Every year the Fulbright Alumni in Germany (that is to say, Germans who spent a year in the US on a Fulbright grant) hold a Winter Ball at various locations around Germany. They always extend their invitation to the American Fulbrighters who are doing their year abroad in Germany. This years ball was in Heidelberg, a city in the southwest of Germany.
Heidelberg is a beautiful place with an amazing Altstadt (old city) with the typical German buildings and cobble stone streets, and it's famous bridge crossing the Neckar river. It's also home to the oldest University in Germany and has a castle (but then again, I've it's unlikely to have a city without a castle in southern Germany...)
I wasn't planning on going at first, but at the last minute, I decided I could do with a weekend away and I'd never been to Heidelberg before.
Aside from the Ball on Saturday, there were alumni events planned all weekend - a meet and greet on Friday night, the Ball on Saturday, then brunch and a tour of the castle on Sunday. I was staying with other American Fulbrighters doing the English Teaching assistantship, though I had only really met one of the 4 before.
Friday night was pretty low key. Just dinner and drinks at a restaurant on the river. The most exciting part for me was meeting a German who had done his Fulbright year at UGA! We chatted for a good bit about east campus dorms, dining halls (his favorite was O-House) and football! The funny part was that we were both at UGA at the same time and, from all the common people we knew, probably had been at the same event at some point or another. He wore a UGA t-shirtto brunch on Sunday for me.
Saturday was a nice lazy day, enjoyed a late start, walked around the old city, saw all the bigsites, and did a little shopping. The whole time I was amazed at how many people were out! Maybe I've been conditioned to small town living after 6 months in Forchheim, but the streets were packed!
We headed back to the hotel early to get ready for the Ball! Our hostel was full of Fulbrighters in town for the ball, so the hour or so getting ready was sort of like dorm life meets prom, all the girls were crammed in the bathroom - borrowing hair products, sharing mirrors and makeup and I even got commissioned to do about 3 or 4 girl's hair.
The ball itself was pretty awesome! It opened with a "sektempfang" or champagne greeting. Were we got to stand around admiring (or judging) everyone's fashion choices while enjoy a glass (or two or three) of free champagne.
The dinner was in a gorgeous ball room where we were served a tomato soup starter, our choice of one of 3 entrees (I chose the
steak dish, I believe it was), and a delicious dessert. After the
eating was over they opened up the dance floor. Despite the touch and go quality of the music (you'd get one gem like "I will survive" to get you out on the floor, the followed by three or four random songs you've never heard in your life). But we danced the nightaway anyway until our carriage turned back into a pumpkin....
On Sunday we enjoyed a slow start and brunch buffet. Afterwards there were two tour options available. One was a "Mark Twain" tour and the other was a tour of the castle. I opted for the latter. I would definitely recommend a visit to the castle to anyone in Heidelberg - it was one of the more interesting ones I've visited! And to top it all off, this castle is home to the largest wine barrel in the world. I forget just how much it holds, but to give you an idea, it is so large that it has a dance floor built directly on top of the barrel that could easily hold about 100 people. I was impressed!
Overall it was a fantastic weekend, I got to meet some great people and enjoyed visiting a new city! The next trip is in 2 weeks back to Edinburgh to visit Shahida!
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