Thursday, June 2, 2011

Heidelberg



The past few weeks have not been the most interesting, until the last weekend. The past weeks have basically spent been working on my thesis. It has been going well as I turned in a rough draft last week, and have been revising it. I only have one more day at the community bookshop where I've been volunteering, before they close for a short summer break and also finished my last class in Maastricht on Monday . To celebrate I am meeting with friends tonight for a Portuguese dinner party, but also to celebrate I took a trip to Heidelberg Germany last weekend when my friend offered me a ride.

The first day we drove to Darmstadt, where my friend Silvio went to college, because they were having a huge music festival. It was free to get in and had 6 stages with all different types of music. Some terrible German rap was there when we arrived, but then we moved to one of the smaller stages and listened to some bluegrass music, with artists from Kansas City and Memphis, which was pretty funny. After listening to there set while eating some wonderful German festival food and having a nice cold beer, we moved back to the large stage where a Spanish ska/reggae band was playing. We listened to them until the festival closed, headed back to another friends place and crashed for the night.

On Saturday we woke up early, grabbed some breakfast and coffee, and drove down to Heidelberg. It is an absolutely beautiful town, nestled in a valley on the Rhine, and basically untouched by the wars that have gone on. So we explored the old city, went up to the castle and had a Heidelberger beer, walked the "Philosopher's walk" and then found a place to have some dinner and watch the Champion's League final. I was a bit amazed how important and excited people get about a big soccer match, even when neither of the teams involved have any connection to Germany. But, then I realized it's basically like the super bowl of soccer, so it's just a fun, festive atmosphere. After the game we found a nice student bar with live music where we stayed until heading in for the night.

Sunday we went through a few other towns, one of the most memorable was Speyer, which has a huge castle and also a town center that literally looks like it hasn't changed for 100 years. After grabbing some lunch it was time for me to catch the train back to Maastricht. I opted to take the EC train which basically followed the Rhine all the way to Köln through all the small river towns. Then I had what will likely be my last German meal, some Hachen and Wurst before returning to Maastricht. This weekend is a holiday weekend, and the weather is shaping up great, so tonight is Portuguese dinner, tomorrow or Saturday BBQ, and all weekend probably hanging outside and enjoying the city, since everyone here is starting to leave soon with the semester ending.