Many a moon has passed since I wrote in this blog - mainly a pandemic, but some other stuff too. Buying a flat. That sort of thing. I did end up heading out on that Cyprus internship mentioned in the last post. I did keep a diary of sorts about that - and will write that up soon, but I find myself in Germany!
Short story long: At the end of last year I decided I wanted to finally get good at guitar. Or at least, get to a standard I find acceptable. It led me to source a guitar teacher. That led me to definitively list all of the songs I would like to play - so that I could give that to the teacher and they could better structure what to teach me. During that process I found a couple of songs by a folky singer-songwriter called Joshua Hyslop, Spotify informed me he was on tour. Looking at the dates I saw that he would be playing in Brighton where I live! I had to book that. I thought - what better way to gain inspiration and motivation that to actually go and see him live!
I continued to build up my list of songs I'd like to learn. At the "end goal" level of fingerstyle - there were some songs played by an exceptional guitarist called Tommy Emmanuel. Spotify informed me he was also on tour. I checked the dates, and at that exact moment he was in the US and would then head to Europe, before finishing in Australia where he hails from. Well since I was on a "let's get inspired by guitarists" kick, and had just booked to go see Joshua Hyslop I thought: well why the hell not go see Tommy Emmanuel too?
At that time it was early December, and the notice was way too short to go to the US. I did seriously consider Australia, which would have been around March. However I decided that was too expensive. With the flat purchase I was slightly financially "winded" so didn't feel in a position to be forking out thousands on a lavish trip to oz (although that is on my bucket list!). So that left me looking at Europe dates in February. Eventually I settled on Stuttgart. Mainly because of the venues I checked where he was playing - most had pretty poor options for seats left. Mostly right at the back & at the edges. But Stuttgart had one available seat fairly far forward.
Aside from that reason, I have also never visited Germany. I had a vague interest in the prospect of seeing southern Germany; the black forest and Bavaria. So with that I started booking things*. The plan: 3 cities over 10 days. I start with Stuttgart, capital of Baden-Wuttenburg - then catch the train to Freiburg im Breisgau to the south west. 3 days there on the doorstep of the black forest. After that I catch the train over to Munich, capital of Bavaria. There I will be meeting some friends who will be joining me for the final 3/4 days in the city.
It was quite astonishing how quickly the holiday came around. Maybe it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise since it was only a little over 2 months. I caught a national express coach to Heathrow, hopped on the plane and it was a little over an hour before we were descending through the bright white clouds into the murky winter evening over the frosty forested countryside outside Stuttgart.
It felt slightly surreal, and the book of Grimm's fairy tales I bought at the airport seemed like an appropriate accompaniment to the journey.
It was lightly snowing, dark and very cold as I stepped off the plane. I was picked up at the airport by my transfer driver . His car was a mega modern Mercades. So modern in fact that I was not able to find the handle to shut the door on the sleek ergonomic interior with it's shiny finish and intricate lighting system.
It was getting a little late when I was dropped off at the hotel. Feeling a bit sleepy I decided to just eat there. After an exceptional salad with Stuttgart style ravioli and a nice Stuttgart Hofbrau pils I toddled off to bed.
* Not really an interesting detail, but part of this booking stuff was actually be fulfilled as a kind (but late) birthday present later, meaning I did end up having to juggle some stuff
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