lots of catch up

So catching up…Our last few days in Germany were spent in Anni's apartment and hanging about Esslingen, possibly one of the most adorable cities in the world, and Stuttgart, a short train ride away. Our first night we enjoyed getting to know her quirky roommates who will both be hopefully my long standing friends. The next day we walked about the city a bit checking out the old city where there is a really beautiful medieval church and market square which houses a really quaint used bookstore next to a open pavilion with a refreshing fountain. Perhaps you can tell by the number of adjectives in the last sentence that we really enjoyed the old city. Later that afternoon Todd and I went out and met Anni's roommates for a drink before having a small dinner party for which I cooked my now well established mango, garbanzo bean curry and followed that by going out and enjoying some wine in the park. The next day we lazed about because it was raining a bit, tried unsuccessfully to find a luggage store, and organized our bags. In the afternoon Anni`s cousin dropped by to spend the night. In the evening we went out to Stuttgart to have drinks with some of the people from the dinner party and another aupair friend of ours Max who happens to live in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is a beautiful city and I ended up enjoying myself so much that I had to walk the whole way to the train station barefoot crooked on Anni's arm for support. Word of the recently wizened: don't mix Sekt with Erdbeer liquor with white wine with Fig Vodka. No matter how good it tastes or what stomach of steel you think you have. Just say no. What would have been another late morning was destroyed by Todd's sudden early morning (f-ing 7:00 am) desire to cook breakfast for everyone. I’m not knocking it the breakfast was really quite tasty. After a very slow morning we toured more of Esslingen with Anni and her cousin Simon and even made it up to the one spot we had been meaning go to from the beginning. Above the city the hills are covered grapes for a few local vineyards and at the top of the hill runs the remaining side of the medieval city wall and fort tower fortifications. From there is an amazing view of the valley which extends for a few towns in each direction. After the long trek up the hill and a break to eat some ice-cream for, we headed over to the park to the roomies and say goodbye to Anni as she had to go to a birthday party back in Seedorf. Lacking much energy we slowly picked our way home to pack and recharge for a barbeque we had been invited to by some friends of Anni from school. Around 6:00 Vera, one of Anni´s friends from school who is really rad, came by to collect the five of us for the party. Michaela’s garden, where the BBQ was happening was nice a cool with a laden cherry tree and a stone BBQ. Michael, Vera, Todd and I walked over to the grocery store to pick up bread and things to be grilled and came back to freshly made salads and good company. Throughout the night the barbeque grew and grew until there were maybe 15 people when we headed off to Stuttgart around midnight. We spent most of the night sitting outside of the clubs as most of the places we went were packed and the ten of us all prefer different types of music. Ultimately we ended up going to three great clubs and heading home on the night bus at 4:15 in the morning. Needless to say we slept in a bit the next day and did not get up until around 1:00 in the afternoon. Daniel and I went out to get some lunch a bit later and as everything else was closed because of the bank holiday, we ended up at a small Italian restaurant. Around 4:30 we left Anni’s apartment and her roommate Marcus drove us to the airport. On the way we got stuck behind a four car accident and we were literally parked on the autobahn for about 30 minutes. The flight over to Stansted was uneventful following a ridiculous check-in process. After we had checked our bags I realized that I had forgotten my passport in my backpack and had to get my bag brought back out and then check it back in. After that I was really paranoid about them losing my bags but everything came out on the other end so everything worked out ok. After an hour and a half wait at the airport our friend Leigh picked us up and took us back to his house outside of Chelmsford which is as he describes it the beginning of the ass end of the middle of nowhere. His village literally consists of two or three houses and a pub which only serves food two days a week and is run by an 74 year old man. We did not get to his house until about midnight but Leigh’s mom and step-dad stayed up and had tea with us before we all crashed. The next day we had our typical late morning and spent some time watching Sleeping Beauty with Leigh’s mother’s god children. After that Leigh drove us over to a small fishing town called Molden where I got to have a Pukka-pie which is a pot pie that is pukka or tasty. In the evening we had a couple of pints at the pub next to his house and then had a tasty spaghetti dinner made by Leigh’s mom. After dinner Leigh’s stepfather taught us an interesting game called 3-5-7 that he learned from a Peruvian monk while he was stranded in the Andes for eight months. In the morning we met up with two of Leigh’s friends from neighboring villages and took the train into London for the day. Our first adventure in London was a visit to the British Museum followed by a walk over to Buckingham palace. It was the Queen’s birthday but we spent to much time at the museum and getting lunch and missed her arrival at the palace. After a nice walk through the park where we got a view of Big Ben and the Eye we went on a shopping mission in Camden Town followed by a nice hour and half relaxing in a pub close by. We got back to Chelmsford around 6:00 and went out to dinner with Leigh and Sarah at an Italian-American restaurant. Before going to sleep we had to pack as we had to leave the house at 4:00 in the morning to get to the airport in time for our flight. The drive from Leigh’s to the Gatwick airport led us through some really beautiful parts of the English countryside and we also got to see a beautiful sunrise. On the way to the airport we were all wishing that we could stay longer in England.