📍Heidelberg, Rothenberg, & Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪

We survived Oktoberfest! It was time to explore other parts of Germany.

Day 1: We rented a van and six of us (the other four had left by this point) began our journey to see some German castles. We started at Neuschwanstein Castle which is a 1.5-2 hour drive from Munich. Fun fact: the Disneyland castle was modeled after it. We toured the inside, which had not been renovated since it was built. Pretty cool. This castle was right next to Hohenschwangau Castle so we walked around the outside here too.

We found some lunch at Kyodai (too much schnitzel is a thing, so it was time for a different cuisine) and then started our 2 hour drive to Rothenburg. Shout out to J and Pronio for being our drivers of the day, true MVPs. Rothenburg is a small town that seemed to have a Christmas feel year around. It was so cute and definitely worth a visit.

We spent a few hours walking around, walking the walls of the city, and watching a short (like 1 minute short) performance in the main square.

Our last drive was to Heidelberg, which was the final stop on our castle day self tour.

We arrived pretty late so it was dark and we were hungry, per usual. We found our hostel, Lotte The Backpackers and decided on a nice Italian restaurant called Trattoria Toscana.

Day 2: Eliza and I got some coffee/tea and walked around the town while the rest of the group woke up and got their lives together. Once everyone was ready, we walked to the castle which was less than a quarter mile from our hostel.

We decided to be responsible adults and make our way to Frankfurt where we had to return the rental car and take the train. We arrived to the station with a little over an hour to spare so J and I returned the car and the rest of the group got some lunch before meeting up at the train station. And this is where things get interesting. With 20 minutes left until departure, we noticed our train was not showing up on the board. So we asked a worker about it and they told us we were at the wrong station. Turns out, there are actually two main train stations in Frankfurt: Frankfurt Central and Frankfurt South. Who knew? Not us.

The station we needed was an 11 minute subway ride away. We ran down to catch the ride we needed and the subway train pulled away as we all got to the platform. The next one was in another 10 minutes which wouldn’t give us enough time to catch our train.

Welp. Missed that train. To the drawing board. We went to the information desk and they were unable to help. They instructed us to go to the long ticket line. While waiting, we tried booking online but all of the trains were either full or extremely expensive. We talked to another person who informed us of the same. I went to the rental car place to see if we could possibly drive and no cars big enough were available. We found a train we could buy tickets for online, but of course, our payment was rejected twice. We finally got to the front of the ticket line (which is somehow less organized than the DMV on a weekend) and J explained what happened. I’m not sure how, or why, or what we did but this lady looked at our tickets, looked at her computer, didn’t say a word for what felt like 5 minutes, printed something, wrote a few words, and handed us a paper. She looked up and said “there’s a train leaving from platform 9. Run! It leaves in 6 minutes.” SAY. LESS. Without paying a dime, we somehow made it on the train that left an hour later than we originally were scheduled for. 🙏🏼

We made it to Berlin, checked into our cozy apartment, and grabbed some pizza. It wasn’t very German, but at this time it was the only thing open and it was surprisingly very good. It was at this point where we learned that sometimes pepperoni is mistaken for peppers when there is a language barrier…BUT, peppers are in fact good on pizza…just a PSA for ya.

Naturally, we needed a Berlin Harry’s so we found a local bar and got a drink. We quickly realized Harry’s was a special place that couldn’t be replaced and decided it was probably time to catch up on some sleep instead.

Day 3: Pronio, Sarah, Eliza, and I got up for a Berlin walking tour. It was 3 hours long and it was great. We saw the Berlin Wall, Check Point Charlie, and some other really interesting landmarks.

We had plans to go to a club with a dress code, so we went thrift store shopping where J and Jesus met up with us. We found a few gems and went back to the hotel to get ready. We got Thai food to eat at the house, took a few tequila shots, and off to the club we went.

Day 4: Eliza must have thoroughly enjoyed the club because she was supposed to be well on her way to the airport by the time we woke up. Instead, to everyone’s surprise including her own, she graced us with her presence in the morning. With very little time to spare, she somehow made her flight back home.

The rest of us had breakfast at the parliament building while trying to keep our eyes open. Honestly, we did not belong there at that moment in time, but we made it.

Going from one meal to another sounded like a great idea so Pronio made reservations at the oldest restaurant in Berlin. We had a small lunch (don’t judge us) and then walked around the city to burn off at least one of the two meals.

We said our goodbyes to Pronio who was rudely leaving us. Sarah and I then showed J and Jesus some things we saw on the walking tour of Berlin.

After a VERY long day, we made it to Dublin and crashed at our hostel, Jacobs Inn. And when I say we crashed, I mean asleep before our heads hit the pillow type of sleep.

Day 5: With a few hours left in Dublin, J, Jesus, Sarah, and I found a pub, ate some fish & chips, and tried to go to Trinity Library. We were unaware we needed tickets and so we admired it from the outside. Still pretty.

We walked back to the hostel to get our things and had the best taxi driver take us to the airport. It was time for our friends to go home (😫😭 come back) and time for us to to make a quick trip home for one of my best friend’s wedding.

Bloopers 🤪