Pisa and Florence, Italy (December 15-17, 2006)

Complete Set of Photos

Isaac, my friend from Texas, had found a deal with RyanAir, one of the discount airlines, where we could fly to Italy for only 1 cent each way! Well, we had to add taxes and such and for me it worked out to 17€ each way, so really cheap! We had to fly out from the Karlsruhe airport though, which involved a train ride, transfer, another train ride, and finally a bus to the airport! The flight to Italy was really short, so an hour later we landed at Galileo Galilei International Airport in Pisa.

On this trip, "We" was me, Isaac, Matt (from Grand Haven, Michigan), Iloylan from Panama, and Carlos and Anais from Venezuela. Issac can speak Spanish, so with his knowledge and 3 native Spanish speakers, we were able to get around OK in Italian - if everyone spoke slowly enough, they could understand each other.

Since we were in Pisa right then, we decided to see the tower at night (we were going to stay both nights in Florence and then come back to Pisa and bum around before our flight back to Germany). The tower was really neat at night, and it really is leaning quite a bit! But, more on that later.

We worked our way to the Pisa train station to catch a train from there to Florence. The trains in Italy were still working (we had heard about a strike that weekend), but they weren't as nice as the ones in Germany. An hour later, we arrived in Florence, where right away some guy came up to us in the train station wondering if we had a hotel reservation. He offered us six beds for only 15 € a night each, and Isaac started to follow him, so the rest of us went along. This hostel/guest house place was only a block from the train station. It was a bit shady at first and I kept thinking about that Hostel movie, but it all turned out OK in the end. He was a nice guy and we weren't robbed or horribly murdered!

After setting in to our room, we went looking for a nice Italian restaurant. We finally found one, and quickly learned that restaurants are really expensive. We had our food, a nice bottle of Chianti, and a "sitting charge" - they charge you extra at restaurants and cafes if you sit down!

The next morning we woke up and wandered around the town for a little bit. There were millions of mopeds everywhere! The streets really are very small, and the Italian drivers are crazy. We watched a stop sign for a few minutes and the one person who actually touched the brake only did so to avoid being run down by a bus!

Throughout the day, we saw a bunch of palaces, plazas, museums, and other various interesting buildings. We even went to the Palazzo Vecchi, which is where Hannibal Lecter kills someone in the movie "Hannibal." We also saw the real "David" statue by Michaelangelo in the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze (pictures are forbidden in there, the picture here is of a replica in the Palazzo Vecchi with me as scale). As Isaac pointed out, this is the only time it is acceptable for us to look at a huge naked man!

We also stopped at another restaurant and had real Italian pizza, as well as gelato (I had Nutella flavor!). Pizza here didn't strike me as hugely different than back home! I also ate some mozzarella cheese. Unbeknownst to me, it actually comes as a ball floating in oil. You drain off the oil and then there's a ball of cheese to eat. It's also "grainy," like string cheese, so you can pull chunks of it off.

The next day, we woke up early to catch a train back to Pisa. This time, it was daylight out so we could see the Tuscan countryside as we went through it. It was quite nice! We had a few hours in Pisa, so we just went to the tower, taking the "scenic route" through the city! There were a bunch of tourists around the tower. There's also a really big cathedral next to it. You can climb the tower, but it was really, really expensive and there was a wait for it. We contented ourselves just by walking around and looking at it. I couldn't resist the urge and I had Isaac take one of the cheesy photos where I'm holding it up (and also kicking it down!)




After a bus ride back to the Pisa airport, we took the plane back to Germany. Getting back to Stuttgart was an adventure... We took a shuttle bus from the Karlsruhe airport to the Baden-Baden train station. From there, we took a Karlsruhe S-Bahn to the Karlsruhe main station, where we switched to a normal train to Stuttgart. Then, we had to take the S-Bahn back to our apartments! The day went like so: train, bus, plane, bus, train, train, train!

Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany

Complete Set of Photos

The section of Stuttgart that I live in is called Vaihingen. I'm not exactly sure of the exact status of Vaihingen - it's referred to as a separate city (a suburb of Stuttgart), but it doesn't get its own PLZ (ZIP code) or license plate code. If you look on a map, you'll most likely find "Vaihingen an der Enz." This is a different Vaihingen, even though it is near Stuttgart to the NW. Mine is SW of Stuttgart. It's a typical suburb - there's a lot of apartments, houses, and residential type things. This is also where the grocery store and post office that I use are.

The grocery store is similar to a Meijers, but with way more emphasis on food. It's called "Kaufland", which translated means "buying country." It's the most common store for the university students because it's a 4 minute bus ride from the stop right by my building. In the same mall where Kaufland is there is also an Aldi, a dm store (drugstore for toothpaste, soap type stuff), a Media Markt (like Circuit City), an EB Games store, and many others. I have found many interesting things at that mall, especially at Kaufland - "American Sandwich Bread" and "American Style Pizza" were two of the important ones!

The Deutsche Post office is one bus stop past the grocery store. I quickly learned that German postage is much more expensive than the equivalent back home. The interesting thing about stamps here is that they're mostly sold by machine - you enter a value that you want to purchase and a quantity, and the machine custom prints them for you in that specific value.

One day, I took the elevator to the top of one of the tall university buildings on campus here to get some nice pictures of the city. The sun was setting so the pictures of my apartment are not that great, they will be replaced later. Here they are, with explanations:

Here's the neighborhood across the street from my apartment. There are a few tall office buildings in the background. We're looking to the SE.







Here's my apartment complex, in the middle. It looks like a spiral from the air (or from Google Earth!) We're looking S.







This is the "Informatikgebäude," or Computer Science building. It's only a few years old and is a 2 minute bike ride from my apartment. We're looking to the NE.






Here's view past the CS building. You can see past the houses through the valley to the actual city of Stuttgart. Way in the back on top of the ridge is the Fernsehturm, the tall TV tower. We're looking to the EE.

Last VfB Game of the Season (December 9, 2006)

Complete Set of Photos

On December 9 we went to the last home VfB Stuttgart soccer game of the season. It was essentially like the other game. This time, VfB played VfL Bochum and they won 1-0. This time though, we made sure we bought tickets for the side of the stadium where all of the hard-core fans stay. It made the game a little more interesting! I also managed to get a picture of the beer man who has the dispenser on his back - see below: