6/22
Wake up, pack up, head to the train station, catch the train to Frankfurt (with a transfer at Basel). The fellow selling beer and sandwiches on the train is annoyed when I try to pay him in Swiss francs. No shit sherlock, I don’t want them either, stop giving them to me in the first place and I’ll stop giving them back to you people. When I get to Frankfurt, I take the metro to Niederrad, and then hike it in a bit to the motel. As with all the other stops in Germany, because of the World Cup I was unable to get a hostel here and have booked a motel instead. It is a couple of miles from the city proper, south across the river. My map is a bit faulty, and I have to ask directions a couple of times before I find it. But when I do find it and my room, I find air-conditioning. Blessed cool air. A note on European windows: they are very cool. You can open them normally sideways, or you can turn the handle a ratchet further and just have the top lean down. I rest for a bit, then go out and get some sushi, a bit pricey as usual. I meet a Californian named Vaheed, who is originally from Iran. He joins me at my table. He has been to many unusual countries, Paraguay, Bosnia, here and there. He was mugged by the frogs in Nice, had his nose broken. I tell him about the knife fight. Vaheed is a horny devil, keeps talking about the beautiful broads in Eastern Europe, as well as an ‘underwear party’ he has been to recently. We eat and drink, then back to the hotel he is staying at for a nightcap. Walking back, I insist on trying to prove that my faulty map was actually correct, stubbornly march across some train tracks and get lost. I wander through some sort of European-style shanty town (little wooden shacks surrounded by gardens and swing sets), then climb a fence to get back to the motel.
Tags: europe, frankfurt, germany, Travel
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