Frankfurt, Germany

FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Wednesday, July 20 - Friday, July 22, 2011

I arrived in Frankfurt about 1pm and hung out with wifi in the train station for about an hour, then figured out maps and metros to where I was staying at Marens. I found a café on the corner and got internet so I could catch up with my blogging and photos.  It was 5pm and Maren said she’d be out of work about 6:30pm so I was about to purchase another hour of internet when I looked over and in walks in a familiar face. Maren, my couchsurfing host, found me at the café!   We returned back to her flat (on the 4^th floor and no elevators) but it was SO cute! I’d totally live here. Her roommate, Nancy is a complete doll and they’re both so adventurous, not shy at all.   Maren took me on a walk along the Main River and we instantly connected.  We talked about culture and the difference between being raised in Germany and America, family, school, etc. I’m a person who believes that there is a reason for everything and I definitely believe that I was meant to meet Maren.

                  Anyway, the walk to us to a GREAT sushi place where we met 3 of her friends. They were all so interested and engaging in conversation. The sushi place was awesome, they had a chef in the middle that cut everything up and then put them all on mini plates, then placed in on a conveyer belt that circled around him, then we all sit around the belt and just grab what we want. It’s all you can eat for about 20E. Granted, it’s expensive but it’s good food and you can order anything you want.  Us four then went back to the apartment and spent the next 3 hours talking and me sharing pictures.

                  Thursday morning, or afternoon arrived when I woke up at 12:30pm… wupps! I guess that’s my body’s way of telling me that I need sleep. Maren and I went on a little walk to meet her friend Tobi at this adorable sweets shop called Dulce. The ice cream was absolutely delicious!  We continued walking around the south end of the river, crossed to the north end to say goodbye to Maren as she left for work (EMT driver), and I spent the afternoon with Tobi showing me around Fraknfurt.  We went to the popular shopping strips, markets, and we sat at the Opera for a couple of beers.  (I had Bending beer, it’s a local brewery.) We visited several churches and he even took me into two different phone stores to ask questions about cell phones and SIM cards.  Eventually we met up with his friend Thomas and I just insisted that I got a germany sausage. I got a curry brat from a sausage stand, YUMM! It was comical: Tobi asked if I wanted to do something ‘forbidden’. I wasn’t sure what he was getting to but he then followed it up with, ‘lets go get beers and walk around the street with them…without paper bags around them!’ HAH, funny. We did just that, and walked along the side of the Main. The Iron Man is in town so people were running a pre-marathon or something beforehand. It was an odd day weather-wise; it fluctuated between raining, to cold wind, to hot sun, but the sunset turned out really well and when we met up with another friend, Marcus, it had a great chill to the night but the stars came out and we made our way to the YahtKlub bar.  There I was, with three German guys, drinking beer and talking about the differences between our humors, world economies, governments, and just dumb things! 12:30am came quick while we were having fun, but I said I needed to get to bed so I said my ‘good-byes’, ‘nice to meet you/maybe again?’s’ and walked myself home.

                  Tobi was so great. He’s been working and making his way as a free-lance sound tech guy.  He’s seen so much of the world; he travels all of the time and he’d just gotten back from filming a documentary in the United States.  He said he likes working for smaller companies and he has obtained a 5 year journalist visa in the US but he can only work for Germany companies, (he’d like to work in the US because it’s better money and more job opportunties). I told him I’d try and hook him up with Uncle Jim… we’ll see!

                  I caught my train to Nürnberg at 8:40am instead of the 8:19am schedule. Here goes LEOLingo!!! J