Stuttgart

Diana, Sherin, and I woke up around 6:00 am to get ready to head to Stuttgart!  We rushed around to make sandwiches to take with us for lunch, eat breakfast and get out the door by 6:40 to get to the train station by 7:00.  We met Asli there and bought the train ticket.  It was great because we got this special weekend ticket that is good for up to 5 people for 40 Euro, so $10 a piece for us!  It lasts all day for anywhere in Germany, so we only had to pay $20 each for travel for the entire weekend!  So we got on the train and it took us about 4 hours to get there; we had to switch trains 3 times.  Once we got to Stuttgart, we had to figure out which train would take us to the station nearest our hotel.  Luckily we had looked up all the station names and train times before we left our house and it was all on an itinerary I made, and I printed out google maps for how to get everywhere!  Once we found the train and got off at the stop, we began to walk to our hotel.  Even though we were so organized with the maps, we weren’t sure which way to go after we left the train station!  Diana and I walked over to a little shop and I asked “Do you speak English?” in English rather than German, oops!  She didn’t, but pointed across the street.  By the time we got outside, Sherin and Asli had figured out which was we needed to go because there was a map posted at a bus stop.  We began walking but apparently took a couple of wrong turns because the streets were not at 90 degree angles, they were very confusing and curvy! Finally Asli decided to ask a girl that was walking by if she knew where the hotel was and she pointed us in the opposite direction and we started following her.  Ends up she was just walking to McDonald’s, not showing us the way!  Luckily, we figured out that was the correct way though and we eventually ended up at the hotel.  Only about an hour behind schedule! 

We checked in, dropped our clothes off, and headed back to the train station.  This time we knew where we were going!  We headed to the Porsche Museum.  Once we got there, I took a picture of every car in the museum!  You can check them out on Facebook if you want!  We also took turns taking each others pictures with our favorite cars.  After that we were supposed to go to the Mercedes Benz museum, but since we were behind schedule we decided to go the next day so we would have enough time.  So we decided to go to the shopping street!  I found some great things to take back home as gifts!  Then we went to the planetarium for the Laser Show entitled “When Stars Dream”.  It was pretty cool, and all of the music except one song was in English!  After the show we tried to find a restaurant; didn’t have much luck!  Finally we found a nice lady that spoke English and she pointed us in the right direction.  We ended up having noodles out of the little cardboard boxes it was yummy!  Then we headed back to the hotel.  On the way there we stopped at the grocery store to get some snacks and drinks.  We went back to the hotel and laughed about our day!  We had sooo much fun!  But our feet hurt so bad from all the walking!

The next morning we were planning on getting up at like 6:30 to eat and catch the 7:50 train, but that didn’t happen!  We ended up getting up a little after 7.  By the time we got downstairs for breakfast it was like 7:45.  The breakfast was great!  We had scrambled eggs, toast, rolls, pretzels, jam, cereal, yogurt, fruit salad, cold meats, different cheeses, juice, tea, and coffee to choose from!  It was sooo delicious!  We were really impressed and the hotel only cost 16.25 Euro each!  To compare, some other students that stayed in hostels paid like 22 or 24 a piece!  By the time we finished breakfast, there was no way we would make the 8:50 bus.  We took our time packing up and then headed to the train station.  We still had about 20 min to wait before the next train.  We stood there waiting and then watched the train pull in to the other platform.  As it was coming to a stop we finally realized we were on the wrong platform and took off running!  We had to run up a huge flight of stairs, run across, and then down another huge flight of stairs!  There were some German boys probably about 14 or 15 near the stairs that were yelling “Run” and “Hurry” but in German, and they were laughing at us.  Sherin and Asli got to the door first and got on and then me and Diana literally jumped on the train as the doors were closing, almost knocking Sherin over!  It was hilarious!  Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy!  We couldn’t believe that we had waited there for 20 min and still almost missed the train! lol

Anyway, we made it, so we were headed to the zoo.  We got there and tried to hurry to see every animal; since it was cold some of them were inside and it was hard to find them.  We had some problems with trying to enter the exits!  I am pretty sure we saw almost everything!  Then after the zoo we headed to the Mercedes Benz Museum!  And it was like twice the size of the Porsche one!  It was awesome!  Unfortunately, we could barely walk by the time we got to the end of it!  And it took us forever to figure out how to get into the area with the cars; ended up we had to take a lift to the top and then you have to work your way back down to the bottom.  We finally got through there and headed toward the train station.  We needed to grab some dinner before heading back home.  We ended up having some Turkish food that was Amazing!  Diana and I had Yufka Doner, which if you don’t know what that is, it was like a burrito with shaved beef (I think it was beef), onions and cabbage, tomatoes, and some type of sauce that is similar to ranch; anyway it was sooo good!  But the burrito was huge and we were stuffed after it. 

Then we got to the train station and hopped on.  Like on the way there we had to switch trains 3 times.  We switched the first time with no problem!  Then we were on the train sleeping on and off, and Sherin and Asli heard Darmstadt and I was like are you sure, I don’t think this is it.  They were like yes they said Darmstadt, so we gathered our stuff and hopped off the train.  Once we got off, Sherin was like “Where are we?”  and I don’t remember what exactly I said, but we all knew we were in trouble!  We had caught the last train back from Stuttgart and I was worried we were going to miss our connection and be stuck in Darmstadt!  What the heck is in Darmstadt?! lol So we ran up to the street and tried to look up the trains from the Kiosk to see when the next one comes and if there are any other trains going to Wiesbaden.  We were freaking out! 

We finally met a man on the street to ask which way to Hauptbanhof.  He told us we probably wouldn’t have enough time to walk there; we only had 15 min until our train departed.  He helped us look at the bus times tables and there was a bus about to come that went to Hauptbanhof, so he waited with us and then we got on and the driver didn’t know English and I was trying to pay and then the nice guy was like your train ticket should work.  So I showed it to the driver and then the nice guy explained to the driver in German what had happened and off we went.  The stupid bus hit like every red light and I swear he was the slowest bus driver I have known yet!  We were supposed to arrive at the station 2 minutes before the train departed, however the bus was like a minute and a half late.  The bus finally stopped and as soon as the doors opened we all jumped off and ran as fast as we could to the station!  We had to go to platform 9 which of course was all the way on the opposite side of the station.  Then we had to run down the stairs!  We made it to the bottom right as the train was pulling out!  Then Sherin who was still halfway up the stairs was waving and screaming stop at the driver, of course that didn’t work!  lol

So we looked at the time tables and luckily there was one more train coming after that!  So we had to wait an hour for it to get there.  In the mean time, we sat in a little convenient store inside the station and drank tea and ate donuts.  We tried to go to the bathroom; however the stupid bathrooms closed at 10pm!  Do they think no one has to pee after 10 or what?!  So then we decided to make a list of things not to do while traveling in Germany.  You can see my previous post for this list!  It’s hilarious you don’t want to miss it!  Finally the train came and we got to Wiesbaden and caught the last train back to Oestrich-Winkel.  We finally got home at about midnight!  Only about an hour behind schedule, but it felt so much later!  And we were so tired and sore we could barely move!  We just crashed in our beds and I slept until 1pm the next day!  All in all we had a lot of fun!  It was definitely an adventure!  Next stop: Berlin!  =)  Stayed tuned for the details!