| The
last day of my last weekend in Germany was spent travelling. What?
You thought I'd stay at home and pack? No way. I had arranged
to meet my friend Rocilyn in Frankfurt, where she and her family were spending
a few days checking out the Frankfurt Fair, before they set off to explore
parts of Europe. Since it would take me 5 hours to get to Frankfurt
and 5 hours to get back to Hannover, that would leave us a total of at
most 6 hours to bond.
Travelling: usual deal,
buy a Wochenende ticket to Frankfurt and use it to get back home as well.
I didn't want to try asking someone else to share theirs, and I didn't
think I'd luck out this time and find someone who'd share theirs for free.
Things like that only happen once.
When I got to Frankfurt,
I went and looked for a way to get out of the Hauptbahnhof via Poststraße
or Düsseldorferstraße. I found a way via the U-Bahn and
S-Bahn stations and I was off, walking on the main streets. What
I didn't know was that the small distance on the map was actually almost
10 blocks from the Hauptbahnhof. Since I was hurrying along, I must've
done something to my foot because after a while it was hurting pretty badly.
Anyway, I continued limping my way to Rocilyn's hotel. When I got
there, she was already waiting for me, so we greeted each other, gave each
other presents, and I left my backpack there with her parents (they were
really nice). Soon, we were off for lunch and exploring. BUT
not before a photo session downstairs on the road (almost in the middle
of the road) next to a street sign. Why? I don't know either,
but I just went along with it because why not?
We headed off in the direction
of the convention centre, but ended up making a wrong turn and only realizing
it when we were halfway to the Hauptbahnhof. So we hung out by a
fountain for a while, and then headed back. It was BOILING hot, and
amazingly was not raining. We got to the convention centre and saw
an Italian restaurant next door so we stopped in to have lunch and catch
up on old times some more. I think we were both pretty hungry at
that point. After lunch, we headed in and registered at the front
desk for the Fair. It was pretty interesting but I had no clue as
to wat it was all about. To my understanding, it was where people
show off their products so that retailers would buy them, or something.
And you were not allowed to actually transact purchases at the Fair itself.
That's too bad... there was some pretty nice stuff. So we looked
around for a couple of hours, got ice-creams (Mövenpick... yum), and
talked for a while AND even got to check our e-mails at these computer
terminals, After that, we sort of got bored with that and decided
to head back to her hotel. It was almost time for me to head back
to Hannover.
At the hotel, we looked at
my photos, we had more photos taken of us together, I got to talk to Rocilyn
parents more, then I packed up my bag and headed out for the Hauptbahnhof.
I think they were quite impressed with my mad travelling skillz, like getting
to know my way around an unfamiliar city by walking it, and travelling
on my own for 10 hours, etc. Too bad these mad skillz are going to
be put to rest for an indefinite period! Goodbyes were said, luck
and happy trips were wished on one another, and I was off!! Limp,
limp, limp all the way back to Hauptbahnhof, then bought me some dinner
at PizzaHut (!) and then I caught the 5-hour train back to Hannover.
Long train rides I will not miss. Cheap sightseeing I will definitely
miss.
End of trip, almost end of
summer and, save for a few days at work, end of the great knomad-trek!
It's been real.
Until the next big trip,
auf wiedersehen! Bis später! Tchüß! |
