Solo Travelin

Quick Note: This blog post is waaaaay too long and I'll try not to write an essay in the future. My bad.

After a great time in Aschaffenberg with Leni and her family, it was finally time to move out and continue my trip. It was sad to say goodbye to Leni and the City, but I will be back in December

My next stop was Nurnberg (a large medieval town), which is on the way to Munich. I honestly didn’t know much about the city before leaving, but I heard from a couple people that it’s a nice town and I should swing by if I can. So after packing up all my gear, which is kind of like

I’ve never really taken any trains before (just the one from slo to santa Barbara for Halloween haha), so I was kind of nervous about the whole thing. Plus, I wasn’t sure how my Eurail pass was going to work, and if they would be able to activate it. This was just the beginning of a long day filled with butterflies in my stomach as I was: traveling alone and had no idea how the train system works, where to go once I got to the city, I don’t have a cell phone (tho that’s gonna quickly change, it’s become a hassle and adds unneeded stress to my travels. I miss my Droid haha), internet is pretty annoying to Frankfurt, which is close to Aschaffenberg). completing an oddly shaped puzzle, I set out to the train station which was about a 20-25 minute walk away. On my way, I stopped in the town square for the farmers market and snagged a fresh apple for breakfast.

The train pass worked fine, and I got a seat on the train no problem. I spent most of the ride with a map of Europe in one hand, and a guidebook in the other, trying to plan out the rest of my trip better. After Munich, I now plan to make my way to Paris and Amsterdam to enjoy those cities while it is still warm (ish). Haha My plans will probably change after my next beer tho, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do. It’s definitely nice having over 2.5 months to travel around. I think everyone should retire at 23 and travel to Europe. J

Upon my arrival, I cruised to an internet café in the train station to see if any couchsurfers had responded yet, since I still hadn’t paid the hostel fee yet. Upon seeing ZERO responses, I gave up on that idea and walked to the hostel I was staying at which was only a few blocks away from the train station. The whole hostel experience was pretty interesting. I was hoping to run into more English speaking people, but everyone was speaking german or something else, making me feel like an outcast to some degree because I was alone. After checking in, I went up to my 6 bedroom hotel room to drop off my stuff before exploring the town. The hostel was very nice btw, and had two bars/lounges and 6 floors of rooms (pretty big size).

My initial roommate meeting experience wasn’t what I was expecting. There was only one dude when I first entered the room, and it was an older german man who looked like he was dealing meth or living on the street his whole life. He and I later shared a shot of some really bad harsh whiskey (in mini bottles) which is kinda funny. I made sure to rent a lock from downstairs for all my stuff after our initial odd encounter. Haha The other people: a german dude my age who was in town for a job interview, and 3 guys from Bulgaria who were 35 ish. Tho the Bulgarian guys ended up staying somewhere else and two girls later joined the room in the evening.

Exploring the town was a lot of fun. I stopped by

the information building and picked up some

maps, then walked through the town on the main tourist street/path with all the shops and restaurants. Most of the main sights/churches were all on this one street which was convenient. Nurnberg is MUCH bigger than Aschaffenberg (over 500,000 ppl) and I immediately felt small in the strange medieval city. There is a castle wall that surrounds the city center which is pretty cool. Nice that they kept it after all these years. The churches in Nurnberg were very impressive. They were HUGE!!! It was crazy how high they went up, and to have so much detail in everything was pretty remarkable. I had the special small Nurnberg sausages on a roll for supper (in between lunch and dinner???). It was

good, tho nothing special. I made my way up to the main castle and towers in the city which took a bit of walking. You can walk through it, but it costs money to go inside/get the tour. Either way, it was pretty nice and had a really cool view of the city. After having some espresso at a café, I made my way back to the hostel. I’m becoming a big fan of espresso for some reason btw.

Chillin at the hostel was ok, tho not as much fun as I had hoped for. Not many people were speaking English and I wasn’t in a social mood to just walk up to random foreigners and say h

ello. So I turned to my computer, and had the opportunity to skype with Jenny for a while and check my email. It was nice to talk to Jenny for a while. I definitely miss her a lot. At least in Europe I have things to distract me tho, as compared to sitting at the house in Spokane when I was there for a month. It’s gonna be great to see her at Christmas, and there is even a possibility that she may meet me in Italy in November.

When I headed back to the room at 9pm, I was surprised to find a girl in our room, as I thought I had already met everyone who was gonna stay in the room (the 3 bulgarian dudes left). She was very nice, and could speak fluent German and FRENCH, giving her a very strange sounding English accent. Either way, we chatted for a bit and joked about the two guys who were already asleep. Sleeping was actually kind of my plan for the night as I had to get up early to catch my train to Munich, but as I had finally met someone at the hostel that was friendly/spoke english, I decided to stay up and hang out with her (Flo was her nickname).

We went to the bars in the hostel to see if anything was going on, but both places seemed lame so we decided to go elsewhere. I debated back and forth of whether or not to hang out/go out, but I was only going to be in Nurnberg for 1 night, so I figured I might as well try to see more of the town and test out the big city night life. Flo really wanted to go to a Club which I thought was

kinda funny because I feel like Germans are all about Clubs in big cities. Plus, I’ve heard the clubs are much different than the ones in America, and boy was that the truth! Haha After going to a bar for ½ off happy hour drinks, we made our way to “360 Degrees,” one of the Clubs that is supposed to be pretty good.

We had a great time in the club and eventually made some friends sitting in the lounge/having a drink. The club scene was so much different than in America. In America, you have 2 groups of people at a club: 1. The people socializing/sitting down/smoking cigarettes, 2a. Girls who just want to dance 2b. Guys looking like idiots trying to hook up with girls . 2a+2b+Alcohol = Grinding on the dancefloor. Haha It’s weird, in Germany, everyone is on the dance floor, often with a drink in their hand, and everyone is bobbing their heads to the music and dancing like idiots (the guys at least), not really touching each other (very different from America).).

There were lots of strobe lights, fog machines, and lasers too which was interesting. The whole atmosphere reminded me of a 7^th or 8^th grade mixer where everyone is too shy to talk to the opposite sex, except with lots of alcohol and rave music. Haha Either way I had a good time, and at the end of the night Flo went home with a random boy, and I made the trek back to the hostel alone which was fine. I made it back safely and quickly passed out in my room.

Goodnight Nurnberg!