a train ride...

...to Stuttgart. About a month ago I arranged a trip to the town of Stuttgart in southern Germany, with an old friend currently living in Hamburg, Germany. That trip took place last week. I had previously arranged a train to and from Stuttgart without giving a second thought to the fact that if there was a problem I would be S.O.L. as I speak no German. As the trip date grew closer and closer, I realized I was going to have to have a back-up plan of sorts in case anything did happen. So I found a German-English dictionary and learned how to say "sprechen Sie Englisch?" (Do you speak English?). Traveling there wasn't a problem. I was able to catch an earlier train out of Basel so I had plenty of time to change trains in Karlsruhe. I even had time to get dinner (German Subway is good although I was slightly thrown off when cream cheese was offered as one of my cheese options).

Stuttgart itself is a really cool town. There is a great mixture of old and new architecture, the Mercedes-Benz museum (my friend's main purpose for picking Stuttgart) and some really yummy food. I had my first hostel experience and it was actually pretty good. We had four roommates, two Canadians and two Germans. The Germans came back late each night and left really earlier each morning but did so quietly. The Canadians were nice even when they were comparing red light districts across Europe.

So Sunday I get to the train station about 45 minutes prior to my train. I noticed that there was another train leaving for Karlsruhe in a few minutes, so I figured I could do the same thing that I did on my way there so I hopped on the train leaving earlier. (What I didn't realize was that the train I caught was a commuter train of sorts, stopping in almost every town and village between Stuttgart and Karlsurhe. So instead of arriving earlier than my scheduled train I arrived at the same time. I vaguely remembered the four towns we stopped in going to Stuttgart and when we started stopping in other towns I started getting worried. I was pretty sure I had caught the wrong train and I was headed to Munich. I decided I would get up and investigate so I grabbed my handbag and left my backpack on my seat. I eventually found a map that had all the train routes on it. As I traced our path out of Stuttgart I noticed we were headed north. That is when I really started to freak out. After I calmed myself down a bit I looked at the map again and noticed that Karlsurhe was actually northwest of Stuttgart and the route we were taking in fact ended up in Karlsurhe. So I went back to my seat and enjoyed the rest of the train ride.

It was a fabulous weekend away. It was great to see an old friend and spend time in a new place.