Kiebingen and other adventures

. I left Munich on Friday an caught a ride to Tubingen to visit a German girl who I met in California when she was Couchsurfing at Dan’s place. She came back to Germany after almost two years three days before I came so everything was a bit new for both of us. Flori picked me up at the train station and we went out to get some drinks to celebrate my birthday. Not sure I have ever been so sick since I had food poisoning but I suppose that is only proper for my 21st birthday. When I woke up in the morning Flori’s mother came in my room and introduced herself. When I went outside I realized I was in Paradise. Flori’s grandpa owns a gardening business which is operated on the same property as their home so the house is surrounded by luscious gardens and has a luxury swimming pool which apparently costs 80,000 euros. We spent the morning swimming and trying to clear our heads from the night before. At two Joris, the Dutch guy from my polish adventure came to join us for my actual birthday. As I was still a bit sick we spent the afternoon by the pool talking to Flori’s family. We planned to go to a concert in the evening but Flori was upset because her mom wanted to go as well and so she ended up going and we, Joris and I, ended up going out in Tubingen and having a traditional Schwäbish dinner which was a bit difficult as all three of us are vegetarians and most traditional foods are made with meat. Flori came back form the concert around 5:00 in the morning so she spent the next day sleeping and Joris and I spent the day exploring the forest on and farm land around her house. We picked blackberries and attempted to back pie which turned into tarts because we did not have enough flour and we ended up also making jam with the extra berries. On Monday Joris left and Flori and I really got to spend some time together. After dropping him at the train station in the morning we rode our bikes over to Rottenburg, a village about two kilometers from the village Kiebingen where Flori lives. After coffee we decided to ride into Tubingen and do some shopping and see some of her friends. The ten kilometer ride to Tubingen was absolutely stunning, you are surrounded everywhere by lush green fields and vineyards. In Tubingen we met up with two of her friends and after another coffee decided to go with one of them and rent a boat to take out on the Neckar. First we went in search of bathing suits as none of us had one and then we rented a row boat and spent an hour touring the city by boat and swimming with the current in the river. After we went back to Flori’s house and made Lasagna and spent the night playing music and dancing. We spent Tuesday with her cousin at a lake about five kilometers from their house and so now I am completely sun burned but it was a really nice time. Tuesday night we ate dinner with her grandfather as it was my last night there and then in morning we ate breakfast with her grandmother from the other side of her family in the village before I caught my train to Esslingen. Of all the parts of Germany I have seen the small Schäbisch villages have been the most beautiful.