We left Amsterdam and took 3 different trains to get to Heidelberg. I had hoped to see fields of tulips on this train ride, but unfortunately we mostly just saw rural, green areas. I sat next to a family from Holland with a 7 month old baby girl. The mom was Hungarian and the dad was Dutch. They had met in England while doing philanthropic work and therefore also knew English. They spoke all three languages to the baby, hoping she'd grow up trilingual. If there is one thing I'd like for America to adapt from Europe, it would have to be their insistence on learning multiple languages from a young age. I must admit that I am quite jealous of all these people I have met that know upwards of 3 or 4 languages.
When we got off the bus at our hostel, I knew right away we were going to love it. It was decorated to perfection with bathrooms nicer than mine in the US. The kitchen was fully stocked and we were allowed to get coffee, tea, or cereal whenever we wanted. We truly felt right at home there.
After a quick but luxurious shower (especially compared to the ones in Amsterdam), we walked down the longest uninterrupted pedestrian street in Europe (or at least that's what someone told us). Mostly it was a bunch of shops and cafes, but oddly enough they also had a Build-A-Bear Workshop. It's always interesting to see what makes it way over from America. We eventually found our way to the grocery store and spent most of our time just gawking at the cheap prices.....
....yes you are reading this correctly. 33 cent beer. Granted the bottles were plastic but it tasted pretty good! Plus the wine there was as cheap as it is in Spain. Needless to say I think I'll be coming back to Germany...although big cities like Berlin and Munich are pretty expensive. I wouldn't mind going back to Heidelberg though!
After making our version of the German dish wiener schnitzel with some of our cheap wine and beer, we decided to go to Heidelberg's version of Franklin Street. It wasn't nearly as big as Franklin of course, but it was still pretty cool. We had to go back to get Gabi and Rachel's IDs though because they wanted them to prove they were 18 (something that hasn't ever happened to us in Spain). Luckily our hostel had a great location and was only about a 5 minute walk away. While we were in one of the bars on the street, a guy told us that it was the best bar in Heidelberg because it played "hard rock". Well I'm not sure what hard rock means to you guys, but to us this could not have been further from "hard" rock. We all sang and danced to "Hit the Road Jack" and various songs by Sum 41 and Linkin Park. Overall it was highly entertaining to see what these German students listened to. We also met a guy who told us he loved watching The Big Bang Theory. Interesting people in Heidelberg!
On Friday, Colleen and I woke up long before Rachel and Gabi did so we decided to make the most of our morning. We ventured up to the Heidelberg castle and explored that area for a while. It was absolutely beautiful and free to walk around (any Barber's favorite price!)
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| View of the castle at night from the square by our hostel |
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| At the castle |
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| Better view of the whole thing |
After eating a quick lunch at the house, Colleen and I went back out to meet up with Gabi and Rachel. We found them talking to a Korean man who was visiting Heidelberg. To say he knew English would be far too generous of a statement. He apparently had never seen someone as tall as me and insisted we take a picture together. So awkward, but the pictures are hilarious. He then wanted a picture with all 4 of us and insisted he hold mine and Colleen's hand. His name was Son Dong Rak (which he had to write down for us to understand) and he insisted on getting Colleen's email. We'll see if he ever writes her!
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| Wasn't sure why he was trying to touch me... |
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| Notice he's on his tippy toes |
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| Prettiest flowers I saw |
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| Bridge to get to the Philosopher's Way |
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| View from half way up the Philosopher's Way. If it hadn't been so cloudy the view would have been even better. |
We spent the rest of the day strolling around the city. I finally satisfied my week long craving for a milkshake…although it had nothing on Steak ‘n Shake if you ask me. We made some delicious spaghetti with spinach for dinner to complete a perfect day!
In the morning, we were on a tight schedule to get to our flight on time. Ryan Air flies into what they call the Dusseldorf Airport in Germany, but they try and hide the fact that it’s really 70 km away from Dusseldorf in a town called Weeze. We had purchased a “Happy Weekend Ticket” which was supposed to be good for unlimited travel on regional trains for up to 5 people (for only 40 euro, we considered it to be a steal). The only part we forgot to really consider is just how inconvenient it is to travel only using regional trains. The originally itinerary we figured out had us taking 5 different trains and 2 buses with a 7.5 hour travel time. Well we woke up at 6 to catch a 6:45 bus but ended up missing that bus by a matter of minutes. I must admit I started to worry we were going to start having a stream of bad luck (it just seemed doomed to catch up with us at some point). When we got to the train station, I immediately found the information desk to ask the lady to help us figure out a new plan. She spoke no English and was incredibly unhelpful. Luckily, I found another woman who spoke some English and printed out a new itinerary for us. This itinerary had us taking 2 high speed trains which would cost us an additional 70 euros a person to purchase. So we were faced with a decision, pay the 70 euros for a ticket or just hop on the train and hope no one checked for tickets. Being the poor college students that we are, we chose the latter.
The first train we rode illegally was only a 30 minute trip. I kept a watchful eye out for the guy coming to check tickets, and when I saw him I told Colleen and we went and hid in the bathroom for 10 minutes or so. Rachel pretended to be asleep and he didn't wake her up. Gabi just told him her friend had the tickets in the bathroom and he said alright and moved on. One train down. One to go. Only this one was for an hour long with a stop in between. We were all spaced out in the car, and when I saw him coming I immediately got up and went to the bathroom. After a few minutes in there, I decided it might just be best to spend the rest of the trip in the cafe with a coffee. So I nervously waited, pretending to read Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls I had gotten at our hostel. The hour crawled by and when we only had about 15 minutes left, Colleen came into the cafe and told me that the guy knew something was up. He had asked both Gabi and Rachel twice for their tickets and they had both told him their friend had it in the bathroom. Apparently he then went around knocking on every bathroom door insisting the people come out to see if it was me or Colleen. He finally tracked us down in the cafe. I stayed calm and told him our tickets were in my seat, but that I'd be happy to show them to him. I walked back to my seat and got out the ticket. He looked at it and clearly had never seen it before. He then argued, "This is only for one person." To which I showed him the part on the ticket in German where it said it was good for up to 5 people. He then stared at the ticket, completely dumbfounded. I told him the lady had printed the itinerary for us and didn't really speak much English. I honestly think he didn't believe I existed and that Gabi and Rachel were making up a friend named Maggie who had their tickets. After a few minutes typing something into his cellphone, he scanned the ticket and told me not to go to the cafe without giving the tickets to my friends. I'm not sure how we managed to have such good luck on this trip. It might have been the 4 Buddha's bellies we rubbed in the bookstore before taking the second train illegally or it maybe it was just good planning and great convincing abilities. But whatever the reason, we eventually made it to the airport, 5 trains and 2 buses later.
Yesterday was of course Easter Sunday, and all four of us decided that after train hoping we probably could stand to go to church. We went to mass at the cathedral, and I took communion (even though I'm not Catholic). We went out for some cervezas too to get the full experience of going to a Spanish church.
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| In our makeshift Easter outfits outside of the cathedral |
I was looking over a list I made the first week I was here of places I wanted to travel to while I was abroad. I’m proud to say that by the end of it, I will have gone to all of the places on my list and more. I recently booked a trip to London with some girls and I still have plans to go to Lagos, Portugal for my birthday in May. It’s amazing that I’ve had this opportunity, and I have to remind myself every day I am here not to take it for granted.
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