Stuttgart

 1/29/22-1/31/22

In my sole blog entry, I mentioned that my next post would cover my late-January visit to Stuttgart. I am proud to announce that that promise has now been fulfilled! Two months later. I know, hold your applause. I want to thank my dedicated readers, who have stuck by me through thin. You guys are the real heroes. And so without further ado, a weekend in Stuttgart.

Classes ended early on Friday, so Jarrett, Isabelle, Emily, and I took advantage of the extra time and hopped on a train to Stuttgart after lunch. We spent the journey talking and occasionally throwing a glance in the direction of our BMEN homework. Oops. Once we arrived, we headed to our rental unit where we were greeted by our Airbnb host. He was a Greek man who spoke extremely accented German and not a lick of English, which made for an interesting challenge. But as much fun as I had trying to decipher his hurried instructions, I had an even better time realizing that he had tried to tell us just how easy it was to flood the shower. I guess experience really is the best teacher. Shortly after that lively cross-cultural dialogue, I found myself in a similar situation at the Altes Schloss Museum in downtown Stuttgart – only this time with more success!

We took a bus into Stuttgart to try and purchase tickets for an exhibit in the old palace of Stuttgart. During a futile attempt to speak German with the front-gate attendant, I panicked and accidentally let out a vale – “okay” in Spanish. He looked very surprised for a moment and then immediately asked me ¿Hablas español? He proceeded to tell me that he was actually from the Dominican Republic!He was very excited and relieved to find someone speaking any semblance of Spanish. I was still very flustered by what exactly had just happened, but I kept up well enough to find out that he liked A-Rod and that we could buy the tickets inside thank you very much have a nice day and enjoy your time in Stuttgart. So that was fun! Turns out the museum was closing soon anyway, so we didn’t stay very long. Instead, we tried a nearby Brauhaus for dinner. Das Essen hat geschmeckt! Then we headed to the nearby Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, where we explored the first floor for a while and saw some lovely modern art. Tired, and facing a long day Saturday, we called it quits for the night.

Saturday was a day of trees, cars, and more than nineteen miles of walking. We got up earlyish and caught the first train to Pforzheim, famous for its proximity to the Black Forest, jewelry industry, and near-total destruction by Allied area bombing during WWII. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend any time in the city itself, but that was okay – we walked more than ten miles of trails in the Black Forest instead! It was gorgeous, and my favorite moments were when we left our path and just explored the trails around us. There isn’t much more commentary I can make on a forest, but I can assure you it was very pretty.

We arrived back in Stuttgart and rushed to the Porsche Museum before it closed. Both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche are headquartered in Stuttgart, making it a sort of destination for car lovers. This museum didn’t disappoint! Gorgeous cars abounded, but my favorite was the full-scale reproduction of Sally Carrera, the love interest in the movie Cars – and also a Porsche Carrera. We left impressed, satisfied, and very hungry and tired (it was a very long day). We tried four different restaurants for dinner and were turned away at each one – they required reservations – before landing at a sushi place. There we were instructed to eat as quickly as possible before the party who reserved the table arrived. Never a poor sport, I obliged. We ended the night back at our Airbnb with a lively discussion of work ethic, class, and the role of laziness in American society. Quite the nightcap.

Sunday was just a travel day, but I was able to finish my book, The Sot-Weed Factor, on the ride back, as I noted in my previous post. The next book on my list is Down and Out in Paris and London by everybody’s favorite, George Orwell. And now a spoiler alert since I’m writing this post very much after the fact...this book was awful, 4/10. The writing itself was good, and Orwell had some interesting commentary about the cycle of poverty in the early 1900s. But did we really need a fourteen-page chapter devoted to chronicling the slang of the British poor? Really? And honestly, just one description of the squalor of French kitchens would have been enough – I promise, I get the picture. Nevertheless, here's a quote from the worst of all the books I’ve read this year:

“It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs – and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.”

-George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London