Heidelberg

My friend Joe, who is studying abroad at the LSE for the year, took a month to travel around Europe. I was lucky enough to be around when he did his German part of the trip, and we decided to meet in Heidelberg (which is between Freiburg and Frankfurt). Too bad the day was cold and rainy, because Heidelberg is gorgeous! I would have loved to wander around a little more, but it was just too cold.

I had a heck of a time trying to get to Heidelberg. Though it's only an hour away, it took me almost three to get there. All of the northbound trains run through a town called Offenburg, and apparently there had been an accident in Offenburg, which meant that everything was canceled or delayed. I made it, though, with a roundabout route and some good Denglish (Deutsch/English) conversations and detective skills.

Joe, his friend Colin and me, all wandered around Heidelberg and the Schloss (castle), which is ruined from WWII...we think. We actually didn't want to pay 3 euro for the guided tour, so we took ourselves around. The castle also has a pharmacy museum, which we didn't see, and a GIANT keg, which we did. The keg is way too big to be useful, and probably did not do good things to whatever was inside of it. Apparently they discontinued the use of the keg because it leaked.

After the castle, we found a cute little pub called BeerPretzel (in German). We all had traditional German food - soup, flammkuchen, wurst - and beer. This wasn't just any beer. It was beer out of a horn. Look at the pictures if you don't believe me. Colin was so excited to get beer out of a horn, and Joe and I almost died laughing when it showed up and the other tourists around us stared in complete shock. It was definitely worth it.

After lunch, we found the university prison. Heidelberg has the oldest university in Germany, and plenty of history that goes with it. Until about 1930, the University had its own prison - kind of like extreme detention. The students were imprisoned for anything from singing drunkenly, to bathing naked in the fountain, to harrassing girls or pigs. For the first two days in the prison they were "starved" on bread and water, but after that they could have their friends/girlfriends bring their food. The prison was also BYOB: bring your own bedding. Not so bad, if you ask me. Apparently they had to shut it down, because students were using it as a place to hang out and play poker, instead of taking it seriously as a punishment. They also used it as a chance to perfect their graffiti skills, and the entire prison is covered in family crests, frat names, latin sayings, and drawings.

Heidelberg Schloss

The remains

Joe!

View of the city

Not the giant keg, surprisingly. My pictures of the giant keg weren't very good, though, because it was so dark. So imagine this keg times 3, and that's how big the keg was.

Fixing my wet shoes

The river and surrounding hills

Drinking out of a horn!

The most famous example of graffiti in the prison.

Colin and me, listening to the information about the prison

Bray, Ireland

In the middle of my Dublin trip, I decided I needed to see more of the Irish countryside. So I took a train (4 eruo, both ways!) to Bray, which is about 40 minutes south of Dublin down the coast. I didn't see sheep, however I did see the coast and the hills, which definitely made it worth it. Apparently one of the attractions in Bray is a big hill/mountain with a cross on top. I tried to climb it, but accidentally took the wrong path, which led me up around the cliffs. Halfway around, I realized my mistake and tried to climb up to the top from there in my nice little German walking shoes....not a very good idea. The path was virtually nonexistant, and my shoes were not made for climbing it. I never made it to the top, but I almost got there and the views were spectacular. I also hiked around in the hills for a while, and explored the town of Bray, which was cute and fun. All in all, a great day.

Not a sandy beach

The coast and the mountain. There's a nice winding path up the right/middle of the mountain - I walked straight up the left.

Mom and Donna's future retirement home, with ocean views.

The boardwalk

Beginning of the wrong way up

Ruins of something

Beautiful

My "path"

I would not reccommend this way up, but it was beautiful.

The Bray crew team, which rows in viking boats on the ocean. Ridiculous.

Dublin, Ireland

I'm in love with Ireland. I'm so glad I got to visit Maxine in Dublin, and I wish I had seen more of the countryside. It's a gorgeous country.

Max and I got off the plane, but couldn't check into our hotel yet. We went to Max's gym to shower, which was a few blocks from our hotel. It was wonderful after two days of gross hostel showers to finally have a (relatively) clean shower and time/space to get dressed. We then dropped our things in the hotel and had lunch at a good old fashioned Irish pub. I had my first glass of real Irish Guinness - much better than Guinness anywhere else. It's so heavy, but so delicious. We both had beef burgundy, potatoes, carrots and brown bread to eat. After lunch we explored the city, which isn't very large, and returned to the hotel at a reasonable hour. The hotel was very nice, and very conveniently located. We actually were going to stay in a hostel that night, but Max did some research and found that it was actually cheaper for both of us to split the hotel room than for each of us to pay for our own bed in the hostel. Really, there's no better feeling than a real bed in a nice room, with a clean bathroom, after hostel living. Our hotel bathroom also had a really deep, nice bathtub, which was a great way to relax at the end of the day.

The next morning we got up early for our Coast and Castle tour, complete with the singing Irish bus driver. It was a lot of fun, though we were in the middle of a group of 16 crazy Portugese tourists, who sang loudly and liked to talk over the bus driver. The castle we visited was Malahide castle, just outside of Dublin. Since it had been lived in until about twenty years ago, it was not exactly what I expected from a castle in Ireland. It was cool nonetheless! The coastal part of the tour was not as satisfying, because we didn't get to get out and walk anywhere. Still, as I said, the Irish countryside is beautiful!

Max and I got back in time for a slow lunch and a short walk around the city before we headed off to our next tour, the Viking tour. The viking tour is probably the best tour I've ever been on. It's like the ducky tours they have in Boston, the kind that are in big yellow WWII boats that have wheels and can go in the water or on land. Except, since they're viking tours, the driver pretends to be a viking, and makes you roar at unsuspecting passersby. So much fun. Whenever our driver would see a group of tourists, or people on their cell phones, he would call out "one, two, three...ROAR" and we would all roar. Half the time the tourists jumped out of their skin! Soo much fun.

That night Max's boyfriend and his three friends arrived, and we tried to go out with them...except that it was Good Friday and EVERYTHING shuts down in Ireland. So we went to bed and got up late the next morning. I left the group for the afternoon, and explored the coastal town of Bray (see the next entry), while the guys and Max did the Guinness factory. We met up again at night and went out to a few good Irish pubs together.

Again, I wish I had had more time in Ireland! I got to see my castles, but no Irish sheep, and I had no shepherd's pie. I did, however, buy some good Irish mittens. Oh well. I plan on going back, though maybe not this trip.

Thunder Road cafe. Named for the Bruce Springsteen song, of course. Apparently they love "Brucie" in Dublin.

The view from our hotel window. Not much to see, but it was immensely better than our view of construction in London.

Max walking through the castle gate

The view from the front of Malahide castle. It's way more majestic in person, especially when there aren't tourists carrying their luggage across your view.

The castle

Me in the castle doorway

There were peacocks roaming the castle yard!

My future front door, I have decided.

Part of the coast tour. This is actually a lookout, to make sure the coast wasn't going to be attacked by the French. Or so the bus driver told us.

Viking tour! The sign on the windshield says "Goats are accepted as tips, but cash is better"

Dublin's river, the Liffy

The bridge in front of our hostel

U2's recording studio

This boat is made of concrete. If I were to build a boat, concrete would not be my first choice of materials. Apparently, though, it was built right after WWII, when concrete was the only available material.

Notice that only the left side is painted. This is because the people who live on that side of the river complained about how ugly the boat was, but the people living on the right side didn't. I guess it was cheaper to paint half of it than to remove the boat, so half was painted and people don't complain anymore.

The whole group at one of the pubs, eating fish and chips.