Today was the day that hostel life tore asunder whatever little shred of dignity I had left-- If I had been an army recruit, it would have been the day I finally renounced any thought of being an individual and melded as one with my fellow recruits, submitting to the utter and complete authority of my drill sergeant.
What happened to cause this, you might ask? I will tell you... This was the morning, after awakening at the Heidelberg hostel, that I recall finding myself STARK NAKED in the middle of a room full of other people half my age-- some of whom I knew, but mostly strangers.
But-- at this point, near the end of our travels-- I DIDN'T CARE ! (I would have cared if any of them were female, but no.) Why was I naked? I can''t recall, but I probably lost my towel after showering. Such was the effect of the communal experience; staying mostly in hostels during this trip left me with no sense of modesty.
Anyway-- we saw our final castle of the trip-- Schloss Heidelberg. Later, I guess we just bummed around the big city. I didn't get any remarkable photos, so I will spare you the dregs!
Later, after dinner at the hostel, many of us tried yet another "Biergarten". I seem to recall arriving after 9:00 p.m. and I have a picture of it bathed in the yet-to-set sun. In the summer, it gets dark very late in northern Europe! 16 years later, when I visited Helsinki and Stockholm, I remember it would still not be dark well after 11:00 p.m.
This was our final day of drinking all that wonderful German and otherwise European beer. In my opinion it was all great, except for the wheat beer, "Hefeweizen". As I said earlier, I loved all the food we ate outside of the hostel, but even the hostel food wasn't really bad at all, just "institutional".
We repaired to our beds at the hostel. The next day would be a really long one for most of us!
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