Last few days in the EU

Leaving EU in 45 minutes and a million thoughts must be going through my head. No wait, Just a few. This is supposed to have been a surprise visit to India and my parents dont know that I'd be coming home, well... Alright alright, they know I'm coming sometime this week! Happy Now? Well, they had to know that I'm coming this week coz if I didnt tell them, I'd be homeless for a week or so!! So, there!

Anyway, Last few days were very very eventful to say the least, I didnt write about this but the decision to fly from frankfurt was a purely economical one and as the number added upto about a 100 euros, It was, well a no brainer actually.

That said, there happened to be a few things that got missed from the budget.
I was going to be in Stuttgart during the BEER fest!
BA has stupid bag rules
and thats it..

So, what happened?

Here's what should've happened: I should have moved from paris to stuttgart over the weekend, passed the key to the landlord on saturday, and spent saturday and sunday reminiscing over the fact that a year and a half in europe is over(Over Vasu's amazing Indian cooking of course) and got the flight on monday, following a blistering drive in a BMW 520D from stuttgart.

Instead, the moment I arrived, I met Vasu and Shrey, they had other plans! And boy oh boy, was it fun.. Soon after gorging down palak paneer with tortillas, we headed to the shopping area, where there was the annual BEER fest!! :) :), filled with wonderful street music, people showcasing ancient professions, street performers and of course.. BEEER(I keep saying BEER, but you have to remember the place we are talking about here, water is way too expensive here ;) ).. So, after buying a Braun Mixie, which my dad soooooo wanted to have since god knows when, and some perfume etc etc, we headed to a garden restaurant where Dr.Gecko(Vinay GK to the world) joined us for some european summer time action, with the usual suspects and a surprisingly sumptuous Green salad...

Later, we headed back through the party on the road for some well deserved, tried and trusted SUBWAY mit Ice Cream YA!!! Before, ccrashing for the day at about 11pm,..

The plan for day 2 of the crazy adventure was planned up by the now german residents(vasu and Shrey) to go to the renowned(for its cake), Schwarzwald, Black forest. So, we had to leave home at something like 530am to catch the train with which we can catch another train that can take us close to the black forest, and so we did..

Quick thought here, if you thought that the black forest pastry(@ Toot C, Mysore for example) was amazing, well you havent seen the place... Photos be evidence, this is a painting come to life, a desktop wallpaper recreated, Pink floyd set, only with the grass greener, the light brighter and the whole nine yards.

We had an amazing time, walking away in the general direction we thought the gorge(I dunno what its called, will update) was at and in the meantime, kept pulling each others legs, discussing photos, germany Vs france, India and everything else under the sun.

Soon, we were going through what looked very much like the insides of the forest, and then when a german(no points for guessing, he had a map, wasnt lost and we kinda were) told us how to get to the place, we were in the element. In the midst of beautiful landscapes, as clean as a newly waxed merc, with a beautiful stream, place for barbeques, huts, I mean, the works... Wonderful is the best word I can come up with my limited vocabulary, but smarter people would've written poems about it, So why not I just let them..

I'll let the photos give out the details, but eventually, we headed out the forest, after just 2 hours, but with about 10Km walked, with the ups and dow, slippery terrain and everything else to boot. Achievement indeed..

By the time we headed out of the forest, we had been trekking+walking for about 3.5hours and all this with a breakfast that was 2 croissants and a coffee, so were getting a bit tired and started trying to slow down cars we could see, but made sure we made a bit of a sorry and lost face so we would actually get picked up.. And with the very first car, we struck gold!! However, when I asked him if he was going to loffingen, which is where we wanted to go, he said go this way, then turn right and its about 4km, and you're there.. A bit disappointed, but still spirited, we walked on...

In a few mins, we were on the main road to loffingen and with renewed energy to ask for a lift, showed our hand to the first car that came along, and what do you know, it was Mr.Patrick and Pascal, who were the guys in the car who gave us the directions(ref prev paragragh) and they agreed to drive us there.. WOOHOO..

On the way, we discovered that there was yet another beer fest going on in the small village, and these guys had their own store to manage there... And, super lucky for us, this was a fest that took place once in 2 years!!

So, once there, we were educated on the way beer was measured in this little hamlet, in metres!! Say what? Yup, its 10 beers on a single plank of wood of 1 metre, NEATO ;) .. So, as we discussed all that we were doing and India and Blah blah, we enjoyed some german food, don think vasu and shrey did, but I kinda did, No vasu, dont tell anyone ;) ..

Soon after, it was time to grab the last piece of blackforest cake available and scoot through to catch our train back to stuttgart..

There, again we met up with Vinay and following some more beer, said adieu to Shrey and decided to get back to Vasu place.

But apparently, stuttgart had another trick up its sleeve. A beautiful observatory style park on top of a hill. It was an amazing place, super clean as usual but with an amazing view of stuttgart and the black forest we had just been to.

All in all, it meant a worthwhile trip to what I earlier thought was an extended industrial estate.

Cheers to my buddies Vasu, Shrey and GK who made it amazing.