13th March

 On Wednesday morning, I woke up and decided that to get out of the Tuesday slump, I was going to take a walk around the Stadtmitte and attempt to get a little bit lost so that I would better learn my way around the city. (I had a map, don't worry).
   It sort of worked. By that, I mean I never got lost. I did however somehow wind up at the wrong exit from the S-bahn (the stations are underground, and there is a whole pedestrian zone underground that follows the rails, and in someplaces is multi-level with little shops filling the empty spaces). In that instance, I just followed my instinct which was "Koenigstrasse should be straight ahead." And indeed it was.
 * Handy tip to know if you ever find yourself in the Stuttgart Stadtmitte: The top of the Hauptbahnhof (main train/bus station) has a giant Mercedes Logo on the highest tower. So if you can see the logo, walk towards it until you find the station. It's hard to miss.
 
I was on a mission that morning to find postcards as well as spiral notebooks and a couple of folders for my German class work. It was a cold and lightly snowing morning, but it was a very nice walk nonetheless.
 I walked a couple streets off of koenigstrasse and finally got to see areas of the town where the architecture looks old-fashioney and what I would have expected of an older European town. I found a tea shop- they sell tea cup and pots as well as actual tea for drinking in the store! There was also a little dirndl shop that I will definitely return to! It had a creepy mannequin outside wearing lederhosen, and I was actually afraid to approach the shop at first because I thought it was a real person and that he was going to try to get me to buy stuff- or glare at me angrily as I browsed through the window.

 

 

[the "Hans im Glueck" fountain. It's based off a Grimm's tale. the gold plates on the cage surrounding the center are pictures from the story, so if you walk around it, you king of get the gist of the story. In the middle of the fountain is Hans standing over a pig.]

 

  I also kept my eye out for some good looking restaurants, and indeed I saw a few. There were butcher shops and bakeries on just about every corner! I found the Stuttgart Rathskeller! A REAL Rathskeller!
 * Basic info about Ratskellers:  The parliament/government building of a particular city or place is called the Rathaus. (Rat = advice, counsel or council. Haus  house) The word for basement in German = Keller. Therefore, as Ratskeller in traditional German culture is a bar/restaurant in the basement of the Rathaus.
 
  The Rathaus of Stuttgart sits in front of a large square called the Markt platz, which is lines with shops, and which hosts a large flee-market type thing on Saturday mornings- something I need to check out this week.
 I found a delightful paper/scrapbooking/little gift things type of store, but of course they didn't have school supplies type paper.
So onward I went to what looked on the outside to be a normal sized bookstore in the heart of Koenigstrasse.
 But my Goodness was I mistaken! It has to be the 2nd largest bookstore I've ever been in (after Powells in Portland, which ranks in size as one of the top, I do believe). Seriously, this place had multilevels, and it was somewhat of a split level too, which made it fun to explore, and nearly get lost it! 

(Emily: These are all little yellow Reclam books- like the ones you got me from your bookstore!)

 
 However, to my surprise and dismay, the only writing notebooks they carried were super nice leather bound ones starting at 10 Euro.  Nope, not for me.
 

Therefore, I continued my journey, following great looking window displays until I found myself in front of giant industrial doors leading inside the Markthalle- an enormous food market! I only walked down one aisle before I decided I should probably not explore the place until I was in need of fresh groceries, but just from where I passed, I saw candy and chocolate stands, bread places, lots of meat, fish, ...  It requites further assessment for sure.
 
[---> I thought my grandma was the only person who even hung easter eggs on her tree. Turns out it must just be a German-y thing!]

 
 
I continued walking back towards the Hauptbahnhof, passing the Schillerplatz ----> 
on the way, as well as stopping at a tourist information center. I was surprised at how nice the place is; with brochures lining the walls, and a whole portion dedicated to merchandise that you can only get in Stuttgart: wines, whiskey, gin, honey, and a bunch of stuff that says "Stuttgart" on it- include a Spaetzle cutting board and special knife!
 



Found this outside a tabacco shop under/in a passage that goes through some king of Parliament/ court building (its in the far corner in the schillerplatz picture)
 



 - I learned today that there is a winery in the black forest where you can stay overnight in old wine casks! They're renovated like tiny houses, and placed outside with magnificent views of the vineyards.
(I WANT TO GO!)
 


       Before heading to class, I wanted to check out a place on my city map that said "Russian Kirche" (kirche= church) with a U-bahn station close by called simply "Russian Kirche." It was about a 5 minute ride away and 4 stops, and indeed there is a very pretty Orthodox church. It appears to be in an older part of the city, in the sense that there's not much near by except apartment buildings, but a sign said there are two Sunday liturgies: 7am and 10am, and that the church is open for public visits on weekdays from 4-7pm. I'm pretty sure that the name is St. Nikolaus. How....normal of a Russian church.
I'm not sure if the liturgy is in Russian or German, but I'll try it out on Sunday anyway!

 
 
And that for the most part is how my stadtmitte exploration went.
And this is how I lamely sign off on a blog.

Tschuss.