Jason, castles, and beer tents

I don't even know where to start, Germany was a complete roller coaster. 

     I left Luxembourg at about 10:30 on Friday and took two trains to get to Mannheim, which I was a little nervous (considering my ability to get lost in a phone booth) but despite the fact that everything was written in German I actually made in to Mannheim and my friend, Alex was waiting for me as soon as I got off the train, it worked out great and it was so good to see a familiar face! We first went back to his apartment and dropped of my stuff then quickly headed to Frankfurt to make it to the concert.  We took this super nice train to get to Germany which I later coined the  "future trains" because they were unbelievable, like all the doors were automatic and opened on there own, the seats were super lush and I basically felt like i was in the Jetsons.  We made it to the concert about an hour before it started, waited in line for a but and eventually made it inside where we enjoyed an evening of musical perfection, Jason was just as incredible as I remembered and let me just say, Germans love him almost as much as me, so I was in good company.  After the concert we decided to just stay in Frankfurt so we found a really nice hostel and spent the night there.

    On Saturday we got an early start and headed back to Mannheim around 10:00 where we got changed and then headed out to Heidelberg, one of Alex's favorite towns.  We were both pretty hungry by the time we got there so we got lunch at a really cute Irish restaurant and then continued exploring the city.  The highlight of Heidelberg was getting to go up to the castle at the top of the city.  We paid about 2 euro and got to walk explore the whole thing which was awesome! After the castle we headed for the train station to make it to our next destination, Stuttgart.  When we arrived in Stuttgart we basically just followed the masses of people and we arrived at this crazy carnival/beer festival thing.  We walked around for a while, taking it all in then had some beer and I got to indulge in some "hot american pizza"- according to the sign.  We then met up with another one of my friends from Hope, Chad (who I haven't seen in like three years and is stationed in Germany with the Navy) so that was really fun!  Then we got in to one of the beer tents after a really random stroke luck and did some dancing on tables with all the crazy germans, it was a lot of fun! Then we headed back to the train station and somehow ended up missing our train which led to a kind of unfortunate series of events but everything worked itself out and we made it home safe and sound a mere ten hours later.

      I spent the whole train ride back to Luxembourg sleeping and got home at about 8:00 pm on Sunday night.  Overall, I had a great weekend and loved Germany! It was so much fun to be in a new place and I am already looking forward to my next trip!

Here are some pics of the highlights of the weekend:

This is the first train station I went through in Germany, in a city called Koblenz, I was there for about an hour so I explored the city a but and when I was heading back I noticed this castle right behind the station, so pretty!

A bridge in downtown Frankfurt

Frankfurt skyline

I took a picture of this because I was confused about why there was a rooster on top of the crucifix...i am still a little confused about that

The Sttutgart train station

Downtown Heidelberg

The oldest building in Heidelberg

Funny statue...I would have like to have been friends with this guy, 

he seems like a nice gentleman

Bridge in Heidelberg- too bad they were doing construction

The castle!

The castle and the rest of the city

View across the river from the castle, it had just rained so there 

was this really pretty mist coming off the trees

More of the castle

I guess they decided they didn't want anything on the other side of these windows

Totally worth the hike up, beautiful view of the city of Heidelberg

Me and Heidelberg

First glimpse of the crazy festival

Huge beer tents

Inside the beer tent...Germans are CRAZY

I am not sure what I am thinking here but I know I am having a good time!

Alex rocking out

Me leaving the scene of the crime, fun had by all!