More of Europe

I meant to update this a long time ago, but instead you will have to deal with reading one big super-update that contains little or no detail about anything. So I am still in Europe (my trip is almost over, I have to go home tomorrow morning). I have gone quite a few places since my last post so I will try to cover them all briefly now.

Since Tuebingen is not entertaining enough to spend a week of my vacation here, Rachel convinced me to go take a little side trip for a while. So last Wednesday and Thursday were the days I decided to take this excursion. I planned everything all out, I was going to go up north from here and visit Koeln (Cologne) and Duesseldorf, and then head south to stay the night. Obviously this would make for a very busy trip, but I wanted really just to go see what several places were like, rather than stay in one city for a couple days. So Wednesday morning I got up early and went to the train station here in Tuebingen.

Unfortunately I am stupid, and so I was like a minute late and missed my first train. I then caught another train to Stuttgart, where I was going to head to Duesseldorf. But when I got on that train, apparently I sat in a reserved seat and some lady started yelling at me. Being confused and stupid (never a good combination) I got off the train, and started wandering around Stuttgart instead. Finally I got on a train to Koeln, having lost like 4 hours through my stupidity. Because of this I had to cut Duesseldorf out of my plans.

Koeln is a really nice city and I'm glad I got to go see it. When you walk out of the Bahnhof (train station) the first thing that you see is this giant silouette on the wall. It turns out this is the Koelner Dom, a big cathedral. I got to go wander around and look at that for a while, until I got bored with that and wandered down to go see the Rhein. After that I went in to look at Roman artifacts they found near Koeln in this museum. I spent the rest of the time in Koeln mostly just wandering around, looking at various shops and restaurants. I actually ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (very German of me, I know) but they gave me a free drink so it was cool. Eventually, I left Koeln and headed south on another train.

After my train was delayed half an hour, I finally got into the resort town of Baden Baden at about quarter til midnight. The desk at the hostel I was staying at closed at midnight, so I knew I was in trouble. I finally found a taxi and fortunately I got there before they left the desk so I was able to check in. But they didn't have my reservation and that was a little bit annoying. Anyway, Baden Baden is a resort town known for its spas and casinos. I didn't really have any desire to go there, but it was the only place that I could find an open hostel when I was looking online. I didn't really get to do anything at all while I was there, except wander around for like half an hour and take some pictures. Maybe next time I come to Europe I will gamble all my money away at a place like this. Right now I don't really have enough to spare.

Thursday morning I headed out to Strasbourg, France, home of the European Union. This was my attempt to go visit yet another different country, although I'm not really sure if Strasbourg counts as visiting France. They do speak French everywhere, but many people know German or Englisch so I didn't have a whole lot of trouble communicating. When I arrived there it was really, really hot and I was not really sure what to do. Then it suddenly started raining, and so it cooled off a bit and I wandered around and shopped for a while. Eventually I wandered over to some restaurant and sat in there for an hour or so. I got this weird flamee (sp?) thing, which probably isn't as weird as I thought it was. It was pretty good, it would have been better without onions. At this point I realized that I had an hour until my train left, and that I had no idea where the train station was. I tried to retrace my steps and eventually I figured out where the station was, and I got there shortly before it left. My trip back to Tuebingen was really nice, I got to ride through the Schwarzwald which I think looks really cool in the evening.

This trip (Koeln, Baden Baden and Strasbourg) was pretty cool, in that I got to see a lot of different places in Europe. Although in retrospect I'm not sure my destinations were the best choices. Much of the city in Koeln seemed very internationalized, and Strasbourg was in many ways similar. Baden Baden is really just a tourist trap, and at any rate I wasn't there long enough to enjoy it. Still, it was interesting to get to see these places and to compare them with the other places I've been. The other thing I didn't really like about this trip is that I traveled alone. That made it kind of boring, since it turns out that I am not a very interesting person. It just seemed weird to go to fancy restaurants and stuff without anyone else with me. So my plan is next time I go to Europe that I will bring someone with me to entertain me and keep me from being so boring. Assuming I ever get the chance to come back, we shall see.

One thing I wanted to clarify really quickly from my last post. When I say I "miss America" what I really mean is a) I miss having my own stuff and not sleeping on the floor and in random hostels, and b) I miss being able to understand what people say to me. I'm not actually like "homesick" or anything, I just wish my computer, bed, etc. were here and that I actually spoke German.

Alright, this post is already way too long so I am going to save the rest of my trip (Tuebingen, Switzerland and going home tomorrow) for another post. Bis dann