The trip for last weekend was Germany! My friend Kavishna and I found a really cheap flight about a month ago, so we decided that it would be a fun, quick trip to take. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived back in Jönköping last night, but were able to see quite a bit in the two days that we were there!
We did not get to our destination until about 10:00 pm on Friday night, even though we left Jönköping around 12:00 pm! Ryanair is great because it is cheap, but it flies out of little airports in the middle of nowhere, which can be a pain. We were flying out of Göteborg, which is closest to us. This involves getting to the Jönköping bus station (easy), taking a bus to Göteborg (a little over two hours), and then taking a bus to the airport (half hour). The airport is two buildings that look like Grandma and Grandpa P's quonset huts out in the middle of farmland! It is quite funny! The security is virtually not existent and everything is really laid back...definitely a non-stressful way to travel. The Frankfurt Ryanair airport is pretty decieving because it is actually an hour and forty minutes (by bus) away from the actual city of Frankfurt! We were pretty surprised when we discovered that upon arrival! It was okay though because the bus trip took us through some lovely German countryside.
We finally arrived in Frankfurt around 10:00 pm and set off to find our hostel. Thankfully, it was about five minutes walk from the train/bus station. However, this happened to be in the bad area of town! I will not even describe the lewd venues surrounding the place! The hostel itself was actually really nice, and very safe and secure, which goes to show that you cannot judge a book by the cover!
We got up early-ish on Saturday and set off to the train station. There is not too much to see in Frankfurt because it is mostly a business hub, so we had previously decided to see Frankfurt on Sunday and go elsewhere on Saturday. We took a train to Heidelberg, which is a city about an hour away. It is so charming! Mom and Bridge recommended it from their Germany travels a few years ago, and I am so glad that we went! The city is most famous for its huge castle, which is built into the hillside. It was lightly raining all day, so unfortunately the view was not quite as good as normal, BUT it was still incredibly beautiful! After trekking up and down the hill to visit the castle, we walked around through the 'old town' and through the shops and cobblestone streets. The city center is more modern, but it has been well-developed and complements the 'old town' area really well.
Heidelberg - view from the castle
We decided to take another train (about twenty minutes) to Mannheim after Heidelberg. The city looked pretty dull when we first exited the train station, but a little bit of walking proved otherwise. Mannheim is most famous for its water tower, and fountains on either side. The fountains were incredible! There were also some lovely flowers! It was raining in Mannheim as well, but we braved it and explored the city.
Mannheim's fountains
We found an amazing health food store, which I had to go into! It was great! I found vegan nutella and soy pudding, which are not in Sweden OR the USA, so I was really excited! I tried a little bit of the nutella on the train later and pretty much died of happiness because it has been more than four years since I have had that!
Proud owner of vegan nutella...for less than twenty-four hours
We stayed at the same hostel on Saturday night and checked out Frankfurt itself on Sunday. The 'old town' area is cute, but nothing like Heidelberg! We went down to the Main River, saw some impressive Gothic-style cathedrals, and took an hour river cruise, which was sort of disappointing because it took us through the cute, historic area of the city to the factory-laden area. It was still interesting though! We had to catch the bus back to the airport at 1:00 pm, so we quickly grabbed some lunch to eat on the bus. The bus driver was really rude and made me get off to eat (because my lunch 'smelled' - interesting because it was just a pita and veggies...personally I thought the bus driver smelled up the bus much more since he spent the twenty minutes prior to departure chain smoking), which resulted in me having to eat my lunch too quickly and getting a stomachache. Then, he decided to slam on the breaks when everyone started to stand up as we parked at the airport, and I flew into the seat in front of me. I have some really nice bruises from that. THEN, we discovered that Frankfurt airport security is much stricter than Göteborg's. They took away my nutella and pudding (we were carrying on) because they 'were liquids.' I was SO MAD! I had not even tried the pudding yet! I could kind of see the pudding being classified as a liquid, but the nutella was clearly a solid. To make matters worse, the security lady was really mean about it and threw them both in the trash in front of my face. I am still not over that one. It really disgusts me that we live in a world where people throw away sealed food because of stupid regulations that do virtually nothing to 'prevent terrorism'...I have more of an explanation than that, but it would take me pages to explain.
Frankfurt
Anyways, the last few hours of the trip were pretty much awful, but the rest of the weekend was great! I loved Germany! It is much more beautiful than I anticipated, but VERY Americanized, which was unfortunate. I definitely want to visit again someday (and buy jars of nutella to eat there)! Oh yes, and off to Portugal on Wednesday night!
Mannheim's fountains
We found an amazing health food store, which I had to go into! It was great! I found vegan nutella and soy pudding, which are not in Sweden OR the USA, so I was really excited! I tried a little bit of the nutella on the train later and pretty much died of happiness because it has been more than four years since I have had that!
Proud owner of vegan nutella...for less than twenty-four hoursWe stayed at the same hostel on Saturday night and checked out Frankfurt itself on Sunday. The 'old town' area is cute, but nothing like Heidelberg! We went down to the Main River, saw some impressive Gothic-style cathedrals, and took an hour river cruise, which was sort of disappointing because it took us through the cute, historic area of the city to the factory-laden area. It was still interesting though! We had to catch the bus back to the airport at 1:00 pm, so we quickly grabbed some lunch to eat on the bus. The bus driver was really rude and made me get off to eat (because my lunch 'smelled' - interesting because it was just a pita and veggies...personally I thought the bus driver smelled up the bus much more since he spent the twenty minutes prior to departure chain smoking), which resulted in me having to eat my lunch too quickly and getting a stomachache. Then, he decided to slam on the breaks when everyone started to stand up as we parked at the airport, and I flew into the seat in front of me. I have some really nice bruises from that. THEN, we discovered that Frankfurt airport security is much stricter than Göteborg's. They took away my nutella and pudding (we were carrying on) because they 'were liquids.' I was SO MAD! I had not even tried the pudding yet! I could kind of see the pudding being classified as a liquid, but the nutella was clearly a solid. To make matters worse, the security lady was really mean about it and threw them both in the trash in front of my face. I am still not over that one. It really disgusts me that we live in a world where people throw away sealed food because of stupid regulations that do virtually nothing to 'prevent terrorism'...I have more of an explanation than that, but it would take me pages to explain.
Frankfurt
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