French+German=good... even when it transpires in the way of the past two days.
At the last minute, I had decided to take a trip to wherever was relatively cheap to get out of Paris for a while. I refused to stay in Paris for at 3 day weekend. And so, I booked a ticket for an early train (Saturday) to Strasbourg in Alsace, and departing to return on Monday night at about 10 pm. Somewhere in there, I had the impression that there was plenty to do in Strasbourg to fill a three day trip... This is true if you A) have a car, and/or B) go on a weekend that isn't EASTER. Still, I felt that wandering around might take 3 days.
My train was to depart at 7am at Gare de L'Est, about 20 minutes away from my house on the metro. I set my alarm for 5am, and ended up going to bed at 2am in desperate attempts to finish homework and pack without forgetting anything. When I finally crawled into bed, there was a pinging/banging in the wall and I could not sleep. Somewhere around 6:35 I awoke in a panic to realize that I had mistook my alarm clock for the pinging in the wall and turned it off. I jumped out of bed and bolted to the metro, making it to the train station as my train was pulling out. I managed to get a ticket for the next train 2 hours later by paying 25 extra euros... not too awful, but definitely annoying.
I attempted to read the paper and do homework on the train when I finally boarded, but alas was exhausted from the crazy start of the morning that I passed out instead. Upon my arrival in Strasbourg, the weather was gorgeous and quite warm--I was overdressed and desperately wanted to find my hotel. I wandered around with some guidance from my Guide Michellin and stumbled upon a used book market where I bought the most captivating perfume adds from the 1950s. Just gorgeous.
It was fun, until I realized that I was quite toasty and recommenced my search for my hotel. After wandering around lost for what seemed like forever (difficult, I know, considering how small Strasbourg actually is), I asked the tourism office and was pointed in the right direction. It turned out to be 2 blocks from the book market! I arrived to find the cleaning lady, but no receptionist---she was off taking a 3 hour lunch break; and thus I wandered around for another 1/2 hour.
My room was tiny and adorable with a pretty nifty view of some charming rooftops, and suited me just fine for a 2 night stay. Originally, the booking agency had stated it as a "double" and I had invited someone else along to split the cost. Thank god it did not work out, because there was no way we both would have fit in that bed.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the small town of Strasbourg and realized that mo
st everything would be closed on Sunday and Monday for Easter, and tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day that things were open. I decided on drinking a beer, and when the cafe filled up, I was joined by three young gentlemen who really just wanted a place to sit. Sort of creepy? Maybe, unless you know that the french don't really care much about you. After a while, we began to talk and I learned that they are students studying in Strasbourg from
Morocco---excellent for me because I am interested in going to Morocco---good resource to tap for info. We talked at length about the US, politics, Strasbourg, and eventually they mentioned that Germany was only a 1/2 hour walk away! WHAT?! It gets better---"Would you like a ride? We can take my car!" said one guy. Um, I'm thinking.... no. My mom and host mom, and Prof. Brault are all screaming at me in my projections of the future.... No, that's ok, thanks. I'll walk.
But alas, it was 6pm and things were closing, and my camera batteries were dead. What was I going to do for the next two days without batteries if all I could do was photograph architecture? Nothing, so I frantically tried to find a store still open that wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg for batteries. I stumbled upon a little epicerie (like a 7/11) and its handsome
employee... "Ive got batteries like that!" Thats not all you have, handsome.... We chatted for a bit and I awkwardly left (this comes into play later).
I passed the rest of the evening photographing Strasbourg, including my meal... very touristy, I know... and passed out from exhaustion.
The next day, I awoke for mass at Notre Dame de Strasbourg (gorgeous pink limestone gothic cathedral) and scarfed down my bread, jam, and coffee, to run to church in attempts to beat the rest of the tourists. The place was nearly empty. No one else had bothered to get up for the 9:30 mass and it filled closer to 9:30 with locals. The mass was beautiful: 2 organs, a huge choir, soloists, and an orchestra (for lack of a better term) of string instruments (from what I could see).
After mass, I began my walk to Germany only to remember that there was a showing of the astronomical clock at the Cathedral at noon. It was 11:45. And yet again, I found myself running. I made it there, huffing and puffing, to discover mass still going on from 11am and that they were not going to let us in to see the clock until 12:30. Then the waiting game.
The clock is quite fascinating because it is housed beside the altar in an adjoining room all to itself. It is a intricately detailed mix of religion and science illustrating both the plac
ement of the earth to the sun and Jesus with his disciples. At noon the petit figurines of the disciples parade in front of Christ, and at the strike of each hour, a depiction of each stage of life passes in front of death (a skeleton). Pretty and neat, and pretty neat. I managed to bolt to the clock and be one of the lucky few to catch the end of the disciples' parade since they let us in so late.
Realizing that I had little to do in Strasbourg and much to do at home, I went to the train station to try and change my ticket for an earlie
r time. No such luck, but there was a ticket for that night for 30 euros. I had not yet paid the receptionist and she had left for the day when I returned to the hotel. "Merde!" Translation: "Shit!" The cleaning lady is the true hero of this story because I ended up leaving the money with her with a note after calling the emergency number and explaining that I needed to leave early. For all of this chaos, I made out like a bandit. The hotel was supposed to be 40 euros a night and I was charged 35 all together including breakfast because of the room I was given. I guess she let me get away with leaving early and just didn't charge me for the second night I was supposed to stay...
With a sigh of relief, and in determination to not spend my entire visit at the cathedral, I commenced my walk to Germany and finally found the correct path after asking 3 different people. It took 1 hour and I stopped just across the border to eat at a perfectly hilarious
"cantina." This joint was a bit bourgeois in its decoration but its menu was mexican inspired with english adjectives/titles for food, and
descriptions in german. My waitress spoke neither french, nor english, and I was handed of to an english speaking waiter who was new and kept dropping everything. I drank my first beer in germany with my mexican inspired soup, and turned around to go back home. I would have spent more time wandering, but being alone, in a country where I don't speak the language, and did not have a map, I figured that I should head back and not miss the train again.
My adventures continued rather subdued when I walked by the place that I'd bought the batteries in one last attempt to flirt with the cute frenchie, and made a bit of an ass of myself. Oh well, I will never see him again. I waited for the train, and the platform number was not posted until 15 minutes to departure... and I yet again made an ass of my
self asking where I needed to go. Usually I am good at that--I spent all weekend practicing--but my brain had shut off at that point. I made it into Paris 20 minutes before the metro stopped running and jogged my way to the platform to catch the last metro home.
In truth, I got plenty of exercise to burn off the cookies and spetzels I ate.
No comments:
Post a Comment