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!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Wurstmarkt, Bad Durkheim
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!
Monday, October 8, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
___________________________________________________________
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.
___________________________________________________________
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.
___________________________________________________________
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!
___________________________________________________________
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!
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!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Metz, France Trip
Introduction to YouTube Series
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
A Six Hour Night: My Transit to Germany
I left for Germany from Logan Airport on the afternoon of Friday, August 17th. The first flight was a six hour crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to Dublin, Ireland, where I would the board a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany. After this two hour flight, I would ride the ICE high speed train for a thirty minute sprint from Frankfurt to Mannheim, my final destination.
During the first flight, I began reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time to pass the hours. It is quite an interesting book and very fitting for the mood of a transcontinental flight, where the sun seems to race around the Earth, warping one's perception of time. The man sitting next to me, also a fan of Hawking's book, was a professor from the Berklee College of Music, who was visiting his daughter for her marriage in Ireland. While the short night continued on, I decided that rather than sleep, I would watch Hunger Games on the airplane's entertainment screen. The movie was decently exciting and had a good premise, but the borderline epileptic shaky-cam and the deadpan faced actors made it a mediocre show in my opinion. With the Katniss's rivals all dead and the movie wrapped up, I finally arrived in Dublin, the land of my heritage.
Walking through the Dublin airport was an interesting experience. As I passed the security gate from the city, I was amazed at how odd it feels to be in a country where almost everyone looks like they are related to you. After about an hour and a half layover I boarded to plane to Frankfurt.
This second flight was almost empty; I had an entire row to myself. This was the first time on my trip where the people around me were all speaking German. While I can pick out many individual words, I am not yet proficient enough in the language to understand what people are saying when they are talking among themselves. It is definitely a strange feeling to be surrounded by only people who are speaking a foreign language that you cannot understand. It is a bit overwhelming, but I feel that it is the best way to learn.
After arriving in Frankfurt, I tried to order a ticket to Mannheim in German. I got a smile, a ticket, and a reply in English. Ticket in hand, I rushed to catch the train, and after thirty minutes of the best in high speed rail travel, I stepped out into the Mannheim Hauptbanhof on Saturday, August 18th at 10:30 AM.
During the first flight, I began reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time to pass the hours. It is quite an interesting book and very fitting for the mood of a transcontinental flight, where the sun seems to race around the Earth, warping one's perception of time. The man sitting next to me, also a fan of Hawking's book, was a professor from the Berklee College of Music, who was visiting his daughter for her marriage in Ireland. While the short night continued on, I decided that rather than sleep, I would watch Hunger Games on the airplane's entertainment screen. The movie was decently exciting and had a good premise, but the borderline epileptic shaky-cam and the deadpan faced actors made it a mediocre show in my opinion. With the Katniss's rivals all dead and the movie wrapped up, I finally arrived in Dublin, the land of my heritage.
Walking through the Dublin airport was an interesting experience. As I passed the security gate from the city, I was amazed at how odd it feels to be in a country where almost everyone looks like they are related to you. After about an hour and a half layover I boarded to plane to Frankfurt.
This second flight was almost empty; I had an entire row to myself. This was the first time on my trip where the people around me were all speaking German. While I can pick out many individual words, I am not yet proficient enough in the language to understand what people are saying when they are talking among themselves. It is definitely a strange feeling to be surrounded by only people who are speaking a foreign language that you cannot understand. It is a bit overwhelming, but I feel that it is the best way to learn.
After arriving in Frankfurt, I tried to order a ticket to Mannheim in German. I got a smile, a ticket, and a reply in English. Ticket in hand, I rushed to catch the train, and after thirty minutes of the best in high speed rail travel, I stepped out into the Mannheim Hauptbanhof on Saturday, August 18th at 10:30 AM.
Introduction
Hallo!
My name is Sean McArdle, and I am a 21 year old college student from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States of America. I grew up in North Andover Massachusetts, which is a quiet suburb about thirty minutes north of Boston. I have been studying Mechanical Engineering at UMass Amherst for three years, but for the Fall of 2012, I have decided to study abroad in Europe. I am going to Universitat Mannheim, in the Baden-Wurttemberg region of Germany. My goals for this semesters are to immerse myself in German student life, to travel throughout Europe, to get to know other international students, and to become relatively proficient in the German language by the end of my time here. I will be creating entries in this blog to document my adventure through Europe.
My name is Sean McArdle, and I am a 21 year old college student from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States of America. I grew up in North Andover Massachusetts, which is a quiet suburb about thirty minutes north of Boston. I have been studying Mechanical Engineering at UMass Amherst for three years, but for the Fall of 2012, I have decided to study abroad in Europe. I am going to Universitat Mannheim, in the Baden-Wurttemberg region of Germany. My goals for this semesters are to immerse myself in German student life, to travel throughout Europe, to get to know other international students, and to become relatively proficient in the German language by the end of my time here. I will be creating entries in this blog to document my adventure through Europe.
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