decided to take a leave from Göttingen and discover a bit of the southern Germany. Our mission was to visit Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, which is about 15 min up north from Stuttgart. The plan was to go on Wednesday noon and get back before Friday evening. We checked the Flixbus schedule and reserved an Airbnb residence for two nights from Karl-Pfaff-Straße 60 in Stuttgart. The weather was good and everything seemed clear and ready to go.
Well, things didn't get off to a great start. The Flixbus we meant to take was supposed to arrive at 12:20, but it proved to be a little more "flexible" with the schedule than that. It didn't show up at all. Or if it did, it left 20 minutes early (we saw this bus leaving, but weren't sure if it was ours). So, after waiting for more than an hour or so, me and the boys decided to give up and go to the Innenstadt for some beers.
We were one happy fellas. We drank beers, played some card games and made some jokes about how nice it is to be in Stuttgart – even though we obviously weren't! But at least we had some fun while waiting for the next "flexible" bus that was supposed to arrive at 16:30.
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| We got back to Innenstadt to Alfredo Espresso Bar, which is reasonably crowded during summertimes. |
Tick tack, tick tack...
The clock hit 15:30. We knew we wanted go back to the bus station early for this "flexible" bus in case it might use its flexibility again and leave half an hour early. So we went back to the bus stop and our ride eventually arrived, except this time, half an hour late. Nevertheless, we were just happy to be finally on board and on our way to Stuttgart. Our invasion of southern Germany was about to begin!
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| We had to switch our Flixbus in Frankfurt. It brought me back some sweet memories of my very first day in Germany. Even though it was pretty hectic, it was still great time exploring Frankfurt am Main with my German friend Michaela on my day of arrival. It was also quite scary of an adventure for me, because my train had been cancelled and I had no idea! However, I was able to pass the trial and find my way to Göttingen with the next train. |
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| Deutsche Bahn gave me some hard times on my first day in Germany. Sometimes, I believe that God has a little sense of humor, when he makes us feel like we're in trouble, even though we are totally safe in His hands. It works for our best by strengthening our faith: we must learn to trust in God under any circumstances, no matter how chaotic things might appear in front of our eyes. |
The bus finally took us to a small town called Kornwestheim, which was still pretty far from our final destination, about 15 km north of Karl-Pfaff-Straße 60 in Stuttgart. We had arrived at night so there wasn't any public transport. Luckily, after venturing around the nearly empty railway station of Kornwestheim for a while, we stumbled across a taxi. We used our opportunity and passed the quiet streets of Baden-Württemberg in no time to our house with the night cab. Our room was really nice and we could finally get some much needed rest...
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| "The meditating frog" was greeting us in the showcase window next to our house door. |
The next morning we woke up at 9 AM and were ready to explore Baden-Württemberg. Our plan was to see the castles of Ludwigsburg first. The mission ended up as successful. After that we departed back in Stuttgart since I was supposed to meet one of my German friends,
Sara, while the Chinese boys went to visit the Porsche museum. My friend Sara was able to show me a bit around in Stuttgart and I was very delighted, of course. After our farewell, I got back with the Chinese boys again. We were hungry so we needed to find a place to eat. And what a better place to eat with two Chinese guys than a Chinese restaurant!
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The baroque castle of Ludwigsburg. Despite the clouds in this picture, the weather was mostly nice and the temperature was neither cold or warm.
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| A nice statue in the city center of Stuttgart. |
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| Somewhere in the corners of central Stuttgart, we navigated to this Chinese restaurant. It was a small but a cozy place. |
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| Eating Chinese with the Chinese! The Chinese style of ordering dishes jointly and eating from all of them together is a nice custom. The food was also good-looking and very tasty! I would recommend these dishes with the Chinese Wall wine. |
Before we went to sleep we still wanted to go to see the Fernsehturm (TV tower), which located quite near to our residence. The views over the whole city of Stuttgart from the 217 meter tall building were simply breathtaking at night. After a full-day like that it was finally time get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow. We still had to visit the Mercedes-Benz museum early in the morning before taking the bus back to Göttingen, again at 12:20.
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| Fernsehturm in Stuttgart. Reminded me a bit of the Näsinneula in Tampere Finland, which I actually visited almost exactly a year ago. |
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| A beautiful nightly overview of Stuttgart. |
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| I was even box seated to watch American football all the way up from the top! How cool is that? |
The next morning we departed from Chen, because he had promised to visit his friend who lived in Karlsruhe. So I was left together with Anthony now to explore the Mercedes-Benz car museum in Stuttgart. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to visit there. It's not just for the car freaks out there, but definitely worth going for anyone even with the slightest interest in cars, history, industry or whatever. I would go there again anytime.
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| The Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart. |
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| Sometimes I just can't help but to feel amazed in the face of human inventions and creativity. It's sometimes mind-boggling to think what the human mind and labor can achieve, when it puts an effort on something. Just imagine how it all developed from the one horse power cart vehicles you see on top to this forceful F1 car that has almost the power of thousand horses in it! |
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After visiting the Mercedes-Benz museum, me and Anthony were ready to head back home to Göttingen. We took a one-way Flixbus, so we wouldn't have to switch the bus during the trip. Surprisingly, the bus was on schedule and we were just so relieved and relaxed to be finally on our way home. But little did we know what was still lying ahead of us... What supposed to be a nice relaxing way back home, turned almost into a nightmare!
We traveled as far as the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) of Würzburg for a short stop, until a lightning struck from a bright blue sky. The driver announced that the bus was broken (whether it was leaking fluid or whatever) and we cannot continue riding with it any longer. We were laughing at our bad luck with Flixbuses, but also very frustrated about the whole situation. As the bus company couldn't provide any alternative transport, we needed to find our own way back home. It was time to get creative, MacGyver style!
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| Mission Compromised. The disaster in Würzburg forced us into a rational decision making, even to the brink of desperation. |
We put our heads together with Anthony and tried to figure out a solution. I saw there was an ICE train leaving from one of the tracks to Göttingen in less than ten minutes. Given that the ticket price for ICE was so high (70 €) and we technically had a justified reason to get back to Göttingen free of charge, that's when I proposed this crazy idea to Anthony: we will take the next ICE train and travel as fare-dodgers without paying the tickets!
Anthony wasn't completely sure if that was a good idea. Neither was I, but we were still going to execute it. We were now in a hurry because there was only 5 minutes left for the train. No time to think rationally anymore. At first, we struggled to find the right track and I went almost nuts shouting around like "Where the hell is it?!". Finally, when I found the right track I had lost Anthony. Luckily, I saw him on the other side of the train track and shouted that he needs to get on this side. While doing that I also happened to notice two police officers standing on the other track, which made my heart pound. They were probably waiting to arrest someone who was fare-dodging in another train! What happens, if we get caught as well and the police will arrest us? At that moment, I was really starting to feel uneasy.
The train arrived, but I was still without Anthony. I hopped into the train and was hoping that Anthony had done the same as well. So he had and I finally saw him in the train on the other end of the coach. Anthony reached me and we were standing at a doorway together. Suddenly, I saw a man who appeared like the ticket inspector (which in the end I think wasn't) standing nearby, so we decided to relocate ourselves in another doorway.
Soon as we got there, we saw the actual ticket inspector approaching from the coach in front of us. As the panic increased, I quickly whispered to Anthony: "Hide in the toilette!". So we occupied two opposite toilets nearby simultaneously (not suspicious at all) and luckily both of the utility chambers were free. The situation had the elements of both drama and comedy at the same time. "Is this really happening right now?", was the question inside my head. My feelings were mixed with tension, fear and laughter.
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| The struggle is real. An actual picture of me inside the DB toilette. My face was partially red and my ears were totally burning the whole time from all the tension. Someone also tried to turn my door knob, which was followed by a German conversation at the corridor. At this point, I was sure we had been caught and the ticket inspector would wait for us outside. |
Besides taking some selfies, I also had time for a short prayer in the toilette. Basically, what I told to God was that "I'm not here because I want to experience the thrill of doing something illegal, I just want to get back home as soon as possible. Let us get through this without getting caught or if we do get caught, give us a way out of that situation as well." That was my short prayer – I was laying the whole crazy situation into the hands of the Almighty, for both me and Anthony.
While still hiding inside the toilets, we were texting about our next move with Anthony. After a little while, I was supposed to be the first one to open the toilet door and clear the way. Due to poor communication however, we ended up opening the doors simultaneously (and again, not at all suspicious!), which was then followed up by a casual "Hi man, what's up?" greeting after. Then we continued to search for free seats somewhere close by. We went back to the coach we originally came from, and successfully found seats for ourselves. But the torture was yet far from over...
I was able to find an empty seat next to a lady, but she ended up offering me the window seat since she was leaving at the very next station. Anthony was sitting on the gangway, on the other side to the left, one row in front of me. But suddenly, the ticket inspector surprised us and came right from behind... Yikes! We had made a huge mistake. We thought we had spend enough time in the toilets, so that all the tickets were inspected already. There was surely no escape from this one anymore. We were going to get caught and probably thrown into a jail for the rest of our lives for this fraud!
I just stared outside the window and my heart just stopped as I didn't even move a muscle. And for my incredible luck, the ticket inspector just passed me by after checking the ticket from the lady that sat right next to me! I didn't even have to exchange a word with him! But the worst was not over yet. The ticket inspector then stopped next to Anthony and asked him for a ticket! I felt absolutely horrible for him, because now I thought I was getting away with it but he wasn't. Anthony took a desperate glimpse at me and I just tried to make some hand gestures like, "Act like nothing! Act like nothing!". In the end, Anthony ended up saying something like "I have already shown my ticket" and the ticket inspector totally bought it! I couldn't believe my eyes. I remember experiencing so much joy and gratitude for this blessing. I guess God had truly answered my toilette prayer, after all.
After that Anthony could stay quite relaxed and "sleep" for the rest of the journey. However, I was still feeling quite restless and unsafe. I couldn't be sure if the ticket inspector was still going to ask me for a ticket or not, now that the lady next to me was gone and I was sitting alone in my place. So just in case, I decided to hide inside the toilets after each and every station. There was still three more stops left before Göttingen, so three more toilet breaks for me as well to avoid the ticket inspectors. The situation was both stressful and hilarious at the same time. But the master plan ultimately worked and we finally got out from the train at our station, without no one even noticing anything suspicious!
Hooray!
I think we were the two happiest passengers on planet earth that day, when we stepped outside the train at the main station of Göttingen with Anthony. It never felt so good to be back home again! A story definitely worth telling my children and grandchildren one day...
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