Frankfurt, Germany

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After examining train schedules and prices I decide that train tickets in Western Europe are for chumps and that no person would rightfully pay for one. Luckily, an alternative presents itself in the form of a ride-share. And so I begin my journey by piling into a car with 4 other people going from Amsterdam to Frankfurt.

The journey is pleasant enough albeit a little cramped, and my travel mates are pleasant and interesting. There is a a couple traveling around Europe, a very tall Dane, and a driver trying to get a license for a cab.

Having arrived in Frankfurt I am reminded of my other realization, that hostels in certain parts of Western Europe are kind of pricey. It is here that I have my first CouchSurfing experience with a Russian-Jewish linguist named David. We proceed to drink whiskey while discussing life and languages in partially broken Hebrew. I settle into my designated couch, and awaken the next day to tour Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is a city split in two, with a very organized looking metal and glass city center, bordering a cobble stone old city market. I find both enjoyable enough as I wonder about the city taking in the sights. The glass and steel areas are very clean and creatively designed, and the cobble-stone sections resemble the picturesque parts of Europe one has come to expect. I am especially taken with the city mall structure which looks as if it were sucked into a wormhole.

The one other memory that strikes me in Frankfurt is that of an Ethiopian restaurant I dined in right before my train to Nuremberg was to depart. It was housed in a commercial unit like any other, but was set up to look like the inside of a big tent and had sand in place of a floor.