Heidelberg - Germany Week 6

              This week was very full of pharmacology. At the beginning of the week, we had two pharmacology workshops, where we talked about a variety of topics. It was all very interesting and I enjoyed this added on to my pharmacology class. The best thing was that Dr. Fajt gave us lots of tips and tricks about using PubMed and looking up scientific articles, which will definitely be helpful in the future! We also had two more pharmacology classes for the week, making 4 out of 5 days with pharmacology. I enjoy the class so it wasn’t bad on top of my other classes. Other than pharm, the week was a pretty normal week with normal classes.

             This weekend, Darby, Lois, Camella, and I decided to take a trip to Heidelberg. I didn’t really know much about Heidelberg (other than there was a castle), so I didn’t really know what to expect. We arrived late Friday night (Saturday morning) and made our way to our Airbnb, which was a little apartment near the central station.

             Saturday morning, we got up and made our way to the castle. It was supposed to be warmer than Sunday, so the plan was to do outdoorsy things then rather than when it was going to be close to 20°C. After climbing a lot of (vertical) staircases, we made it to the castle. It was so big! And so much of it was still standing. It was so cool to see and to wonder about what it looked like in it’s prime. We spent hours taking in the sights. Being up high also gave us a good view of the city. We wondered the gardens and the grounds. Oddly enough, within the castle there was a pharmacology museum, which we also spent a lot of time in. Once we got our fill of the castle, we wondered back down to the city and strolled through random streets. We got these really interesting pastries called “Snowballs”, which I really don’t know how to describe. We decided we wanted to cook dinner instead of eating out, so we got some groceries, and Lois and Darby graciously cooked dinner for all of us.

             Today was a much colder day, although the wind wasn’t near as bad as yesterday, so it did not feel as bad as expected. We also wore all of our clothing we packed, so maybe we were just better dressed for the weather. We walked around the Heidelberg University and made our way through their botanical gardens. We spent lots of time in a cute café, where Darby and I had normal hot chocolate and Lois and Camella had Spanish hot chocolate, which was a mug of hot fudge. Not what any of us were expecting! We decided to do part of the Philosophenweg, or Philosopher’s Walk, which is a path that professors and philosophers walk to think. We went right around sunset, so we got a beautiful view of the sunset and the city lighting up at night. The castle was also lit up, which was really pretty.

             We are currently on the bus headed home, getting ready for the stressful week ahead. A week of tests and projects and papers. But then we are off to France! Wünsch mir Glück!