Wurstmarkt, Bad Durkheim

Wurstmarkt: The Largest Wine Festival in the World

Here is a video about my trip to Wurstmarkt in early September.  I had a lot of fun checking out such a large festival; it was a good warm up for Oktoberfest in Stuttgart.  Give it a watch!

My First Few Days in Mannheim

No phone, no internet, no room for two days.  Due to lack of foresight on my part, I arrived in Mannheim on a weekend, and I could not get settled in until Monday, when the housing and international student services opened up.  Luckily enough, I had been able to contact Rhett Batchelder, another exchange student from UMass, and I arranged a meeting with him at 8 PM that day.  However, when I arrived, it was only 10:30 AM.  Standing in front of the Hauptbahnhof (train station), with bags in hand and the heat combined with lack of sleep buzzing around in my head, I decided to make straight for the Jugenherberge (youth hostel,) so I could catch up on some sleep.

The receptionist at the youth hostel told me that I could not book a room until the afternoon, but that she could keep my bags behind the desk in the meantime.  I took her up on her offer and decided to explore Mannheim a bit while I waited to check in.  I walked around the city for an hour or two and got a bit of an idea of how it is laid out.

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Leben im Quadrat:
Mannheim is organized into a grid, which is very unusual for a German city.  Each block is given a letter and a number.  L1, G7, N5, etc.  This makes it very easy to find your way around in the city, however as the Germans will tell you, the charm of the classic European city with its narrow, windy streets is somewhat lost in Mannheim.

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As I walked through the city, 24 hours of traveling finally started to catch up with me and I began to succumb to my exhaustion.  I eventually ended up in the park outside the hostel; a beautiful waterfront on the Rhine river.  I dosed on the park bench until it was time to check in.

After I checked into the hostel, I continued my nap in the room.  Unfortunately, Germans don't typically have air conditioning, so it was still hot, but I got a good hour or two of sleep in me until it was time to meet Rhett at the train station.  I decided to wear my Red Sox hat to make myself more noticeable, and luckily Rhett was able to find me right when I arrived.  After stopping at his dorm in G7, we picked up Döner Kebabs.

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Döner Kebabs:
Döner!  Beautiful Döner! Tasty Döner!  Döner Kebab is a very popular type of fast food in Germany.  Döner is originally Turkish, but has been modified to fit German tastes.  With its large Turkish population, Germany has many Döner shops in every city.  Lamb meat or chicken is roasted on a large rotating spit and shaved off.  The pocket is stuffed with this meat, along with vegetables and sauces.  The result is a greasy tasty fast food that you can carry you with you wherever you go.  Delicious!

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After picking up some Döner, Rhett and I visited some of his Norwegian friends who were also exchange students at Universitat Mannheim.  Everyone was getting ready to go to a party at the Schloss (The castle complex that makes up the majority of Universitat Mannheim's buildings.)  We hung out at the Norwegians apartment for a few hours, having a drink and playing Kings.  I felt like I was back at Puffton Apartments, outside UMass.

When everyone decided to leave for the party at the Schloss, I decided that I should split up and head back to the youth hostel.  Jet lag and lack of sleep were still wearing me out and I was ready to go to bed.  When I got back to my room, I found two fellow travelers in the other bunks.  Luckily, nobody was snoring too loudly, so I jumped into bed and fell right asleep.

I woke up pretty early on Sunday morning and headed down to breakfast with my two temporary roommates.  They were both guys around my age.  Unfortunately, I never caught their names.  One was an art student from Geneva, who spoke and acted French.  The other was a German guy from the Schwartzwald (The Black Forest), which is about two hours south of Mannheim.  They were both nice guys and over breakfast we had a good conversation that involved the pros and cons of the autobahn highways of Germany.  According to the guy from Geneva, the autobahn was not fair because it gave an unfair advantage to those with faster cars.  After breakfast, they continued their travels and I began the process of lugging my baggage across the city to Rhett's dormitory.

Because I had no phone, my only mode of communication with Rhett when I arrived was standing on top of my bags to reach his window and knocking on it until I got his attention.  I have come to rely on this technique pretty much every time I visit Rhett now.  He let me drop my baggage off at his place and offered to let me crash on his floor for the night.  The rest of the day was made up of walking around the city and sleeping to recover from the trip.  It was another bright, hot day in Mannheim.  I was able to walk to my future dormitory and I found that it was just as beautiful as the description online said.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get in until the Hausmeister showed up on Monday.   Returning to Mannheim, I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Rhett.  When it was time for bed, we had to close the shutters on his window because the busy street outside his apartment was so loud.

On Monday morning, I was finally ready to move into my apartment.  I dragged my baggage all the way across Mannheim again and waited outside the building for the Hausmeister to arrive.  Luckily I ran into a girl as she was leaving, and she let me borrow her phone to talk to the Hausmeister.  Eventually the Hausmeister showed up, and soon I had a room of my own in Mannheim!