Happy Thanksgiving to the USA! (If you don't know, Thanksgiving is an American and Canadian holiday so it's not celebrated here in Germany.) I didn't do anything special for the holiday, just hung out with Julia and we made some Christmas decorations with construction paper and listened to Christmas music. My friend, Veronika, from Ohmden picked me up around 10pm and we rode to her house for the weekend. Veronika lives about an hour from both Tübingen and Stuttgart. I LOVE German houses! They're so cleverly built, the house always looks small from the outside, but on the inside it seems to go on forever (I'm talking like 6 floors).
On Friday, we woke up early and took the train in to Stuttgart for the Weihnachtensmarkt. It was the coolest and most Christmas-y thing ever. The whole downtown was full of stand after stand of candles and ornaments and sweets and cooking supplies and food and anything you could imagine. Every stand was decoraded with pinetree branches and they each had a Christmas theme on the top. It was so beautiful and it smelled of Christmas. We stopped for some Glühwein (which is basically spiced, warm, red wine, it's Fabulous and the typical German Christmas drink--as opposed to apple cider in the states). I got two new mugs out of it :) After wandering the city for a few hours, we went back to Veronika's and had dinner with her family. I love German families and I love German hospitality. By the end of the weekend, I didn't want to leave. It makes me feel more at home to be with a family--and I'm learning a second language as well! I eve got to watch German TV! It's basically American TV, but dubbed in German. So I watched, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Scrubs, Spongebob Squarepants, and some other things all in German! It totally made my weekend---I was mesmorized. We also watched Bierfest...which I felt was necessary for my time here lol :).
On Saturday, we slept in and had lunch with Veronika's family. It was again Fabulous :). We drove out to two castles in the area. Neuffen is a castle of ruins (and, of course, been renovated into a resturaunt). It's so high up on the Berg that we even saw mountain goats up there--so cool!The view from the mountain was spectacular! You could see all the neighboring towns from up there. We had a good time taking pictures and climbing on the walls. After the Neuffen castle, we drove to Teck---which, I think, is the castle of Kircheim. That was quite a hike ~1 km up hill. The view was even more beautiful from there because it was so much higher. There was even a club there flying planes. It was really cool to watch. Later that night, Veronika and I met some of her friend for drinks. That was a fun time. I heard a lot of German and I learned some new German. Then we went home and calld some of our friends in the states on skype.
On Sunday, I went with the Müller family to the town church where there was a fundraiser lunch. Best schnitzel ever! Then Veronika drove me to the train station and I headed home :(. I had such a good time and enjoyed being the Müller family so much I didn't want to leave. It's officially Christmas time! and the Schokoladefest (chocolate festival) opens here in Tübingen on Tuesday! I had a Fabulous weekend. It was fantastic.
I'm jealous that you got to go to a chocolate festival. That Christmas wine sounds good!
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