Dark Weather in the Black Forest
Written at 10:29 AM, 9-18-06
Well, in Germany the weather finally caught up with me. I suppose this was to be expected with traveling north to less temperate climates, but it doesn’t mean I need to be happy about it. I arrived in Freiburg in mid-afternoon, thinking I was prepared to find my way to the hostel suggested in my guidebook. Unfortunately, it suggested taking bus 1 and there was no bus 1. Actually, there was, but it was an intercity bus. Were it not for the help of a lady at the bus stop, I might have ended up in an entirely different city!
I learned later that the guidebook meant to take Tram 1, but by the time I’d learned this, I’d located another hostel on one of the boards in the train station and I’d called for directions. Even with directions, though, I found myself a bit confused.
Freiburg is a nice city, and my guidebook was not remiss in saying that it was a big city with a small town feel. Comprising over 200,000 people, you’d never guess it from the Freiburg city center. With its charming cobbled streets and neat rows of stores lining the pedestrian-only roads, the city seems both safe and charming. And even though I’ve basically sworn off buying tourist trinkets, I still found myself checking out the delightful little shops.
The city center—at least, that’s what I suppose it is from all the shopping—also consisted of very cool architecture that harkened back to the 18th and 19th centuries. It made an appropriate setting for a city next to the Black Forest—the location for many of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, including Hansel and Gretel.
The hostel I ended up staying at was the Black Forest Hostel. Although a bit uninhabited, it is a charming, spacious hostel with a kind of funky, underground feel to it. Immediately upon entering I detected the faint sense of incense hovering in the air, as well as the distant rumble of some drum and bass music. The price was good and the staff was friendly. I was pleased at this discovery, for it seemed preferable to the other hostel, which was more costly and perhaps a bit more mainstream.
After checking in and getting a shower, I went back out to explore the city. I was primarily looking for a good coffee shop. I found a place that had all kinds of fancy drinks, but apparently chocolate-coffee drinks fell outside their realm of expertise. The drink was alright at first until I got about halfway through and hit a sludge of what can only be described as thick chocolate syrup. I struggled with it, trying to make the best of my drink, but eventually I resigned to ask for some milk to mix with the concoction. That made it tolerable, though I don’t think I’ll be returning there today. I wish I’d found out what the coffee shop in Nice put into one of their drinks to give it this amazing sweet taste. It was one of the best drinks I’d ever had.
I wandered back to the hostel and got online for a while. I then retreated to the kitchen for dinner (salami and cheese, again). The rest of the night was spent relaxing out in the common room—talking, reading Life of Pi, and occasionally turning my attention to the surfing documentary they’d projected up onto one of the walls. The clocked rolled over to 12 and I was only pages from finishing my book. With determination, I forged ahead and completed the book shortly before 1. This meant staying up a little later than I intended, but hey, it was a good book. This hostel had a book exchange (most of the books were unfortunately in German), but I managed to swap both Life of Pi (though I was loath to part with it) and the other fantasy book I’d finished—without having to pay 2 Francs or Euros or whatever. I picked up Douglas Adams’ The Life, the Universe, and Everything and a non-fiction physics book called In Search of Shrodinger’s Cat. Given the choice, I’d have preferred a book or two with a little more narrative thrust, but these will have to suffice until I can find another book swap.
The night was not particularly pleasant. While I had the pleasure of falling asleep to the loud sound of rain through open windows, this also meant falling asleep in the cold. The open windows were right over the beds of two fellows who had gone to sleep at about 9:00, and so I sought not to disturb them by closing the windows. I figured it wasn’t that cold and once I was asleep, I wouldn’t notice. Damn me for being so considerate. Those pricks with their sleeping bags should have known that other people were sleeping in the room with sparsely better than sheets. I didn’t even have that. I didn’t want to pay extra for the bedcovers so I used my bed slip, which is dreadfully thin. It has sufficed up until now, but given the temperature at night in Germany, it did not suffice this time.
I managed to sleep until about 6AM when my body apparently reached the threshold of discomfort and decided to wake me. Instead of doing the logical thing, which was to get up and shut the windows or else go ask for some bedcovers from reception, I stuffed my bed slip with clothing. Basically, I didn’t want to go to the trouble to get up. And I still had some foolish notion about not disturbing my neighbors who were sleeping beneath the window. I blame bleariness for my stupidity. Another hour of sleep passed, but by 7, I’d simply grown too uncomfortable. I got up and closed the windows, believing that by this time, it was probably going to make little if any difference. I got a malicious sense of retribution in the disturbed shifting of one of the window-sleepers as I closed the windows. Still disgruntled, I returned to my bed slip and tried to use my towel as an additional blanket.
The rain pounded down all through the night and it was not until I awoke several times in the morning that I noticed that the deluge had ceased. This all boded ill for my ambitions to hike around the Black Forest today. The first and most immediate problem was that my sandals were very ill-suited for hiking muddy, wet trails. So far they haven’t been a problem. I just don’t put any socks on and then let me feet get totally drenched, drying my sandals later. However, it was cold enough that I realized this would make for pretty miserable hiking without socks. The second problem was whether it would rain again or not. I only had to glance at the gray sky and recognize the clouds’ “Oregon look” to know that more downpours were likely. I certainly was not going to go on the six hour hike I imagined. Instead, I thought perhaps a hike around the nearby parts of the forest where the paths were gravel and well trodden. This also afforded me the opportunity to do laundry, of which I was in dire need. Having only two pairs of pants, while hiking and traveling with considerable frequency, has the sum effect of making the pants basically always in need of a wash. I could virtually map my travels on the stains across them. “Here’s when I was in that coffee shop in Paris.” “Here’s from sitting on the beach in Marseilles.” “Here’s from being careless with my pen while writing on the train to Barcelona.” Etc. I don’t think they’ll be much left of them by the time I come back. Fortunately I have many pairs of much-missed jeans waiting for me.
On a side not, The Life of Pi is a fantastic book and definitely worth reading.
Tags: Black Forest, Europe, Food, Freiburg, Germany, Hostels, Travel
gregbilsland
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