220407 - Palaces

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Last day in Stuttgart was a trip down to 2 palaces, Ludwigsburg and Favourite.

Ludwigsburg is a baroque-style palace of Duke Eberhard Ludwig, who first built it for the rulers of Wuettermberg. There is nothing much to behold on the facade (like what Ti Pin said,"It looks like a Buero ('office' in German)"), but the interior speaks for itself: opulent, gaudy and pompous - 100% Baroque. But the initial intention of the Duke for Ludwigsburg was as a hunting lodge, but apparently some unexpected twist of fate, he met a lady and they settled finally down there, where he moved the centre of administration from Stuttgart to the town of Ludwigsburg. There, the first king of Wuettermberg, King Friedrich, was coronated, under the influence of Napoleon (again; he had a hand in Neuschwanstein as well... that man...). So Ludwigsburg Schloss became his centre of admin and power.

Favourite Schloss is really only a hunting lodge for the rulers, an extension of the Ludwigsburg and the Duke's immeasurable desire for pleasure. Hunting was done extravagantly, it was said as many as 600 animals died in one single hunting session. The little woods surrounding the lodge serve as the hunting grounds. Today we only saw 2 deer...

One interesting thing I saw when we were travelling back to get our stuff before we head back to Munich: speed dating on the train! WOW! Speed dating on the MRT! Suck that!

220407 - Fruehlingsfest

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Because we played "Ficken" yesterday till midnight, we woke up at about 11 plus :P Good night's sleep indeed.

Oh yes, Ficken = 'to FUCK'. So yahz... It is a nice game but I feel it doesn't bring out enough the anger and belligerence of the word. Oh but it was fun.

Morning breakfast was a Baden-Wuttermberg specialty - Maultaschen (literally = 'mouth bags'). It is very much like the 'wan tan' we have back in Singapore, probably a little more squarish. I like the breakfast, simple and tasty. There is our cook-cum-host, Ti Pin.

Fruehlingsfest (literal = 'Spring festival') in Stuttgart is said to be the next big thing after Oktoberfest in Munich. Well, since I cannot catch the latter, might as well attend the former. So here we have, the Fruehlingsfest! Super crowded and super cool! Check out the rides and food! Exactly like the kind of amusement parks. Just that here, it's cooler, bigger and people are more into such entertainments. There, we met up with Shuxian, Yizhen and Xinli and Co and Yibin, Gabriel and her girl also... Let's see if how the Munich Fruehlingsfest compares to this later when I get back...

I had my FIRST big ROLLER COASTER ride! I get to sit at the front. I want to try it again!!! Bwahaha! Oh manz.... It was exhilarating! We saw a couple of other rides that we wouldn't definitely see at all in Singapore but probably like in Japan or Malaysia. Dangerous and heart-gripping ones.... And of course, dizzy ones... Those that were out to make you puke... Ewwww..

Most importantly, there's food here. There's this thing called "Schokoladefruechte", basically means "chocolate fruits". I bought a banana dipped in thick chocolate, it was so so sweet! LOLX! Then there was an apple dipped in candy; pure candy. Huixian couldn't finish it. I doubt I could too. HAHA! To think she wanted to hold her stomach to buy one. Feuerwurst ('fire hotdog') tastes good too and there is roasted peanuts (gebrat Erdnuesse) and almonds (Mandeln)!

We stayed till late then we adjourned to a local typical German pub. Where they give out free peanuts at midnight and sparklers. Where we met this hapless man on his bachelors' night; yes he is getting married next week. He was made to buy underwears from the female customers in the pub!! haha... Yizhen and Gabriel's girlfriend were sporty enough to give him theirs for 20 bucks each. There is Ti Pin signing on the guy's T-shirt for Yizhen. Poor guy. And he said his wife is probably doing some other crazy thing as well.

It was hella day AND night.

200407 - FIRSTs of all... Nach Stuttgart

We had our FIRST Mitfahr experience! Woho! Ok Mitfahr is this in-thing in Germany for travelling cheap. Literally it means "to go with". So basically there is this Mitfahrgelegenheit website where the drivers who are going to different destinations will post their time and place and preferences and other information. So if you are going Stuttgart on this day preferably this time, email or call the driver up, arrange to meet and voila! You are on your way. It is DEFINITELY with caps, the cheaper way than the train or the plane. My trip up to Stuttgart per person costs only 12 bucks and back another 12 bucks = 24 Euros. The cheapest train trip up (only) would have cost 27 Euros! Coming back another.... Imagine the money we have saved!

In addition, we get to meet Germans, speak German and know more about alot of things. Like this time round, there is this lady studying at TUM as well, in a major call "Restaurierung". No, it has nothing to do with restaurants or the likes of it. In fact, it is a major, dealing with restoration of monuments, artefacts, art and such. I don't think we will ever have that in Singapore... Imagine a faculty that deals only with how to clean up the Merlion and Sir Stamford Raffles Statue. *dotz*

Anyway our FIRST night in Stuttgart was our FIRST BBQ in Germany! At Ti Pin's apartment block. In the picture above, you can see Ti Pin's German friend, Nikolas (Stimmt? Wenn nicht, schick mal an mir) and Cher Chin (Stimmt auch?). His German friend is probably one of the most friendly Germans I have met so far, very conversant and very warm. For an aeronautical engineering Masters student, he seemed too interested in biology though. But I am not complaining haha...

Cher Chin's coming to Germany is pure chance. Cos he had thought Stuttgart was an English city, since it was in between 2 others on a list he thought contains all the English unis and it LOOKS like a good university of engineering. I must say he is very brave indeed to base his choice on pure assumptions LOLX... He is a superbly friendly guy after he starts to warm up. Looks like he is destined to come here manz. There was a lady as well, Shuxian. A little on the "sha3 da4 jie3" kind, but nonetheless cordial and even cute in an intrinsic sort of way.

BBQ was nice and warm, despite the cold temperatures then. That night, the stars speckled the clear sky. You all should have seen the twinkling stars. It was a sight to behold. With newly found friends, it's amazing how we can talk about almost anything under the 'moon': from introducing ourselves, to Fuehlingsfest, to Singlish, to even the bright spot beside the moon that night.