A Grand Day Out: Nancy and Sini Talk Themselves Into Trouble

So Sini and I went to Heidelberg, a beautiful college town in the West of Berlin, for our vacation. Now, one would normally call such a vacation scenic, relaxing, and fulfilling, full of the best German schnitzel and white wine. Of course, though, Sini and I always somehow manage to get ourselves into these situations with our unfailing resolve to somehow talk ourselves into trouble, and this uncanny addiction to risk.

So our first days are fantastic- we met some nice people and went to a few bars and pubs, and even found our way into a club that was in a CAVE! And then we decided to take a boat up the river (breathtakingly beautiful, let me tell you). Except as we were boarding, we noticed that the boat next to us was full of guys around our age wearing these funny uniforms. So of course, whenever we reached a lock and pulled up alongside the other boat, Sini and I would lounge on the top deck and watch these nice men wave and tip their hats (yes, they had hats, too) to us. Most people would have left it at that, but NO, Sini and I HAD to go talk to them after. So we awkwardly milled around the area where they were offloading and struck up a conversation. "Why the funny uniforms?" It turns out, Heidelberg was the site of the German national fraternity convention. Yes yes yes, Sini and I LITERALLY stumbled into a BOATLOAD of German frat boys. We were instantly adopted by a nice frat group from Stuttgart, who invited us to their CASTLE. When we asked how far it was, they said, eh, not far. Then they bought us tram tickets, and we all crammed on, and we asked again. At this point they answered more honestly and said, "well, about an hour altogether. Ha, I saw that look- regretting this decision now, aren't you!" And we were, but only for a little bit. Because it turns out that the castle was actually TWO castles, and at the castles was BEER! So there Sini and I were, hanging out with our boatload of German frat boys (mostly our original wonderful Stuttgart friends), running around trying to get as much photographic evidence of the highly improbable event as possible.

The night got even better then! It turns out that in addition to two castles, each frat also has an adopted restaurant in the town, so the Stuttgart frat then took me and Sini out to a fantastic West German dinner, complete with the aforementioned schnitzel and bottomless wine, and the at midnight rejoined the masses to start singing their national frat song or whatever that was. After that, despite assurances they could "find a room for us in the castle", we asserted we had to return home, and even got a ride back! Along with promises of a visit in Berlin and a "good time" should we ever venture into Stuttgart. Sure to take them up on that!