The last few days, I have succeeded in looking German, and I am now paying for it in foot pain. I've been asked for directions in German 3 times, and been asked several other things but since I don't in fact speak German, I can't be sure what they've been wondering about. When I walk in to shops and hostels, no one thinks twice about what language they should begin with. My secret: German shoes. I noticed the first few days I was here that the most accurate way to pick out Americans from Europeans was by their footwear. And given my Euro-envy, I naturally have worn my German shoes out almost everyday. For the first few days my feet were fine, even happy, because they were cushioned on some high quality leather. But as the kilometers add up, the American tendencies of my feet can be suppressed no longer. They crave the tennis-shoes, which I think they will get tomorrow when I walk up to the Festung Hohensalzburg.

I spent my first days on my own in Heidelberg, which was such a fun place to be. The first thing I bought was a bar of chocolate, and the second was some German tofu. I don't know if it's all the meat I've been eating, but this was some of the most delicious tofu I have ever had. The hostel I stayed at was great and there were plenty of friendly people to hang out with. Since I'm not that aggressively outgoing, I don't usually meet people I don't have to meet. But traveling alone, and especially at hostels, is such a nice atmosphere. I don't even feel forced to strike up awkward conversations - I want to!

One particularly great thing about this hostel was that they had bikes to borrow for free! So on my second day I rode one to the next town along this hill side over looking the river. This is the view of Heidelberg from the bike path across the river:

I also walked all around the altstadt and up to the castle that overlooks the town: