So I've been here in Marburg going on three weeks now. If you don't know where Marburg is (which you probably don't), it's about an hour north of Frankfurt in the state of Hessen. It's a small University town with about 70,000 people, 18K of whom go to the Uni. There is a river that runs right through the middle of the city called the Lahn. It's pretty well know and flows about 150 miles away and finally into the famous Rhein.
The Uni is the world's oldest protestant university, founded in 1527 and lies in the center of the city. The city is split up, basically into two parts, the Stadtzentrum (Center) and the Oberstadt or Altstadt (upper city or old city). The Oberstadt is located on the top of a hill with the Stadtzentrum surrounding it. On top of the Oberstadt is a huge castle that was built sometime during the 11th century.
You can pretty much do anything here; there are 3 movie theaters (4 in the summer), and two workout facilities with basketball courts, a full size track, tennis courts, and other rec-rooms. There are a few Badhäuser (directly "Bath-houses"), but they're basically big swimming complexes with many pools, saunas, steamrooms, heated pools and massage centers. There are two bowling alleys, many ice cream parlors, and so many category-specific shops where you can get basically anything you want/need. You can take kayak or canoe tours down the Lahn river in the summer & also tours of the castle in the Oberstadt.
Enough about the history of the town and to the interesting stuff. There is pub basically everywhere you look & every one has it's own atmosphere. One of my favorites is called the Sudhaus (South-house) and it's located right on the edge of the Oberstadt. It's a three story building that was probably built sometime in the 1600s so it is very narrow and has low ceilings, but the atmosphere there is excellent. One of my favorite things to do is get together with friends every Friday night and go to Mexicali (it's just like it sounds also), kind of an "Americanized" Mexican restaurant, for half-priced Margaritas. We've been every Friday since we've arrived and I don't see our Friday nights changing much.
I live in the suburbs of Wehrda, pretty far away from the Stadtzentrum and Uni, about a 30 minute bus ride, which I dread every day because the bus is always fucking late & most of the time filled with a few shady looking fellows or teenage punks that drink on the bus & play loud grunge music in public. ....Oh, I didn't say anything about Germany's policy on drinking. From what I understand, you have to be 16 to buy beer or wine & 18 to buy any liquor. Also, there is no such thing as P.I. here so you can freely drink in public, on the bus, in stores or basically wherever. But like I said, it's mostly the teenage bastards that do it & have no disregard for there surroundings or if their music is annoying the shit out of people.
I've found a group of friends that I hang out with all the time & we take turns cooking every night for each other so it's wicked cheap if I decide not to go out to eat (probably only a euro per meal). We still go out to eat on occasion & go to the pubs and/or a club every weekend for the kind of fun a college student is supposed to have whilst studying abroad in Germany. And I'm 21 now, not that it makes a difference here, but feels good to get over that milestone.
Just a tidbit for now. I'll post again sometime soon. Also dann, viel Spaß. Tschüss aus Deutschland!!!
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