October 8th, 2006 Frankfurt, Germany

October 8, 2006
Frankfurt, Germany

Last night we decided to cruise around town a little bit and find something fun to do. Regrettably, the town seemed totally dead! Instead, we headed for the movie theater and watched Miami Vice (number one new show!). It was so ghetto that it was cool! The screen was only about 3 times bigger than my TV at home. B and I sat in the front row just to improve the effect. This proved a bad decision as the sound blasted out of the speakers above the screen…

This morning B woke me up at 9:55 and we quickly threw on some cloths and ran to the free breakfast (scheduled to end at 10:00). It was surprisingly good! They had free orange juice, which I took full advantage of.

After breakfast we decided to cruise the internet for a while. We were sad to find that the Ducks lost to Cal…The highlights and a detailed recap from Jackie only made us feel worse about the game.

We got out of the hostel around 11:30 and headed toward the Opera house. On the way we passed one of the tallest buildings in Frankfurt and headed to the top. The building was equipped with a high-speed elevator that got us to the top incredibly quickly. The view was totally spectacular (maybe because there was not a cloud in the sky today). We could see the entire city!


Once we got our feet back on the ground we continued on our way to the opera house. The building was located in a beautiful square with numerous café’s. We attempted to find a table in the sun but found that there was not an open seat. Instead, we continued down the street and found some cheap seafood. On the way we checked out some of the old Mercedes’ parked on the path (apparently a classic auto show was going on). We then returned to the nice café for desert.

After our leisurely lunch we decided to go check out Frankfurt’s Palm Garden. We decided to ride the underground and, by chance, got off at the correct stop. We were surprised to find that the garden had an entry fee of 6 Euro! Luckily, they also had a student discount and we were able to get in for only 2 Euro! NOTE: Germany is by far the best country at giving student discounts.

The garden was very large and well kept. It was nice to stroll through the trees, walk along a large pond, and meander behind a waterfall. I was also very excited because they had a very large green house that was home to many tropical plants. I saw many species that I studied during my time in Costa Rica.

From the Palm Garden we headed back to the city center and did some shopping. We got some supplies for the rest of our trip. I needed to get some stuff for my feet (which are dry, cracked, peeling, blistered, and bleeding), a new bottle of Listerine, and face wash.

Once we had completed our shopping we decided to treat ourselves to some dinner. I had a reizonwurst (which I think is the exact same thing as a bratwurst) and some raspberry cheesecake. We ate in the center square and listened to a live concert. Apparently, there is an old car festival going on throughout the city. The area was totally packed!

We headed back to the hostel at around 18:00. We were informed that in addition the old car festival, it was the last day of the largest book fair in the world today in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, we totally missed it!

I just jumped out of the shower and I am feeling very tired. We are currently just chilling out. It is almost 20:00 and we have no idea what we want to do for the rest of the evening. Our hostel is filled with old people and we can’t really find any exciting nightlife here (also it has started to get really cold at night…).

NOTE: It was one of the most relaxing and calming days we have had. We had a nice long lunch and spent a lot of time at the huge park. It was very nice to see some greenery and take our time throughout the day. And, we still managed to get a lot done!