May Mayday

I've recently been struck with the realization that with only one week of classes left, time to do and see the remaining things on my list is quickly running out.  Luckily though over the past few weeks I've been able to check a couple more items off.

Just as we were leaving Venice we crossed the Grand Canal on the
Rialto Bridge and came across this beautiful sunset view

Making the short trip to Venice was a priority right from the beginning and so I'm not quite sure why I didn't make it happen before now.  I guess it was partly because of the weather, I was planning on going in March during the famous Carnival but due to heavy rain the city was pretty much under water as opposed to on top of it.  Also, I just got caught up with going to far flung destinations like Morocco and Tunisia.  Anyway, I finally made it to Venice a few weeks ago along with Kyle and Pierre-Olivier, a couple other Canadians from Toronto and Montreal respectively.  We made it there by the early afternoon and were quickly amid the millions of other tourists wandering around the canals, alleyways, and piazzas.  Despite the huge crowds though it was still easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of being in such a famous and historic city.  It's been a world famous tourist destination for centuries, and rightly so.  What surprised me most, other than maybe how expensive it is, was how big it is.  We spent hours walking around and only saw a fraction of what there is to see.  You could probably spend days there, if only you could afford it.  Yes, it's expensive, yes, there's lots of people, and yes, it's totally worth it.

The weekend after that, I was off to Germany to reunite with Marcel, Julian, and Lukas who I hadn't seen since they left Ljubljana at the end of last semester.  After enduring the frustrating and somewhat embarrassing ordeal of missing my bus, my trip was finally under way although a day later than expected.  I eventually made it to Mannheim though, where Marcel welcomed me at the bus stop with beers in hand.  I spent the next couple of days with Marcel and Julian in their university home which, despite all accounts from almost every German person I've met, really was quite nice.  We also went to nearby Heidelberg which probably looks more like the Germany you imagine, with old cobbled streets and a castle on the hill.  

Patrick, Marcel, Julian, and me in Heidelberg

From there I made the short trip to Frankfurt where I spent the day with Lukas who doubled as an awesome tour guide.  He showed me the sights and the food and drink.  We sat on the banks of the Main river with some Apfelwine (leave it to the Germans to make an alcoholic apple juice), and had what must be the best schnitzel in the world.  I had always imagined Frankfurt to be a very industrial, typical big city but it proved to be a very liveable place with lots of green space and cool bars and pubs on seemingly every corner.

After that Lukas took me to his adopted home of Marburg where he goes to university.  Its a relatively small city with about 80,000 people but has a university with around 25,000 people which makes it feel like the whole city is one big campus.  Everywhere you look there's university age people sitting around drinking beer, lounging around in one of the numerous parks, canoeing down the river, playing drinking games, and just generally taking advantage of being in college.  It seemed awesome to me but I'm sure if you live there and you're not in university it would get old really fast.

The sprawling metropolis that is Frankfurt am Main

The very green city of Marburg with its castle on the hill.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Germany, what small part of the country I did see anyway.  Places like Mannheim and Marburg are ones that I would likely never go to if I didn't know people that were there so I'm glad I had the opportunity.  It was all really nice but mostly it was just cool to meet up with the guys in their own country after sharing in the experience of living in a foreign place.

As for being back in Ljubljana things are going okay, other than the odd panic attack I get when I think about all the things I still want to do before I leave, like actually write about Ljubljana for a change.   Time really has gone by way too fast, but I guess that's a good thing.