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After my
dreadful airport experience, it was a relief to reach a
destination that looked less like a cave, and more like
humanity.
As stated on the previous page,
the Frankfurt train station was a much needed reprieve from the
innards of the Frankfurt airport and subway system. The
architecture of this station was stunning, and included the
largest arches I would see on my entire trip. Here are a
few more pictures of the inner workings of the station:
This is a picture
of one of the platforms. Unlike the subway system,
everything here is really easy to understand. The time is
plastered all over everything, and each platform is clearly
numbered and shows every stop until the final destination.
Also, most everything is written in English. The only
thing different is that you have to pay to use the bathroom.
It's like that everywhere in Europe, too! How strange!
Here's a mediocre
artist's rendering of what the train station was like, drawn from
memory. Note the text; most of the writing in my European
notebook is a mixture of confusion and sheer terror.
A view facing into
the station from the front entrance. That blue sign in the
middle showed all trains departing within the hour. Again,
it was very easy to read.
The architecture of
this place was stunning, as well. Here's a few "artsy"
pictures of the station's architecture:
The station also
had a few bizarre oddities:
Yes, that's a
terrifyingly high ladder that (I assume) could move back
and forth along the metal tracks along either side of the
archway. I suppose it's used for maintenance, but it still
looks absolutely terrifying.
Say, what could
this be the control panel for? It looks like something out
of Star Trek.
What the hell?
Oh my! It's
an adorably out-of-place and poorly-dusted model train in a
glass case! Just what every train station needs! I
didn't try it out, but I probably should have. Look how
cute it is, with the little cars on the back of that train, and
the windmill in the corner.
It should be noted
that most of these pictures were actually taken a day after my
arrival in Frankfurt. I did spend a good while
looking at the architecture and oddities before I headed out to
try and find my hostel, but I was far more interested in the
prospect of a shower than busting out my camera to take pictures
at that point.
The station's
main entrance/exit, as seen from the inside...
...and the outside.
Many of the rest of my Frankfurt pictures are plagued by my
crappy camera lens cover, which fails to open all the way most
of the time, and I don't generally notice until after it's too
late to take replacement pictures. "DB" is the name of
Germany's (BIG) train company, by the way, and it stands for
"Deutsche Bahn", which literally translates into "German Rail."
"Hauptbahnhof" just means "main station," and it's abbreviated
as "Hbf." These are really useful things to know, as it
turns out.
There are a couple
of very busy roads that run right outside the station. If
you want to watch dazed tourists almost get hit by honking cars,
this is a perfect place to be. Not pictured: row upon row
of ivory-colored taxis. Mercedes taxis. The
MS paint red circle up there is pointing out a piece of
sculpture that I sketched crudely in my notebook:
A bunch of stupid
sleep-deprived ramblings are on that page, as well. I
mentioned a few of those moments already, but they're rather
amusing to read so I scanned the whole page anyway, just for
kicks.
My hostel was
supposed to be "right across" from the train station, and I was
very thankful for this. Although, I did have a little
trouble finding it, only because it supposedly had a white flag
hanging from the second story balcony, and instead it had this:
I'm no expert or
anything, but that really looks more like a "green banner" than
a "white flag." Nevertheless, I went inside and made my
way upstairs via a rickety, ridiculously small elevator.
They were playing Dire Straits in the main lobby, and even
though I'd never been there before, I felt like I'd just set
foot in my own living room. I was so happy to be somewhere
where I could finally relax!
This was my room
assignment card, and I'm posting it because of how absurdly
complicated these locks were. Do those instructions look
easy to you? If not, you would have found yourself
in the position of the countless people (including myself) who
all stood like idiots hitting a button on a doorknob for about
10 minutes trying to figure out exactly how the hell this was
supposed to work. Half the time, even if you did it right,
it didn't work, anyway.
I didn't take any
pictures of the inside, and there wasn't much to it. The
beds were bare springs under sheets and the lobby was also a
bar, and it was cold. Either way, it felt a lot like this:
Sorry
HGTV, for borrowing your
image. In all seriousness though, this is how it felt.
I spent about 2 (or
3? I can't remember) nights in Frankfurt, and they are all
sort of a blur. There was a lot of talking, laughing, and
generally staying indoors as the nasty weather rolled overhead.
I was quite tired, and my main form of entertainment was talking
to dudes from Australia and drinking beer. The hostel had
5,000,000 different types of Heineken, and lots of delicious
stuff that came in bottles with little ceramic or plastic
stoppers in the top. This picture to the right is not mine
(thanks
northernbrewer.com), but it more or less illustrates how a
lot of these bottles looked.
As I was going to
find out, not many Americans travel with backpacks the way I
was. I ran into the most Australians by far, and many
Canadians, as well. I also ran into folks from New
Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Finland, Italy, France, England, and
Denmark. It's pretty amazing to sit at a table drinking
beer, speaking in English and laughing with 4 or 5 other people,
all of whom are from different countries.
Frankfurt was
lovely, but all in all, my stay was pretty uneventful. My
next stop, however, was one of my favorites.
Stage 3 - Munich
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