GerBeny: Stuttgart Gearhead Weekend #2

I had a German exchange roommate named Anton at UBC two years ago. A shy, relatively reclusive fellow with a hilarious and outgoing girlfriend from California, he came and left without leaving much of an impression (except for stealing my bowls from the kitchen).

On Friday night I went to the town of Eisenbach (pop. ~2000) for my friend Simon's birthday and housewarming get-together. Two of his friends had lived in Vancouver for a year, studying at UBC and skiing at whistler - what are the chances? After some pizza and conversation, I decided to pop the big question. "It's a long shot, but did you know a guy named Anton?"

Yes. Yes they did know Anton, and even had a class with him. To sum things up: Germany has a population of about 81 million. Less than 100 German undergraduate students study at UBC each year. Anton is shy. Anton does not live anywhere close to where I am now (I think he was from Munich? I could be mistaken). With the exception of finding out I wasn't invited to Anton's going-away party, that made my night awesome.

Anton - if you read this, no hard feelings. Even though I invited you to my birthday.

I was going to go to Karlsruhe on Saturday but my 3am bedtime put a decisive end to that flakey plan. I rode my bike around Donaueschingen instead, and went to the park behind this nice little manor:

Local Royalty

I was strolling leisurely through the park with birds singing and the wind rustling through the trees. Next thing I know these guys decide to fire up a little reminder of my Grade 7 Graduation Ceremony:

Bagpipers. Hooray

With the ambience drastically changed, I quickened my pace.
The rest of the day was spent riding my too-small bike around aimlessly and practicing my photography at the highway, which didn't result in any great photos.

Sunday was a great day. I went to Stuttgart again with Sven from work - this time for a ridiculously large car convention. The Stuttgart messe (convention centre) was packed full with what must have been 15000 cars. Obviously, this made me very happy. Even though we skipped a few halls, we spent 6 hours walking around the massive venue. Just for you, I filtered the 350 photos I took down to 7.