Okay, so if you have checked this blog at all in the past 5 days, you have already seen what I am about to tell you, that I failed at that whole "post something every day" thing. Now before I start into a dizzying list of excuses with words like jet lag, packed schedule, so exhausted, etc. I will give you the biggest reason for my absence in 3 little words: inaccessible wireless internet. Ugh. As in, they have it, they told us how to get it, but it's not working. Really, is there anything more annoying than something that is just out of your reach? But now it works and here I am.
Day 2: Arrived
We got in Wednesday morning around 7 am local time. The plane ride here was bad, but I won't go into that until I have actually talked to my mother about it. (Everything is fine and everyone is fine, but still, some things need to be discussed privately before publicly. I've really gotten you curious now, huh?) Anyway, we arrived in beautiful Heidelberg, and despite Chris' good intentions about not sleeping much, we succumbed to my excellent intentions about sleeping for several hours. After we emerged from our slumber, we ventured out on the streets and discovered a beautiful view of the Heidelberg Castle.
The city is beautiful and charming, even in the rain. It has the longest pedestrian stretch in all of Europe running right down the middle, and by that I mean an adorable cobblestone street of shopping, dining, hotels and banks, with beautiful statues, squares and churches sprinkled throughout, and our hotel was on that stretch. Within 10 minutes of walking, we had quickly filled all of the needs of that trip: a bank, an Apple store (what luck!) to get an adapter, a little grocery store, cheap umbrellas, and a Starbucks that we smiled fondly at and promised to return later.
A bit later, we went to a dinner that was being held for anyone who had already arrived in town. We had no idea what was in store for us, neither the length to which we were going to be wined and dined, nor the actual length of the evening. We went into the restaurant and began to meet everyone, and started off with champagne and introductions. Next we were seated at a long table full of candles and glasses where we moved on to white wine and bread, followed by salmon something (sorry, I know no German and haven't known what I've been eating all week), then soup, then red wine and fowl, then creme brulee, and then cappuccinos. It was so nice to meet everyone and they were all incredibly friendly, but we were so exhausted from the jet lag already, the wine was making us even more sleepy, and it's kind of difficult to keep carrying on extended conversations with people that you've just met under those circumstances. Additionally, many of the people that we were meeting had rather thick accents and the room was so loud that it took extra concentration to carry on conversations with them, and concentration wasn't coming to us very easily.
When we eventually left for our hotel, we discovered that we had been at dinner for a staggering 4+ hours!!! It was delicious, but exhausting! I wish I had pictures of the evening, but it was a bit too formal and I wasn't quite ready to reveal myself as one of those crazy camera ladies just yet.
More soon.
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