Beautiful Rudesheim

Last friday, instead of going for free wine tasting in school, we trot down to beautiful Rudesheim which is just around 40mins away from where we are living in.Rudesheim is another town along the Rhein river and part of the UNESCO world heritage site. It is a major tourist attraction and so things are pretty expensive in that town, food and shopping. Shopping isnt that great because it's tooo touristy. It is also another wine-producing town with picturesque landscape and surroundings.Drosselgasse, one of the street that was on the must visit list on the tourist information guide. it is the most happening part of the town. lots of people in a small narrow alley that was lined with many restaurants and pubs. i was comtemplating if we should just have dinner here since it smells soo good, but the price was tooo goood too. =PNext, i bought a ticket which cost me 11 Euros. It includes 3 rides, the cable car, chair lift and the ferry. Took the cable car up the mountain first, the landscape was awesome! and the cable car is kinda old, so it doesnt have any glass on the side, it's just open air-ed, pretty scary at first.
then we walked for a bit and got to the Niederwalddenkmal Monument, a 10.5m tall monument of a Germania figure. dont ask me what's Germania because i dont know! i just look at the monument. haah =P

and that's the 5 of us who went to Rudesheim. 1 group photo only because boys dont like to take photos. =P

after, a 30mins hike on foot to the car lift, was torturing! ahhhhhh walking up slopes again, gosh it sucks when u're rushing to get the last car lift down the mountain and slopes just nv end. bahhhh! and these are the photos i took on the way there.
and tada! finally reached the carlift station, it's basically just a chair hung onto a cable that brings u down the mountain. if u're afraid of heights, i urge u to hike down the mountain. It is scary even for me when im not afraid of heights. so yeahhh but the view from up above is amazing, one more beautiful picture to share. the rest are on photobucket or on facebook. =)
got down in 20mins and we head to the ferry terminal, on our way there, we chanced upon some pubs with loud music playing in them. i went in and guess what i saw, all of them are old folks! dancing to really hip music! haha i was so surprised. We should learn to party like them tooo, from young to old. i was wondering to myself will i be this happening when im old or will i be stuck at home feeding cats. hmmmmz....the ferry ride took around 30mins along the Rhein river, we passed 3 castles on the way back to Rudesheim. maybe next time we can go there on foot. =P
dinner time! woots* our original plan of having dinner at Drosselgasse did not happen because it was simply too expensive, instead we decided to walk around town to find something less expensive and we saw the Macdonalds sign! it has been soooo long since i had Macs and what's more, they have their local infusion of McRib, something u cant get in singapore because Macdonalds are Halal in Singapore. so no pork. but here, they have! MUST TRY. on the down side, it is freaking expensive toooo omg, 1 meal is 5.45Euros which is $11 singapore dollars! eeeeks! but it is still worth the try haha at least try once la =P

Heidelburg

The day after Frankfurt, we had breakfast at the korean hostel and off we go! out to explore Germany.
We got out really early in the morning, the streets were still empty but that's perhaps it's a saturday. We went to the second hand market in Frankfurt which is one of the largest market in Europe. there were lots of stuff to see and buy, everything was pretty cheap but nah i'm not really into hand me downs =P
and then we had to go to the train station to catch our train to Heidelburg, daljoon says "15mins before the train leaves" and from what i recalled the train station is really far from where we are now! eeeeksss rush rush rush....walk faster steph! but my feet was so filled with blisters from yesterday, it was soo difficult to walk, be it run. thank goodness we made it to the train just in time

the journey from frankfurt am main to heidelburg is pretty long, maybe an hr or so. the scenery was real nice from the train, and the train is so comfy, unlike the uncushioned ones we have on mrt. and alas! we reached Heidelburg station. we came down from the train, all excited only to realise, that it wasnt the stop! it wasnt the main train station! oopsieeee, hahaha blunder=P so we waited for another train which took 10mins to arrive, to the next stop, the correct one. and ta da! Heidelburg!
a little introduction on Heidelburg:

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2006, over 140,000 people live within the city's 109 square kilometres (42 sq mi) area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority. The Rhein-Neckar-Kreis rural district surrounds and has its seat in the city, but the city itself does not form a part of it.

Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar at the point where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald to flow into the Rhine valley where, 20 kilometres (12 mi) northwest of Heidelberg, it joins the river Rhine at Mannheim. Heidelberg is part of a densely populated region known as the Rhein-Neckar-Triangle.

it is probably a university town, the university campus is said to be spread all around Heidelburg. it's much more lively here compared to the where im living. so many shops, so much to do! SHOPPING! when we talk about shopping, daljoon's face turn into disappointment. haha shant be so bad to him. he is a real good tour guide actually, he knows everything! walking wikipedia! daljoon-pedia =P

a snap of the shopping district in Heidelburg

our next plan is to have lunch at a Thai buffet which is according to the daljoon, real goood, so we searched and searched but to no avail! where the hell isit?! it's suppose to be 15mins away from the train station but it seems like an hour or 2 already. we ended up having Nordsea which served seafood! yummmy! hadnt had that for a really long time! look at my 8.45Euro fish & chips which is equivalent to $17 Sing dollars. and my yummy crepes which cost me 3.50 euros.

Sightseeing in Heidelburg.
1. Student Prison

where naughty boys and girls are placed in the 1700s. they were allowed to go to school while serving their time and friends are allowed to visit. they could even bring alcohol into the cell. the spent their free time carving on tables and drawing on the wall using whatever materials they have.

2. Bits and pieces of Heidelberg University

it's a really famous university actually, and the campus is strewn around the town itself. we went to one of the lecture halls and wow! they're impressive. it's so medieval like, it looks like those u see on the big screen, especially on Harry Potter.

and the library is amazing! the facade of building is so magnificant and grand and inside is so modern just like any other library. envy.

first 2 pictures are of the lecture hall and the last one is of course the library

3. Heidelberg Castle

a little information of the castle from Wikipedia:

The castle is a mix of styles from Gothic to Renaissance. Prince Elector Ruprecht III (1398–1410) erected the first representative building in the inner courtyard as a regal residence. The building was divided into a ground floor made of stone and framework upper levels. Another regal building is located opposite to the Ruprecht Building: The Fountain Hall. Prince Elector Philipp (1476–1508) is said to have arranged the transfer of the hall's columns from a decayed palace of Charlemagne to Heidelberg.

Today, the hall is used for festivities, e.g. dinner banquets, balls and theatre performances. During the Heidelberg Castle Festival in the summer, the courtyard is the site of open air musicals, operas, theatre performances and classical concerts performed by the Heidelberg Philharmonics.

The castle is surrounded by a park where the famous poet Johann von Goethe once walked. The Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway runs from Heidelberg's Kornmakt to the summit of the Königstuhl via the castle.

this is the first castle i've visited, excluding my school that is. the walk up to the castle is sooo tiring! ekkks! it's a long road up and what's worst is, the whole stretch of road is a steep steep steep slope! i was afraid i might just roll down the slope while climbing it. and after 20mins of climbing we finally reached the castle! yay! totally breathless at that point of time. but the scenery is breathtaking =) well worth the walk

and this is the big water/wine barrel located in the castle, to store wine for the king, and to store water when there is a war. it is said to be 2000litres. it is HUGEEE!

and the park next to the castle, i've nv been to a place so green before and it makes u wanna just lie on the grass and laze there all afternoon

Frankfurt

fast forwarding to 2nd week in Germany.

Our very first venture out of our little town or shall i say village with the other exchange students.

It was a rainy gloomy afternoon, skipped morning's workshop so we could sleep in late and get ready for the trip.

walked to school in heavy bags of clothes because we're gonna stayover at Frankfurt! woooo exciting. hopped onto the bus and off we go to FRANKFURT!

it was supposedly a really long journey but, hmmmz nah it wasnt. reached frankfurt in no time! it was still raining when we got there, open umbrellas! but there were 6 of us and only 3 umbrellas. being nice pple, we shared our umbrellas =) the rain got heavier and heavier as the tour went on, and the stupid tour guide didnt want to take a break in the shelter, instead he continued to explain in the rain. gosh! and i was all wet thanks to my umbrella holder! =P
what a bad day
1. my clothes were all wet
2. it's sooo damn cold, till the extent smoke were coming out of our mouths
3. my passport was wet
4. my entire bag, which i tot was waterproof, wasnt, so everything i had was wet
5. i had to pour water out of my shoes

and finally we reached our destination of the day. i dont even know what tower isit, i was more concern with the state im in now. brrrrrr.......... anyway the tower is 190m so we could see the whole of frankfurt from up there. when we got up to the top of the tower, it stopped raining, what a miracle! so we could take photos! yippees!when we got down from the tower it was already 5pm? and the tourguide already went missing. lousy tour guide! arghh all wet, we hurried to the korean hostel that daljoon booked. the korean hostel is amazing! so clean and warm, finally walked around barefooted in a house..that was when i realise everything i had except the camera and hp were wet! got to dry everything up with the heater.

next plan is to go to the Korean supermarket which daljoon and the other koreans were looking forward to. you can see the smile and sparkle on daljoon's face when he got there. haha very funny, i bought ramen tooooooo! 5 packets of it..not alot but still happy! spent a lot of time there and i was starving actually! cold and hungry, how much worst can the day get. arghh got back at around 7.30pm, and the korean food at the dining area just look soo good for a hungry person like me. according to the other koreans, the food aint that great, but im HUNGRY! so everything tastes good =P
and yeah that was end of frankfurt day for us. i told sungho this is the worst day of my LIFE! phew...glad it's over.

The night the cops paid us a visit

there was a welcome party last week on one of the weekdays, cant remember the actual day but, it was the first official introduction day for exchange students in ebs.

first we had free breakfast in school, where we cooped all the jams, nutella and what not. we planned to eat until we burst and save lunch money. hehez

and then it was back to boring day in school with nothing much to do but sit around, waiting for the sky to drop. and after jinmoo n heeyeon got their bikes, we cycled down to the river which is not too far from the schloss campus to chill.

and next, free dinner again! at a restaurant near our apartment. was starving by the time we got there! but there were several speech in between before we can eat. and damn the food is hmmmmmz...... like breakfast again! omg bread bread ham ham ham and more ham, everything was cold. i feel like as if it's just appetizer but yeah that's dinner for them. and 1 free drink of coz.=)and the highlight of the evening, party at our place! *wooooots* BYOB please pple. we only provide the place and the soccer table and oh yeah beer pong too. the turnout was great, lotsa of pple came, most i dont even know! people just keeep coming and the alcohol came in crates. one thing i learnt, they dont do mixers, it's just the drink alone. i had 1 shot of jim bean and that's it! no more for me tonight. the only mixers are probably alcohol with alcohol eg beer with jim bean and it actually taste not bad.the party ran through the night and people were hanging outside the house tooo, and it got kinda noisy and the neighbours were complaining until the cops came! =X haha first time ever. shows how haps our party was =P