Day 10:
Today we took the train to Eltville, a small town outside of Frankfurt that was far more beautiful, interesting, and nicer smelling. The architecture was breath taking, and after ice cream we sat by the river that ran through it. Alex nearly fought a swan (which Sam was quoted, “No Alex, you don’t understand. That is the mayor!”) and the water brought a cool breeze on an otherwise hot day. Sampling the local delicacies with Sam and Alex (doner, whatever that meant. I hope it was vegetarian) and completely forgetting my water bottle, Alex and I ended up begging a closed restaurant for water. The man didn’t speak English, but he was kind enough to give us two (2) whole water bottles for free. Wherever you are sir, thank you.
We had arrived quite early, so we met up with enough time for drinks at a riverside bar. I refrained from buying anything, deciding to turn my friends’ drinks into a sampling bar instead. The flowers along the river and near the castle were so beautiful. I was so surprised by how healthy and plentiful they were, it looked like something straight out of r/earthporn.
We were allowed inside the castle just as it was closing (ooo, exclusive), where we were greeted with ten times the flowers we saw outside. I think I was expecting another simple, stone castle and I didn’t know Eltville was deemed the city of roses, so it was quite the treat to walk through all the gardens. It was a nice, clear day out too; there were plenty of photoshoots. We were greeted by the mayor soon after and he took us into the interior of the castle for our own private tour. The fanciness didn’t stop there though; after the tour we were offered a lovely set up under a canopy of trees with champagne and soft pretzels. While we waited our turns to talk to the mayor, we had started an ‘extra’ photoshoot where we all took pictures looking off to the sunset, champagne in hand; Truly ritzy and ironically pompous photos!
I was exhausted when I returned to the hotel, so Alex and I turned in early. We again turned in early, but not before another Smash Bros Tournament!
Day 11:
Today was a sharp turn from elegancy to cool nerdy stuff. The first studio tour we had was the Nintendo PR office. While it wasn’t a game development studio, we learned a lot about how they published the games in Europe. There was a lot of legal things to go through with rating and language translations, and I was surprised that so many people worked solely on publishing and distribution. We were taken to a lounge where we could take pictures of all the various games and systems they had on display, as well as have an impromptu Smash tournament (big surprise).
The next visit was Crytek on the other side of the city. We were given a presentation by one of the HR managers on the game’s industry and how to market yourself for positions. After that was a presentation from one of the main develops of the Cryengine. He put a lot of emphasis on visual scripting and how Crytek is working to add more of it within the next few updates. It was especially interesting to Alex and I, who weren’t as familiar with game engine creation. We had a tour after that, though I was disappointed to hear that there weren’t any animators left in the building. Still, the experience excited me for my future career in games.
We returned to the hotel for a brief break before dinner. Alex and I walked over to the mall but did not have much time to spend there before we joined back up with the group for dinner. We decided on ramen; the walk was long but well worth it. I had a lot of fun with the other students during dinner, and after we finished we returned to the hotel for the night.
Day 12:
Today was our journey to Worms. I went to go wake up Alex, who has consistently been unable to sleep due to allergies. I found his sleeping in a hot bath, and he decided that he was going to take the day to rest instead of joining us. I did wake up early to walk over to the bakery down the street to get us breakfast, where I decided that I wasn’t going to ever go out alone again.
We had to take connecting trains to the town where we went to tour Kalyspo Media. I had a really good time at the studio that produced Tropico 6. They gave a presentation on how the company began and the network of independent studios they publish games with. It was a publishing office, but I still was able to see what I was desperate for: artists. Sure, they were graphic design and video artists, but I was still able to relate to them and talk about their jobs. After a tour around the office, we left to walk around the town.
We had decided to split up after this. Some students went to a Jewish Cemetery, but because of the rain and how tired I was, I decided to go to the town center instead. Mike and I wandered around a lot, trying to find cool looking shops and get gifts for his family. I managed to get Alex a candle holder made from cinnamon bark, but by the lack luster response when I presented it to him, I decided I would give it to his mother instead. The day was rainy, and Mike and I were both starting to feel the adrenaline and excitement of the trip draining out of us. We got ice cream and sat under umbrellas until it was time to leave to go back to the hotel. Excited to see my boyfriend, he and I decided to split off to get dinner together and hang out in the hotel instead of going out. We may have missed out on some good German beer, but we had to rest up for the big day tomorrow.
Day 13:
Today was zoo day! Alex had really pushed the zoo while we were planning our itinerary back at RIT, and it became a running joke that it was the one thing he wanted to see. Unfortunately, everyone else opted out from the zoo, but it meant a really nice day together. There we’re a surprisingly good number of exotic animals there. We were able to see the sun bears up close and the gorillas came right up to the glass while Alex was looking through that. I seemed to always catch animals. . . mating . . . I guess it was a pretty romantic day. We got lunch and (you guessed it) ice cream before heading back to the hotel. We had to take an uber there and back; the money was worth not having to walk 40 minutes each way.
We met up with Mike again to get dinner at an “Authentic Japanese Restaurant” that was quite a walk to get to but totally worth it for more noodles. Both guys didn’t seem that keen on more noodles, but I was SO excited that they indulged me anyway. After dinner was the farewell ice cream meetup, where we officially ended the trip with spaghetti ice cream one more time.
I don’t know how to put into words how much I enjoyed this trip. It had its ups and downs (more like ups and traveling between destinations), but overall it was a life changing experience. I wish I had another month with the Paderborn students, they were all so nice and intelligent; I learned and was exposed to a lot of new video game knowledge that I wouldn’t have gotten just from RIT. I can only hope that all goes well and they have the games lab running in a year. This trip may not be the last time Paderborn university sees of me!
Bonus blog because I forgot to post some of the others:
Alex and I would end up taking a train to Amsterdam for cheaper flights, staying there for a day and a half. We were in a sketchy suburb that was a 20-minute train ride into the city, but the actual AirBnB was in a really nice apartment. Ad you won’t believe what I found there. A HUGE ORANGE MAINCOON CAT! I think if I hadn’t met that cat (the host didn’t speak English, so she never told me his name. I decided on Sven in honor of our Scandinavian trip) I would have imploded from not seeing my cat Indy for three weeks.
When we arrived in Sweden, we spent a day with his professional chef turned flight attendant uncle (the guy has stories to tell) in the most idyllic apartment ever. I’ll spare you the rant about how nice it was; I guess I watch too much HDTV. The day after we were scheduled to go to his grandmother’s summer house, but before arriving we stopped at a chain restaurant called Max Burger. HOLY CANOLI. Imagine a MacDonalds that’s run by Gorden Ramsey. Hallmark of my entire trip.
The summer house was more of a summer . . . shed. From what everyone in the family does, I assumed it would be a fancy gold mansion on a private beach. Although it didn’t meet those expectations, I still fell absolutely in love with it. His grandmother was so nice (and I found out where Alex’s mother gets all her quirks) and she took us on a tour around her small property. She was retired, so she is going to spend the entire summer there: planting trees, doing yardwork, taking care of a koi pond, and fixing up the houses. She called the area her little America; the hillside has a lot of these small summer homes where retired and vacationing people spent their time. She liked the diversity of all her neighbors. I got to see where Alex and his many siblings and cousins stayed when they came every year and I heard a lot of nostalgic stories. Part of me wants to come here next summer and spend it helping her fix up the place, though I would miss plumbing a lot.
Germany had been so hot and summer-y that we hadn’t packed many warm clothes. I didn’t even have a sweatshirt (good going me, losing it in Manchester Airport), so I was cold almost the entire time. There weren’t any showers or much running water, so we just bathed in the lake; I guess it was the norm there. If it had been warmer we would have seen a lot more nude elderly soaping up on the beach; nudity is weirdly different in Sweden. Remember how I said it was really, really cold? Alex said it was easier if you just jumped in, so I went straight off the dock and into bone chilling water. I’m pretty sure all our muscles seized at once. We didn’t stay in long.
Most of our time was spent on walks or playing video games on our switch. They surprisingly had cable, but there was only one channel, so we watched a lot of Simpsons and Ink Masters. We were lucky enough to catch Alex’s cousin’s high school graduation film viewing. It was comfortingly familiar, just like our screenings back at RIT, and although they were in Swedish I was still able to enjoy all the films. The one weird thing is that they all used going out to have a smoke as an establishment for dialogue scenes; I thought America still had problems with cigarettes, but I guess every 18-year-old smokes here. Although I am pretty far and consistent with Swedish on DuoLingo and have been using it for years, I was still so lost and couldn’t understand a single thing.
Oh, and our flight was delayed for seven hours so we got to spend a lovely 12 hours in Manchester airport. I was so glad to get back to Connecticut and then back home. I missed my cat so much and although I had a great time I was ready to be back and get to work on my summer jobs and personal projects.