Sight seeing
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2008
1
2
5
Trip End
Apr 13, 2008
Nuremberg, Germany
Friday, April 11, 2008
Then we went up to this really ancient castle on a hill, which was the imperial castle of Nurnberg. It was built in the 11th century. Kerstin told me that this castle was never captured by enemies, because it was so strong. It was so beautiful. There was a large wheat house kind of connected to it. Kerstin told me that it is now used as a youth hostel. It was a very nice day so I didn't even have to wear a jacket which was awesome. The climb up to the castle kind of sucked because it was on a steep hill, but it was worth the climb. The view was amazing from inside the castle walls. I could see a lot of Nurnberg. Kerstin even pointed out the radio towers in the distance which was where her home is. All of the roofs of the houses were the same red shingling.
After I had finished gawking at the view we went back down the hill, towards the center of the city. We got to the center square just in time for noon which was lucky because the church there had a glockenspiel that chimes and has little guys that move around only at noon. That was cool to see. There was a farmers market in the square all of the produce was under red and white striped tents. i got some post cards and a map at the tourist information place there.
Then Kerstin brought me to see some really beautiful bridges and houses near the river that runs through the city. I loved the architecture in Nurnberg. It was so beautiful. It's the wooden frame and stucco houses. For lunch we got these three little brot wurst in a roll which I guess is popular in Nurnberg. Then we got some gelati. This was great since it was such a warm day. Then we walked around the shopping street. I found some adorable pink flats that are exactly what I've been looking for in shoes. They were only 14 euro (I know i could never find a deal like that in Vienna) so I had to get them.
Then we went to the IMAX theater and saw a 3D movie about Dolphins and Whales. It was really good even though the commentary was in German. It was less than an hour long. This theater was like five stories underground, it was amazing. The screen was the biggest screen i have ever seen in an indoor movie theater.
After the movie we went back to the fair ground and rode the Ferris wheel since we didn't get to the night before because of the rain. It was fun.
We then went back to the flat and relaxed a bit and made spaghetti for dinner. She put chopped carrots and peppers in the sauce. It was actually quite good. Then we got ready for the soccer game. I was so excited for my first real soccer game. We took a bus to the same stop as the fair and then walked for a good fifteen minutes to the stadium. There were a ton of people walking with us. We walked right by one of the famous platforms that Hitler made his speeches from. We got to the stadium and found our entrance. We had to wait in a hoard of people to get in. We had to go through security which was actually just the security guards patting you down.
When we got in we found our seats which were actually really good. There was a pre-game rally going on when we got there. There were these huge black and red flags being waved on the field. There was a section of the stadium to my right that were chanting and clapping and were constantly on their feet. The announcer announced the first names of the player and the crowd yelled their last names.
The second the game began it started to down pour. And it got very windy too. Our seats were undercover which was nice but there were several people that weren't undercover. I felt bad for the players because they had to slosh around and couldn't play as good as they normally could have.
FC Nurnberg did score once which was very exciting. Then at half time they post-poned the game for twenty minutes in hopes that the rain might stop or at least slow down. There were volunteers on the field trying to push the water off of the field with shovels. The rain didn't slow down at all though and they had to cancel the game. Talk about a bummer. Kerstin said she's never seen a game get canceled before. Oh well, we ran to the S-bahn station to catch a train back towards Kerstin's. We had to walk a little ways from the station and we got pretty wet.
We had plans to meet one of Kerstin's friends at her flat but he decided to go straight to the club. Kerstin and I sat at her flat for a little while drinking tea and trying to figure out if it was worth going out in the rain to meet this friend. WE eventually decide to go at around 11:30pm. Since she hadn't seen this friend in half a year, and she wanted me to see a discotheque. So when we got there we had to wait in a fairly long cue, which sucked because it was still raining. We eventually got to the bouncers and Kerstin told me I should unzip my jacket because they don't let everyone in. (this was bizarre i thought) He checked my ID too. It cost five euro as a student to get in. It was so crowded in there. It was mainly kids my age dressed pretty nicely. WE had to check our coats which cost two euro. We waited in a long line to use the gross bathrooms. Then we searched for her friend who actually wasn't very hard to find. They talked for a bit and then we went to the techno dance floor to dance a little and when we got bored with that we went to the rap dance floor. The lighting was crazy. They had disco balls and strobe lights and colored spot lights that moved all over. There were also fog machines which made thick fog sometimes. We had a lot of fun. Her friend Dominic was very nice and so was his friend Chrissy. They spoke English pretty well which was nice. We left at around 2:30am. We went to bed right off when we got back.
