Day One: 3 Taxis, 2 Apartment Buildings, and a Patridge in a Pear Tree

Tübingen is a land of narrow streets, 90,000 people, 27,000 students, and confusion for newcomers. I arrived in Tübingen around noon at the Haupbahnhof station via the 828 bus from the Stuttgart airport. Though my German is not amazing (yet), the bus driver was able to understand me and give me a ticket. 

Upon arrival in Tübingen, all hell broke loose. Not really, but it was pretty confusing and difficult considering I brought an extra checked luggage. Despite the makeshift straps of bungee cords holding two pieces of luggage together, forming the Optimus Prime of suitcases, I still struggled wheeling them up and down the streets. 

The first real difficulties came right after I arrived in Tübingen. My information packet/emails stated I could either take a bus or take a taxi from the Haupbahnhof. However, they did not mention where in that area I could find them. Buses roamed the pavement like elephants grazing in a field, moving slowly about, but blocking everything behind them, which coincidentally was where the taxis were looming. A nice woman showed me where they were. At first I was terrified because a stranger was talking to me and I could hear my mom in my head warning me about my life becoming the movie “Taken.” She did not kidnap me for ransom, so it ended well.  

If you have a lot of luggage, I would suggest a taxi. You could take a bus, but lugging all your stuff on board is slightly embarrassing and you’ll take up a lot of space because they don’t have a storage area either under the bus or at the front or back like most American ones do (at least the ones I have encountered). You could put your luggage in the train station lockers, but they are small and at some point you’ll have to go back and get it, so you might as well just get a taxi.

Adam, who I met up with, and I took a taxi to Fichtenweg 5, the leasing office. We knocked on the door around 1pm, and were told that we had to wait outside. This was a little frustrating, but twenty minutes later we were let inside and began the process to sign our lease. Though the receptionist did not seem to pleased to be dealing with us, she called for another taxi to take us to Viktor-Renner Straße, where Adam lives, which was really helpful and nice.

He checked in and we called a taxi to take us to my apartment. After a pretty hysterical German-English phone call, we arrived in the French Quarter at Wankheimer Täle 1, my new home. This was by far the best taxi-driver we had. He told us all about the streets we were on, the history of the area, where to get food, and which bus stop would take us to the city center. 

In the email with my address, I was told to go to Wankheimer Tale 9. For those who may one day live there during this program, Wankheimer Tale 9 is in the same building as 7, it just has its own entrance. WHT 7 neighbors WHT 1, and WHT 9 is towards the right half of WHT 7. The office is not actually in the main part of Tale 9, but rather towards the end of the building up an outside set of stairs, with its own entrance. That is where you should wait for the Hausmeister, not inside the main building. 

My apartment is pretty cool. It dwells up floor flights of stairs that will surely mean I will never need a gym. There are twelve students in the apartment, each with their own room. Mine has a bed, a closet/wardrobe thing, a bookcase, and a table with a chair. I have a cool window, but no curtains, and only one overhead light, so it is slightly dark. Though I brought three suitcases total, I must say my clothes look sparse in the wardrobe. I brought about five t-shirts, three sweaters, two long-sleeve shirts, seven pairs of pants (jeans, dress pant, sweatpant), pajamas, five skirts, three dresses, and a bunch of socks. I will mention at the end of this blog (possibly throughout it) how much of that was necessary and what I should have brought but didn’t.

This ends the frenzy of day one. I shall entertain you next time with: Day Two: A Journey to the End of the Bus Line!