I arrived in Heidelberg on September 1, 2010. It was a long 24 hours of traveling! I flew into Stuttgart, Germany (another city in Baden-Wuerttemberg), and then had to take a few different trains to Heidelberg. Navigating the busy train stations with all of my luggage and a slim German vocabulary was not easy. For those of you who opt to study in Heidelberg, I highly recommend fling into Frankfurt. Luftansa Airlines offers a shuttle that leaves regularly from the airport and brings you directly to Heidelberg. The price is 26 euros for a one-way seat on the shuttle, but the convenience of the service is well worth the price. Save yourself some stress and fly into Frankfurt!
I also recommend searching for flights based on arrival times in Germany; the Info-Center in Heidelberg where incoming international students are to check in has limited hours of operation. You'll want to plan to get to the city when the office is open, because this is where you will get the key to your room. If you arrive after the office closes, you will be without a room until the Info-Center reopens the next day, and will be required to find accommodations for the night. I would look for a flight that arrives in Frankfurt 4 or 5 hours prior the office's closing! This will give you time to go through customs, pick up your luggage from baggage claim, find the Luftansa shuttle in the airport (arriving in Frankfurt on a Luftansa flight is not a prerequisite for riding the shuttle to Heidelberg, so rest assured if you were planning to use a different airline) and make the one hour drive to Heidelberg. You will also need to take a cab from the shuttle drop-off location to the Info-Center, and then find the Info-Center, which took me some unanticipated minutes of walking in circles as well. The last stretch of my journey was a stressful race against the clock to make it to the Info-Center before it closed for the day, and if I were to redo my trip here I would have planned a bit more meticulously to ensure a relaxed travel experience. (Regine will be able to help you look up the opening hours of the Info-Center on Heidelberg's Website if you have trouble navigating the German site.)
A note on packing: after you've packed everything you think you need, and after having removed some items you determine (upon second thought) to be superfluous, take out some more! I was quite surprised the day after my arrival to find bruises on my shoulders and sizable blisters on my hands, the result of lugging the bags I deemed "not-too-heavy" through three airports, three train stations, in and out of taxis, through the cobbled streets of Heidelberg to the Info-Center, through more cobbled streets to my student residence and, finally, up multiple staircases to my room. I was tempted to ditch things along the way. Regardless of whether you will be in Heidelberg for one semester or one year, you will need to buy refills of necessary things: toothpaste, deodorant, soaps and all your other toiletries, so why not just forsake them altogether during the packing process and get them upon arrival in Heidelberg? I would bring a travel-sized tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush in your carry-on in case of emergencies. Also, you will buy things from one of the two H&Ms in Heidelberg, so you can leave out approximately 1/3 of the clothes you were planning to pack.
Knowing what I do now, I would have brought some basic study supplies: notebook, binder, folders, pens and pencils. You will be given a LOT of paperwork in your first couple days, and it would be wise to keep it organized from the get-go. Also, German notebooks are weird.
Another good thing to pack that takes up no room, weighs nothing, and will save you money: posters! You will want to decorate your room in Heidelberg, and from my own experience it is comforting to have small reminders of home (like the posters you've accumulated during your freshman and sophomore years to decorate the walls of your dormitory) amidst all the newness that will characterize the first few weeks of your study abroad experience. You will also save money; room decorations will be already checked off on your list of "Things to Buy (aka: Money to Spend)" upon arrival. And trust me that it is a long, long list!
No comments:
Post a Comment