On Friday morning, I went to the local butcher, bakery, and grocery store to get meat, bread, fruit, and yogurt for my lunch and dinner. With my bag packed, I left work at 12:30 to get to the train station in time for my 12:45 train to Heidelberg, Germany to visit Inka. I bought a 5 day Eurail pass for Germany and Switzerland which allows me to take any train or bus in any of those two countries. It took me about 5 hours and 3 different trains to get to Heidelberg (1 train Lausanne to Basel, 1 train Basel to Mannheim, and 1 train Mannheim to Heidelberg). The train from Basel to Mannheim was an Inter City Express (ICE) train. Normally people on the ICE trains have reservations, but it is not required. Above the seat is an electronic sign which says which cities the reservation is good for. I didn’t know where I should sit so I just sat. I ended up getting kicked out of my seat twice. I finally found a seat without anything written above the seat which meant it was not reserved. I learned the hard way! I finally arrived in Heidelberg and Inka met me on Track 8. We then took the streetcar to here place to drop off my bags and then went to the Kaufhof to buy a costume for the Fasching Party. Fasching is like Halloween, which goes from November 7 to sometime in February. We found a cute sailor suit so I went to the dressing room (small room with a curtain) to try it on. Someone before me must have messed up the cuffs because after I put the outfit on I tried to take it off, but both of my hands were stuck! I felt helpless! I stuck both of my hands out of the dressing room curtain and called for Inka. Very comical! She fortunately was able to help me out of the costume. Before getting ready for the party, we went to the grocery store to get drinks to bring to her friends before the Fasching Party. We then went back to her place and got ready. Inka was a fairy and I was a sailor girl (see picture). We rode the streetcar from her place to Jahnstrasse (see picture).

I met her friends and we hung out until we left for the party. Inka was not feeling well so she ended staying at her friends place while I went with her friends to the party. It was a lot of fun!! At 2:30 AM, we walked back to her friends place and picked up Inka. She was still not feeling well and we still had to make it back to her place. We ended up walking a short ways to get a cab because the streetcars had stopped running and it was too long to walk all the way back to her place. Since everyone after the Fasching Party was trying to find a cab, we had to compete with other people. We were walking along the road and I spotted a cab turning the corner. I ran to get the cab and ended up beating another group to it. The next day, Inka was feeling better so we went to the cafeteria on campus to get lunch. We then walked the old part of Heidelberg (see pictures). It was amazing! After seeing the town, we went back to Inka’s and watched a movie and then I headed to the train station to travel to Neckarsulm.