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Introduction 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.
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