What a great morning. I woke up at 6:30am Germany time. Now normally that would be WAY too early but it was fine today. I showered and had a great breakfast outside in the early morning sun. I had coffee, yogurt, strawberries, and oatmeal. Its in the early 60s but its a great change from Boston’s rainy/cloudy June.

I had to take a nap little later because I was just zonked. Then we had the Fourth of July Party. A lot of my mom’s work friends came and some brought kids. It was a nice barbeque. I didn’t know anyone but I got through haha. Thankfully the granddaughter of the landlady was there. She’s 23, very talkative, nice, and friendly. She and I got along really well. We met at Christmas but I didn’t really get to talk to her too much then.

So after the party we went to downtown Stuttgart. We saw some fireworks so my fourth of July was complete! There are actually a lot of US military bases nearby so thats probably where it was coming from. It was really dark but here is the best picture I got.

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is a cool city because it is located in a crevise between mountains. It is the place of the first tv signal, first car (a Mercedes of course!), and also home of Hugo Boss. My friend and I had a good time. We saw one view of Stuttgart then went into the downtown to a Starbucks.

It was a little taste of home. Thankfully the coffee in Germany is like the coffee at home- you actually get a full cup of it! In Amsterdam and Paris they just gave you a shot of espresso. Even though the menu had “coffee” and “espresso” they would give you the same thing. I don’t know if it was just because I was clearly American or what the deal was. We sat on the second floor of the Starbucks sipping out of real mugs sitting on some comfy furniture watching the people in the square. Its funny because in Germany it is legal to drink in public so tons of people were just sitting around with 40s, six packs of Becks, and liquer bottles. There were also a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties that night. There were so many we think there must have been some kind of mass wedding the next day or something. I looked over to the next chair and there was a Blackberry. I thought “ohh someone is going to be very unhappy.” Usually when I find a phone I try to call someone that’s in their phone to get it back to them but this one was locked so we gave it to an employee. A little while later this man rushed in and was patting down the cushions while sweating profusely. We stopped him and told him the employee had his phone. The guy was SO happy. He said we saved his night.

After we left Starbucks (because we got kicked out- it was late), we walked a little way and went to an Irish Pub called Biddy Early’s. I got a Pilsner Urquell. It was good and a whole heck of a lot cheaper than it probably would’ve been in Paris. We hung out there a little bit and my friend got a compliment from a clearly-American guy. Then she showed me a couple other places she normally goes to.

On the way back we saw these three guys performing. They didn’t really have a plan as to what they would play but they were certainly having fun. One was drumming, one was singing, and one was playing the guitar. They didn’t know many of the lyrics from the songs they played. They also didn’t have a hat or open guitar case in front of them so I think they were just performing for fun. They certainly got a crowd. We got a card from them after the show. I tried the link (www.zeitlos-madeingermany.de) but it didn’t work for me today. It was pretty fun to just walk around. The weather was perfect too.

Then on the way back we stopped at another place to check out another view of Stuttgart. Then back home. It was a very fun Fourth of July!