The Epiphany at Heidelberg

by Sakshi Hanji (India)

I didn't expect to find Germany

Wherever you go, go with all your heart, said Confucius. Four years ago, the tour to Heidelberg proved to be the perfect thing that ever happened to me. I was travelling to Europe for the first time, with a group of friends. The idea of going thousands of miles away for a whole month stimulated me like nothing else. Heidelberg is a small town in South-Western Germany. I was grateful enough to be in Europe, but the moment we got down at the River Neckar, a rush of feelings left us speechless. Growing up, we've only ever seen urbanisation happening around us. But this place was still untouched by the frenzy of modernization. Heidelberg had a romantic cityscape and it was magical yet it carried with it a touch of warmness with the Renaissance architecture found almost everywhere. Hotels were definitely expensive, so we opted for the famous A&O hostels and fortunately, ours was in a very idyllic location, exactly in front of the river. Any street, any cafe or any other corner you were in, the Rhine-Neckar river looked absolutely stunning. For the first few days, I explored the Heidelberg Castle. Days?? Yes! It required at least a week to get a while and full experience of this marvellous wreck. It was a 14th century ruined castle and it looked like it was right out of a canvas painting. The next destination on my to-go list was the Market Square. The town being so small, the market was serried every evening. It was a captivating intersection between nature, music, food and humans. Musical concerts and food feats took place right in the centre of the square. I always knew I was venturesome at heart. Exploring new cities, the local cuisine, meeting new people everyday, packing a week ago, filming and documenting the worthwhile experiences, all of this genuinely made me happy and excited. Imagine having a whole city to explore, for innumerable days, alongside people who are equally passionate about travelling! As cliché as it may sound, this is the life worth living for. My friend, Nihal and I had come out to the market by ourselves. We strolled around in the flea market for an hour and suddenly the sky darkened and began raining almost immediately. A cloudy and gloomy day in Europe soil is not match to a sunny disposition anywhere in the world. We skedaddled across to a dated Italian pizza restaurant, La Pizzeria and I precisely remember telling Nihal, "Oh my god! This is one lucky day for us man", having witnessed the German adage. Everything that happens further in this little restaurant was hilarious and mostly, unbelievable. The manager was kind enough to give us a table at the corner, facing the windows. I took out my Fujifilm camera habitually, to film the restaurant and casually documenting the chef's, servers and the manager. This was the exciting part of it all; talking to these people, being able to hear their stories and honestly, for me to have a nostalgic memorabilia. The table adjacent to us was occupied by a woman in her late twenties, who introduced herself as Jessica Gad and we got talking instantly. She said,"I noticed you were filming. Something I can see? If you don't mind obviously." I ended up showing her all of my recent travel videos, photographs and articles. She seemed too excited about them and abruptly asked, "Would you like to work for Fox Travels?". And my fork and jaw dropped way down. This was it. This was the opportunity I was waiting for my whole life. I reminisce asking her,"Why me?" and I'll never forget what she said. "Your soul is made for this honey. Travelling excites you more than anything else and doing anything else is just going to bore you." I was briefed about everything and completed a few formalities. Fox Travellers was looking for young students to recruit for the new series. I was nineteen then and four year later now, I've travelled 16 countries and it's a scintillating way of life.