It was a Friday night, 21 October 2022, and I had just finished 2 weeks in Sindelfingen, a small town about 15 minutes drive out of Stuttgart. Having gotten back to my hotel after a night out with my newest close friend, Ebru, I was tired but also super energized because my best friend Anine (with whom I had travelled to Egypt) was already on her way to Germany via Frankfurt to meet me. I planned to meet her at the airport in Stuttgart on Saturday morning.

All my things were packed and after I checked out, I asked the lady at the hotel reception to call me a taxi, which happened to already be right outside the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had a female taxi driver, the first I had come across in my 2 weeks in Germany. She didn’t speak much English, but in the little German I knew, I told her to drop me off at the Arrivals section at the airport. She told me that Arrivals and Departures were the same, so I trusted her and enjoyed the ride.

The weather was perfect, especially considering it was autumn. I expected it to be cold and dull, but it was bright and warm. The moment I left the hotel, I began to miss Sindelfingen. It had developed a special place in my heart and knowing I have a close friend there now made it feel more like home than I had ever felt before. I had already established that Germany is my soul home the moment I set foot in it 2 weeks prior, so leaving now, even though I still had a few more days in the country, felt particularly difficult. As if I was leaving a part of myself behind.

Finding Anine

When I got to the airport, it wasn’t immediately clear to me whether I was at Arrivals or Departures. Despite being in Germany 3 times prior to this trip, I wasn’t familiar with Stuttgart airport at all. I paid the friendly taxi driver and made my way inside. I could see why she said Departures and Arrivals were the same, although this looked more like Departures than anything else. Arrivals was basically 1 floor down, but I couldn’t take an escalator there. I needed to go 2 floors down with a lift and one floor up with the escalator. It took me all of 5 minutes to get from the taxi to Arrivals.

Knowing Anine was going to arrive around 7am in Frankfurt where there would be Wi-Fi, I texted her the night before and said that I’d meet her around 10:30 at the airport. She was going to land just before 10am so I thought I’d give her some buffer to get her bags and get through security. From my experience of landing in Stuttgart before, I knew she wouldn’t have any network connectivity when she eventually arrived and that I’d need to find her the old school way. Thank God I was born in the 80s before technology kicked in, so I knew how to function without a phone!

Even though Stuttgart airport is relatively small compared to other German airports, it was still totally foreign to both us. However, Anine and I have a way of finding each other in the most foreign and crowded of places, even if we haven’t agreed on an exact location. Once, I even found her in peak hour traffic on the highway – those who do the Joburg-Pretoria commute on a Friday afternoon will know what a feat that is.

There were people waiting for their loved ones at Arrivals but I knew I needed to go outside. I turned around and there was Anine waiting right outside the revolving door. When I went through it and called her name, her face lit up like I’ve never seen before. There have been rare occasions where Anine and I were apart for a while and we were both excited, but I have never seen her THAT happy to see me before, neither had she ever given me a tighter hug. That hug said so many things: “I can’t believe I’m here”, “Thank God you’re here”, “OMG I’m in Germany”, “I’m WITH YOU in Germany”, and “Is this real?!”.

I had always wondered what it would be like fetching a loved one from the aiport in a foreign country, but this time really felt different. It was as if I was welcoming my friend to my home town.

Finding our hotel

After composing ourselves and pinching each other to make sure all this was real, I lead Anine back into the airport so that we could take the train into town. It was about a 30 minute ride to the central station and once we got there, I needed to navigate which exit to take. We made our way out and finally resurfaced after holding our breath in an unpleasant-smelling lift (thanks to all the construction) to where Ebru and I had been the night before: right by the famous crêpe stand.

Our hotel was only about 50m from where we were standing but we couldn’t see it, and because of all the construction around us, Google Maps gave us the impression that we’d need to take a long way round. A few steps forward was all we needed to take before we spotted it around the corner.

It was around 11:30am, still very early for check in at the Motel One, but our room was ready and we were allowed to check in immediately, much to Anine’s delight considering she had just spent the last 20+ hours travelling. We were prepared to ask for a place to store our bags so we were super grateful.

Our cosy room was on the 8th floor and we had a decent view out of our bay window. I waited for Anine to freshen up while I unpacked some of the goodies I had gotten for her – mostly Lindt which we don’t get in SA, and an extra slab of local milk chocolate my manager had given me (I had 2 of the same one).

Lunch

I had eaten breakfast at my hotel in Sindelfingen prior to checking out so I was ok, but Anine was a little peckish. Because I had explored Stuttgart for several hours with Ebru the night before and had also spent a few hours in the city the previous week, I was a relatively familiar with where we could get something to eat. However, we had some time to explore a little.

I took Anine to Königstraße, the main street through town which had all the shops and a lot of fast food places like Five Guys. There was no way we were going to eat at any of the fast food places, but it was a good way to get a feel for what the city was like.

There were a number of occasions where I couldn’t believe that I was walking around a town in Europe (it really didn’t matter where) with my best friend. I will probably mention it many times in my posts to come, but we pinched each other multiple times a day to make sure we weren’t dreaming. It was the first time in my life where I felt like a local in a foreign city, as if I were showing my friend my new home town. Although Anine is older than me, I always tend to play big sister, but I’ve never done it as much as I did in the first few days of this trip together. We had dreamed of doing Europe together for so long that the fact that it was happening was surreal.

There were some spots that I had walked through with Ebru that I really wanted to show Anine, and although we were walking in random directions, I had the layout of the city in my mind well enough to know how to get to them. Stuttgart is much smaller than cities like Munich or Berlin, so it’s easy enough to navigate.

After some time, I decided to check Google maps to see where we could potentially get lunch and I found the market hall, or Markthalle. We don’t have many places like that in South Africa so we were both excited to explore it.

The Market Hall is essentially an enclosed area with very high ceilings where different food and fresh produce vendors trade with the locals. You could get anything from cold meats to cheese to coffee to wine. One stall I had to take Anine to was the Spanish one because I spotted hamon, a dry-cured ham Spain is famous for. I had seen it mentioned so many times on some food travel blogs that it caught my eye immediately. I asked if we could taste a sliver and the vendor agreed. It was as delicious as I had imagined. It’s famous for a reason.

I thought I had taken a photo of it but apparently not, so here’s a picture of the Hungarian stall opposite it instead.

Anine and I each got a sort of panini bread sandwich from the Spanish stall – one with Parma ham and another with salami, both with cheese. We waited a few minutes for them to be toasted enough to make the bread crispy and to melt the cheese. We had already decided before ordering that we’d have half of each before swapping so we could taste both – that’s just how we roll because I always want Anine to experience what I’m experiencing, and vice versa.

Beer

We ate our sandwiches at exactly the same pace and just laughed at how ridiculously synchronized we are. The sandwiches really hit the spot but all we could think about next was our next mission: beer. I mean, we needed something to wash the sandwiches down with, right?

I had had a lot of beer in my 2 weeks before meeting Anine, and she was dying to try some. We normally only have beer when we’re together, but we both knew I couldn’t not try the local beer while I was there. Germans are known for it and for good reason. Only when you try German beer will you realise what crap we get in South Africa. It’s fuller, smoother, and more flavourful. It’s not watered-down and metallic. I can barely even stand Heineken anymore. Of course there are some which aren’t as enjoyable as others, but literally every one I had was better than what we get in South Africa. Call me biased, but that’s just the way it is.

I took Anine to another place Ebru and I had walked passed the previous night. It was absolutely packed when I last saw it but now, during the day, I could actually see the building and seating area. We got 2 of the local beer, the Schwaben Brau, and sat on the other end of a table that was already occupied by 2 friends. There wasn’t much seating available so we had to share, but the locals were happy to give us a spot. It wasn’t long before the guys left, allowing us take sit more towards the centre of the table. We moved a little again after some time to make space for a small family we could see were struggling to find space to sit.

One of the things we noticed was how many people had their dogs with them. Pomeranians seem to be super popular, but we saw other breeds as well. Anyone who has been to South Africa will know that there are almost no pet-friendly places around. People always leave their pets at home. Not in Germany; people take their pets everywhere and it was so delightful to see.

Fun fact: My German colleagues taught me that they speak in the Schwabian dialect which, in their opinion, is better than other German dialects. Go figure! Schwabian is commonly spoken in the Baden-Württemberg region where Stuttgart and Sindelfingen are. I think it will be a long time before I learn any sort of dialects – for now, true German will do.

Anine, with her Austrian flag nails (no, she didn’t make a mistake), couldn’t get enough of the fact that she was finally having a local German beer. It was a first for her and I was so happy to share that moment with her. Her look of pure delight and content was priceless.

After enjoying the ambiance and people-watching (mostly the extremely good-looking policemen across the road), we were recharged and ready to explore more. And by “explore more”, I mean we needed to find another place we could try a different beer.

But first, we needed dessert. Ebru had shown me an ice cream place called Old Bridge not too far away. She mentioned that our colleague Björn, who also happens to be an ice cream lover, was a fan, so I had to try it. The queue outside said it all, but it was worth the wait. Both of us couldn’t really stand next to each other inside because it was so packed, so I helped Anine place the order in German from a few steps behind because the staff seemed a little overwhelmed with the general crowd and it appeared as though English threw them off a little.

I was hoping to find the cinnamon flavour (Zimt in German) because I had tried it in Offenburg the week before and I knew Anine would love it, but unfortunately they didn’t have it. The flavours we got weren’t anything exotic, but honestly we just wanted to order quickly and get out of the crowd since we were literally rubbing shoulders with other customers.

Ice cream in hand, it was time to find another beer spot while still getting some sightseeing in.

I opened Google Maps again and came across Schloßgarten which also has a biergarten in it. It was a bit of a walk but we had time, and sunset was only around 7pm. We probably could have gone another way, but I think Google maps took us through the central station because of all the construction around it. The upgrade of the central station has been going on forever and still has a long way to go, so there was no other way around it that I could see, and I wasn’t about to waste precious time finding out considering it was our only day in Stuttgart.

My mom called me as we were heading down to the biergarten as she knew Anine had arrived and wanted to share in the excitement. Anine is basically a part of my family so my mom wanted to check up on her too. Knowing she was with me gave my mom a sense of security because she knew that as long as Anine is around, I will not only have the best time, but I will also be safe. Not that I have anything to worry about in Germany – South African women are built different when it comes to environmental awareness.

Dinner

It may seem that all we did today was walk, drink beer, and eat, but all I have to say about that is that it’s exactly what we did. To be fair, we walked 13 936 steps that day…almost 10km…and I was in my element because that’s one of the things I love about Europe. In SA, I’m lucky to get 6000 steps done in a day, even if I leave my house. There simply aren’t safe places to walk.

We headed back into the city centre and found a place called Peter Pane. From the little time I spent with Ebru, I noticed that there were a few places in Stuttgart with a similar concept around burgers – there’s a set combo where you choose the burger and you get either chips or a salad, and cocktail with it. I had already warned Anine about this, so now I’m warning whoever is reading this (who isn’t German) that the portion sizes in Germany are massive. So if you’re a bit of a light eater, a burger is a good way to go because the portion size is pretty standard. That’s why we chose this place.

There were a number of dishes I had tried that I wanted Anine to taste, but I wasn’t familiar with the restaurants in Stuttgart enough to know where to take her. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in Germany before we would be heading to Austria so I had to make peace with the fact that Anine would miss out on a lot of the foods that I had very quickly.

The burgers came with hand-cut chips and were delicious. Unfortunately, the cocktails had so much ice that I actually couldn’t finish mine. It was still quite early, around 9pm by the time we were done, but it was a little chilly and Anine was exhausted, so we didn’t want to sit around waiting for the ice to melt enough for me to finish the drink. I knew the post travel-slump all too well and considering we were going to be heading to Munich the next morning, I didn’t want to keep Anine out any longer.

Stuttgart was the perfect way to start our trip. We walked back to our hotel tired but energised at the same time in anticipation of the trip that lay ahead of us. We had nailed Egypt in 2019, but Europe is home. Exploring it is like second nature to me and I couldn’t wait to show Anine why I love it so much. I know I’m speaking about the entire continent, but for the most part, there are some things about Europe that span multiple countries and it can’t really be put into words. You have to be there and experience it.

Time was flying but it also stood still. Every moment was like a breath of fresh air, and I couldn’t wait to be back in my favourite city Munich again.