Continuing adventures in europe, Day 1 proper in Frankfurt
So there's a couple things I've found out about this place already. For starters, Germans seem to have no problem placing a red light district right infront of the main exit to the main train station in the city. This was discovered much to my surprise while I was trying to find the hostel I was going to stay at (I finally found the place after wandering around the area for probably 30-45 minutes and multiple misreadings of the directions to get there, silly me) They do however have quite a sense of humor. Also, one of the people running the hostel (the five elements hostel) seems to be quite fond of British punk music (I think its punk anyways, though its not nearly as loud as most punk I know)
Another thing is that apparently for most intents and purposes Mondays seem to be considered weekends here, which makes my first day a bit difficult (though not too much more than my lack of a working knowledge of the German language makes it. Luckily many people seem to be able to speak at least functional English. That said, I still need to do something about it) So the end result is that I'll have to put off a lot of things until tomorrow
I did however manage to get to the home of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which has been made into a museum. It was really quite neat, giving a view into the sort've place a middle class person would live in during Goethe's time. In particular there were some really neat little things around there, such as about 5-10 clocks including about four grandfather clocks, one of which was unbelievably huge and intricate ( photos here: http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/Kiminari/Travels%202010/Germany/Frankfurt/ )
Also, as an aside, if you ever get on the same airplane as a gaggle of gabbing teenage Spanish girls (it was apparently a tour to Canada) don't expect there to be any quiet whatsoever for the entire trip. Even if its an ~9-11 hour flight. Its just not going to happen. You'll be lucky if you'll be able to hear the airplane's engines, let alone yourself think. That and apparently I'm really quite good at adapting to changing timezones cause I've yet to feel any exhaustion from crossing nine of them.
Now all I need to do is stave off this nagging feeling that I've gone and made a huge mistake jumping into a country whose language I have a fragmentary understanding of at best. If Germany does this, I have to think what Scandinavia is going to do. On the upside however, French has been feeling a bit easier to think in, I just wish it would stop happening when I'm trying to work out German :P
*edit* forgot to add that I'll be cleaning up those photo albums later. Right now I'm just throwing up everything that isn't immediately obviously a bad photo, though I might be a bit more selective later on.
Another thing is that apparently for most intents and purposes Mondays seem to be considered weekends here, which makes my first day a bit difficult (though not too much more than my lack of a working knowledge of the German language makes it. Luckily many people seem to be able to speak at least functional English. That said, I still need to do something about it) So the end result is that I'll have to put off a lot of things until tomorrow
I did however manage to get to the home of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which has been made into a museum. It was really quite neat, giving a view into the sort've place a middle class person would live in during Goethe's time. In particular there were some really neat little things around there, such as about 5-10 clocks including about four grandfather clocks, one of which was unbelievably huge and intricate ( photos here: http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/Kiminari/Travels%202010/Germany/Frankfurt/ )
Also, as an aside, if you ever get on the same airplane as a gaggle of gabbing teenage Spanish girls (it was apparently a tour to Canada) don't expect there to be any quiet whatsoever for the entire trip. Even if its an ~9-11 hour flight. Its just not going to happen. You'll be lucky if you'll be able to hear the airplane's engines, let alone yourself think. That and apparently I'm really quite good at adapting to changing timezones cause I've yet to feel any exhaustion from crossing nine of them.
Now all I need to do is stave off this nagging feeling that I've gone and made a huge mistake jumping into a country whose language I have a fragmentary understanding of at best. If Germany does this, I have to think what Scandinavia is going to do. On the upside however, French has been feeling a bit easier to think in, I just wish it would stop happening when I'm trying to work out German :P
*edit* forgot to add that I'll be cleaning up those photo albums later. Right now I'm just throwing up everything that isn't immediately obviously a bad photo, though I might be a bit more selective later on.