Homesick for Heidelberg, Stuck on Salzburg

Thankfully the weeks go by quickly and the next city is soon at our feet. These past two weekends have been some of the best and sometimes I don't see how Europe can get any better and then it proves me wrong. Two weekends ago myself and four other girls tackled the city of Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is a must see, especially for the younger crowd. It has the university there, which allows for a hopping nightlife, but it is also amazing for sight seeing and people watching at the cafes as well.

Coming in after dark to Heidelberg we were without a map and depended only on the numbers of the buses that we had previously written down. (TIP: Write down where you hotel is and what buses to take before you get to the city. It could be late and the tourist offices will be closed. Then you are S.O.L.) The bus dropped us off on one end of the Hauptstrasse (main street of the old city) and we had to trek it to the opposite end. We get to our hostel, which is above a pub, and find out that they have overbooked our room. Fantastic. Luckily the another group had cancelled so we got a double and triple the first night, but only the triple on the second night. Originally we had planned to stay in this hostel on Friday and then another by the zoo on Saturday, but we compromised with the guy and for a really cheap rate we kept the triple with all 5 of us. 3 beds, 5 girls, an extra mattress, and two extra sets of bedding we had to lug down to the other hostel location (I guess this hostel has two different buildings?). We looked pretty cool dragging our Ikea bags nearly 5 blocks down the road. It was a huge sleep over and a blast. 

That evening we were starving and walked past this restaurant on our way to our hostel so we decided to try it out. It was amazing. I had the best chicken of my life with these really delicious potatoes and some German beer. The place was hopping as are most German restaurants. These people are great. All the time people here are making a scene about Americans and how we should be quite and blah blah blah. Our teachers keep repeating this to us and we get tense about how we should act it what situation, but in Germany they are probably going to be louder than you. For example we were at the restaurant and a few tables down was a big group of guys wearing green t-shirts with a stick figure with a ball and chain and a tent in the background. After translating it it said last week of freedom before entering camp marriage. It was a bachelor party! They were singing and dancing and drinking and doing keg stands. It was insane. Then one of them came over to our table with a slip of paper saying that he needed two girls to come over to their table and put make-up on the soon-to-be-married one. Lizzie and I's  hands shot up. They spoke only a little bit of English so that was fun. They'd starting saying things to Lizzie and she'd give me this look of "help me!". The poor guy was trashed and after our doings he looked ridiculous. 

After this happening we returned to the table, but kept hearing some American music playing loudly from somewhere. We asked the waitress and she said, "Oh yea there is a club in the back of here." You have got to be kidding me, that's amazing. We went back there and the night continued until the early morning. We met some guys cruising around Europe from England who are most remembered by their talks of Amsterdam. "You'll go there and do absolutely nothing. The whole time," said Edward (in an English accent of course). "No, no we went to the park Eddie," said Rupert. "Yea and we did absolutely nothing," said Harry. Yes, we met a Harry and Rupert just like Harry Potter from England. 

The next morning we started out the day with our most beloved Starbucks. Everything is cooler in Europe, the architecture, the culture of cafes and long dinners, the friendly people, and not even Starbucks is exempt from this. We walk in and the place has a huge chandelier in the middle and we sat in this little place up these romantic stairs with windows on every side overlooking the streets of Heidelberg. They served their coffee in a huge mug, it was delicious, and I had the biggest dollop of whip cream ever on it. From there we hiked up to the castle, and it truly was a hike. There is no way I would have attacked one of these castles back in the early centuries. It is hard enough to get just yourself up there, I can't imagine doing it with all of your equipment. The castle was neat and had some of the best views of the city. It was different from other castles I had seen because it wasn't one solid structure but open within and at one time encased a little city in it. The best part of the whole adventure was coming out of the castle and playing on these rocks outside. We climbed around, took pictures, and felt like we were four all over again. 

After this we meandered through the streets of Heidelberg, but mostly the Hauptstrasse where all of the shops and cafes are in the old city. We longed for coats that we couldn't afford and stopped for french fries when we were desperately hungry (TIP: The ketchup can taste like barbecue, which I particularly don't find so favorable so if you are skeptical then just go plain). 

Due to our long stay at the bar the previous night we crashed for a little bit after some shopping then started the night all over again. We were dressed to impress and it became one of the best nights of my life. Our group of girls was so perfect that there was no way we weren't about to have another good night. We ate at this cute little Italian place then ventured back to the street of bars and took our pick. Two doors down from the bar on the previous night was one that looked somewhat interesting. When we got inside we saw another table of girls with a big glass bucket filled with some drink and long neon straws coming out of it. We didn't know what it was, but we wanted it. The waitress recommended a long island iced tea version and when she came out with it we knew that was the perfect choice. It had a fire sparkler on the side of it and was filled to the brim. I wish I had a picture of our faces when it came out. We dove in and not long after that the song "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen came on. We sang it, but were kind of embarrassed because we didn't know if we should be publicizing the fact that we were Americans. Our singing did catch the attention of some though. A big group of Navy Seals came over to talk to us after that. They had just flown from Iraq and were "detoxing" in Heidelberg for the next few days before they went back to the states. They were a fun group of guys and it was a blast to be able to talk to other Americans. It was 4 in the morning before we got home that night and we crashed as soon as we laid down. 

A week of painful classes later 10 of us embarked on our trip to Salzburg, Austria. We left at 12:02 from Differdange and didn't get to our hostel until 10:30 I believe. It could have been earlier, it could have been later, all I know is that it was an incredibly long time. Our hostel was really very nice and we had a mixed room for 8 of us then Ted and Steve got shafted to another room with some Spaniards because they signed up for the trip too late. The first night there wasn't too much to do because it was too dark and we all needed to get up at about 7 the next day. The only restaurant, if you can even call it that, that was open at this hour was a kebab stand a couple blocks down. (TIP: When in Salzburg don't have their brewed beer Stiegl. It is awful.) We ventured down the street that we had come in on and found an Irish bar called O'Malleys. Playing American music when we walked in, but having that European/Irish atmosphere we stayed here the whole evening. (TIP: Don't speak German to Irish bartenders. For some reason they have this huge grudge about it and if you are lucky enough to hear the reasoning behind it they'll only say one thing: 1941.) We sat at a table and danced around the bar when our favorite songs came on. The night ended relatively early there, but when we got back to the hostel we could not sleep. Joey and I especially had the giggles. All of us couldn't stop talking about The Office and when Lizzie would tell all of us to fall asleep I'd try really hard then I start laughing at something. That would be followed by Joey and we had a chain reaction of laughing to absolutely nothing. It was so much fun. 

The next morning Lizzie, Katie, and Emily S. went off to the Sound of Music tour, which they sware is the best 37 Euros that they have ever spent. The boys, Katie G. and I headed off to Berchtsgaden where Hitler's vacation house the Eagles Nest is located. We got off of the first of several buses and were greeted by the snow capped mountains in the distance. The little town was beautiful with a river of a blue-green, crystal clear tint running down the middle and surrounded by mile-high mountains. We took our first bus up the mountain, which we thought was going to take us up the whole thing, but we were strongly mistaken. They get you by making you pay another 15 euro round trip to get on this specially designed bus to take you up the other 1800 meters (over a mile high). (TIP: Avoid the right most seat on these buses. You will be the closest to the edge and no matter how brave you think you are, you'll probably be a bit afraid.) It was today that I found that I really have a fear of heights, or maybe I have a fear of being driven quickly up a mountain in a bus with little or no guard rails for protection. Actually, the guard rails wouldn't have been any help if that bus would have rocked the wrong way. We would have been goners. Finally we made it up to the top of mountain, or so I thought. My ticket in my hand from the bus ride was already soaked and now they are telling me I have to take an elevator up another hundred meters to his actual house? These people were killing me. It wasn't until we were all the way up though until I realized how well worth it it was. My fears disappeared and I was jumping from one place up to another and hiking all around. We didn't actually get to see the house because you had to pay for a special tour, which was pretty expensive, but we had one heck of a good time there. His house was on the lower part of the peak and you could climb as much as you wanted to the very tip top. We went up pretty far and I have never seen anything that stunning. 

PICTURES

The trip thus far 

Rain or Shine We'll Find a Good Time

Waking up to rain on our window Saturday morning was not my ideal form of an alarm clock. The drops hit loudly and sure enough when I mustered myself out of my surprisingly comfortable hostel top bunk I found that it was pouring outside. So much for a leisurely breakfast on the patio overlooking the Moselle River. And to think that was the reason Katie booked Auberge de Jeunesse too...how rude! The rain put us in a lull and we moved slowly that morning. In fact we moved so slowly we completely missed breakfast. Had we gotten our butts in gear we would have avoided our first run-in a most disagreeable French woman. It continued to pour, we had our backpacks on again, and we had to walk a good 25 minutes before hitting an open pastry shop for breakfast. Apparently if you order a pastry at the counter you pay a certain price and take it to go. There is a separate and more expensive price if you sit down and they serve you. Do not mix the two! How were we supposed to know, heck that was never any Rick Steve's book that I read. There was no way that we were going back out into the rain before we finished our delicious pastries. We sat down at a table and she came running over yelling French. Why must they speak faster and faster when they can see I am understanding less and less. Luckily there was a kind gentleman who could tell by our "deer in the headlights" expression that we had no idea what we had done wrong and so we think he took of the situation by handing her a couple more Euros. The whole situation is all a blur and all I know is that I ate my croissant with chocolate and took the hint to leave as quickly as possible. 

The rest of the day in Metz was pretty much miserable. We walked through a couple stores, but that was a lost cause. We were Americans, age range of a teenager-looking person, dripping water, and had bags big enough that we could stuff the whole store into them. We received a couple looks not so favorable, were miserable ourselves and so decided to head to the train station and just sit. This turned out to be the best decision we had had all morning. It turned out that there was an earlier train to Strausbourg and it would leave in 20 minutes.

We hoped that moving an hour and a half north would lessen the rain, but no such luck. Strausbourg was a lot bigger than Metz, which was slightly daunting at first, but with Katie's excellent navigational skills we got to our second hostel quite quick. It is hostels like this one that makes me jealous that I did not live in Europe as a kid. The place was teeming with preteens and teens who were out on their own for the weekend. This hostel was much cooler than the first. It was about 5 stories high, had a bar, a big breakfast room, and our room was sweet. Lizzie and Katie slept on the two bottom beds while my bunk was lofted above. We decided that it would be best that I get shafted to the top every time since I was sleep talking about sleep walking all of Friday night. All of the bunks have had guard rails so I think I am pretty safe. Katie told me on Saturday morning that at one point Friday night I leaned over the rail and said, "Thank God I'm not on the bottom bunk. I'd be walking all over this place!" Katie told me to roll over and I don't remember anything. 

Our friends were coming up from Colmar, France to meet us in Strausbourg in a couple of hours; conveniently they were staying at the same hostel. Seeing that it was still raining like it does every other day here we didn't know what really to do, but to walk around until we found something interesting. We found the best thing possible. We were walking past this place called C&A when I mentioned something about how it might be a department store and maybe we should take a "curiousity break" now. Not only was C&A a department store, but it had a huge mall connected to it. You couldn't even tell from the outside that that was what it was. It went on forever. We spent the next few hours checking out a couple stores and basically wasting time in a dry environment until we could check into our room. 

Our feet hurt pretty bad and it was after 4 so we headed back and at the check-in counter stood our seven friends. What perfect timing! They had had some pretty crazy adventures leading up to us meeting them and we had all carried our backpacks all day so we took a quick break before an incredible night began. 

"Let's head to 'Little France'!" said Emily Edenburn. "There is a 'Little France' in France?" I asked. We wandered around aimlessly looking for just the right spot when through some intertwined streets appeared The Academie de Biere. The building had the structure of  German architecture, but served Tarte Flammbe, the must have regional food. Another thing to love about Europe and Europeans is that they love us, or more they love students. With our student discounts we got the house beer and a Tarte Flammbe and then if we bought another beer we got the third free. How can you say no to that? The beer was okay, comparable to Miller Light, but the food was amazing. It took the shape of a pizza but was based in a creamier sauce with bits of ham and onions on it. The onions I could have done without, but it was still incredible. 

We arrived at the Academie of Biere around 6 and probably didn't leave until 10 something. It was in this dinner that all 10 of us experimented with the food, played the million faces game, and 3 of us found our new favorite beer. Lizzie and I needed our free beer. The goal was to be reasonably cheap and a bit of higher content. The result was Erdinger Pinkatus, a dark wheaty beer. We talked our friend Robert into getting one as well and he said it is his favorite beer thus far in Europe. I never thought I'd like dark beers, but it was delicious. 

The next destination was Java, a discoteque. It took us a while to get there, but once we did it was well worth it. All we wanted was a dance floor and a beat to move to, but they offered us a stage and a completely American music night. We sang the whole of the Grease medley and some old songs that I never thought I would hear here. At 1 am it was time to round up the troops, but I couldn't believe it was that late already. Unfortunately the night had to come to an end. Adventures of the last day in Strausbourg will continue tomorrow. For now I need to get some sleep!

PICTURES

Always Take "Curiosity Breaks"

As I sit here planning my next weekend trip, I cannot believe that I have already survived my first one; although there were times where I didn't think we would. Basically the whole of Miami migrated to Brugge, Belgium last weekend where (if I may be so cliche as to quote Robert Frost) my group and I decided to take the 'road less traveled'. They went north and we went south to Metz and Strausbourg, France. It was absolutely amazing, and if the first weekend was that good I'm hoping that they can only get better.

It was when we first got off at the Metz train station that I knew it was going to be an adventure. The P.A. system continuously made announcements in French, but first played a jingle that sounded just like the beginning of "Crank That" by Soulja Boy. Getting off the train at first we thought they were playing that song, but to our dismay it was only the preview to some French jumble. Needless to say we still did a bit of the dance. From there we grabbed a map to find that we were on the southwestern most part of the city and our hostel was on the northeastern most part. "Fabulous!" we thought. We'll get to see the city and scope out where we would like to eat. Amazingly we stayed positive despite our 30 pound backpacks we were lugging around. Our good morale could be due to what we coined on this trip as "curiosity breaks". None of these failed us in the least. First there was the stop over at the bridge. Initially we gasped at the view of the prominent cathedral that divided the waterway, but then we looked down. Before this day I had seen two swans at most together at a time. On this afternoon I saw thirty or more gathered just below us. We rushed down the stairs to one of the most picturesque views of our lives. We were all about getting the swans in the foregrounds of our pictures with the beautiful cathedral behind it, but the swans were not all about our lack of bread in our hands. We promised them to come back to return the favor, but we sadly never did. 

45 minutes later we made it to our hostel, which was not all that it was cracked up to be. When we first walked up I think we would have rather taken a Motel 6. I remember Katie saying, "No, no it'll be okay guys! I remember seeing on the site that it has been renovated on the inside." My thoughts were yes, but it the website also said that the hostel was located near the center of town, which was so far from the truth that it was humorous. Luckily Katie was right and the room was not all that awful. The showers, now that is another story. 

We spoke with the nice gentleman at the counter and he gave us directions to the cathedral and off we went. We saw about 3 other cathedrals on our walk there. How could we have missed it and what made this one so special? After careening through the narrow roads for a bit everything opened up and there it was. In Rome there was the coliseum and the enormous administrative building in the center of the circle, but in Metz religion stood tall over all other sports and governmental facilities. It was probably around 6 o'clock when we wandered through the gigantic doors and we managed to have the whole place to ourselves. Looking back on it, it would have been nice to have a historical tour, but being able to look at each pane of stain glass slowly or read the description of each saint's plaque was an experience I'll never forget. Lizzie managed to take some pictures of Katie and I walking around to get a size comparison between the two. I felt so small. 

We didn't want to leave the site, so we ate dinner at a restaurant on the fringe of the cathedral. We figured that we had had a long day and were deserving of a "girly" drink. Enough of that beer, we needed something sweet. The menu was in all French of course so when the waiter had come back for the second time I felt pressured to order and chose the Malibu. The other two girls followed. Never order a Malibu in France or probably in Europe for that matter. This is not Cheeseburger in Paradise where a Malibu may consist of some fun pink and orange and yellow colors. No, no, no, this was about 3 shots of Malibu in a whiskey class. Katie had a straight shot view of the bartender. With her head rested in the palm of her hand she said, "Oh geez, I hope he puts more than just Malibu Rum in there." I hadn't even thought of that. But why would that be a drink that sounds awful. Sure enough that is what it was. We starred at our drinks for about 5 minutes then flagged down the waiter and ordered 3 Cokes. It wasn't so bad after it was completely diluted. 

If we didn't look like ignoramous Americans before we were targeted in our adventures afterwards. We heard some live music down the road and around the corner so we went to check it out. It was exactly how France was supposed to be. We sat outside on a little iron garden table surrounded by small groups of friends and ordered a wine. I'm not sure what genre the musician belonged in, but he was entertaining. There were soft love songs followed by quick-paced melodies all accompanied by a pianist. We observed the groups of people and it's really in those situations that you can see the culture differences. For instance, which of the 3 men at the table in front of us was dating the 1 woman? Or why when the musician sang to a table did the guests not pay any attention to him. The exact opposite happened in our situation. The owner of the bar came up behind us thinking that we were Czech, but after telling him that we don't speak French he went up to the singer, pointed at us, and said something about how we were Americans. I thought that would be the kiss of death in France, but the singer loved it and came as close as he could to sing to our table. Thank goodness for that microphone cord not being long enough. Had it been able to reach our table I do believe that our embarrassment would have reached its breaking point. We were not like the French table. Instead we giggled and laughed and got red in the face. Shortly afterwards we called it an evening much like I am going to do now. I will continue my travels through to Strausbourg hopefully tomorrow! 

A Little Bit of Life Here

This is my new best friend Jon. He is the bartender from Dublin at Cafe el Differdange right down the street. He's amazing!

The view out my window. It's a little choppy, but these are the houses in front of me and down to the right. 

My First Ever Four Hour "Blinner"

Last Sunday when my other two roommates arrived around 3 o'clock they ate dinner right away. That somewhat threw them off, but they thought that Claire (our host mom's name) wanted to be polite and offer them food after their long flight. This weekend dinner started at 12:30. I had only woken up 30 minutes before. Since this was the first time we had been able to sleep in we really wanted to take advantage of it and thought that dinner wouldn't start until at least 5. Instead Steve (Claire's English speaking son) came to let us know that food and champagne were waiting for us downstairs. Champagne? What were we celebrating? We scrambled to get some decent clothes on and brush our teeth then walked downstairs to a full spread of salad, champagne, wine, pomme frites, and two humongous plates of beef cubes ready to be cooked in vats of oil. The joke started out as "Wow I've never had fondue for breakfast before!", but then as we kept eating we realized this would be our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Therefore, we coined this meal "blinner". 

Previous to this meal I had spoken with students at school about how they had gotten to know their families decently well, but with our hectic schedule I really hadn't seen Claire at all. That all changed after a full meal, two desserts, and two coffees. During this time we found that they love America, but not so much the bread, that they don't have Starbucks because coffee at cafes is so much more superior, and that it is okay to eat the dessert with your hands. 

Now it is 4 hours later and being the Americans that we are, we are getting ready to get out of the house for a while and find something to munch on. Goodness gracious I'm going to have to go on that run soon! 

Lux has an Agenda All of Its Own

There are a couple of things to get used to when living in Europe. One, if you watched the Barack Obama speech in Berlin you may have noticed one thing in particular. The crowd clapped a fair amount for a better economy and stopping the war, but when it came to reducing our carbon footprint and saving energy they went nuts. I should have paid more attention to that because they weren't kidding around. Our lights are on automatic timers in hallways, all the doors are shut all the time to keep the heat in, and worst of all the internet goes out around 9:30 or 10 every night (tonight seems to be an exception?). I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky because most people don't even have Internet in their house, but it's hard to get used to something then have it ripped away from you potentially when you are researching for a paper. Two nights in a row now we have come home thinking we will wind down for about an hour on the web, but that hasn't been the case. Another thing that was kind of cute was I wrote in my journal last night that I would go for a run today. Ha! It rained, hard, all day long. I don't think I've seen the sun yet. Thank goodness for those shoes. They really are a lifesaver. Also had I looked at my schedule for orientation at all I would have noticed that a run would not have been possible. Sure I could have been like Mom and woke up at 4:30 am to run, but let's be serious, that wasn't going to happen. Serious props to you Mom!

Today we went to Bastogne, Belgium home of the Battle of the Bulge. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but it took us two and half hours to get there, only one to return. We saw a short video, saw the museum and walked around the monument glorifying the American soldiers that fought there. It was the first place where I wasn't desperately trying to not seem so American. The tour guide said that they loved when Americans came by. Then he said that the Germans were not so welcome in Bastogne. Thank goodness that I didn't get the chance to say Guten Tag and make a fool out of myself. I'm usually so eager to use it. Unfortunately most people here speak French or Portuguese and look at me like they've never heard the language. 

About ten of us went to dinner this evening at this "Snack Shop", but all the snack shops that I have seen serve real food. It's nowhere near a snack. Maybe this is their version of fast food? I'm not even sure what I ate, but it was delicious. I think it was lamb. You'd be proud of me with food this far. I've eaten everything given to me. So far this list includes raw or smoked sausage from my new best friend the bartender from Dublin, hot hot hot pepper sauce at a pizzeria, and now this lamb sandwich thing. 

Finishing up the evening we went to this bar, which we call "Das Boot" from the movie Beerfest. I'm not even sure what the real name of the bar is. They serve the beer in either a liter or a half liter in a glass boot. Nearly chipped my tooth, again, this evening. You have to tilt the glass to avoid this bubble that comes up, but I guess it is tradition for everyone to get popped with the bubble the first time around. Not so fun to do; hilarious to watch. 

Tomorrow we go to a winery then either the Luxembourg City carnival or my choice for the evening the Luxembourg versus Greece Fußball game.