Off to Stuttgart...

3rd January 2010
Paderborn-Stuttgart

In the morning it was time to make my way down to Stuttgart in the south east of Germany where I would be studying for six weeks. The previous night had seen a huge amount of snow dumped which made it very difficult on the roads - getting to the station took us twice as long as we couple only drive at 30km/h (thanks to Jan though for risking our lives and pushing it to 60 :P - I was able to catch my train on time)...

The snowfall therefore made for an interesting scene along the trainline...

After another long journey I finally arrived in Stuttgart and was met by my host mother, Erni who quickly got me filled in on the town on the drive home - I would be working out the public transport system the next day on the way to uni. After getting settled into my room and little dinner I was ready to hit the hay and dozed off quickly ready for my first day! More about Stuttgart next time tho...sleeeeeep

The first real day

Paderborn - Thursday 1st January 2010

After waking up and taking a look around I was able to check out my surrounds a little more. Jan's house and garden looked incredible in the snow. There had been a good snowfall the previous night and everything was covered in just...white.



Later on we went into Paderborn with Jan to check out the town. It was just beautiful with the Christmas lights still up and a small shopping arcades...






I also went into the local church and took plenty of photos to 'study' later like a good little architecture student :P...


By about 5pm it started to get quite dark and it began to snow. My hands nearly turned blue, but of course the main point is I got some awesome photos! These were the last shots of the day and shows how beautiful the town centre really is...

First few days in Germany...

A little intro...

This trip revolves around a winter semester in Stuttgart. This consists of 6 weeks of 2 classes - german language and european art history - while staying with a host family nearby. After this, and during studying, I plan on travelling wherever I can for a few weeks; France, England and maybe Switzerland - who knows!

The First Day - 30th December 2009
Melbourne-Doha-Frankfurt

The flight out from Melbourne was a solid 14hrs at midnight of the 30th. I was looking forward to getting some sleep so I could arrive on the 31st and then go straight out that night as I had no time to sleep that day. My plans were clearly met with two flaws; 1. I was on a plane and 2. I was seated next to babies. So needless to say my attempts were met with much fail.


Anyways I managed a few hours sleep and shortly landed in Doha. I'm not sure what words I could use to describe Doha other than it could possiblly translate from arabic to "not much" because that would be a fairly apt description of the airport at least. Luckily enough they were unlike the stingy bastards of Melbourne and provided actually free wireless net (fu telstra 'free' wireless). After a 'non-stop' 2hrs I boarded the next trip which would take me to Frankfurt.



This flight was an improvement by far as it was only 1/3rd full and hence I was able to stretch out and actually get some 'sleep'. Though I was troubled at one point by the projected path of our flight which travelled directly over Baghdad,but maybe we jus climbed outside rocket-reach for that section.


So; arriving in Frankfurt...interesting scene to outside from the plane. Nothing special so far, just shit weather...



but I would soon be reminded of how awesome snow can be and the lovely scenes it can produce. We landed at 1:15pm and I needed to catch the 2:32pm to Paderborn where I would be staying with Jan, so this was pushing it but I had hope. After some mucking around trying to you know...speak English to non-English-speaking Germans I got to the right platform and discovered I had apparently brought more than luggage with me - Melbournes public transport system had followed - the train was 20mins late and Con..Deustchbahn apologised greatly for the delay. However the train arrived only after 10 so I cant really complain because It meant I could take a breath for 5 seconds - and as I did I was able to take in my surroundings for the first time...




I cant really say much about catching the train because really, it was over so quickly thanks to travelling at about 260km/h - I guess not something I'm used to at home on the shotty metro system. But here is a photo of the first snowfall I experienced where I had to change at Kassel.




So, After 26.5hrs of travelling I arrived in Paderborn at 6:10pm and was met by Jan and his father. Getting back to his I was finally able to have an SSS (shit, shave and shower for those less enlightened) and got ready to welcome in the new year, German-style!

As can be seen from the video, this basically involved blowing up a whole lot of fireworks and firecrackers! On only a small amount of pizza and lollies however, I didnt last long and eventually passed out around 3am and got taken home.

Waking up the next day, I looked outside and saw this:



So far this journey had been very surreal but this image easily welcomed in a very different new year and said "Welcome to Germany!"