Day 44: Change of Plans

Morning

Today, I was planning on visiting Heidelberg. It’s just over an hour away. It has beautiful bridges, buildings, and a pretty large castle. Unfortunately, I woke up with a pretty bad headache and my back was slight in spasm. Sitting down was incredibly uncomfortable for me, so I spent the morning trying to stretch. It didn’t really help, so I jumped onto Google to see if there are any massage/spa centers around.

My First Thai Massage

After some Googling, I found a place that was only a 10 minute walk away and I called to schedule an afternoon appointment. This was the first time I’ve ever had a Thai massage. It’s obviously not something native or unique to Germany, but the experience was still worth it, and it did wonders to my body. Trying to pronounce German-translated massage options which are originally in Thai was a hilarious fail. They understood English, so I managed to get by. After my 2 hour session, I had a few cups of delicious hot tea as my body came back to life after being folded like a pretzel.

Evening

This is the last weekend of Frühlingsfest, so there were big groups of people meandering about. Most bars were filled up and clubs had lines out the doors. I stopped by to visit a co-worker for some beers in Stuttgart Nord (translation: north) — thanks for having me, Jonas!

I ended up walking back to Marienplatz from Stuttgart Nord to see Stuttgart at night. There were people everywhere, which was highly entertaining to watch people in the middle of the random drunken shenanigans. As I made my way back home, I popped into a bar called Lennart.

The bartenders can create pretty much all standard and custom cocktails of your choice. They can also create special drinks for you based on what you’re feeling for the night. You just tell them the base alcohol or spirit, whether you want it strong or easy, and if you prefer citrus vs. fruity, and they will come back to you with a surprise.

Going back through my photos, I realize I visited this place a few days ago and forgot to write about it, so I’ll add an image of my whiskey-berry cocktail from Thursday, in addition to the Old-Fashioned I had last night. The main bartender is a really knowledgeable guy, so I foresee stopping by there a few more times in the next couple of weeks.

I stopped by Burger King for some late night snacking and made my way home. Maybe tomorrow I make it over to Heidelberg, but I need to finish my laundry and expense reports first.

Frieden und Liebe ❤️ (translation: peace and love)