Leeds to Mannheim

Guten Tag

This week has been an incredibly busy one. In between more intensive seminars, I have been to a masquerade ball, an Indie club night, the cinema, probably too many coffee and cake sessions and visited the beautiful German town of Speyer.

The first event was the Masquerade Ball held in the main part of the University of Mannheim’s Baroque castle. After getting ready while watching my first Christmas movie of the year I headed over to Cecily’s to spend some time with everyone before we went to the party. It soon got very busy in the room so after a quick photo shoot we set off through Mannheim in our masks. The ball was a lot fancier than we had expected; people were in full ball gowns wearing very fancy gold masks and dancing like they were on strictly, despite the fact that the music was mainly pop songs from singers such as Pink, Britney Spears and Shakira! Overall it was a really fun night and it was good to be going to something a bit different.

Thursday was a bank holiday, so I used it to catch up on work and walk around the city. In the evening I also met some of the girls from the study abroad fair a few weeks ago. We met at 5 so I assumed we were having tea, but we ended up at a café that only served cake. Obviously, that meant I had no choice but to try the chocolate cake which turned out to be the best one I’ve had in Germany.

Friday was back to work with the start of my second intensive seminar. In 4 and a half hours we only got through 24 slides! That evening I met with Sam for some tea. The first place we went was cheap and looked amazing, but it was full, so we had to find another place. We ended up at Burrito Baby which is a vegetarian and vegan burrito place. The burritos were delicious and very filling but as they were vegan there was no cheese! After we’d eaten, we went to Sam’s as she was hosting pre-drinks for our night out. I got ready there and soon lots of others joined us to chat and sing before going to Indie night. The Indie Night was at a club called genesis, which is the first club I have visited in Mannheim. The music was good although some was a bit more metal than Indie. They did play all the hits though, including Mr. Brightside. I had fun and got in at 3:30 after an hour stop with the drunks in a kebab shop and a 45-minute round trip to take Sam home!

Despite getting in late I had to be up early on Saturday to visit Speyer. Speyer is a town around 30 minutes from Mannheim which has a lot of spires! There are at least 5 churches and the streets are beautiful, like something out of a fairy-tale. We spent most of the day there exploring and taking photos, but we did find time to stop in the afternoon for cake. Before getting back on the train we also visited the grave of Helmut Kohl who is an ex-German Chancellor. He was a huge advocate for the reunification of Germany.

After these busy days, Sunday was a rest and work day. After getting a lot done, I met Sam for a few hours for cake (again). This time we went to a vegan bakery that we found, and I had a very nice brownie. The rest of Sunday was spent resting ready for more intensive seminars!

Intensive seminars took up all of Monday and most of Tuesday but on Tuesday evening I found time to go to the cinema in Mannheim. The cinema in question is the most expensive one I have ever been to. Tickets cost £11.40 per person which is crazy. However, it was entirely worth it as I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody and it was one of the best films I have ever seen. I’m hoping to see it again at a cheaper cinema soon!

Now I must go and get ready to meet Jordan in Frankfurt so I’m sure I’ll have much more to write about next week.