the room with you).  We THOUGHT it would have two twin beds, but we walked in and just started laughing because it was actually just one queen.  If the train ride didn't already make us pals, then two nights in the same bed would do it.  Also worth noting: the shower was SOOOO tiny.  Swear on my life, it was roughly coffin-sized.  But, and least you wouldn't have to wear flip-flops in it, or wait in line behind five hundred other girls trying to make themselves beautiful in the morning.

Once settled in, we decided to just go to bed straight away and then get an early start in the morning.  So, we were out the door at 8 am after taking advantage of the free breakfast in the hostel (the food was edible...the coffee was disgusting).  And then, by 11 AM we had already seen half of the tourist attractions that you are supposed to see the first time you go to Paris.  All thanks to Laura...she was the one figuring out the metro and reading the maps and taking charge.  I was just along for the ride and waiting to have some real coffee.

Laura and I in front of Notre Dame

Saint Chappelle

Inside Notre Dame. There was mass going on and it felt kind of weird to take photos during it. 

After seeing Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle, and the Louvre (just the outside), we did the only thing I really felt that I had to do in Paris, which was stopping by one of the five hundred million cafes that are every ten feet on the streets (you'd think we would have found one sooner, but when you have that many options to choose from it becomes difficult to just pick one).    We ordered "Madame croque's," which are basically a kind of grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and a fried egg on top, and then I had my long-awaited double-shot of espresso and Laura had tea.  I don't know how I keep hanging out with non-coffee drinkers; guess I should have appreciated having constant coffee buddies in Julia and Mike more.  But it was so delicious, and I truly can call myself a coffee connoisseur now. 

It was worth the wait. 

Following our leisurely lunch, we set off to see a few more sights.  Along the way, we went into this AMAZING french tea shop (called Kusmi, I believe) where I was suckered into buying a box of expensive, but absurdly delicious grapefruit-something-green tea (hey now...tea and coffee are more acceptable addictions than drugs and alcohol, at least, though not much cheaper with how particular I have become).  We also made our way to the Eiffel tower.  It cool to see (I know, such a boring way to describe it, "cool"), and the park around it was lovely, if quite crowded and featuring too many couples groping each other in a public space.

By this point in the afternoon, we were pretty wiped, so we decided to stop by the hostel and drop off our tea before heading out for round two in the evening.  En route, we stopped and bought some macaroons.  They were okay (nothing compared to German chocolate), I wished I had just gotten another coffee (so I did).

Almost as soon as we were back in our room, I received a text from Reillie, saying that her and her friend Matthieu were in the city as well, so we then headed back out and met up with them.  And the Nuit Blanche part of the night was underway.

Nuit Blanche is essentially and all-night art exhibition held across the city.  Museums are free all night, in addition to the street performers, galleries, and exhibits that are set up at various spots around Paris.  It's quite a unique event, and Paris (which never seems to sleep) is the perfect host.

A book describing the exhibits that is of no use to me since I don't know French. 

The first exhibit we went to was "fog art."  Calling it art is a generous term, because all it seemed to be was fake fog all around a square in the downtown area.  It was kind of a cool novelty at first, but we kept losing each other and it was uncomfortable to inhale so we did last there too long.  So then we found the cheapest cafe we could (which was reflected in the quality of the food; though at least you can't really ruin an omelette), and then started walking around looking at other exhibits.

Laura and I in the fog "art"

 

Unfortunately, by this time, it was becoming quite apparent that Laura and I had not really ideally planned our day, at least for this particular weekend in Paris.  While we saw SO much of the city during the day, our energy was waning and feet were killing us from spending 15+ hours walking all around the city.  Reillie and Matthieu, on the other hand, were fresh and ready to go.  So we ended up parting ways at around 11pm, and Laura and I headed back to the hostel.  I fell asleep almost immediately.

A very freaky ghost exhibit. There was music accompanying it.  It was unsettling. 

I don't know what this exhibit was going for but I liked it. 

The Louvre. At night. Kind of spectacular.

The next morning, we moved a bit slower (also decided that showering wasn't worth it), but were still out and about by around 9:30 am (if at a much slower pace).  The only really big touristy attraction that we saw was the Arc de Triomphe (Laura is an architecture major so I think it was more fascinating to her than me, though still quite impressive).  We then searched for a crepe place; a harder job than you would expect since it was Sunday and a lot of places were closed (although a lot more places are open in Paris on Sundays than in Germany).  But we were eventually successful, found a place near Versailles where the coffee was even nicer than the day before.  I had crepes; she had quiche, we basically were French for the hour we were there.

The Arc de Triomphe

Some delicious French food. Note all the bread everywhere. Can't escape it. 

And then it was time to head back to Stuttgart.  We were able to get a ride share on the way back with some dude named Fabian (he wasn't nearly as fun as Lourdes and Chris).  We saved a lot of money, but it took us six hours compared to the four on the train.  Still was worth it though, especially considering that I was hemorrhaging money the entire weekend.

So, that was Paris!  I'm glad that I was able to go and see it, but it wouldn't break my heart if I was never able to go back again.  It's beautiful, and there's a lot to see and do, but historical buildings are not as impressive to me as mountains.  The Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle are gorgeous, but it wasn't the heart-stopping, jaw-dropping, take-your-breath-away awe and beauty that traveling around New Zealand left me with.  Also, Paris really does smell.  Especially at night.  However, one myth I would dispel is that the people are unfriendly, and don't speak much English.  In our experience, you were fine with just English, and while people won't usually go out of their way to be extremely helpful (we did have one waiter who took a fancy to us and was a bit TOO friendly), they weren't rude by any means either.

So, until next time, au revoir!  I think I did a better job taking photos this time and will try to keep it that way.