An Aalen Adventure

Today was an exciting day! After either sitting in my room by myself, going into town by myself (grocery shopping, necessity shopping, going to the bank, etc.), and/or going to work, I FINALLY spent the day with some friends. Becca is the Praktikant at the Aalen international office, and Nicki ended up getting a job in Aalen! So off to Aalen I went.

I was given the choice between 2 tickets: the Baden-Württemberg Ticket (for 22€) or a regular round trip ticket to Aalen and back (for about 50€). Uhh... Duh. Baden-Württemberg Ticket, here I come! I could ride on the slower trains (no ICE or IC trains for me!) between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. for only 22€. Worth it.

So I got up kind of early (it was a 2 hour train ride over to Aalen), and made my way to the train station. While I was trying to buy my ticket, I was approached by a man. He asked if he could help me buy my ticket, to which I said, ehh sure, why not! He started asking where I was going and what my name was and I'll be honest - after seeing Taken, I was a bit freaked out. I was ready for someone to approach me and kidnap me at the Stuttgart train station! Anyways, by the end of our conversation, he asked me to give him my ticket once I returned to Reutlingen. After signing my name on the ticket, I had absolutely decided that there was no way he was getting that. It was nice that he helped me, but there is a less creepy way to go about it.

The train ride was nice. I wish I could take pictures that truly portrayed how beautiful Germany's countryside is. The trees, huge hills, vineyards, and quaint towns along the way make for a beautiful ride.

 

I made it to a busy Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and I felt a lot safer, despite my run-in with 'Ali' (the man from the Reutlingen train station). I got some "American Coffee" or Kaffee and relaxed until my next train.

I took a slower, regional train to get to Aalen. Once I arrived,  my friends met me at the train station and took me out to lunch. They gave me a short tour, which turned out to be fun, and then we ended up at a beer garden. The town was almost empty, as it was a Sunday, but that almost made it better.

We sat and chatted at this beer garden for a while. Becca and I had Radlers (German beer that is half beer, half lemonade) and burgers. It was wonderful to talk to Valpo friends living in the same type of conditions as I was. It was wonderful hearing their take on being a Valpo student working with international students and hearing how they did it - how they coped with the change in environment and how they made it through living a normal life.

After lunch, they took me to the international office, at the bottom of a large hill in Aalen, and then up to the main building, waaaaaay up the hill in Aalen, and around the area of the university. It was a good walk! Aalen is an interesting university in that it is really spread out; the buildings are all over the city. The scenery is beautiful in the town.

Cemetary in Aalen

You could see a beautiful church on our way down the hill.

 

After our little tour, we ended up at an Eiscafe (ice cream parlor). I got an Eisschokolade, or a cold hot chocolate with one scoop of vanilla ice cream and one scoop of chocolate ice cream. It was delicious! We ended up meeting another American who was interning in Aalen while we were there. There are English-speakers everywhere if you know where to go :)

My day was exhausting - after not having spent that much time with other people in a while, I was tired! But it was also so wonderful. I was happy to have gotten a chance to see some familiar faces in a new place.