For the next couple days, Erik and I just toured all over, checking out random things in Heidelberg and seeing how things had changed. One of the biggest differences were the military bases. The military was the reason I was originally in Germany, my Dad worked for them, so I knew all of them well. There are 3 main military bases: MTV(Mark Twain Village), PHV(Patrick Henry Village), and Campbell Barracks, way off in the woods. MTV was where my Dad worked and also where I went to school for 1st through 5th grades.
The big difference was that all the bases are now walled up and barricaded all over. MTV is more of a residential base, it has many apartment buildings that formerly just sat out in the community interspersed with other German buildings. Now they all had 8 foot tall walls with barbed wire. The main reason is probably 9/11 and the government freaking out. I know we have to protect ourselves, but walling ourselves off from everyone else seems a bit extreme… I also found that I can no longer get inside the base! They used to have American MPs(military police) guarding the entrances, now there are German security forces. You need a military ID to get on the base, they used to let you take guests with you or use your passport to get on, but not anymore. I was really disappointed that I wasn’t allowed back inside the base…
Friday night, there was a whole group of us hanging out, Gregor, Daniel, their friend, Erik, and I. We went and bought a case of beer at the local store. The cheapest beer available was called Oettinger, so cheap that the Pfand(bottle deposit) was almost as much as the beer itself! We also found out, none of our German friends knew what beer pong was, so we just had to show them!
For those who don’t know, beer pong is like table tennis, but with cups and beer. We played beer pong for awhile, waiting for the sun to set and the night to come alive. Once it was dark, we grabbed the beer and headed downtown. Germany has no open beverage laws, which let us drink where ever we pleased. One of the popular spots in Heidelberg is down by the Neckar river which runs through the city, the Neckarwiese(river side). There were about 200-300 people just hanging out and drinking, it was a great way to practice my German and just talk casually with people my age. I had a great time!