Heidelberg Day 2

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Travel Blog Day 7 Heidelberg

Back on the train, heading at high speeds and blogging to pass the time, ah the strangeness of Europe. In America I’d drive, and driving and blogging would be a pretty terrible idea, so we just listen to music… this allows you to be more productive, but the cost is more than driving is (well I don’t know what gas prices have done in 7 days). We are headed to Munich now, and it is a 3 hour train ride… basically we have to go back West to get East, because if there was a direct train it’d be an hour.
In Munich we will be picking up the 3rd member of our crew, Kyle. He is coming in from London and we have no idea when he will be in, but I sure do not envy that travel.

Heidelberg was a bit interesting. Our hotel became a problem because there was no AC and it was loud outside, so sleep was very difficult. I was waking up every 20 minutes or so, and then at about 5am what sounded like a saw cutting through a pipe went on constantly… so I am TIRED! The city was wonderful though, except one thing. We had made some quick friends with a pair of Germans who spoke perfect English and they wanted to show us what a certain type of club was like (they said we just didn’t have them in America). So we went down to it, and it was actually right next to our hotel, but the doorman wouldn’t let Josh and I in since we were American. He said that they were closed, but was letting others in and even let in one of our German friends who was going to see what the problem was. The man at the door of the club was not German. He looked Turkish, but I’m not really positive on that one. We sat outside talking with the other German girl, who was very nice while he tried to get us in. Well, he basically yelled at the guy for being pigheaded, but we didn’t get in. It was really good to see though that is not acceptable here for most of their people, only for some. Josh was denied in France a few times for being American, but everywhere in Germany we have gone other than this one place has been happy to have us (who wouldn’t want our money?).

That was 2 days ago, but I don’t think I put it in the blog yesterday and thought I’d share. It actually still makes me pretty mad, but it was good to see our quick friend be such a good guy. So on our second day in Heidelberg we went to the castle, which was the last time I updated. Germany played last night (they beat Portugal 3-2), and here they have massive public viewings of the games on large screens at the town center. Josh went to one in Kehl Germany and said that there was about 3-400 people there. Well, Heidelberg must be more soccer crazy (or larger), because we got there 1.5 hours before the game and it was already crowded, they reached ‘capacity’ about 45 minutes before the game started, and we didn’t actually make it into the area, because we were trying to figure out what was going on (and didn’t really know what time the game was… its like the Super Bowl, they say it starts at 4, but you don’t kick off for 3 hours and there is a ton of pregame.) So what we did instead was watch from the area where people were lining up to get in… and a ton of people did this. The PA announcer came on and said that there was what we think was 3000 inside the gates, and there was easily another 3000 outside. But from outside the view was poor, people would get on their toes whenever something exciting happened, and it was hard to readjust your sight line to see more than a corner or two of the screen. But it was really neat to watch a game with all these jubilant people… they would sing and dance and when Germany scored, it was like when our sports teams win the playoff series, there is beer being sprayed everywhere and people hug, its quite the scene. But at halftime it was 2-1 and we decided to watch the rest of the game from a sports bar because we wanted to see more than the corners (and wanted to sit down). So we did that and they ended up winning, everyone went nuts and partied all night, when we went to bed (about 2), they were still up and about until 6 or so… I’m sure it was fun, but it made it even harder to sleep. I’d also imagine that there are a lot of ‘sick days’ being used the day after games or German’s just work half drunk and half hungover, I’m not sure which. We gotta switch trains, but I’ll be back soon.

Well, our first train arrived late so our connection was gone by the time we got there, but it just slowed us down about 45 minutes, so no biggie I guess. Just to give you an idea of the way the trains work here, there is a screen at the place where you get on that tells you where it is going and the stops and times, but it also has a speedometer on it. As I type this, it says 150kph, which means that we are going basically 90 miles an hour across the country-side and I am able to sit here and write… amazing. The first train we were on even had wireless internet, this one does not, but we have been talking about the global digital revolution and this is certainly a big part of it.

After the game last night, we went to get a pretzel, which we figured was one of the things to sample while here. We went to a place call Bier & Bretzle, which we figured was as good as any place to find one. They had a ‘special’ where you get a liter of whatever beer you want and a pretzel for about 7 euro. She set us up with the beer and then they started to work on our pretzels. They had the dough on hooks near the counter/bar and they picked 2 up and put them on a pizza tray looking them and chucked them into a fire burning oven… after a few minutes, it had gone from the size of an American pretzel, which is what we figured we were getting to something the size of a whole plate. They were unsalted (we probably could have asked for them to salt them, all you do is rub butter and salt on it, but we just go with the flow). They did not serve it with anything, but it was very hot and came apart like fresh baked bread (which is what it is). After eating it a little, it was good but very plain for our palletes, so we called the girl over to get some mustard. She laughed a little when we did this, not sure if it was because she thought it was strange or just the way we talk, but with the mustard, the pretzel was great, only problem was it was massive… I think that’s the first time its ever taken me 30 or 40 minutes to eat a pretzel, and when it cooled, it got harder and harder, but it was definitely good and I’ll get another but probably share it.
We headed back for home after that, but weren’t ready for bed, so we went to a pool hall that was near our hotel. A pool hall here though only means 3 pool tables and darts, which is what they had. We played pool until he closed, then headed home. That puts you up to date, sorry if its long, I tend to write more on the trains because its either that or just stare at everyone and look at the countryside. I do look and its neat, but its all pretty similar (and not that different from America) so I’m not glued to it.

We saw Tiger Woods is out for the year and that my Cubs got swept (by the Rays?!?!?), so while it was a great sports day for Germany, it was bad for us. Hopefully the Cubs will hit a long winning streak and they’ll make it on the news more because not knowing if they are winning or losing and not seeing a game is getting to me. I wear my cubs shirts here too (and my IU) and whenever someone who knows what it is sees it, we make a new friend… but it makes me stick out as an American (as well as my shorts). They all wear pants here and more polos or soccer shirts (and some music), but they only wear the German jersey and no university shirts, so its different from me and I guess I stand out more. Oh well, I’m fine with sticking out as an American. They seem to like us here (all of their entertainment is American and dubbed in German), and we constantly have people telling us how good our movies and shows are. The Simpsons here are at 6pm just like in Indy and they love to watch it too, but it was very different, the vocal inflections that make the characters so unique don’t exist as much here, the kids have different ones, but the male voices sound similar (and I don’t think Apu’s Indian accent translates well at all). Well, getting into the station, so I better pack up. 7 days in, 48 to go, see yah.

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Comments

[Sr.Gloria]

Hello
Just to let you know I finally got on. I tried several time before. I'm still catching up on the reading. How long will you be in Croatian.