A weekend in Salzburg

So you might remember me telling you that we were given German Rail Passes by AJY, and that I used a day to go to Oktoberfest. Well, I have 4 days left, and need to use them by the end of the month, so I need to travel, and fast! Luckily, Annika had a hankering to go to Salzburg. Haleigh, Anne, Annika and I decided to go last weekend.

We left on Friday night, caught a train from Heidelberg to Munich and then were going to take a train from Munich to Salzburg, and get in somewhere around midnight. We caught the train to Munich no problemo, chug chug chuging away (except trains don't run on coal, so there was no actual chugging) but then we stop for a prolonged time in Stuttgart. We hear that we are going to be delayed 10 minutes...then 20...5 which would have been fine, if we had more than 23 minutes between trains. Which we didn't, I'm sure you're surprised to hear. Once we got to Munich, we ran like crazy in case our train was still there, but it was just pulling away. We made haste to the ticket machine, and got our tickets for the next train to Salzburg.

After wandering around the train station for a while, we got nervous we'd miss our train, so we hopped on and found our compartment (awesome!), met a guy named Sam from Boston who was under the impression that four women traveling alone needed his help to get in their compartment, which was nice of him, but unnecessary. We thoroughly enjoyed the compartment, and got to Salzburg at 1:17 in the morning. We got out our GoogleMaps directions, ready to head to the hostel....aaaand realized it would take us an hour and a minute, which was not a big deal, we were just like "well, let's hop to it!"

We got a little lost on the streets of Salzburg, and it ended up taking us about two and a half hours to get to our hostel. We weren't stressed or anything, we were just ready for bed, but the weirdest part was how fine we all were with the fact that we were wandering around, without really knowing where we were going. It was great, I had a blast. We all agreed it was a good thing Megan wasn't there (by her own admission) she would not have dealt with that situation in the same way.

Someone was walking in the door as we got to the hostel, so we didn't have to worry about getting in (which turned out to be our downfall, but we'll get to that in a little bit). Went to the reception desk which was (unsurprisingly) not open. We called the number posted, to no avail. Eventually it was almost 4 and we needed sleep. Since we had no other options, we found a room off the foyer that had a few chairs in it, and we dove right in, Anne and Annika taking the chairs, Haleigh and I taking the marble floor (so warm I almost felt cold). We snuggled down (as much as one can snuggle with marble in a room with motion sensitive lights) and fell asleep.

I managed to sleep for about an hour before I woke up, and saw that Anne and Annika were both awake too. I sat up, the lights flickered on, and we sort of sat there, cold and tired for a little while. Eventually we put on all the clothes we brought with us, Haleigh and I laid our bath towels down to create a buffer between the ice cold marble and us, and drifted off to sleep for a short time. We woke up a little while later and once the reception desk was open, checked in, and the lady asked us "Warum habt ihr die Glocke nicht geklingelt?"- " why didn't you ring the bell?"

Apparently, had we not been able to get in behind the young man walking in at the same time as us, we would have seen a bell that would have rung to her room, and she could have checked us in that night. Well, c'est la vie. We paid for our nights (we still had to pay for the night before, due to their cancellation policy, which was a bummer but understandable), got our linen, came back downstairs to eat breakfast and then jumped in bed for a nap.
Once we woke up from our three hour nap in the hostel, we got ready and explored the city! This consisted of us going to the Altstadt and looking at historical-ey things, like Mozart’s Geburtshaus where we took a picture and moved on (that museum=lame). We also found a Flohmarkt where Haleigh and I bought some rings and then moved onto the Festung. The Festung is the castle, and it’s got quite a hike to get up to the top, something we did gladly instead of paying 10 Euro for the bus thing. We stopped at the world’s largest Amber museum, may or may not have (hint: it happened) purchased a present for Annika’s upcoming birthday, and enjoyed the warmth of the museum before venturing out back into the cold and up the mountain.

We got to the top, and really enjoyed the view of what was directly below us and fog. Look…clouds! It was a chilly day, let me tell you. Something happened to my foot (shocked, aren’t you, Mom?) when I was at the top which made getting down the hill difficult, but we got to see the legit Sound of Music nunnery (it was founded in 714! It’s the oldest continuously running nunnery) which was pretty sweet. After we got to the bottom, we were cold and ready to eat. We remembered we had seen a restaurant earlier that day that had delicious-sounding Kürbiscremesuppe (pumpkin cream soup), and decided to go find it again, which was such a good decision. Annika and I shared a bowl of soup and pumpkin gnocci, which was all really good. The soup was aptly described by Anne as being so good “you want to cry and eat it forever.”

We walked back to our hostel and all got ready for bed, luxurating in the fact that we had beds and heat and a room that was meant for sleeping in! We talked for a while, basically having a sleepover (Anne even French-braided my hair!) and enjoyed going to bed early.

Sunday we decided to go do a few things we had missed on Saturday and then catch a train around 13:30 to head home. First we went out back of our hostel and reenacted the Wizard’s Chess Harry Potter scene with the giant board of chess pieces, and then reenacted “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” in the pitiful gazebo (wooden structure with plastic chairs in it).

We went back into the city and got our Mozartkugeln, tried to see another church (mass was in session, so we weren’t able to though) and went to the gardens where Maria and the children run through singing Do Re Me- a great decision. First of all, we found a garden of statues we all had to pose with, we found a super neat playground, and used continuous shot for us skipping through the covered ways, AND we found a maze like in Harry Potter and reenacted scenes from HP. It was fantastic.

About the park: there was this crazy looking slide we found (we were above it, looking at the gardens, and we saw this crazy looking slide. “that looks so crazy. [pause] that looks dangerous. [pause] let’s go!” We did, and it was quite the adventure to get up it. First of all, there were platforms you had to crawl up, it wasn’t possible to just use a ladder (although there was a particularly useless ladder there, taunting us at it’s potential usefulness, had the architect thought it out), meaning we had to heave our bodies up each level, precariously balancing and grasping at boards and beams to gain some control. Second of all, it got smaller as we climbed up it, a fact we should have realized when we saw it, since it was a triangle frame. It wasn’t exactly built for use by four adult sized women. Whatever, we did it anyway, and it was fine. Since getting up was so difficult, we decided we HAD to leave via the slide (something we weren’t planning on doing, since it was a particularly wet day in Salzburg). Anne didn’t want to slide down it (though she said she’d take pictures of us), but we agreed she’d take too long to get down so we peer pressured her into going first (adulthood at it’s finest).

After the park, we went to Schweedy, a Swedish candy store that opened at one, and we definitely didn’t pick our train based on when it opened, because that would have been silly. Annika was psyched to see some candy she hadn’t seen since Swedish Bible School; we blazed through there and moved it to the Hbf, caught the train, and found a compartment that wasn’t reserved until Munich. When we got to Munich, we tried to find more seats, but were unsuccessful, and spent the next few hours crouching/standing/sitting in the aisle next to the compartments.

All in all, a satisfying weekend, despite the problemos we had initially. We all had a great time, laughed so much everyone knew we were Americans (typisch Amerikanerinnen!) and experienced things that were unexpectedly awesome- a trip full of beautiful mishaps, as Annika would say.

Semesteranfang

Well, classes started last week- pretty anticlimactic, actually, but in a good way. My class schedule is pretty awesome- I don't have class Monday, Wednesday or Friday, so the Semesteranfang (beginning of semester) celebration last Monday was something I was able to go to. I was sick and not feeling well, but I figured I should, in order to get the low down on what life's like at the Universität Heidelberg. There were a million and one people there by the time we got there (we got a little lost. Neuenheimer Feld is bigger than I realized. Not the only time last week I got lost there!) but we (well, Haleigh and Anne and I were able to, but we couldn't find Brian and Annika) were able to make it into the Hörsaal (lecture hall) and find some standing room in the back.

For some reason, when we decided to go, we didn't think about how boring these things are in English, much less in another language. After we heard the speeches and presentations, we walked around gathering as much information as we could about the different clubs and options for becoming involved in the community (apparently choirs and orchestras are the go-to social interactions, I got asked like 10 times to join a choir or orchestra. It was kind of cool to be able to say "nein, danke, schon bin ich in ein Chor"- no, thank you, I'm already in a choir).

Tuesday was my first class- Wortschatz B (Vocabulary B) which is a pretty full class of international students, including a lot of AJY kids: Mark, Kaia, Dan, Aaron, Abby, Andrew, Jon and I, making a total of about 30. We'll see if there are that many who show up tomorrow, since the first two weeks of classes are really flexible and fluid. In another week I'll have Deutsche Geschichte (German history) on Tuesdays as well, but it doesn't start for another week. Thursday I went to my Phonetik (Phonetics) class, and by accident ended up in a different, but better phonetik class. I was so excited as we started taking notes and talking- it's really interesting. In that class, the first half is with all the students, then we break into two groups based on Muttersprache (mother language). I'm in a smaller group of people whose Muttersprache is English, Japanese, Turkish, and Korean.

Thursday was also the day I started my Praktikum (internship) at the dai Bibliothek (the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Library) which was great. I'll have the opportunity to do a lot of really neat things through this Praktikum, like join a book club, be on a panel for German students to ask questions about life in the US, do story time for little kids, and just help in general around the library. Thursday night I have a class through AJY called "Übung zum Lesen, Verstehen und Schreiben"- "practice of reading, understanding and writing" with Herr Dörr, who is such a great teacher. The nice thing about this course is that it's really small- just 7 of us are in it, making it easy for us all to interact and have the opportunity to talk.

Looking at my class list, you are probably thinking I have so much free time, which is sort of true, but I've filled it up pretty well: Bible study, choir, Wednesday church and DAI events round out my week, as well as hanging out with friends and exploring.

It's nice to have a schedule again, and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the semester brings!

Fall Break

I thought Oktoberfest deserved it's own post, but it really was just the kick off to my Fall Break. Friday was Oktoberest, Saturday and Sunday Anne and I hung out and explored Heidelberg, on Monday, Aaron and Tom and I signed up for classes, and chilled in Heidelberg, and then on Tuesday I began my trek to England.

Saturday morning found me very well-rested, as I let myself sleep in. I checked my email, my facebook, read a book, and enjoyed the solitude, but after I got a little bored of being alone, I talked to Anne, and we decided to go adventure! We walked to Bismarkplatz, and just took a random S-Bahn. We didn't pay too much attention to where it was going, we just decided to see where it took us. Handschuhsheim is where it ended up taking us- the oldest part of Heidelberg (as Frau Dr. Heckmann will tell you with pride, it is something like 600 years older than Heidelberg). We hopped off at a random stop, and began walking, just looking around and stumbled upon a cute little cafe where we ate such delicious Pfannkuchen (kinda like crepes, but stuffed with spinach and cheese) and Käse spätzel. We wandered around the rest of Heidelberg and ended up at Aaron's for pizza (delivery- very exciting!)

Sunday Anne and I went to church and made a delicious (and classy, since we listened to Ella Fitzgerald) breakfast of pancakes, and chilled, enjoying a nice lazy Sunday. Finding eggs in Heidelberg on a Sunday, as well as a holiday, proved difficult, but we found a place in the Hauptbahnhof open, and while waiting for the bus outside of the Hbf, met a lady and her cute kid who showed his knowledge of the German language by shouting "Eier! Eier!" at us, pointing at the eggs in my hands. He was so cute, and every time we thought he'd forgotten, because he was looking at the buses, he'd whip around pointing at my hands- "Eier!" It thoroughly amused us.

Tuesday I got up really early (3am), walked to the Hbf (it was so early no buses or S-bahns were running, so I walked) to catch my train that would take me to the Frankfurt Flughafen (airport) where I took a plane to Amsterdam, and then a plane to London Heathrow and then a coach (British English for bus) to Nottingham. After waiting in the bus station in Nottingham for a few hours because Joanna and I couldn't get a hold of each other, I prevailed upon the kindness of a nice man in the Nottingham public transportation office who, after hearing me ramble about 16 hours of traveling and and asking about an internet cafe, allowed me to use his phone and call Joanna.

England was fine, but I definitely missed Germany. Joanna and I had a lot of fun exploring, and enjoying each other's company, and remembering what it was like to see each other every day when waking up (hello, head to foot in a twin bed!)! We went to a wine tasting put on by the

Wine and Spirits Club of the University of Nottingham, walked to a cute town called Beeston, ate delicious pastries, shopped and laughed. We went to the Goose Fair, something we had been told we could not miss, it was so awesome and make sure to see it. What was it? A carnival with English accents and an abundance of hot mushy peas (with or without mint sauce- your choice!) It was cool, but definitely not what we were expecting! The morning I left England, Joanna and I had a wonderful breakfast at a lovely (see how I just picked up the lingo? pip, pip cheerio!) teahouse in Nottingham. It was so picturesque, so naturally, I took a picture (I'm a tourist for a reason, right?)

Getting home from England was a nightmare. It was komplett furchtbar (completely terrible). I missed my plane to Amsterdam (and thus my plane home) and ended up buying a direct (which was nice, but not something I had planned on doing!) Lufthansa flight and another train ticket once I got to Frankfurt. It was definitely a learning experience, and I was so, so thankful to be home. England does not gefällt mich. I realized, through this trip, just how much I love

Germany. I love the language, the warm embrace of familiarity, and very importantly: the efficiency of the Germans (which is not rivaled even a little bit by the English). It was good to be home!

Oktoberfest

On Friday, I went to Oktoberfest with three friends, and it was maybe the best decision I've made since I got here. I had a blast!

First of all, since tents are hard to get into, getting to one early is important, and because we live in Heidelberg, about a 3 hour train ride away, we needed to take an early train. We decided to leave on a train at 4:40am, which would get us into Munich at about 8:15. Our program gave us German Rail Passes, which allow us to have five free days of travel on any trains within Germany. Aaron and I decided to come back the same day in order to use just one day, but Brian and Dan left from Munich to go on the rest of their Fall Break plans. Since we were leaving so early, and Brian and I live on the opposite side of town, we spent the night at Dan's, which is super close to the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof, the central railway station). Brian and I both slept on the floor, which was not comfortable, per se, but it was better than waking up earlier and walking 45 minutes to get to the station!

We got to the station in time to try to get our passes validated, but since it was so early, no one was there to help us. We stood around for a while, and ended up seeing 5 other AJY students who were heading to Munich for Oktoberfest, which was nice. We hopped on our (surprisingly late) regional train that took us to Bruchsal, where we transferred onto a train to Munich (due to the other train being late, we got off the regional train and had literally a minute or two to get to the other side of the track. We all got off, ran down the stairs, across the tunnel, up the stairs and bolted into a car). We lost the other AJY students at Bruchsal, because us four had reserved seats together (best €4.50 I've ever spent. or as Brian and Dan said, the best €4.50 I ever spent for them...they haven't paid me back yet) in the Großraum mit Tisch (in the big room with a table). We all slept most of the way, which ended up being longer than it was supposed to be, because the train was delayed.

When we got to Munich, we validated our German Rail Passes, and then stowed our packs in the locker area of the station. All I brought with me was monaay and my phone (I forgot my camera, unfortunately). We then set off to find Oktoberfest...but got lost. We didn't know where we were going and after a while, used Brian's phone's googlemaps ability (and a phone call to Marcus who had been there before) and eventually found it! Finding it was a lot more anticlimactic than we thought it'd be. It was pretty empty, which, for a kinda overcast and rainy Friday morning (10 am), isn't all that surprising. We went almost directly to a tent, telling ourselves there would be plenty of time to ride the rides or see the rest of what there was to see later. We ended up going into the Paulaner München tent, Dan got carded (the drinking age for beer in Germany is 15...) which was just a wonderful way to begin the day (Dan didn't really think so). We found an empty box, sat down and each ordered a Maß (a liter) of the Oktoberfest, and just enjoyed looking around and talking. By the end of the Mass, I was a little farther gone than I realized when I ordered another, and instead of receiving another Oktoberfest, got a Radler, a beer and lemonade mix (which actually tastes good, but it just wasn't what I thought I ordered). I have no memory of asking for a Radler, but after being told by Dan, Brian and Aaron (also after having received the Radler) I have to conclude that I really did order it.

The funny thing about Oktoberfest is how quickly time passes before you really know it. Eric, our graduate student assistant at AJY, told Dan and me on Thursday night when we ran into him, that you get to Oktoberfest, and you sit down, take a glance at your watch and ask yourself what in the world you'll do all day, and how you'll ever be able to spend 7 hours in a tent, and then you'll look down and realize 5 or 6 hours have gone by and you didn't even realize it. That's exactly what happened! We just sat, drank, talked, ate (the guys all had Weißwurst (white sausage), but I had Kartoffelsuppe (potato soup), which was delicious), sang (ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit, ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit!), made friends (a group of Spaniards sat down next to us, and were kind enough to order Brian a beer at one point, and me one at another) and then all of a sudden it was time to go because Brian and Dan's train was going to be coming soon.

We bought two Paulaner Krugs (what we in the US incorrectly call "steins"), and headed back to the station. It took us a little while, we were all a little shaky (some more than others) but we made it to the station after an hour or so (and a prolonged stop at a McDonalds outdoor seating area in order to let everyone catch their breath and regain their bearings). Dan and Brian headed off to Salzburg while Aaron and I waited for our train. I felt completely normal after a little while, and Aaron was feeling better by the time our train came. It was an ICE (an inter-city express) which was awesome! I loved it! I never want to travel on anything but ICE's. It was nice, and roomy, and fast, and quiet. I slept the entire time, and it was wonderful.

We got to Mannheim and grabbed a regional train to Heidelberg. Once we got back to the Hauptbahnhof, I caught a S-bahn back to Bismarkplatz, and walked home. It felt good to be home after such a long day- I really appreciated my bed!

The whole day was filled with laughter and fun and I had a wonderful time. At first, I wasn't that excited about going. I thought I'd go because it was the 200th anniversary, and I was in Germany, and wouldn't it be cool to be able to say I went? Yes, that's really cool, but at the same time, I also got to be a part of a piece of German tradition in a way that a lot of people can't say they have. It was a cultural experience that can't be duplicated, and a fun time. Totally worth it.