Pictures from around Freiburg!
The next day, Tuesday, we decided to go to Strassbourg, France, which is only an hour away from me since I live in the bottom South West corner of Germany. It was the first time I had been to Strassbourg too so I was pretty excited about it. It is always so weird to me that if I just travel an hour away that they speak a totally different language, even though Strassbourg is right on the border, EVERYONE speaks French. It is kind of weird because my German feels useless there. The French are pretty particular about there language anyway and trying to preserve it as much as possible, that's why they get so angry when people come to their country and can't speak a word of their language, they hold there language very high with how they choose to identify themselves.
Pictures from Heidelberg! ((the pictures are kind of out of order...sorry!))
A couple little facts about Strassbourg. Strassbourg is the center for the Parlament in the European Union, our President, Barack Obama was even there a few weeks ago and they weren't letting anyone travel by train into Strassbourg that day. Strassbourg's Cathedral was the tallest structure in the world in 1439, surpassing the Pyramid of Giza; their Cathedral is really pretty and of course gothic architecture. It was even in Strassbourg that Johannes Gutenberg developed the first European moveable type printing press. Another really weird fact is that in July 1518, an incident known as the Dancing Plague of 1518 struck residents of Strasbourg. Around 400 people were afflicted with dancing mania and danced constantly for weeks, most of them eventually dying from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion. (weird) Strassbourg also has the largest University in France.
Pictures from Strassbourg
Strassbourg overall was one of my favorite cities that I have been to in France, it was very quaint and the buildings were typical old French style. It also sits along the Rhine river, so walking along the river was really pretty. While walking through Strassbourg I was trying to think of a very typical French food that we could eat while we were there, and we saw a Crepe stand, and I thought that is TOTALLY french. When we got our Crepes, I had no idea what language to order in, so I tried to order in French; my simple knowledge of 1, 2, 3...thank you... hello...my name is...most of that didn't help me in ordering food though, I probably looked like an idiot. Thankfully the vendor spoke English and taught me how to say what I wanted in French, it was really fun, not that I could ever remember what he taught me, but it was cool in the moment. I got a Crepe with Nutella on it (chocolate spread) and powdered sugar on top, it was really good. After our Crepes we went for a little scenic walk along the river and took a lot of pictures. We soon decided it was getting a little late and decided to head back to the train station and go home. We got back to Freiburg and got some dinner at a little Italian place then headed out to O'Kelly's since it was St. Patricks day, the place was absolutely packed full and there was even an Irish folk band playing, it was really fun seeing everyone decked out in green and drinking their Guinness.
The next day we had planned to go to Konstanz which is like 3 hours away on a huge lake, but we decided not to because we were all kind of tired of traveling, so we just stayed in Freiburg and hung out again. It was really fun. We took more pictures around town and everything too, since god knows Eric and Adam weren't taking any pictures, the sister has to make sure it gets done. the next day were heading to the part of Germany where Eric lives, we went to Mannheim and Heidelberg. We got into Mannheim a little late because we had to pack everything for Ashley and Adam to leave because Adam was leaving in a day and Ashley and I were heading off to Paris. We had a huge scare while trying to get to Mannheim. We had to take three trains to get there and from our train from Offenberg to Karlsruhe Adam had another EXTREMELY lucky incident. We arrived in Karlsruhe and were going to make our connection to go to Mannheim, on the way to the next track we grabbed a Doener to eat and then suddenly Adam realized he forgot his backpack on the train we just got off of, and side note...Adam had my mom's computer, his passport and some souveniers in there!!! We were freaking out, and I told Adam to run to track 9 to see if the train was still there. Ashley and I waited for like 5 minutes and then we see Adam strolling back to where we were out of breath...with his backpack!!! I could not believe that he had it. He told us that the train was still there and it was just leaving when he ran there, he was pounding on the door and they actually stopped for him and he told them he had to find his backpack, and it was still just sitting there. Thank GOD he found it because that train was heading for Konstanz, which was about 5 hours from where we were. Even with me living in Germany, I would have had no idea how to get that backpack back! We were so lucky. And he even found it in enough time for us to catch our train to Mannheim.
We finally reached Mannheim and we all headed out to Heidelberg. Once we got to Heidelberg we had to walk a little bit to get to the Castle and it was dusk already, but the view was awesome and the sunset was so pretty. I had already been to Heidelberg before so nothing was new to me. It was fun to have Ashley and Adam there and to actually see a real castle. We also pulled the prank on Adam that Eric pulled on my mom when she came to visit in December. Adam pulled this string that was attached to a box and Eric said it was for good luck, when Adam pulled it, a raccoon tail flew out and he screamed...hahaha. This was in the huge wine cellar in the Castle. After seeing the castle we all went out to dinner at a cute German restaurant and then headed back to Mannheim and fell alseep.
We didn't get much sleep that night because the next day we had to wake up at 6 am to leave for the Frankfurt Airport because Adam was flying back home and Ashley and I were flying to Paris. It was weird to say goodbye again to Adam, but I knew we would see each other soon again, and I was really happy he had a good time in Europe, I am so glad he got the chance to visit!
Next part of my 2 month break was my 2nd trip to Paris...we stayed there for 5 days...oh what an adventure it was.
Auf Wiedersehen
I know these blogs are pretty late, I have just been really lazy, and this weather here is so nice!!! There is so much I have to write about still. My trips to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Munich, and my 21st Birthday. I miss you all! Can't wait to see everyone in August!! Love you all!
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