RtW Day 1: Frankfurt

I won't be blogging in the usual common, short bursts while I'm gallivanting through Europe so the format for my blog will have to change a little. I'll be posting one big post whenever I gain access to some wifi. That may be every day, but more likely it will be around once or twice a week. To make the reading easier though, I'm going to separate everything out with handy headers. Hope it works out.

I'm not sure if you can really call this "Day 1" as I've been up since 9amEST and it's now 11am here in Frankfurt (5am in Toronto), but I think I'll just go by sleeps for this and since I haven't had a wink of it yet, we have "Day 1".

The trip out here was hard, and by hard, I in no way mean the flight, that was easy. No, "hard" was leaving Melanie at the airport. I had no idea it would have that kind of effect on me. I don't really want to talk about it as it's rather personal, but I can't really post about my day without singling out what a big deal this was for both of us. I could really use a hug.

The plane was delayed 15min (no biggie) and the flight was 15min early so it evened out. I met a nice man named Klaus on the plane who walked me through the airport and helped me find my way through the mob at customs (I swear, I've never seen so many people herding into lines like that). Klaus was super-awesome, talking to staff etc in German when our bags hadn't shown up (we got tied up in customs with the mob), but everything worked out alright and he sent me down the path to the trains for my next steps.

The Trains

The train system here is pretty damn cool, but unlike the rest of the signs all over the airport, the instructions for buying tickets is entirely in German. You might be surprised at how similar everything looks when you don't understand any of it. Thankfully the multi-lingual (though irritable) information desk person was able to explain that while the name of the station I wanted to go to was "Hauptbanhof", it was commonly referred to as "Frankfurt Am Main Hpf". The total cost would be €3.55... but I only have a $20CAD bill in my wallet :-)

The closest bank machine was out of order, so under the direction of another helpful staffer, I trotted down the hall to the grocer and found a second machine. While I was there though, I figured it best to stop in on and get something to drink. The store had a LOT of alcohol not to mention Coke (no Pepsi) for €0.75. I was just looking for water, so I grabbed what called itself Table Water and headed to the till to make change for the ticket machine... only later would I realise that Table Water is carbonated, flavourless water. ie. that nasty stuff that Pavel and my Grandfather are always drinking... I'd forgotten that it was really popular out here (ew).

Trying to Stay Awake

The train shuttled me out to downtown in about 15min taking me through the (very green) suburbs and right into the heart of downtown. The Hauptbanhof is really quite beautiful. I'll try to take some pictures and get them up for this post. I followed the map in my Lonely Planet book to my overpriced hotel and dropped my bag off at the front desk so I could wander more freely around town. Frankfurt is very pretty, but feels quite small. Maybe that's a European thing. I guess I'll find out as I go.

There's some neat differences here though that I thought I'd share. For starters, there are trees everywhere. The Germans have really gone out of their way to make this city less stone and more leafy. Also, there are cyclists everywhere and not one of them rides on the road. This is because the sidewalks are two to three times wider than a traditional North American sidewalk, but with ⅓ reserved for bicycles. The paths are elevated from the road (level with the sidewalk), marked off and about 2m wide. The streetcars here are also much quieter than Toronto's and they're level with the ground (no steps up). I hope that the new T.O. streetcars are like these ones.

Quest for the Fridge Magnet

My Father collects fridge magnets from all the cities he's visited in the past. However, he missed a few on his journey and he asked if I could pick some up for him since I was in the neighbourhood.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to buy a friggin' fridge magnet.

I swear, the people hear have no idea what I was talking about. One woman sent me to a book store, another to a kitchen supply store. After *hours* of walking (and getting seriously turned around), I found one and walked my sore feet back to the Train station to get a reservation for tomorrow.

More About the Trains

That's the weird thing about the train system here. I paid €400something for 8days of train travel, but I still have to pay for a booking to get a seat. The booking is only €3.50 but still, it's kinda weird. Also important to remember is that you should always read the fine print on your tickets. Apparently, my Eurail pass is only good if (a) it's been dated and stamped for the first day of use by train station staff, and (b) the right months have been written in the right boxes. If I'd not bothered to read the tiny font in my jetlagged-stupor, I might have ended up having to pay full fare and a €100 fine!

What's Next

I've booked a train from Frankfurt to Amsterdam for tomorrow morning at 11:30. The hotel does a free breakfast from 7:30 to 10:00 so I'll probably get that and walk down to the station to read some Harry Potter (yes, Melanie finally got me started on it. I'm on book 3) until the train's ready to go. I think my next post will be some form of comparison between air and train travel. Seeing as this run will be on one of Germany's high-speed (ICE) trains, this should be fun :-)

One Last Bit: The Technical

It would appear that my initially ignored oversight has come 'round to bite me in the ass. This blog was written in Ottawa and hosted in Toronto. I've never really needed to consider the concept of "time zones" until now (bad sysadmin! No cookie!). I'm working on a fix though and will have it in place sometime in the next week (I'm writing it on trains and planes). In the mean time, all the dates remain in EST/EDT so you'll have to do the math.