Please forgive my bad grammar, poor fluidity, and structural errors within my blog posts. I really just kinda sit down and type and don't review just so I can get it all down before forgetting it!
May 20, 2012
Well I’ve
had quite a week to say the least. I had Friday and Thursday off, which should
have spelled homework but instead spelled friends and fun. To begin with
yesterday, we had planned to get to Zurich and spend a day trip in the high
Swiss city, but fate and a little bit of ignorance on our part got in our way.
We had planned to go to Basel and from Basel buy a ticket to Zurich from there,
which we saw online was only 15 franc. Not too shabby. So we get up at the butt
crack of dawn, get to the Hauptbahnhof, spend 30 euros to get our ticket to
basel, and away we went full of excitement. Well we were as excited as 3
college students on a Saturday at 8am could be. But anyway, the train ride to
Basel was lovely (I love riding trains! I feel so progressive!). We got to
Basel at about 9 and got to the main train station in the city where we were
supposed to buy our tickets. I’ll just take a minute here to note the very Victorian
looking train station, the very quaint parks sprinkled in the crowded city, and
how Basel looks better in summer than in spring. Anyway, made it to the main
train station and went up to the ticket lady to ask her to get our tickets. Now
she was a nice woman overall who was just obeying rules, but we proceeded to
ask her about the special tickets we saw online to Zurich.
No, we don’t have them here. You have to buy them online.
Well
that kind of shocked us. How much for a ticket here then?
30 euros one way. 60 euros there and back.
For all
3 of us?
For one of you.
GAH!
Lost to the fateful lure of a special online only price and now stuck in Basel
with our plans for the day shattered! We left the line and tried to figure out
what to do. We decided we would either have to go back to Freiburg or spend the
day in Basel. Since we were convinced to make the most of the day, we decided
to conquer Basel. Eric in our group really wanted to see the “Dreilandereck” or
where France, Germany, and Switzerland come together at this monument. We knew
the general direction where it was, so we headed off west and just started
walking…
An hour and a half later we were in
the Industrial District in Basel, enjoying the emptied shipping yards, concrete
works, and warehouse piers on the Rhien. I can now say I’ve had a full
experience and educational adventure into the topics of Swiss Industrial
shipping and factory layouts! And let me tell you… fascinating!
We finally hit a dead end in the
endless landscape of warehouses at a construction site and decided to cut back.
The gods must have decided to start smiling on us because we quickly found a
bridge into Germany where there was a shopping center and a place to eat (we
were hungry by now). Of course, as we were walking to Germany over the bridge
what should our eyes stumble across but a monument sticking out of the water in
the Rhein with 3 beautiful national flags waving in the breeze but the
Dreilandereck. At the end of some miscellaneous pier. And not as grand as we
had assumed. Nonetheless, we nabbed a picture (remember, I took a PICTURE) and
it was great.
Lunch we ate on the edge of the
Rhein and after our meal we took a little tour of France, the town across the
way. It was pretty. Also empty. It would have been more beautiful had there not
been construction in the main square of the town! But I took a bunch of
pictures! Yeah!
Well we
decided to head back to Freiburg at that point and watch a nice rugby match.
Why not. Salvage the day with a nice Guiness and a rugby game. Of course we
JUST missed our train back to Freiburg and had to wait an hour until the next
train came.
While
we were waiting, I decided to go through the many pictures I took of Basel, the
industrial park, France, and Germany. And of course my camera didn’t have an SD
card. The entire day. None at all. I’m sure Lady Luck and Fate were laughing
there fat female asses off, and they would have more if it hadn’t been my own
damn fault for forgetting to put the SD card in my camera. Ok a few strikes,
but damn it we weren’t out!
We got
back to Freiburg and saw a flea market where I bought a stein! After, we went
to an Irish Pub to watch some Rugby, drink a few beers, and eat. And man was it
good. I had this huge burger with onions, sour cream, mushrooms, and just
everything good. With a Guiness. It was great. The rugby team we wanted lost
sadly. After that I went to watch the soccer game with the Italians. Chelsea
versus Bayern. It was a good game and great company, but damn lady luck was not
with us today and Bayern lost. I truly got to experience community depression
walking home. Grown men crying and silence on the trams. It was a sad but
interesting experience to say the least.
Let me
run through quickly what else I did this week!
Friday: Pizza from 8pm until midnight with friends! It was a
blast!
Thursday: Shopping! Workout! Reading! The Opera with the
Italians! Then dinner, and dancing! Kamikaze, Shooter Stars, Agar. Teaching
American English to Itialians was great! Andrea, Matteo, Go, Federica, Allie,
Carl
Wednesday: Hung out in Mcdonalds for 2 hours! Then hung out
with friends and drank some wine until the early morning!
Tuesday: Just regular
classes; met a Russian friend to practice German.
Monday: Walked home from class, part of the way with Sonia!
All in all it was a great week that I’m sure I’m going to look
back on someday and smile. I am really loving life and loving Germany!
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