World Cup am Main

Something about long bus rides and train trips must have me trained now, because the 9.5 hours on the plane on Tuesday night went by really quickly, and before I knew it I was back in the western world. The cool breeze and quiet morning were a warm welcome into Frankfurt, a city that I found to be easily navigable (is that word?), unlike its airport and despite the intimidating skyrises and German language on all the signs (I can count to ten in German and that´s about it). After clearing customs and quickly finding my bag, I took the S Bahn train from the airport into the city to the Hauptbanhof main station. From there, I managed to find the bus terminals and got on the number 46 going to the correct direction to Frankensteiner Platz. The bus dropped me off right in front of the Haus der Jugend, a huge German youth hostel that bore some resemblance to the residence halls at school. Since I arrived at around 10am, about three hours too early to check in, I put my backpacks in the luggage storage room and headed out to explore Frankfurt.

The city is set up around the Main River (hence the city´s formal name, Frankfurt am Main, or Frankfurt on the river Main), which runs through the city. The hostel is right on the street across from the south bank of the river in east-central Frankfurt, so it gave me a good place to start exploring. Accompanied by my Lonely Planet guide to Germany, I found a little grocery store a couple blocks from the hostel and bought muesli, yogurt, and a fizzy apple juice, and had my €3 breakfast in a little park nearby where a group of kids were running around during what I presume was recess. It was so relaxing, and I loved the fact that I wasn´t in India where I would have been sharing my bench with thirty people. I wandered around up to the northeast part of the city and despite gettting a bit turned around by the curving streets, I eventually found what seemed to be a big square surrounded by lots of shopping. Three hours of walking passed by quickly though, and I was excited to head back to my hostel and have a nap.

It was probably just because I was used to crummy Indian hotels where I was paying like $5 a night, but the €20 hostel room and bed seemed like a palace compared to where I´ve been for the past month. The people at the front desk were really helpful and well organized, the white sheets and pillowcases were actually white, the room was clean, as were the bathrooms down the hall, and there was a big wooden closet to put my stuff in. I slept for about an hour before I was woken up by the arrival of my new roommate, Viktor, who had just arrived from the Boston area to Frankfurt, en route to visit family in Italy and then spend some time studying in Spain. Viktor speaks German and had been to Frankfurt before, so for the afternoon we went and explored the city together, me with a kind of a tour guide which was awesome.

We saw some of old Frankfurt near the city center, and saw the pieces of the city that remained after it was bombed during the war. The older parts of Frankfurt actually reminded me a lot of Estonia, with old cobblestone streets and tall, Gothic architecture, and huge squares surrounded by these buildings with modern restaurants and touristy shops in them now. Eventually we came upon a huge area that was fenced off and full of people wearing German flags, with German flags painted on their faces, and all representing Germany in some way or another. Inside the fenced off area in the middle of the city were probably over a thousand people, all getting ready to watch the World Cup semifinal game of Germany v. Spain. Viktor and I found a shop that was selling German flags, each bought one, and went through heavy security to get into this square to watch the game.

It was a really fun, really exhausting experience. I quickly learned some of the German soccer fan songs and had my fair share of beer spilled all over me when people got excited. We were standing for almost two hours by the end of it, so even though Germany lost to Spain, I was quite ready to leave and head back to the hostel. The atmosphere in the city was amazing though, and everywhere we went there were cars honking their horns, people running around with German flags, Spanish team fans getting in fights with German team fans, and fireworks over the river. It was an awesome welcome to Frankfurt and to Germany, and I´m so glad that the timing of my trip worked out so that I could be here to see this side of Germany.

I slept great last night, despite being woken up briefly by the arrival of a third roommmate. I don´t know if it´s a European thing or just this guy from Serbia, but I will forever remember him as the naked roommate, since I woke up this morning to find him stretched out across his bed, totally naked. When he woke up, I´m pretty sure that he walked down the hall in the same fashion to the shower, and I didn´t see him in clothes until we were at breakfast. At the hostel´s complimentary breakfast, I had lettuce and cheese for the first time in a month. It was amazing.

Now Viktor and I are off to explore the city a bit more for the day before we both leave tomorrow. I will go by train in the morning to Lausanne, Switzerland (near Geneva) to visit my friend Sylvie from Whitman and to see what the Swiss have to offer. Can´t wait!