FMX ’10, Day Zero
As the years before I’m going to blog about the ongoing FMX convention in Stuttgart also this year, starting with day zero, the day of my arrival. I am one of those guys who plan and prepare for everything, sacrificing some vital sleep for the event just to get my dyed hair freshed up for three hours prior to departure. It was in the Europark mall where I picked up Donsch Gröstlinger.
Donsch had been hauling his luggage-caddy for four hours before I picked him up and we put the thing in my car. Then we picked up Paul Baaske in Salzburg downtown and off we went. That was around 4 p.m. so already quite late in the day. And it got worse: Thanks to some unfortunate truck blocking my view somewhere on the German autobahn I took a wrong turn and we lost about an hour while Steffi, my GPS-navi, guided us back on track.
The sun had reappeared on the cloudy sky again, this time below the clouds, rendering the whole land into an almost cheesy orange/purple concept painting as we finally entered the city-limits of Stuttgart. What a city!
“It’s like they built the whole city in a forest” Paul said as I was steering my car down the serpents of the road overlooking Stuttgart. All three of us agreed that we dearly love the city. Stuttgart is the most Mediterranean city you can get north of Milan and, boy, it’s clean and there’s so much to spot: Brick buildings lined up on steep streets, vineyards, stairways for pedestrians, churches made of ancient dark gray and rough stones with vines growing all over them. If you’re into architecture or art, Stuttgart is the place to visit. Especially when a deep orange sun casts its rays upon the roofs before vanishing behind the hills. It was fantastic.
After delivering Donsch and Paul to their hotels I drove to mine where already a gang of my students was waiting outside the hotel. They had just arrived as well, yet already checked in and were about to leave downtown. It was 9 p.m. when I checked into room 210 and was pleasantly surprised by the view and commodities. As last year, it was quite cold, but nothing what a hearty twist on the radiator’s dial couldn’t fix. Then I went downtown again to meet with Paul, Donsch and former classmate and rendering-expert Bernhard Kerschbaumer a.k.a. Kerschy, who stayed in the same hotel as Donsch.
The last years the days of the FMX were blessed with stunningly warm and sunny weather but that evening’s chill promised this year’s conference to be different. As it was getting colder and colder, I was getting hungry despite my hearty lunch of salad, dumplings and a pretzel. The four of us finally found a nice place that still sold food and had a lovely waitress so we sat there outside until midnight. When I finally got into my car I was freezing terribly and was happy to get back to my heated room.
But it was there where I realized that, as on any travel, I forgot something vital to take with me, this year it’s was toothbrush. I pity the people who I talk with before having a big help of strong coffee or a spearmint gum.
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