Tübingen

Last night was our first weekend excursion. We went to Tübingen, which is a university town an hour by train south of Stuttgart. We got there at about 4:30pm, and it was already getting dark. The first thing we did was to go to a pub. It was the most gorgeous, cosy warm looking pub, but the staff directed us straight outside to this little gazebo that had all these little fires in braziers, which took the edge off the cold. I think we were a little disappointed at first that we weren't going to sit in one of the awesome barrel shaped booths :P

We were all busy taking photos and stuff of the river that was alongside the pub, then they brought out this:

  

Om nom nom nom. It was a yummy beef and vegie stew. We all promptly decided we were starving, and started to line up, but half of us got distracted by beer! We all got served this warm beer, which started out really yummy, but as it cooled down it got sweeter and sweeter :P

 

Here's me with my beer and funny hat :P My first German beer. I was determined to drink it all, despite it being so sweet.

And I did! Yay! Just in time too, because our night tour was about to start. Even though it was so cold and I couldn't feel my feet, the tour was fun and interesting. Our tour guide told us all about these gondola races they have every June, where all the teams dress up in costumes and there's lots of beer and falling out of boats. She said that the winners get 100 litres of beer, but they have to pay for the huge after party in which the whole town turns out to and drinks unlimited amounts of beer, but the losers have to drink half a litre of cod liver oil :P The best prize to win is the best costume prize, because then you get a few kegs of beer and you don't have to share it.

The guide also took us all around some old university buildings and to the town centre. It was completely dark by then, and it was really hard to get decent photos. I was playing with the night settings on my camera, so I did get a few which I'll put up on facebook. Our train back to Stuttgart left at 7:30, but we all had an option to stay a bit longer, provided there were at least three of us, because of our train tickets. I don't think anyone stayed :P We were all absolutely exhausted and it felt like midnight before it was even 8pm. We had discussed going out once we got back to Stuttgart (because it's easier to get home from downtown Stuttgart when you're drunk than it is to travel back from Tübingen :P) but we were all nannas and went home instead.

Last night a group of people from my class went out, but I piked because I'm lame like that :P It turns out that all the clubs are open to sixteen year olds until midnight, so the nightlife here doesn't really kick off until then. My classmates ended up finding a good bar, which turned out to be a gay bar, and just had a few drinks before going home. Before the excursion some of them explored in the daylight and I think they've figured out where to go now, so next time I might tag along :P

Marina is away this weekend, so I have the house to myself. She won't let me use the washing machine whilst she's away, because it's brand new and she's really nervous about it. Hopefully I can get some washing done as soon as she gets home, because I'm running out of undies!

Have I mentioned that all the ads on my browser are in German? Some of them are the same ads I see at home, but now they're in German. Also, sometimes when a page is loading it tells me so in German, but only randomly. It's kinda weird.

The sun is out today, but the temperature has dropped to five degrees. I intend to stay in all day. I have a presentation to write for tomorrow, as well as an entire novel to read, so that should keep me busy :)