Paris, France - June 25th

In the morning the parents left before we had woken up. The three of us packed our bags and tidied up the room before heading to the train station. We arrived a few hours before the train departed and walked to the French version of Burger King called “Quick”. We sat down at the window and waited until 11 when they stopped breakfast and started serving lunch. While we waited we saw at least 20 homosexual deaf men meet at the metro map just outside the window we were sitting at. We got our food and ate then headed back to the station. Inside, we waited until our train’s platform was posted and when it started boarding we ran to the front where our first class seats were. Riding first class through the French countryside was a great experience. We were brought food and wine as we sped pass the small towns. Before we knew it we had arrived in Mannheim. We waited on the platform to catch our next train that would take us to Heidelberg. Our first impression of Germany was that it was full of beautiful girls, nice helpful people, and everything seemed unbelievably cheap compared to Paris. Wade bought a bag of chips for 50 cents and our train was delayed for 30 minutes so Geoffrey asked the conductor of another train who told us we could hop on another that was leaving 20 minutes earlier, all in perfect English. One strange sight was a group of kids dressed in gothic clothing with capes, half shaved heads and silver rings and necklaces. On the train to Heidelberg we noticed a group of guys drinking in public which confirmed we were in paradise. When we reached Heidelberg it became apparent to us that France being invaded by the Germans was the best thing that ever happened to the French people. Unlike in Paris where they don’t tell you the train’s platform number until 20 minutes before it gets there, the German train stations had the complete day’s list of train arrivals/destination times, platform numbers, and even where the train would stop in relation to the platform so you could wait exactly where your train car would pull up.

In Heidelberg, we found the information station to get tickets from there to Munich. The lady who helped us find tickets not only got us tickets from Heidelberg to Munich, but also got Geoffrey and Wade tickets from there to Zurich, my ticket to Italy, and saved us a lot of money by getting Wade rail pass. Our impression with Germany only got better when we walked barely a quarter mile from the station to our hostel. On the third floor of what looked like a warehouse, we checked in with Steffi, the owner. The dorm we were staying in was on the top floor and was shared with 7 other people, two of which were there when we arrived and were girls from England. They told us about the castle which was the main sight to see in Heidelberg.

Once we had settled in, we immediately started drinking beer that Wade had picked up from the grocery store on the first floor of our building. The pint-sized bottles came in six packs and were only about 3 Euros. After we had downed most of the beer it was time to hit the town. On the way down, Wade managed to spill half a beer on the stairs as well as shatter a full one on a lower flight. We headed in the direction of some bar called Billy Blues that had advertised club night being Saturday nights. When we got there, however, they would not allow Geoffrey in for what reason we still don’t know. This place was the first we had come to though and with no drop in morale we continued down the street which seemed to get more and more lively. On the pedestrian street which led to the center of town were many stores and restaurants filled with people having a good time. We walked all the way to the opposite side of town looking for people to party with. When we reached the central chapel, we were approached by the biggest German girl we had encountered thus far, meaning she had the waist size of the average American girl. She must have talked for half an hour trying to get us to understand her terrible English and completely unfamiliar German. Finally after signing back and forth, we realized she was just selling lollipops, candy, and shots of alcohol for a Euro a piece to raise money for her friend who had suffered a terrible burn during a bonfire accident in the previous August. When we discovered how ridiculous it was that she spent all that time just to try to sell stuff to us I decided to by one of her “shots” which was more like half a shot. We turned around and walked back down the main street we had come from. More girls approached us wearing birthday party hats and selling pops for their friend so she could buy her wedding shoes. Apparently this is common in Heidelberg. We didn’t want what they were buying but Geoffrey tried negotiating a Euro for a kiss from one of them. They didn’t go for it, but a friend of theirs overheard the conversation and paid them a Euro to kiss Geoffrey. It wasn’t long after that we overheard some girls speaking English heading the other direction. It took us a moment to realize this wasn’t a foreign language and Geoffrey yelled out to them, “YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?” which they responded to by walking over to us and beginning a conversation about how they like to speak English while they walk around the town so others cannot understand what they are saying but really they are German with English-speaking parents. The rest of the night we spent with them. One of them was 17, the other two were 18 but this prevented them from going into clubs/bars, so they would come into town and walk the streets for fun on Saturday nights. They taught us a few words in German and let us drink some of their vodka which Geoffrey finished. They also helped us meet other people and for hours we stood in the middle of the street and talked to many groups of drunken people walking around. We met Zach from Kitty Hawk, some pothead who befriended Wade, and some German guys who say ridiculous stuff in English before drunkenly stumbling off.

It was getting late and since we did not want to go into the clubs without our new friends, we decided to head back to our hostel.