Berlin & Hamburg

So much traveling! I like to think I am quite the expert at German train stations now.

Berlin was genuinely really cool (and hipster-ish). I was visiting two of my Fulbright friends and it was so lovely to catch up with them! I think I managed to see most of the tourist-y things even though it was such a short visit. This city literally never sleeps. We were walking around up until 5am and it was as if it was just mid-afternoon. Perhaps not the safest of cities though.

Whilst I was in Berlin, I found out that another friend was in Hamburg, and that Hamburg was super far from Heidelberg but relatively close to Berlin! So then I took a totally impromptu trip to visit her in Hamburg. Lovely to hear a proper British accent at last! (No offence, yanks...) Hamburg was also a lovely city, but totally opposite feel to Berlin. Very prim and proper

So I had to take a night train home as it was a 6-7-hour journey. However, it was 3 night trains as opposed to one, and included a 1.5 hour stop in Cologne. If it wasn't 3am, I would've so ventured out and done some wandering! Anyway, arrived at Heidelberg at 7am, got home, showered, unpacked, and got to work at 8.30am. Left the lab at 7.30pm for a mad rush to Mannheim but unfortunately, was too late to see Batman! Had a nice wander around Mannheim anyway, and then returned to Heidelberg for a house party, ending up in a club. After being up and about for over 40 hours, I don't think my judgement was too good by that point.

The rest of this week has been super long at the lab. Got to go swimming on Wednesday though. Rookie error - nicest weather we've had all week and so should've known that the pool would be absolutely packed.

4 days after returning from the epic weekend of traveling, I finally feel slightly better rested and settled back to Heidelberg life. I cannot wait to start traveling again though!

Photos are on facebook now. I try put some on here in a slightly presentable way soon.