My weekend in Stuttgart was a blast.

My friends P. and H. and I grabbed a flight after school on Wednesday to Stuttgart. We flew Sofia to Zurich and then Zurich to Stuttgart. This second flight was kind of silly. Here's why: the flight is 25 minutes long. The train from the Stuttgart airport to the main train station on the other hand is 27 minutes long.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Ferris Wheel at the Cannstatter Volksfest"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Ferris Wheel at Night" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6184119388/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6184119388_de52bb606d_b.jpg" alt="Ferris Wheel at Night" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Anyhow, it was pretty painless to get to Stuttgart. We hopped on the S-Bahn, got off at our stop, dragged our rolling suitcases around for a bit and then checked into our hotel. Then we went to bed.

Because, we're teachers. <!--more-->

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Schillerplatz and the back of Stiftskirche"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Schillerplatz and the back of Stiftskirche" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6182450302/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6171/6182450302_ee0c5f25b9_b.jpg" alt="Schillerplatz and the back of Stiftskirche" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Thursday we had a big breakfast, walked around the city center, snapped some pictures and took a serious nap.  Not bad if you ask me. Then we did some shopping and ate dinner at a (German)-Mexican restaurant where all of the waiters and waitresses were dressed in laderhosen and drendls. That was kind of weird.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Shops selling cool as well as lederhosen und dirndls"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="More lederhosen und dirndles" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6182417986/"><img class=" " src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6182417986_5d71fd759a_b.jpg" alt="More lederhosen und dirndles" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Friday we went to the Mercedes-Benz museum and then to the Cannstatter Volksfest.

The Volksfest was a sight to be seen. People. Rides. Beer halls. Food stands.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Cannstatter Volksfest at Night"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Cannstatter Volksfest at Night" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6184111878/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6184111878_21e9cac983_b.jpg" alt="Cannstatter Volksfest at Night" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

Wow. Wow. I tried to describe it to my parents over the weekend on skype and I am afraid I didn't do a very good job. The part that I struggled to communicate is how big the festival is. I think that most of the beer halls probably seat 5,000 people and that there are, oh, 7 or 8 of these beer halls. Aside from the covered beer halls there are outdoor stands as well.

We ended up in a beer hall on Friday night the first night of the festival. It was intense. Lots of Germans were dressed up in national costume, other groups were wearing matching hats and/or t-shirts and everyone was liberally drinking beer.

In the main section of the beer hall there were long stretches of tables and benches and in the middle of the room a large stage with a cover band which played lots of hits from the '80s, '90s and 2000's as well as a good dose of German pop songs. There wasn't room for people to dance in the aisles so everyone climbed up on the benches they'd been sitting on to dance up there. I am tall but felt short in there.

We gave ourselves a pretty reasonable drink limit/time limit--either 4 .5 liter beers or 6 hours which ever came first. The thing is that's actually a lot of beer to drink and a long time so about 4.5 hours in and 1.5 liters of beer we called it a night.

Between the loud music, the drinking and the crowd, it was a relief to be outside after a few hours in the beer hall. Night had settled over the festival but night doesn't mean that anything is dying down, so we decided to take a ride on the ferris wheel before heading back to our hotel.

This it turned out was a great idea. The view from the ferris wheel at night was wonderful. The Cannstatter Volksfest went on and on and we went home and climbed into bed.