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Published: October 13th 2010
Heidelberg Hotel
Sadly, not where I am staying My first (of many) revelations for this trip: there is something so very satisfying about successfully going beyond your comfort zone. I suppose that this needs a bit of explaining. Before undertaking this trip, I was aware that there was no chance it would go on without hitting a snag, but it is funny how much I underestimated the challenge of navigating a language barrier. Upon entering Germany, I faced the full realization of how the ability to communicate drives so much of our lives. From ordering food, to small talk with store clerks, to figuring out how you are going to get where you need to be; language is a vital tool. Therefore, I was hit with a classic case of culture shock when leaving the cushy world of the airport and hitting the streets of Frankfurt; certainly outside of my element.
My path towards overcoming this obstacle took the majority of the day, and I am sure it did not help that I was severely jet lagged. My first task upon leaving the Frankfurt airport was to find transportation to the city of Heidelberg an hour to the south. In my pre-trip mind this seemed to
be a simple task, but it was soon obvious that this task required more than I thought. After grabbing my bag, I went up to a well placed sign that denoted the airport layout map. Of course, everything was in German, but similarly to a student struggling with learning to read, I used the pictures to help give a clearer picture. Seeing what looked like a bus and a train, I was able to piece together a general direction and felt confident in my decision. Unfortunately, only a few minutes later my confidence was shattered when I found that my path had come to a door leading to the outside, with no bus or train station in sight. It seemed as though my first attempt at passing through the language barrier would be unsuccessful. I gave in and decided to seek the wisdom of those working at the airport information terminal. It seemed as though I had not understood that you needed to take a bus to the other terminal and my idea of walking there was futile.
I approached yet another board at the bus/train stop and was determined to figure this one out on my own
(Do you see a certain trend of my stubbornness in trying to accomplish tasks on my own during this blog?). After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the schedule, where for some odd reason I could not find any train headed to Heidelberg, I gave in and went to the ticket/reservation stand at the train station. It seems that my second chance of bypassing the language barrier was just as unsuccessful.
Sitting on the train, I felt confident that I would be able to make to Heidelberg without any other troubles. Realizing that it was now 5 a.m. New Hampshire time, I took the opportunity to close my eyes and get in a few minutes of sleep that I was unable to achieve on the plane flights. In a perfect world, the train I was taking would have been on time, but of course it seemed as though I had to face another challenge. When making it to the station where I would have to transfer trains, I realized that it was already past the time when I should have caught the second train. Instead, of train S 1 on my platform, there stood
train S 4. Having to act quickly since the it was about to depart, and seeing that listed on the side of the train was “Heidelberg HBF”, which I now understood meant Hauptbanhof or central train station, I decided to get on.
As I sat facing a gaggle of German teenagers discussing (in my mind) music, relationships, and other stereotypical teenage talk, and hoping a ticket collector wouldn't come around, an empty soda bottle rolled and hit my foot. Out of reaction, I bent down to pick it up and thinking that it may have been discarded by the young child in a stroller next to me, I offered it to her mother. She shrugged her shoulders and looked at me. A clear universal sign that she was unsure where it had come from. I lifted up my hands as if to say, “I don't know” and smiled. The woman smiled back, and thus I took a huge leap in confidence towards being able to accept the language barrier. With this nonverbal encounter, I felt refreshed enough to point at my ticket and ask if the train was going there. The woman nodded her head and I felt
a resurgence of energy, knowing that I had successfully navigated the delayed train as well.
After arriving in Heidelberg and getting settled in to my hostel, a priority of mine was to find a sim card for the phone I had borrowed from my sister that would allow me to use it overseas. To keep moving in order to avoid my jet lag, I decided to walk the twenty minutes to the section of town recommended to me by the tourist information booth. I was able to reach the area without any trouble and found a suitable store. Feeling much more confident with using hand gestures and choppy dialogue back and forth, I was able to easily find a sim card and install it in the phone. It is at this moment that I felt as though I would be able to handle the struggles that this trip would require me to confront and that the language barrier would be easily conquerable with the right mindset. I felt so good that I decided to take some side streets on the way home because I thought they looked “interesting” and I didn't want to pass up the adventure...
The result of this adventure, which eventually made me swing way off track and get lost on multiple occasions can be found in the pictures that you see up on this blog. At the time, I was amazed by the cool architecture and felt that Heidelberg was a gorgeous city. Little did I know that it would get better as you will see in the next post...
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Stephanie
non-member comment
I love it! It's so fun reading about your experiences there for the first time, having gone through the SAME EXACT things. Thinking about it now, I could have warned you how confusing the airport is with transportation - but of course everything is 20/20. Can't wait to read your next post and follow your travels!! Although I have to admit how insanely jealous I am that you're visiting with my fam :) and especially such a gorgeous time of year! Is it warmer/colder there? I always found it to feel colder, even if the temperatures were pretty much the same. Good luck with navigating!!