My sister is visiting until October, and we decided to spend the weekend in Stuttgart. Why Stuttgart? Well, two easy reasons…

  1. Oktoberfest. In Cottbus, Oktoberfest was a one weekend, 50-person-max event. They’re 50 enthusiastic people, but still…only 50 people. Having heard a ton about the huge Oktoberfest in Munich, we wanted to see what a “real” Oktober fest was like. The Stuttgart one is the second largest in the country, since we weren’t quite brave enough for Munich…at least not this year.
  2. Autos. Annelise is into cars, and Stuttgart is home to the Porche and Mercedes museums. We couldn’t say no!

We left Cottbus after my class on Friday, and traveled as far as Berlin together. In Berlin we parted ways — due to poor lackadaisical planning, we didn’t buy train tickets in time to travel together. She ended up taking a train overnight, while I did my new favorite mode of transport, Flix Bus.

(Again, let me wax poetic about Flix Bus…it’s a cheap and clean way to travel, and I have been promoting it to other travelers. Dear Flixbus reps, whenever you want to hire me as a brand ambassador, you know how to contact me.) (It’s email. Email me.)

We reunited in Stuttgart early on Saturday morning and explored the town for a few hours. Of course, we managed to find a hidden farmers market right away. It was definitely picturesque, being located in the middle of a beautiful cobblestone square in an old European city.

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We also did a few stops in town to see if any hostels had open rooms. No, we didn’t have reservations already made…see earlier note about lackadaisical planning. But it all worked out! We found a great hostel, got checked in, and met up with Annelise’s friend Elliot who was in town to visit. The three of us — Annelise, Elliot and Elliot (yes, it got very confusing) — headed over to the Oktoberfest.

And oh, what an Oktobberfest it was. It included eight huge tents for revelry, a wide array of carnival rides, and a shockingly high number of people decked out in full lederhosen/dirndl. (See [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_one_page_text_link link=”#languagenotes” class=”” id=””]language notes [/fusion_one_page_text_link] for more info.) Apparently people can spend over a thousand dollars on their Oktoberfest outfits, which seems like a risky investment considering that the entire holiday is dedicated to drinking heavily.

Like this ride, for example…I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea to offer people after a full day of drinking?

Meeting some locals.

Of course, there were also goofballs wearing Mario costumes. We befriended them, because of course we did.

On Sunday, we stopped by the Porche museum. Even as a non-car person, I could appreciate them…they were all gorgeous. Ok, I guess I could imagine driving one of these…

Monday was more adventuring around Stuttgart, finding local art and exploring the town square before we headed back to Cottbus…ready for a vacation from our vacation.

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[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_menu_anchor name=”languagenotes”/]Language Notes

Lederhosen and dirndl are the common Oktoberfest outfits. The women wear dirndl, which look like corset dresses. The lederhosen are for guys — more like leder-bro-sen though, amirite?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]