BBQ, France, and hanging out:
This weekend was relatively laid back after the last couple. On Friday night I went to a BBQ with a small group of people from the college group at church. We went to a small park SE of Stuttgart [Here], with a view out over the city. One of the guys (Micah) is able to get stuff from on base (near the church), so we had good 'ole american burgers. (He also hooked me up with peanut butter... the main american staple I was missing.) Both Micah and another guy (Martin) play guitar so we made sure there were a couple acoustics out there and jammed late into the night until we got rained out at around 2 by a thunderstorm.
On Saturday I took my token trip to France for the summer. I went to Strasbourg (The "Capital of Europe"), which is just over the border from Germany--about a 2 hour train ride [Here]. It dates back to medieval times, and quite a few of the buildings and a few towers have survived. They were having a huge flea market thing where half the city was trying to sell cheap sandals, flashy clothes, and glitzy jewelry to the other half of the city and the tourists. There were endless booths clogging the streets block after block in the old city and it got somewhat oppressive.
The old city was nice enough when I could get free of the congestion. It has the tallest cathedral tower in France, in the gothic style. Several
waterways meandered around the area, and there were many flat-bottomed tourist barges navigating the locks and channels. There were also a lot of pedestrian streets lined with buildings that could have dated from the medieval times.
European parliament
I wandered along the main river out to the European parliament buildings. This is the central meeting point of the EU. It was a modern campus [Here], right at the crossing of two waterways. After this, I wandered back around to the remaining towers on the other side of the old city, chilled at a park for a w
hile, then caught a train back at around 5:00.
Everyone's heard stories about the French, but after going there myself, I believe half of them. I don't speak a word of French, and even though I was less than a mile from the German border, they simply would not respond in anything but French. (I found out German is no better than English here... both would get annoyed looks and a slur of french in return.) So yeah. France. Been there, done that.
Sunday I went to church, then about a dozen of the college group went out and grabbed Döners--a delicious turkish fast food consisting (usually) of pitas stuffed with flavorful meat, veggies, and an indescribably unique but good sauce. (They are all over in Europe... I can only hope they make it to America sometime soon!) We all went to a nearby park and ate. Coincidently a couple acoustic guitars had been thrown in, so a good portion of the rest of the day was spent hanging out in the park playing guitar. All in all, it was a good weekend of jamming on guitar, chilling with people from church, and forming my own opinions about France.
This weekend was relatively laid back after the last couple. On Friday night I went to a BBQ with a small group of people from the college group at church. We went to a small park SE of Stuttgart [Here], with a view out over the city. One of the guys (Micah) is able to get stuff from on base (near the church), so we had good 'ole american burgers. (He also hooked me up with peanut butter... the main american staple I was missing.) Both Micah and another guy (Martin) play guitar so we made sure there were a couple acoustics out there and jammed late into the night until we got rained out at around 2 by a thunderstorm.
On Saturday I took my token trip to France for the summer. I went to Strasbourg (The "Capital of Europe"), which is just over the border from Germany--about a 2 hour train ride [Here]. It dates back to medieval times, and quite a few of the buildings and a few towers have survived. They were having a huge flea market thing where half the city was trying to sell cheap sandals, flashy clothes, and glitzy jewelry to the other half of the city and the tourists. There were endless booths clogging the streets block after block in the old city and it got somewhat oppressive.
Tallest cathedral in France
The old city was nice enough when I could get free of the congestion. It has the tallest cathedral tower in France, in the gothic style. Several
waterways meandered around the area, and there were many flat-bottomed tourist barges navigating the locks and channels. There were also a lot of pedestrian streets lined with buildings that could have dated from the medieval times.European parliament
hile, then caught a train back at around 5:00.Medieval fortifications
Everyone's heard stories about the French, but after going there myself, I believe half of them. I don't speak a word of French, and even though I was less than a mile from the German border, they simply would not respond in anything but French. (I found out German is no better than English here... both would get annoyed looks and a slur of french in return.) So yeah. France. Been there, done that.
Sunday I went to church, then about a dozen of the college group went out and grabbed Döners--a delicious turkish fast food consisting (usually) of pitas stuffed with flavorful meat, veggies, and an indescribably unique but good sauce. (They are all over in Europe... I can only hope they make it to America sometime soon!) We all went to a nearby park and ate. Coincidently a couple acoustic guitars had been thrown in, so a good portion of the rest of the day was spent hanging out in the park playing guitar. All in all, it was a good weekend of jamming on guitar, chilling with people from church, and forming my own opinions about France.
posted by Jon Hiller at 12:47
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