After an amazing four months spent living in the beautiful city of Heidelberg, studying at a world class university, I am finally coming to the end of my stay. As a round up of my time here I have compiled a list of my favourite things to do, some of which probably sound very random so do forgive me...
1. Going up to Königstuhl
If you haven't noticed by now I
love going up to Königstuhl, which is a "mountain" in Heidelberg, with the
Schloss at the bottom and an amazing view at the top. To get to the top you can either walk up (which Dad and I did when I first arrived), go up on the bus (which I did when Sam visited) or get the funicular railway (the fun way! unintentional pun...). Going up on the funicular is great because it's free with my student travel pass and even though it's sometimes terrifying in the rickety old carriage to the top, it's always worth it when the view appears. On a lovely clear day you can even see as far as the Pfalz mountains in the distance. Königstuhl is without a doubt my escape spot from the (not so bustling) city life of Heidelberg.
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| Heidelberg and Königstuhl |
2. A slightly easier (because I have to do it everyday...) and less time consuming thing I love to do is looking at the
Schloss when I go over the river on the bus to and from uni. On some days it will be glowing orange in the sun, other days surrounded by clouds, and sometimes you can't even see it at all! But my definite favourite was when there was a Christmas market up there because by night it would be lit up with rainbow colours and was really spectacular!
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| The Christmas market at the Schloss in December |
3. Not all of my favourite activities are view related, I promise... Another favourite thing of mine to do is notice all the little things which make it completely obvious that I'm foreign. Whether it's turning up to a lesson with *shock horror* lined paper instead of squared, or recklessly going out in shoes with no socks, or whipping out my two phones when I'm in uni - one for texting and one for Wifi, of course... Whatever tiny thing it is which makes me temporarily stick out like a sore thumb, I just love noticing it! And when I do notice it I might even exaggerate it a bit - proud to be British and all that! (Having said that, I have only worn shoes without socks once since Christmas and my feet froze all day. Damn, I'm slowly turning to their ways!)
4. My favourite place in Heidelberg to eat isn't some swanky restaurant or even a cute little cafe, but the Marstall Mensa. A mensa is a sort of canteen, except in the Martsall they have a
buffet where you pile up your plate with as much or as little as you like and then pay by the weight of your plate. With my student card I average about €2 a meal, and hot chocolate is always just €1, which is an absolute
bargain! The Marstall used to be the stables to the Duke of the Palatinate (who lived at castle sometimes) and has apparently been voted the best student mensa in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which I can definitely believe! It has such a cool arch shaped roof which they light up at night, and frankly I spend waaaaay to much time in there.
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| Inside Marstall (from http://lifeatuni-heidelberg.blogspot.de/2011/05/martstall-mensa.html) |
5. My favourite Sunday night activity to do, after a weekend spent revising/doing the epic amounts of homework we get given here, is to go to the Marstall cafe and watch Tatort. Although to begin with it was pretty hard to understand what was going on (different crazy German accent every week!), I soon got the hang of following the plot of the traditional German detective program. Now, I was no stranger to Tatort before I came to Germany, but I didn't realise just how much of a
thing it was here! On a Sunday night in Heidelberg loads of students cram into the Marstall cafe to watch the show on a big screen, and everyone will laugh, be surprised or be outraged at the same time - it's great fun and generally hilarious despite the fact they are generally grim topics! The one mistake we did make (which I wouldn't wish on anyone!) was going on a Polizeiruf 110 day... This is shown every 4 weeks and is an alternative detective program, but no where
near as good as Tatort. Also the episode we saw had a really awkward topic... Ask me if you really want to know!
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| Opening credits (from https://www.hueber.de/seite/tan_lernen_lektionen_2_b_l11?menu=5443) |
6. On a slightly different note, one of the great things you can do as a Brit living in a Euro country is pretending that the Euro is the same as the pound. So when you *eh hem*
accidentally spend €50 on new clothes, you have that temporary "OH MY GOODNESS ALL OF MY MONEY IS GONE" moment, and then realise that actually you have "only" spent £40! It's so great, and always makes me feel so much better about my slightly excessive shopping habit here... But sorry German kids, it wont work the other way round if you come to Britain :(
7. Another view related, more recent favourite activity of mine is going up Philosophen Weg to the top of Heiligenberg. On the walk from the Old Bridge to the top of the
berg you come across all sorts of random monuments and ruins, like the Bismarcksäule, Stephanskloster and Thingsstätte. As you trek your way up the hill the view of Heidelberg and the surrounding region just keeps getting more impressive, with the view from Stephanskloster winning hands downl! On a clear day nothing beats wandering up to the top, with all the fallen crunchy leaves to
play in walk through and winter sun shining through the trees.
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| Stephanskloster |
8. Last but not least, one of the best things about living in Heidelberg, or in Germany in general, is that I get to speak German
all of the time! I'm not saying I am fluent by any means (adjective endings anyone?!) but I think I can safely say I have actually
improved in my German - if not my actual skills then my confidence to speak it anyway! I'm even at the stage where I can argue in German and watch films and even understand when they are talking really fast. For me this is
the coolest thing ever, and I feel like it is proof that I have actually used my time here wisely to do the one thing I was supposed to do - learn German! (Ha lets not talk about the 3000 word year abroad essay...)
So there you go, those are all of the amazing things I love about being in Heidelberg, and I shall miss the beautiful city and all the amazing people I have met so much! But don't you worry Heidi, I shall be back!
