Back from Venice.

So, since I couldn't find a reasonable internet place in Venice I couldn't really post until now. But anyway belated ciao from Venezia. I took lots of pictures but I won't post them. I don't have the patience to. You get the idea with the ones I did post. I'll show the rest once I get back.


Gondola service at St. Mark's square. or Markusplatz in German.

The tower at Markusplatz. It has a name I just don't 'member it.

It rained the day before so Markusplatz turned into Markussee. ;) This was right outside St. Peter's Basilica.

We went up to the observation deck of the tower. It was great. There weren't that many tourists that day.

More pics from the tower.

The other side if the square.

Looking down at the basilica, and you can see the water...

The harbor of Venice I guess.

Some cool thing at the front of the tower.

Looking out into the bay.

A gondola

Real italian pizza!

Leaving Venice by boat.

Skip a day. This was at a really nice italian restaurant. I had meat lasagna and a salad.

More purty pcis of the sea.

Ice after dinner.
At night.


Thats it for now... :)

FC Schalke, alles ist vorbei, alles ist vorbei!

What does that mean? Today was the final game of the German national championships (Bundesliga) in Stuttgart. VfB Stuttgart, the local team beat Cottbus 2:1 and reached an overall placing high than the closest contender, FC Schalke. 'FC Schalke, alles ist vorbei, alles ist vorbei!' was chanted everywhere. It literally means 'FC Schalke, everything is past, everything is past.' (they can forget about winning). I went with somefriends at 10:41 am to the Schlossplatz in downtown Stuttgart for the public viewing of the game.


On the S-Bahn. That Ibsi.
Waiting out side the entrance to the viewing area. The crowd was pretty entusiatic.

Such a crowd. All that red and white you see are VfB fans.

More of the crowd.... :)

Finally got in. Red and white as far as the eye can see. All cheering for Stuttgart.

During the game I was too concentrated on watching. But I did make a few videos. I'll post them once I go through and edit.

The glory of victory. The team on the big screen recieving the gold.

Vicotory picture for the team on the big screen.

Since that building in the background belongs to the state, they put out a banner after the victory 'Germany's best fan population congradulates the VfB.' This stems from a slogan of Baden-Württemberg that goes, "Baden Württemberg, Deutschlands schönste Fankurve."

On the right this banner is a message from the state museum, congradulating the champion.

Sven with a VfB scarf.

VfB Stuttgart!!!

The Energie Baden Württemberg blimp.

The pride and spirit of this crowd makes NFL crowds look like they're cheering for a cricket game.

More of this amazing crowd.

Celebrating into the night.


I have loads of videos but I need to do some post production on them. (aka edit) That'll take a couple day or so. Once I get it done I'll post them here and on YouTube.

Put off the posts.....

Since I'm too lazy to sing on to post everyday, I have pictures built up from about 3 weeks or so to post now...


Soooo. About 2 weeks ago we were at the 'Wasen' or the annual big fair here in Stuttgart. Its kinda like Oktoberfest, except its a Swabian version. So that includes, dancing, singing, shooting galleries, fair rides, good german beer, people getting drunk and then hauled off by the police, and crowds of sweaty people. So here's some of the beer: Dinkel Acker Radler. Radler is a mixed beer drink. Its usually 40/60 or 50/50 beer and lemon soda water. Pretty damn good.



This is one of the many beer/dance/music halls at the fair. Towards the end of the clip theres singing going on. Thats called 'Ein Prosit' it goes as so: 'Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemütlichkeit...' then repeat. Its a nice drinking song, and they play it every 5 other songs.


Lukas and Tobi. Oh ze fun vee haf.

Schwäbisch, the local dialect. 'Königsträssle' means little King's street. the umlaut and 'le' ending is a diminuative ending specific to Schwäbisch, equivalent to the more commonly known 'chen' ending. So for example 'bisschen' = a little bit, in Scwäbsich that would be 'bissle.' On some of the train stations one sees 'Bahnhöfle' or 'S-Bähnle'
Old time German and Schwäbisch. Hoim=Heim, (home). Kommet, I dunno. But the whole thing roughly means, methinks, Get home well (in english, maybe something like 'Have a nice trip home').

Jump back another week before the Wasen... We were in the Irish Pub in Backnang... I thought I had some photos of that, but can't seem to find them...

Now 2 weeks ago, one day after the Wasen... The 30th of April. Its tradition for the young people of the area to flock to a certain park in Maubach and get drunk. I didn't though.

The stock for the night. Haha no. I didn't even touch any of that.


Thats what happens at around 12 midnight. The police come, make the people under 18 go away, fine the people under 18 with high percentage alcohol, and the ambulance hauls off the people who got too drunk. Thats one of the ambulances. There were too many drunkards. They had to call in another one.



A very drunk Tobi.

Nadija, shes one of the few other people that weren't drunk in our group.
Day after.

A random picture from school. 308 is our class home room.

Funny bread here. It looks like wood and is hard as wood. :P

Sorg night this week... Another Radler. This one's alcohol free.

Stuttgart.

Today I rode the SBahn to Stuttgart... Heres Backnang.
Maubach.
Winnenden

Schwaikheim

Neustadt-Hohenacker

This is what the SBahn trains look like. This was in Waiblingen station.

Waiblingen.

Fellbach

Sommerrain

Nürnberger Straße.

Bad Cannstatt.

The train pulling into Stuttgart Hbf.

Hauptbahnhof...

Funny ad. The middle parts pretty self explanatory. Its a play on bad german pronounciations of english words. The red part reads: Visit us now! We'll repair your english. Christoph Straße 7, Stuttgart


Thats all for now...