Willkommen!

This is my first full day somewhere, and it´s a great place to spend it. I´m in the walled town of Rothenburg. It´s one of the last preserved midevil places in Germany.

This is what the entrance to the town looks like:
 
Getting here was an exercise in patience. The frustration was partially self-induced, and partially things just happen.

Sitting on my train in Frankfurt awaiting the departure, it came to me that I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I knew I wanted to go to Rothenburg (a two-transfer, 3 hour trip South), but I´d only been told of it that morning, grabbed my bag, and marched straight to the train station.

It never occurs to me to think that I might not be able to do something or that, even if I can, it may be hard. It wasn´t until I was sitting there that I realized I hadn´t an idea how far it was, where it really was, or if I´d find a place to sleep upon arriving.

It took me 3 hours longer to get there than it should´ve, of course, but I did it.

I did end find a youth hostel, though it was full, and I ended up shelling out 28 Euro for a little bed and breakfast that was the next cheapest place in town. I have to admit, it may have been worth it to get a full 8 hours of sleep. My night in Frankfurt definitely didn´t provide me with that luxury.

Already I felt a little ill that night from a dinner that was the result of a long search for something vegetarian. I settled on a "Chinese" restaurant. However, it was very different from any other Chinese place I´ve ever been. I´m fairly certain the one dressing they used to flavor the food, "soy sauce," was actually gasoline.
I didn´t want to be rude, so I picked out all the vegetables, piled all the noodles to one side of the plate to make it look like I´d eaten more than I had, and asked for a box. But, eating only the vegetables hadn´t saved me and my stomach was on fire. That, with the jetlag, made me call it an early night.

Actually, everyone in my dorm room at Hostel Frankfurt was asleep by 9:30pm which meant that, at midnight, when a couple who appeared to be in their late 30´s burst thorught the door they woke all of us up. Then they came in, turned on the light, and proceeded to have a 15 minute conversation in daytime-voices at the foot of their bed. Afterwards, they hopped in the shower together leaving the light on in our room.
I´ve seen a lot of wierd, funny, and disturbing things in all my hosteling days but, aside from people stealing things, that may have been the most rude. Especially because the Japanese girl sleeping in the bunk above them (yes, them, they squeezed into the bed together) had to be up at 4am to catch her train to Switzerland.

Rothenburg is a perfect change of pace. I spent my morning today reading Yeats and drinking a coffee here:

It was lovely. I laid there on a bench at the outdoor theatre watching the fall leaves lazily glide from the trees just on the other side of the huge stone wall. I´m finding to be the fall an ideal time to be visiting Europe. Most of the tourists are gone. Yes, there are a lot of people wandering town, but they´re mostly Germans on holiday.

Here are a few more pictures of Rothenburg:

I´m off to explore!