Letters from Germany - 2008 - part 4

Hi.

I hope you are well. I just came back from a long weekend. The guys at the office went off to a camp to work on their dissertations. Thus, work ended at 12 on Friday and we had Monday off! We did a little bit of exploration over the weekend. Did I mention that we have a free transport ticket for the whole semester, thanks to the City of Stuttgart? So we can roam around for free by bus, subway, tram or rail! Ok, so the ticket is valid within the Stuttgart area but that's still a lot of space. I haven't paid for transport here for the last two weeks. I think they came up with the idea this winter, to attract visitors.
 

Well, on Saturday, we went to the Mercedes Benz Museum. You have to see the place to understand how much effort they put into it. Stuttgart is the home of the Mercedes-Benz (and a few other car brands). They have a display of cars right from the 1800s to today. I'm not much of a car or motor fan but Tracey is and she had a great time. I've got loads of pics which I can't attach, limited space. Then we went to watch the sunset at the oldest TV tower in the world. For all those who love TV and everything that goes with it, thank God for the Germans. It's 150 metres above the ground so you get a really good view (and very cold air). They also have very good cheese and plum cakes.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo. Tracey thinks its funny that we went to a zoo in Germany to see African  animals but it was a nice long day. It's also got a botanical aspect i.e. loads of plants esp flowers. They have animals from everywhere and anywhere. The best thing is they have glass houses for all the hotter regions of the world so that the animals and plants won't suffer from cold in winter or heat summer. They did have elephants, but they were Indian, not African and they looked like circus rejects. They were a sad lot. We happened to be there when they fed the tigers and Tracey got a video. Now I know why they say "do not feed the animals!" Anyway, the rest of the zoo was like what we have here. It was more amusing to watch the other, mostly European, visitors marvel at the different animals :-) I also decided that if I could I'd like to get a pet tiger and pet monkey.

We spent the evening at the Christmas market. It's the closest thing they have to the African markets (Nakasero, Owino etc) but you can't bargain over the prices and it's only at Christmas. Germany is very relaxed with its laws on alcohol so there are several kiosks at the market selling a type of booze called Gluhwein. It's hot and should keep you warm in the cold night air. Most of the neighbouting countries have stricter alcohol laws esp at this time of the year so there are many tourists  who come in for the markets in Germany. At one of the stalls the guy thought I was either from the USA or from Jamaica or the Caribbe. So he was calling me sista and I thought he was about to start shouting 'jah man, feeling ire!' At this point, Tracey and I run up ahead and away. The markets are a real Shawuriyako. You can find anything and everything.

I'm back at work. We're done for the day and just waiting for it to hit 5 pm so that we can go home. I haven't planned for xmas yet. I know I need to soon, to get flights and trains sorted. We've got a hike planned for Thursday, Tracey's flatmate's birthday on Wednesday, another xmas market (in a different town) on Monday night and Madagascar 2 comes out on Thursday! Oh and I met a friend of mine from SA, studying here, and she's taking me to a music concert on Saturday night. I might go to Sweden next weekend. We'll see how that goes.

chao for now. I must go back to looking like I'm working :-)

love you

C
p.s. I managed to get laundry sorted yesterday, finally! It takes a while to get used to automated everything!