A Fun-Filled Weekend

This past weekend, my friend Mike came to visit me and April here in Bayreuth. He is also a RISE participant and is doing research in Ulm. April and I woke up early, and rode our bikes to the Hofgarten to meet Mike; luckily, we found him without a problem.

Around 4:00 pm, April, Mike, and I went to the Uni-Openair, a series of concerts taking place at Universität Bayreuth and consisting of multiple bands playing indie and techno music. The music seemed a bit strange to us Americans, but we all had a good laugh at some of the bands; our favorite, by far, was a group called Diego.

After dinner, we decided to walk around Bayreuth with Mike. He had a GPS on his I-phone, so we were able to navigate through the dark streets pretty easily. On our way back, we got some delicious gelato. When we arrived back on campus, we went back to Uniopenair for the last band, which was quite decent. Towards the end, everyone was dancing and singing. When the last band had finished, everyone moved inside for the after party, which began at midnight.

Bright and early Sunday morning, we awoke at 6:30am to go to Nuremberg. It took about forty-five minutes to walk to Bayreuth’s Hauptbahnhof. We split the cost of a twenty-eight euro Bayern ticket (which lets up to five people travel for an unlimited amount of times in one day in Bavaria) and got on the train. The ride to Nuremberg was about an hour. Upon arriving, we ate a breakfast of coffee and pastries in a café and then hit the streets. We stopped at a souvenir shop, and I bought two porcelain dolls that are dressed in traditional German clothing.

We made our way to Nuremberg’s Imperial Castle and for five Euros, we went up in the castle tower, explored the museum, and witnessed a demonstration of candles being lowered into an ancient well. As the story goes, the king ordered his servants to dig him a well so that he could have the purest drinking water. The only problem was that his castle was built on a hill, making it nearly impossible to dig for water. However, after ten years of digging, the servants finally created a working well, which ended up being half a mile deep. In the demonstration that we watched, the tour guide lowered candles down into the old well so that we could see how deep it went.

After touring the castle, April, Mike, and I walked around some more. I had to go to the bathroom, and in order to do so, I had to pay 0.50 cents to a man who worked outside the WC. It still fascinates me how you have to pay to use a public restroom (except in McDonalds, where it is always free).

Next, we walked to the old Nazi rally grounds. This area consisted of large lawns of grass with old steps and tourist signs describing the buildings that used to stand there. Many had been torn down or destroyed in the 1940s. After 1945, the city of Nuremberg had the area remodeled into a park. Every year, there is a ceremony commemorating victims of the National Socialist rule of terror, which lasted from 1933 to 1945.

Using our Bayern ticket again, April, Mike, and I took the S-Bahn train back to the Hauptbahnhof, and we ate dinner in the food court. The train ride back to Bayreuth went fast, seeing as we slept most of the way. Upon arriving in Bayreuth, April and I said goodbye to Mike (who would take the train back to Ulm) and walked back to our campus. All in all, I feel that there has not been one dull moment since I have been in Germany!