Pickpocketers Love Hugs
Sleep was hard to come by on the night train as my brother kept fussing with me when I'd start snoring and wake me up. This is was he told me in the morning when I told him about someone messing with me all night, anyways. n_n' I changed in the bathroom so that I'd at least be wearing fresh clothes (since there was no shower) and we waited to catch our next train at Basel. From there we got a quick breakfast before spending roughly three hours switching between four differemt trains.
Riding the train in Europe must be the equivilant of riding the Grey Hound in the US, because you can see some very weird people. n_n' And by weird, I mean that my brother watched a woman pick her nose and eat the treasures she found for the better part of an hour. Not only did boogers seem like a delight to her, but also the pimples on her face and the scabs from past pimple pinches, I'm sure. I got a verbal play by play of it the entire time and was disgusted enough by it to not want to watch the train wreck myself.
Another neat thing was seeing the hopps farms. At ridiculous o'clock in the morning I asked my bro "what is the major agricultural crop of Germany?" as I hadn't seen the hopps farms yet, just areas growing smaller vegitation. I knew almost right away how stupid I was to ask him, though. XD They really stretch for miles like you see corn in the midwest. I wonder how much hopps farmers make in Germany...
We eventually arrived at Lindau where we were going to see what was in town and to admire Lake Constance. The Lake was beautiful with a pleasent light house and a lion to watch over it. It was harder than hell to find a cafe where we could read the menu, though. :p The bro saved the day by picking one out that had a very inticing picture of a macchiato next to a fruity cake - which is exactly what we both got. XD It was REALLY good and just what we needed to recharge a little! We wandered around some before turing back towards the direction we came in for a lack of anything better to do. On our way back to the station We went into St. Stephen's (sp?) church where I'm almost certain I saw some original works of art from the 1800's or earlier that I've seen in my art studies book. I'll need to do some reasearch as I *know* I've seen the paintings in the book, but wonder if I've actually seen the originals now. It's so exciting to just think about!
On the rest of our way back, we got some crappy pretzels (they were dry) and are currently on a train to Munich.
Unfortuneately, while in Lindau, I'm pretty sure we ran into pick pockets. The bro and I aren't 100% sure, but there just seem to be too many similarities for them to not be.
The first was one that only I noticed: I didn't see his face, but as we were walking, I heard an older man go "...germangermanamericans?". Because the bro was walking at a good clip, I didn't have time to think about addressing him. His voice sounded very sweet, though. Like he was a kind, old man. The second is the one that makes me wonder if the first was actually a pickpocket or not. The second was a woman we approached us on our second pass in front of St. Stephen's. She said "Are you Americans?" I was so caught off guard that I replied "yes?" and she asked where we were from. She didn't have her hands on me at all while I spoke to her. Aaron was next to me and watching me - so it's not like anything awkard happened. She then hugged me - not too firm, not too long, but not too fast - and said she was happy to have met us before walking off somewhat quickly. When we got some ways away Aaron asked me if all of my stuff was ok. I told him yeah because it honestly was! In reflection, as stupid as engaging her was, she didn't and wasn't able to take anything because of how well I packed. It was still unnerving because it made me think about the first guy who tried to engage us. Were these people who were truly surprised to see foriegners or were they taking advantage of us? I'll never really know the truth, but I thanked God for protecting us when we finally went inside of St. Stephen's. n_n'
The pleasent part so far has been the German country side views from the trains - just spectacular. The sun is out with the clouds and it's like living in a painting as the two dance around eachother - playing light an shadow across the rolling hills, mountains, trees, and farm land. Small towns stand out so brightly with their white walls and red brick roofs - just beautiful.
We should be in Munich within the hour now. The plan is to head to the hostel and find something to eat. Not sure what tomorrow will bring!
Riding the train in Europe must be the equivilant of riding the Grey Hound in the US, because you can see some very weird people. n_n' And by weird, I mean that my brother watched a woman pick her nose and eat the treasures she found for the better part of an hour. Not only did boogers seem like a delight to her, but also the pimples on her face and the scabs from past pimple pinches, I'm sure. I got a verbal play by play of it the entire time and was disgusted enough by it to not want to watch the train wreck myself.
Another neat thing was seeing the hopps farms. At ridiculous o'clock in the morning I asked my bro "what is the major agricultural crop of Germany?" as I hadn't seen the hopps farms yet, just areas growing smaller vegitation. I knew almost right away how stupid I was to ask him, though. XD They really stretch for miles like you see corn in the midwest. I wonder how much hopps farmers make in Germany...
We eventually arrived at Lindau where we were going to see what was in town and to admire Lake Constance. The Lake was beautiful with a pleasent light house and a lion to watch over it. It was harder than hell to find a cafe where we could read the menu, though. :p The bro saved the day by picking one out that had a very inticing picture of a macchiato next to a fruity cake - which is exactly what we both got. XD It was REALLY good and just what we needed to recharge a little! We wandered around some before turing back towards the direction we came in for a lack of anything better to do. On our way back to the station We went into St. Stephen's (sp?) church where I'm almost certain I saw some original works of art from the 1800's or earlier that I've seen in my art studies book. I'll need to do some reasearch as I *know* I've seen the paintings in the book, but wonder if I've actually seen the originals now. It's so exciting to just think about!
On the rest of our way back, we got some crappy pretzels (they were dry) and are currently on a train to Munich.
Unfortuneately, while in Lindau, I'm pretty sure we ran into pick pockets. The bro and I aren't 100% sure, but there just seem to be too many similarities for them to not be.
The first was one that only I noticed: I didn't see his face, but as we were walking, I heard an older man go "...germangermanamericans?". Because the bro was walking at a good clip, I didn't have time to think about addressing him. His voice sounded very sweet, though. Like he was a kind, old man. The second is the one that makes me wonder if the first was actually a pickpocket or not. The second was a woman we approached us on our second pass in front of St. Stephen's. She said "Are you Americans?" I was so caught off guard that I replied "yes?" and she asked where we were from. She didn't have her hands on me at all while I spoke to her. Aaron was next to me and watching me - so it's not like anything awkard happened. She then hugged me - not too firm, not too long, but not too fast - and said she was happy to have met us before walking off somewhat quickly. When we got some ways away Aaron asked me if all of my stuff was ok. I told him yeah because it honestly was! In reflection, as stupid as engaging her was, she didn't and wasn't able to take anything because of how well I packed. It was still unnerving because it made me think about the first guy who tried to engage us. Were these people who were truly surprised to see foriegners or were they taking advantage of us? I'll never really know the truth, but I thanked God for protecting us when we finally went inside of St. Stephen's. n_n'
The pleasent part so far has been the German country side views from the trains - just spectacular. The sun is out with the clouds and it's like living in a painting as the two dance around eachother - playing light an shadow across the rolling hills, mountains, trees, and farm land. Small towns stand out so brightly with their white walls and red brick roofs - just beautiful.
We should be in Munich within the hour now. The plan is to head to the hostel and find something to eat. Not sure what tomorrow will bring!