Stuttgart & Tübingen

View of Stuttgart from the TV tower

After running all through Munich’s central station to catch the 3:39 pm train on Friday to Stuttgart (I had the wrong departing time in my head and never bothered to confirm it until it was too late) I made it to this capital city of the state of Baden Wüttemberg right at 6:00pm. Carlos E. was waiting for me at the train station to begin what was for me an awsome weekend. I went to Stuttgart (population: 600,000) to visit Carlos and Geraldine, two friends from my school in Colombia who now live in this city. Carlos E, Geraldine, as well as Carlos F (el mellizo) from Munich, and I went together to the same German school in Medellin all the way from pre-k, when we were 4 years old, until graduating from high school 14 years later. Carlos E, Carlos F and I were together in the same classroom about 13 out of the 14 years; and Geraldine, both Carlos´ and I were together in the same classroom the last 3 years of high-school. With that introduction you can picture how a big part of the weekend was spent: reminiscing about the past, remembering all the good things we lived and experienced while growing up together, remembering all those funny stories about our classmates, teachers and ourselves, getting updated on the lives of all our other friends, sharing the latest gossip we have on some of our friends, and making once again plans to have our first reunion and to finally open the pyramid. As a graduation gift to the school, our class of 91 (with only 37 students) built a concrete pyramid on the school grounds. The pyramid has a bronze plaque with the name of the 37 students engraved in alphabetical order and what we call a "time capsule". In this time capsule we inserted letters and essays we all wrote 16 years ago with the original idea of opening it 10 years later. I believe we also put in there a video that we made of ourselves during our last months in the school.
Stuttgart is a rather small city, so 15 to 20 minutes later we arrived home and started chatting away for hours accompanied by a couple of Camparis, Greek appetizers, a bottle of Malbec and a delicious home cooked dinner. Afterwards we drove down to the city where I got a walking tour of Stuttgart’s downtown. The downtown is not very big so the most important sightseeing attractions can be walked by and photograph in a short time. We also walked by a couple of streets where the locals hang out at night. I have to admit I was surprised by the amount of bars and café’s that were opened at that time (it was around midnight), how full they were, and also by the amount of people who were out in the streets enjoying the good weather. We stopped at a Café for a non-alcoholic drink to boost our energy level and continued our tour by going to a bar where a friend from Carlos was celebrating his birthday.

Schloßplatz at night -----Schloßplatz by day

After helping Geraldine bake some brownies on Saturday morning I was rewarded with an unbelievable breakfast: an Arepa with cheese. Yes, you read correctly. An arepa in Stuttgart. And it wasn’t one made out of areparina or any other kind of "ready-to-make" mixtures. This was the Real McCoy; the same type of cooked-and-grounded corn made arepas I was raised with and helped me to become the healthy adult I am today. Someone very wise said once that in "paisaland’ (the region where I come from) that a breakfast without an arepa is like a marriage without love, so you can say that at least for Saturday I was in love once again. Ok, I know I’m exaggerating (another very paisa trait) but you can’t imagine how happy I was after 3 months and change without eating one. I continue: after breakfast we drove once again to the city center to view its most important buildings and monuments during the daylight: the Schloβplatz (a big square in front of the Neues Schloβ and what to me seemed to be the heart of Stuttgart), Schillerplatz, and Königstrasse (a pedestrian street filled with shops on each side) among others. In the afternoon "el Mellizo" caught up with us (Carlos F from Munich) and joined us in the remaining part of the walking tour and the visit to the building of the Mercedes Museum. The night was spent once again with another delicious home cooked meal, a couple of bottles of wine, and great conversation until odd hours of the night.

Mercedes Museum

On Sunday morning we continued with our eating extravaganza by having ourselves a hefty breakfast, prepared on the most part by Carlos E, which included but was not limited to: scrambled eggs "a lo colombiano" (with tomato and onions), baked ciabatta, café con leche, fruit salad and some German add-ons: nutella, confitures, ham, cheese and yoghurt. The first stop on Sunday’s tour was Stuttgart’s TV tower. This is the first TV tower of this type built in Germany (between 1,954 and 1,956) and offers the best panoramic views of the city.

Saturday night dinner (Carlos F, Carlos E, Geraldine)

Sunday Morning breakfast (Adriana, Carlos F)

Tübingen

After visiting the tower we headed to the nearby city of Tübingen (population 87,000) about 30 minutes south of Stuttgart. This university town looks exactly how they described it to me: the perfect example of how you would picture a typical German town to be; the quintessential German town that is depicted in books, postcards and children’s books. The facades of the houses are usually of a light color with lots of wood sticks of a dark color and lots of windows. As with many German town Tübingen is equipped with its own castle on top of a mountain overlooking a big part of the city. The place is soooo beautiful!!!!! But you can judge for yourself.

The trip concluded with a last stop to eat at the house before hitting the road. It took us 2 hours to get to Munich and I experienced for the first time in my life what it is to be at a German freeway with no speed limit: pretty cool and somewhat scary at the same time. The next step: for me to drive on a freeway, which I shall have the chance to do when I embark on my moving trip to France.

I was very happy and very much looking forward to going to Stuttgart, but I left even happier and content. It was a great weekend to connect with my past and that part of my life that defines on the most part who I am today; and therefore I have to conclude this post with some thoughts from the whole weekend experience. Like I said it was a great weekend and I had an awesome time. I loved getting together and spending time with old friends and visiting beautiful new places. It was a weekend to celebrate friendship!!! But most important of all it was great to confirm once again that in spite of the distance and in spite of the years there is always that fraternal bond between us. That bond hat makes it possible to conserve our friendship no matter how far we usually live from each other and how many years it may take us to see each other again. That bond that allows us to continue being friends even tough we may not talk for months and months but that every time we see each other makes us feel as if we saw each other the day before, just like we did when we were at school. And finally agreeing on how the education and upbringing we were given at school (very German, open-minded and way more liberal compared to most of the schools in the predominant catholic, elitist and conservative Colombian society) had such an influence on forming the people we are today and how it played such a big role in shaping our personalities: therefore, we share so many common traits. I’ve always loved the school I went to, treasured the years I spent there and been greateful for having gone there. And just like Carlos E said: In life we run into a handful of"Y’s" where we have to decide whether to go right or left. The decision we make is a turning point in our life. And one of those decisions which became a turning point in our lives was made for us by our parents: send us to the German school. If that hadn’t been the case I wouldn’t be here living this adventure!!!