So, it's 7:29 am right now, I'm sitting on my bed in our 6 person hostel, where our group takes up the whole room, so there's no creepy other people who might steal our stuff. We're in Trier, Germany, which is the oldest city in Germany and for a while was actually a Roman capital.
How did we get here? So we got on the train from Luxembourg City yesterday afternoon at 1517, and it was a super quick, super convenient 49-minute train ride to Trier. We got off the train, walked about 7 minutes to our sweet hostel (Hille's Hostel). We checked in, paid, put a deposit on our room key, and threw our stuff in the room. The hostel is actually very nice, it's very centrally located, and it only cost 15 euros per person (+3 euros each for bed linens - that's how they get you).
So we walked around, checked out what used to be the Throne Room, and is now just a protestant church. It's in this giant brick structure that is enormous. But it is also very empty. From inside, I felt as if I was in a giant echoing chamber, because of the extremely high ceiling and huge brick walls on either side. It looked like this:
Then we waltzed over to what appeared to be some sort of formal gardens type set-up. Right outside of the church, they had several lawns worth of beautiful flowers, fountains, and sculptures, like this:
We then walked over to the Roman Baths, which are the 5th largest in the world (apparently). But alas, the place had closed at 1800, so we've resolved to go back there today. We kind of took our sweet ole time walking around the city, which was really cool. Trier is surprisingly awesome. There are some nice touristy things to do, but it definitely felt more intimate than Bruges, where everyone was a tourist. Eventually we decided on a little cafe where we sat outside for dinner, which was right by the main town square. And, of course, when in former Roman capitals… so we were all really thirsty, and had German beer. I myself had Bitburger, which I've been told is basically standard German draft beer. It was incredibly refreshing. It also went great with the food I had, which was a baguette with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese melted over it and a salad. So we just sort of hung out, had a second beer (I chose the same, Bitburger), and learned interesting things about one another (as is often the case in situations of prolonged exposure to the same people).
We then strolled through the city to the Porta Nigra, or the Black Gate. It is the remnant of the Roman wall that surrounded Trier, and it is still rather impressive. I tried to take night photos, but they might not turn out so well. Then, we heard loud music coming from a smaller courtyard off to the side near the Porta Nigra. We investigated, and there was like a small stage set up for this German jazz-esque band that was playing. We hung out for a song, "Light my Fire," and decided it couldn't get any cooler, so we left. We ambled through the streets, and had ice cream on the way (for 70 euro-cents). Wait, maybe the ice cream was before we saw the Porta Nigra? Anyway, it was awesome - I had pfefferminz (peppermint) ice cream, and it was absolutely delicious. Then, thanks to my astute foresight, we went to O'Dwyers, an Irish pub. It was real cool. We sat in a booth, everybody was speaking English, and there was college football on TV. I had a small black and tan, which I had never had before, but came as a recommendation. It was excellent. The mix of Guinness and Kilkenny beer was like the perfect amount of smoothness, creaminess, lightness, and flavor. So after chilling there for a while, we decided to bar hop (since at this point it was only 10:00 pm).
We walked around, and came to this sports bar we had passed earlier. As we were deliberating outside as to whether or not to go in, this German guy introduced himself to us. Turns out Felix (the German guy) is like a member of the city parliament, and wanted to welcome us to Germany and chat. So, we asked him if we should go into this sports bar, and he told us he'd never been there. Then, he took one look inside and realized he knew the bartender, so we went in! We chilled in this small little sports bar and talked to Felix. He was asking us all about school, what we were studying, what we thought of Germany, and then he told us about Trier. From Felix, I learned that Trier has some drug problems, and often experiences hardships as a result of American soldiers stationed nearby. It was totally cool though, he thought we were sweet, and complimented several of us (not myself), on our German-speaking capabilities (I learned how to say, "Ich spreche kein deutsche" which means "I speak no German").
From there, we walked back towards the center of town, and headed for the Golden Arches. And no, that's not some sweet Roman monument, that's a McDonald's. I didn't have any, but according to the others it was, "Pure America." We then walked back to our hostel, and went to sleep.
Interjection: It is now Monday, so I'm writing somewhat retrospectively, but I will do my best to do justice to the last two days.
So we rolled out of Hille'sAmphitheater, which was really cool. Unfortunately, we had to pay 5,80 euros for the "kombiticket" (like a combopass), which got us into the amphitheater and the Roman baths later. There could definitely have been some gladiator fights or stuff in the amphitheater. It was a little chilly, somewhat foggy, but really cool. From there, we headed towards the Roman baths which we had seen the day before. We used our kombiticktets and strolled through the place. The arches and all of the underground structures were fascinating. Some of the above ground structure was still standing, and that was really sweet also. So after the baths, we went to the Karl Marx Haus, where Karl Marx was born and lived. It had been converted into a museum, which was neat, and we got to walk around the whole house (which was surprisingly large considering Marx's theories on social classes). Then, we headed towards the town square, and we now all decided that we had to try McDonald's. So I had a big mac and french fries and a coke light, and it all tasted delicious. The McDonald's was actually a lot nicer than any in the United States. The building it was in was really cool too - here is what it looked like:
So after getting lunch, we went back to the train station and hopped on a train towards Kaiserslautern (which sounds like an incredibly scary German town). We had to change trains in Kaiserslautern and get on another train toward Heidelberg. So, after about three and a half hours of train travel, we arrived in Heidelberg. We got off, walked about five minutes and somehow ended up at our hostel, Sudpfanne. We checked in, and again, had a room all to ourselves, which was cool. We even had a table in our room (which we used to sit and drink wine around to celebrate Elliot's 21st birthday).
We dropped our stuff off, and headed into town. The town of Heidelberg is located right along the Mosel river, so we walked up onto the bridge and just chilled out for a bit. The city was in a really picturesque setting, with the river bisecting the city, and green forest surrounding it in the valley. We returned to our hostel, because the attached restaurant had a 6 euro meal for people staying in the hostel. So I had what was like a really thin dough with sour cream and bacon on it. It sounds kind of nasty, but trust me, it was awesome. I had a German wheat beer at dinner called Hacker-Pschorr, which was tasty, but very heavy. We then walked back through the city, and ended up at sitting outside at this bar called Mohr. We chilled there for a while, as in like two hours, and I had two more German beers in that time span, one called Kolsch and one called Pils. It actually was getting a little bit cold and it was quite windy. So we walked through the city for a while longer, and after seeing all the craziness of the main party street, Untere Strasse, we decided to take a side street, and stopped at another Irish pub. I had a Guinness, on tap, and it definitely hit the spot. Then, since it was almost midnight, we all walked to the bridge to sit and chill and celebrate Elliot's birthday on the spot. We did, then went back to our hostel. After getting ready for bed, I think I was asleep in about two minutes. My bed was quite comfortable.
I awoke the next morning, took a shower, and just chilled until everyone else started getting up. We headed out at about 0915, and decided to hike up to the castle, which is on one side of the mountain. Here's a picture of the castle:
Yeah, it was a hike. We trekked up this really huge walkway. The castle was first built in 1214, and they're doing some renovations on it even now. The castle was sweet for several reasons. First, we walked into a wedding that was just letting out, so basically we went to someone really important's (who else could afford a wedding in an 800 year old castle?) wedding reception. Secondly, Heidelberg castle is home to the world's largest wine cask. That's right, the worlds largest wine barrel - I saw it. It can hold up to 58,000 gallons. It was massive. Finally, Heidelberg Castle was cool because it provided us with awesome views of the entire city, such as this one:
So, we then trekked all the way back down, and decided to cross the river to walk along the famed "Philosophenweg" or "Philosopher's Walk." Apparently, many German philosophers would stroll along this walkway, as it overlooks the beautiful city. There, they could ponder the many wonders of the universe. Little did we know however, that it would take us about 20 minutes and 400 vertical feet to climb up to the Philosophenweg (apparently German philosophers were also extreme sports and climbing enthusiasts). So then, we walked downriver, and had more incredible views of the city, but this time from the opposite shore. They looked like this:
Please note where Hiedelberg Castle is in this picture (it's on the extreme left, halfway up the opposite side of the river's hill). It was a really far walk. Then, we took the long journey back into the center of Heidelberg, where we had a massive hamburger feast at that bar from the previous night, Mohr. They had delicious food. We then walked over to our train station (which was not the main Heidelberg Station).
So...yeah...
We misread the train schedule (and when I say "we" I mean "me" it was completely my fault), and missed our train. So we took a bus to the main station, where we had to wait another hour to get on a train. We also had to adjust our route to include another stop because we missed our train. So we took a train from Heidelberg to Kaiserslautern, had to make a quick change (i.e. running through the station), and got on a train to Saarbrucken. Again, after the long train ride, we had to run through the station to get on a train from Saarbrucken to Trier. We got into Trier at 2015, and had to chillax (read, "wait") until 2050 for a train to Luxembourg City. Then, we finally got into Luxembourg city around 2140, and got to take a nice leisurely stroll over to another platform, where I caught a train back to Esch. I finally got home at around 2230.
All in all, another sweet weekend, in a really cool part of Germany. As always, I'll post more pictures on facebook so you can check out all of those at your own convenience. I have to go now (class - what a bummer), but I'm going to post another entry about my chocolate class from last Thursday - because that's how we learned to taste chocolate properly. It's going to be awesome, I promise.
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