Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Monday December 21st

After the tragic shooting in Paris on Friday the 13th of November, one of the exchange students in Heidelberg planned a vigil on Monday the 16th in Theaterplatz. Expecting a few hundred people, more than a thousand came to support, according to the local newspaper.

I rarely walk by Theaterplatz, but five weeks later, for some reason, I was passing by and I noticed that the candles remained.

Not the rain, snow, nor wind removed the memorial. But to my surprise no one from the city removed them. Although the people of Europe have many differences and long complex histories of love and hate. This speaks greatly towards the solidarity between them in times of tragedy.

Straßburg

Saturday December 12th

ESN had rented a bus to take us to Strasbourg (Straßburg in German) on Saturday. Strasbourg is 137 km (85 miles) from Heidelberg and lies in Alsace, a province that has been annexed by many different empires in hundreds of years. The Prussians took Alsace and Strasbourg in 1871 after winning the Franco-Prussian war, but come the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ceded the region back to France. For that reason (as well as being right on the border with Germany), as a tourist, one can somewhat get away with only speaking German.

Strasbourg is well known for its Cathedral, which surpassed the Pyramid of Giza in height and was the tallest building in the world from 1647 to 1874. Also the reason why it is nearly impossible to get a picture of the whole cathedral from up close.

Strasbourg is also the official seat of the European parliament and the region of Alsace is well known for its wine. However the tourists in December come for one reason, Strasbourg's 445 year old Christmas market, at the center of which is its enormous Christmas tree, topping out this year at 30 meters (98 feet).

There are many reasons to love Strasbourg, however none of these were mine. Having finished our espressos at a Cafe by the Cathedral, we saw that there were people waiting to sit so we offered them our seats and left to meet up with the others.

About half an hour later, I received a Facebook message, written in French, from a lady unknown. Without understanding a word, I intuitively and immediately touched my back pocket and did not feel my wallet. I asked out tour guide if the message meant what i thought it did. After she confirmed, I ran back to the Cafe and a seated man said "Matthew?" to me in a French accent while holding my wallet. As it turned out, the people we gave our seats to saw the wallet and, from my driver's license inside, searched me on Facebook.

People (me included) would expect that if a tourist lost something it will surely be gone forever. Instead they went above and beyond to return my wallet to me. No better time to be reminded of the good nature of people than Christmas time.

Weihnachtsmarkt

Thursday November 26th
December in the US is known for houses enveloped by lights, decorated malls, and Santa Claus everywhere. December in Germany is all about the Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas market. Beginning Monday the 23rd of November and lasting until December 22nd every square in altstadt becomes a market.

Bismarckplatz

Universitätsplatz

Marktplatz and its Carousel

Karlsplatz with its ice skating rink (seen here from the castle)

And of course the castle has its own Christmas market as well, unfortunately I had forgotten to take

pictures of it (being preoccupied with the view of the town below).

Inside the shops one can find a variety of baked sweets, candy, wood carvings, clothing, jewelry, and trinkets. The markets feature your typical bratwurst and currywurst but also fire roasted salmon and steak. But the Weihnachtsmarkt is most famous for its Glühwein. And although it translates to "glowing wine" in English it doesn't glow, but is mulled and hot. Perfect for heating you up in the cold. It comes in red wine, white wine, cherry wine, and other variations as well. My favorite though was the Feuerzangenbowle, a drink made by setting a rum soaked sugarloaf on fire and letting it drip into mulled wine.

Philosophenweg

Thursday November 5th
Philossophenweg, German for Philosopher's road, is the path carved into the Heiligenberg where the philosophers, professors, and students of the university would walk and discuss whatever was on their mind.

Easy to get to from Bismarckplatz and having already been here for two months, it was past due that I took this road, and the weather yesterday was perfect so we went. From here, one can look down onto the Neckar and the Altstadt. It does not take long to figure out why it was named philosopher's road. This road is great place to walk (or jog) and think.

Once you walk passed the old town you take more notice of the mountainous geography, especially in the fall when the leaves turn color.

Luxembourg

Sunday October 11th

AEGEE (also an international student organization) planned a group trip to Luxembourg, which is the capital city of the country with the same name. Luxembourg is a small land locked country sharing its borders with France, Belgium, and Germany. Being surrounded by such large and well known countries, it is easy to tour Europe and leave it unnoticed. However, if able to visit, one should definitely take the opportunity. One would also expect that in a tiny country it would be difficult to communicate with the locals, but it is quite the opposite. French is the official language but most people speak German or English as well. In fact, the city is one of the three official capitals of the European Union and home to the European Court of Justice. Because the city also has one of the highest ranking per capita income in the world, it happens to be a huge finance and banking hub.

Unfortunately for us, we went on a Sunday, when most of these places were closed. However, the weather was sunny and there was fireman's parade so the streets were busy.

Here the firefighters were performing a street comedy show in their mini fire truck.

Technically a Grand Duchy and not a kingdom, this is the home of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henri, and his family.

Not complete without a royal guard of course (bottom left)

The highlight of the day trip was the old town. Enclosed in a fortifying wall with the Alzette river running through, it truly is a breathtaking view, which I do not believe this picture does justice to.

Dachau

Saturday October 3rd

After breakfast, we checked out of the hostel in Dachau and headed to the concentration camp. Immediately upon passing through this entrance the mood changed.

 "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" or "work makes one free" is inscribed on the gate.

Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, Dachau concentration camp was the first of its kind in Germany. Originally meant to serve as a work camp for political prisoners it expanded to hold all enemies of the Nazi state. Dachau became an SS training camp and was the model used to establish other concentration camps. In the 12 years of its operation, more than 30,000 prisoners were killed.

Seeing the various parts of the camp and getting a glimpse of how the prisoners were treated and forced to live, one cannot help but feel heartbroken and ashamed.

Oktoberfest

Friday October 2nd
"There is no way I'll be spending a year in Germany and not go to Oktoberfest" was my answer to a question frequently asked of me before I left the United States. Luckily, ESN Heidelberg had reserved 50 seats for Friday October 2nd. We left Heidelberg at 6am and stopped by our hostel in Dachau to drop our stuff off. We got to Theresienwiese (the Oktoberfest grounds) at 11:30. The table was reserved for us from 12pm until 4pm.

Only beer brewed in München is allowed to be served at Oktoberfest. The beer comes in one size, Maß (pronounce mass), equivalent to one Liter.

In my mind I had imagined the festival to be chaotic. Even with more than six million visitors per year, it is quite tame. This is because the festival is strict on the purchase of beer. Beer can only be bought inside the ornate tents (which are not actually tents but warehouse like buildings) and is not allowed to be taken outside.

Even inside the tents, if you are not seated you are not allowed to buy a beer. On top of that, getting a seat without a reservation made months in advance is practically impossible. Weißwurst (a Bavarian dish of white sausage) with a few Maß of Paulaner Beer and the singing of German festival songs was the norm and before we knew it, our four hours were up.

The rest of the grounds were like any other festival, amusement rides and kiosks selling a range of goods from trinkets to sweets.  

Tips:    Make a reservation months in advance otherwise you won't get a seat.

            Get to the train station early, because at 11:30pm it felt more crowded than the festival, and             you might miss the last train, which would be inconvenient if you are not staying within

            walking distance of the festival grounds.

Schwarzwald

Friday September 11th

Our home university has a direct exchange program with the universities of Baden-Württemberg, so for our orientation we were told to hop on the regional train and get to Freiburg im Breisgau. Friday morning the nine of us left Heidelberg and three trains later we got to Freiburg Hauptbahnhof (Central train station), where we were met by our program coordinators Silke and Regine and five other UMass foreign exchange students from Mannheim Universität and one from Konstanz Universität. From there we  took a bus to the Schwarzwald (black forest).

Half an hour walk from the bus stop was our destination, the hillside hostel (not pictured here) owned by Freiburg Universität that shares its view of the Schwarzwald (and, on a clear day, France as well) with its visitors. Interesting story behind this hostel, when the Nazis took control of Germany, Freiburg Universität was afraid they would have their money confiscated so they bought it. They currently use it for educational retreats and our foreign exchange orientations.

         

Saturday we went on a small hike. We passed through woods, hilltops, farms, and creeks.

We then made it to Schniederlihof, a hidden gem in the shape of a farm house built in 1593. It is now a museum that showcases the way of life of a farmer from that time. From the looks of it, it definitely wasn't an easy (or fun) life. The running of the farm was a huge group effort, and because the trek to town was not an easy or a quick one, the father had to be skilled in woodwork and blacksmithing as well as manage the farm . When the sun went down the work ended and there was not much left to do other than sleep, especially in the winters.

Pictured here is the kitchen. And like the kitchen the interior of the rest of the house wa dark and cramped with low ceilings. There were very few places to sit or sleep, and in the winters the animals slept inside the house. Life in Schniederlihof must have been difficult but it did put life in modern times in a much more appreciative perspective.

(On the bright side the view from the balcony is stunning.)

Altstadt Sunset

Wednesday September 9th

It wasn't hard meeting other international students thanks to organizations like AEGEE and ESN Heidelberg which plan events for foreign exchange students. During our first week there was something planned every night. The best of which was an icebreaking pub crawl. On Wednesday the 9th we decided to go see the Heidelberg Schloss (Castle) which is slightly higher up the Königstuhl than Altstadt. It was highly recommended that we make the hike at dawn to see the sunset from up there. Walking through Kornmarkt (corn market square), one clearly notices how dominating the Schloss is in the field of vision.

There are many ways to get to the Schloss, including a stairway path, a funicular, and a steep cobblestone road, which is by far the least comfortable way up. Us being new to the area and having no idea which is the best way up there you can guess which path we took.

Piece of advice, if you are going to take the cobblestone path, you wanna avoid wearing thin soled shoes like Sperrys or Toms, because the path is as flat as a game of tetris. So don't do it. Nonetheless, you'll be too distracted by the castle wall and tower to your right and the small glimpses of the city peeking through the tree leaves to your left to pay attention to your foot pain. You'll probably be out of breath as well because it is a pretty steep road, which can be seen on the bottom left corner of the picture.

Once you make it to the castle courtyard and catch your breath, the view of Altstadt will take it away again.

And after you take your mandatory selfie....

you'll notice this monster staring at you, the main building of the castle.

If you leave from the uphill exit and walk past the garden to the stone wall cliff (whose name and function I do not know) then you can see Altstadt as well as the castle in what is sure to be one of the most picturesque sunsets.

Days 1 and 2

September 2nd
In the valley of the Neckar river, between the Königstuhl (King's Seat) mountain and the Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain), lies the Altstadt (Old Town) of the city. This is Heidelberg, a spectacular university town of 150,000 inhabitants.

Located 90 Km (56 miles) south of Frankfurt am Main and 90 Km northwest of Stuttgart, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, it's simple to take a plane from any country and get here. However the other foreign exchange students might not be too fond of my use of the word "simple", why?

Because of day one. September 1st, having just touched the tarmac after an eight hour flight, with no knowledge of the functioning of the rail system known as "Deutsche Bahn" (two words you will come to hate), German skills in need of a good polishing, weighed down by two 23 Kg (50 lb) suitcases, there was a lot of stress. But my mom's cousin, who lives an hour north of Frankfurt am Main, picked me up from Frankfurt international airport and drove me to my new home, which definitely made for a better first day. But without a German phone number or Wifi, there was no one to talk to and nothing for me to do but sleep at 6 in the afternoon...

Having gotten about 14 hours of sleep tired me physically but I was excited too excited to care and productivity was on my mind the next day. I needed to go back into town to pick up paperwork and info packets, but I was not yet familiar with the public transport system so I decided to walk from my dorm in the Neuenheim (new home) district. Being guided only by the map I was given the day before, it felt like I was living in the 1990s again and in no way was this a nostalgic feeling. But after 50 minutes and having gotten lost only once (no I still didn't ask for directions) I made it to Universitätsplatz (University Square). As I walked down the cobblestone path of Hauptstraße (Main street), from the bustle of the pedestrians to the baroque conjoined buildings, from the flapping wings of the daring pigeons inches away from taking out an eyeball to the sounds and sights of the street performer and of course the most iconic of which was the Gothic Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) in Marktplatz (Market Square); all of which i was too distracted to notice the day before. Finally, I was back in Europe and even though it had only been my second day in Heidelberg, I already knew I was going to miss this place when I left 363 days later.