Every semester thousands of first semester students and tourists fill the city of Heidelberg with recognizable looks of naive amazement…
I came to Heidelberg to study almost 5 years ago. Much has happened since those first days, which were spent running around through the city arranging all the essential things: bank account, visa, health insurance, etc.
One of those special days was the day I wanted to get my cell phone contract. I went to the main street of the Old Town ("Altstadt”) to look for the O2 shop, which I was told was somewhere in the main street ("Hauptstraße").
As every first semester student (or tourist) comes to know, Heidelberg has the longest continuous pedestrian shopping street in Europe.
Now I can say I know the approximate location of most of the shops. But back then I still had to concentrate and scan shop-for-shop, while walking down the street. After a while (1,6 km) I reached the end of it without finding the shop.
I went back (+1.6 km).
And started all over again (+ 1.6 km).
I ended walking up and down the street several times (+++km!) and at the end of the day I returned home exhausted and without my cell phone contract. However, 30 minutes later I had opened a contract online thanks to the wonderful world of the Internet: finding the 02 online store took me about 2 minutes (+ 0 km).
The cell phone came by mail and, completely pleased with the service, I forgot about my quest for the O2 shop in the Altstadt.
It was until a couple of months later that I saw it by chance: a distinctive blue shop with a gigantic O2 sign and cell phones displayed in the showcase.
A shop hard to miss.
Some happy children voices made me look the other way and then it became clear to me why I had failed to see the shop before: the building across the street had this big toy bear on the balcony, which was constantly making soap bubbles.
The bubbles kept floating all around the shops in the vicinity, attracting children, tourists and…first semester students (aka me).
It is easy to imagine my face of joy and amazement when finding myself surrounded by soap bubbles and the way I always looked up to watch where they were coming from (aka the bear) just in time to miss the O2 shop.
Every semester thousands of first semester students and tourists fill the city with those recognizable looks of naive amazement, but it’s actually no wonder when you think off all the amazing sights this city has to offer. After some months living in here, the routine settles, the city becomes part of the routine and the looks of amazement decrease.
There are only a few things left that make me look and smile that way now, but those soap bubbles are still one of them.
I came to Heidelberg to study almost 5 years ago. Much has happened since those first days, which were spent running around through the city arranging all the essential things: bank account, visa, health insurance, etc.
One of those special days was the day I wanted to get my cell phone contract. I went to the main street of the Old Town ("Altstadt”) to look for the O2 shop, which I was told was somewhere in the main street ("Hauptstraße").
As every first semester student (or tourist) comes to know, Heidelberg has the longest continuous pedestrian shopping street in Europe.
Now I can say I know the approximate location of most of the shops. But back then I still had to concentrate and scan shop-for-shop, while walking down the street. After a while (1,6 km) I reached the end of it without finding the shop.
I went back (+1.6 km).
And started all over again (+ 1.6 km).
I ended walking up and down the street several times (+++km!) and at the end of the day I returned home exhausted and without my cell phone contract. However, 30 minutes later I had opened a contract online thanks to the wonderful world of the Internet: finding the 02 online store took me about 2 minutes (+ 0 km).
The cell phone came by mail and, completely pleased with the service, I forgot about my quest for the O2 shop in the Altstadt.
It was until a couple of months later that I saw it by chance: a distinctive blue shop with a gigantic O2 sign and cell phones displayed in the showcase.
A shop hard to miss.
Some happy children voices made me look the other way and then it became clear to me why I had failed to see the shop before: the building across the street had this big toy bear on the balcony, which was constantly making soap bubbles.
The bubbles kept floating all around the shops in the vicinity, attracting children, tourists and…first semester students (aka me).
It is easy to imagine my face of joy and amazement when finding myself surrounded by soap bubbles and the way I always looked up to watch where they were coming from (aka the bear) just in time to miss the O2 shop.
Every semester thousands of first semester students and tourists fill the city with those recognizable looks of naive amazement, but it’s actually no wonder when you think off all the amazing sights this city has to offer. After some months living in here, the routine settles, the city becomes part of the routine and the looks of amazement decrease.
There are only a few things left that make me look and smile that way now, but those soap bubbles are still one of them.
1 comment:
Now I see! that's why -several years later- as I wanted to make an o2 contract, the first thing that you told me was "the shop is just in front of the bubble bear".
I have to say I thought you were "a little peculiar" ;-)
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