I\u2019ve continued to explore both across borders and close to home in May. A few activities that I discovered in T\u00fcbingen:<\/p>\n
\u00a0Kulturnacht<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The first T\u00fcbingen festival I\u2019ve been! A friend and I strolled around the city after dark, went up to the Schloss to try on VR goggles and see exhibits, went to a performance art piece hosted by Caf\u00e9 Haag, went to the Stadtmusuem and watched a fire dance performance. It was great German practice and definitely motivated me to keep an eye out for more festival opportunities close to home here. We got a wristband that gave us access to everything for 9 Euro, but most of the things we ended up seeing were actually free or donation based, so I recommend checking out the schedule and deciding if you want to buy the wristband or not. Attending Kulturnacht also made me wish I had more time when I was in Western Mass to attend similar events. There\u2019s always something happening in university towns, no matter where you are in the world.<\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’113′]<\/p>\n Fields & Tierheim & \u00d6sterberg\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Although not a cohesive \u201cevent\u201d my friend and I took a spontaneous adventure around T\u00fcbingen. We started out deciding to find an animal shelter, which led to a walk in the lush fields. After grabbing ice cream in the Altstadt we continued our adventure as both of us realized we\u2019d never been inside the Stiftskirche, despite being here for months! We then hiked up to the \u00d6sterberg area, where we saw the various Verein houses. I\u2019m curious to look into how similar these are to American frat houses \u2013 They seem extravagant and old fashioned and probably have similar problems to the American ones, unfortunately.<\/p>\n Stocherkahnrennen<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Before the biggest event of the season, my friends and I made brunch with egg casserole, croissants and mimosas (pretty cheap and feeds a lot of people). The Stocherkahnrennen lived up to expectations and was absolutely packed with people. If we hadn\u2019t eaten before, I\u2019d recommend getting there early and picnicking on the banks of the Neckar. Besides the actual race, the costume race was fun and goofy too!<\/p>\n \u00a0Trip with Shanon<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n While I\u2019ve honestly been struggling with my feelings about not traveling as much as I\u2019ve seen other study abroad students do, my trip to Prague made me glad I was really focusing on what I wanted to see (for my own sake). Coupled with an opportunity to show off T\u00fcbingen to a friend from home, I had a perfect Pfingstferien. Shano arrived on Saturday, we grocery shopped (don\u2019t do this on Saturday night! There was no more oatmeal at Edekal!) and promptly collapsed after eating an enormous amount of watermelon.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, as it\u2019s Germany (maybe specifically Baden Wurttemberg), there\u2019s an incessant number of holidays and both Sunday and Monday were Feiertage. We still managed to see T\u00fcbingen, since the Schloss and Stadmusuem are open and ice cream is pretty available no matter what day. We also went to Bebenhausen of course! On Monday we walked around the fields across the road from FV, then had a bread filled picnic in the park by the Hauptbahnhof. Schwarzes Schaf was also a must (get the peach iced tea or peach smoothie) and then we went to Neckarmueller to have some traditional German food.<\/p>\n Tuesday was the first time I\u2019d been to Stuttgart and we fit a ton in! I\u2019ve always wanted to go the Stadtbibliothek (it\u2019s on all the listicles of best libraries, unsurprisingly!) I read Woolf\u2019s Orlando in German with my English copy alongside me. As the rain started to pour, we ducked into the National Musuem, which had free entry to permanent exhibits, including one massive one that took you through the history of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg from the Stone Age to the present. Afterwards, we unexpectedly found the main indoor market in Stuttgart and cobbled together a cool meal of bread, herbed Frischk\u00e4se and strawberries and ate it on the steps of a church.<\/p>\n On our route to Prague, I had my first FlixBus difficulties. We chose to take an overnight bus, which I\u2019m still glad we did, but it was over an hour later, causing us to wait at the Hauptbahnhof in the middle of the night, and then almost miss our connection in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n While in Prague, we saw the Old Town, got a student pass to Prag Castle\/St. Vitus Cathedral\/Golden Lane, visited the free National Gallery, the Czech Music Museum and walked over the Charles Bridge every night. We also took a free tour of the city, visited the Jewish Quarter, Strahov Monastary, Letna Park, and unexpectedly walked up to Petrin Hill and the gorgeous rose garden, saw a concert in the Waldstein Palace gardens, and took a ton of pictures at the Dripstone Wall. In regard to food, we went everywhere from an open farmer\u2019s market, a Vinothek with 1 Euro wine, and cute homemade pasta place to an endearingly atmospheric (read: filled with only old Czech men) pub.<\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’118′]<\/p>\n As soon as we got there, we grabbed maps, as we knew even less than we thought we did. And, although we both rolled our eyes a map emblazoned \u201cPrague for young travelers\u201d it turned out to be super and we went to quite a few of the places!! We spent all four days on our feet exploring the city, but I\u2019d go back in a heartbeat. I\u2019d love to experience it (& Germany) in the winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve continued to explore both across borders and close to home in May. A few activities that I discovered in T\u00fcbingen: \u00a0Kulturnacht The first T\u00fcbingen festival I\u2019ve been! A friend and I strolled around the city after dark, went up to the Schloss to try on VR goggles and see exhibits, went to a performance … <\/p>\n
\n