Alpine Summer

The first full day in Germany was definitely full! Breakfast started at 8:30, which certainly wasn't a problem given that I went to bed at about 10 the night before. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs (( not usually a fan, but these were great )), bacon, an assortment of cheeses, and about a thousand types of bread from which you could choose, along with a tiny toaster in case you prefer your breads toasted. It was quite good. I've never been a breakfast person, but I really enjoyed breakfast.

















We left soon after breakfast for Stuttgart. We took the same bus again. On our way into the city, we passed by the new Daimler-Chrystler museum, as well as the World Cup Stadium (( this may not be its name, but that's what everyone was calling it )). When we got into town, we picked up our tour guide, who was an extremely nice German lady. She rode around with us for about an hour and half, telling us about a lot of buildings and some town anecdotes. After that, we all got out for the walking portion of the tour. We had to detour quite a bit because Stuttgart was an absolute mess. Later that day, Germany was playing in the World Cup, and everyone seemed to have amazing amounts of Deutsche pride. People were holding their own little parades down the streets, singing and whistling about Deutscheland. Also, there were, at that point, about 75,000 British visitors in the town. By the next afternoon, they were expecting another 25,000, at the least. England was playing IN Stuttgart the following night. In fact, that night, 380 English visitors were arrested. The British players actually arrived while we were there, and they had already planted a British flag outside the hotel by the time we'd passed by. David Beckham is really well-liked here, as well. The tour guide indicated that most of the people standing outside the train station for the arrival of the players were really waiting for him.

















After the tour, Luke, Philip, and I found somewhere to eat, and I had something amazing -- it was a wrap with chicken, corn, and cucumber. I generally don't eat cucumber, but it was very good. Also, there was some sort of cheese stuffed into the center of the wrap itself. The best part was that it was only a few Euros, and it was definitely enough to fill me up. I have learned, however, that any water you order is bottled water and, therefore, is not free. After eating, we walked around the town a bit. We tried to stay out of the city center mostly, because that's where the most people were. It was incredible to see all the people's pride and excitement for their team, but I'm glad I wasn't staying long. Before we left, I checked out a candy store, where I got some gummy citrus fruit things; they were a lot like the little cheap candy orange slices in America, but they were much tastier and less chewy. Also, I got a big bar of puffed rice covered in chocolate. It reminds me of a Crunch bar (( given the ingredients, of course )), but there is less chocolate and more rice. The woman in the store was very nice and said she knew just a little English; she told me that the white stuff in the bar was "puffed mice".






















After Stuttgart, we were all pretty exhausted. We ate a sack dinner of sandwich (( I pulled the ham off )), yogurt, carbonated apple juice, and an apple. I haven't had any problems dining here, yet, and I hope I don't.

I want to talk about the plumbing and electricity here, because it's different than back home. The showers are interesting; they might be quite different in a private home than a dorm environment, but they're still not like in America. There is a single knob that controls the water -- the farther left you turn it, the hotter the water gets. There is uniform water pressure, so that's not controlled by hand. The shower head is a round thing that sticks out from the wall. It sprays downward with extreme pressure, although the head has about a million tiny holes to disperse it. What eventually hits you is a mist -- light enough so that you don't feel pelted, but somehow heavy enough to actually clean you.

Toilets are another story. The "wasserclosets" consist of a toilet which immediately looks very different than those at home. The entire thing is lower than American toilets, and there is no standing water in the bowl. Instead, there is a shelf in the bowl, which catches everything. When flushing, a fast heavy flow of water washes everything down beneath a little trapdoor that harkens back to a motorhome toilet. If the water does not do the job completely, you are responsible for brushing it and flushing again. Each little stall is equipped with its own little brush.

Electricity is a different issue. I knew that the electrical outlets are of a different voltage and shape than those at home. After buying my voltage converter and adaptors, I expected there would be no problem. Unfortunately, there was. American appliances, as I assume most do, run on different wattages. Because they are packaged for specific regions, they interact seamlessly with the outlets of that region. My convertor allows for two wattage settings -- "low" for 0-25 and "high" for 25+. Ok, this should be easy. I look at my battery charger. Listed as 35 watts. I try it on the low setting, just to be sure. It doesn't work, so I take the next logical step and try the high setting. For a moment, there is a slight buzzing sound and then a pop! and I have no more battery charger. The poor thing doesn't work on any setting. Same problem with my hair straightener -- it tries very hard to work on the low setting, but buzzes on the high. I didn't want to take a chance and unplugged it completely before it popped too. I don't know that it would, but it's better safe than sorry. Luckily, my DS charger works beautifully on low, and Luke's computer, because of the brick, doesn't require the convertor at all -- just the adaptor.