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This weekend, Jessica, Monica, and I went to the lovely little French/German town of Strasbourg.Isaac, as always, was going to come, but something happened.He decided to go out the day before and get WASTED, and he ended up missing the train to go.He told me later that he ended up going to Kassel by himself, but he really missed out on a really cool experience/town.First of all, we had to get up really early and make sure that we would be in time to catch the train to Mannheim so that we could make all of our other connections and therefore get to Strasbourg in a reasonable 4 hours rather than 5 or more.Jessica, thankfully, was on time, and we were able to walk to the Hbf.However, we could have taken the bus had she met us at Hegelstraße like we planned, but she got scared because if the rapist, and wanted us to come and get her from her building…a decision which caused the bus to pass us by.In any event we made it to the train station with enough time to get our Schönes Wochenede Ticket and get to our train.Like I said before, Isaac wasn't there, so we had to leave without him.I got further screwed over when I realized that I had forgotten to put the newly charged battery into my camera before I left that morning, so I had a nice Sony camera with no batteries.This almost caused me to call the whole damn trip off and just get off at the next station and go back to Mainz.However, both Jessica and Monica offered to take photos of things for me, so I relented and stayed on the train.The other bad thing was that we had gone to Oppenheim the day before (a trip that, while fun, doesn't require its own entry) and my knee was killing me.So I, as the moron that I am, took an Aleve before leaving.However, I had neglected to eat, and therefore by the time I walked from my room to the Hbf, I was in pain b/c the medicine was taking effect on my empty stomach.This, however, finally passed, and I ended up being ok.One would think that these problems this early in the trip would mean that it would be smooth sailing for the remainder of the day, yet that was not the case.After arriving in Karlsruhe and changing trains, we realized that our train to Appenweier, where we had to catch our connection to Strasbourg, was running late.However, it wasn't that late, and we still had plenty of time to get to the next platform as long as the train stayed on schedule from Karlsruhe to Appenweier.Yet, as I said earlier, this was not to be.Soon after setting out, the train encountered a problem and came to a complete stop right outside of Baden-Baden.This stop forced us to COMPLETELY miss the connecting train from Appenweier to Strasbourg.Now, one would also think that since many people go to Strasbourg, since it's right on the German/French border, there would be multiple trains to go there, yet one would be wrong.By the time we reached the track, after having missed our train about 10 minutes before, we found that the next train did not leave from Appenweier to go to Strasbourg until 2 hours later.Yes, we three were stuck in this little no-name town for two hours until our train would come to Appenweier to get us back.So, we did what any tourist would do, we looked for some sort of a Reisezentrum so that we could see if there were more trains or a bus or something.However, as luck would have it, there was no Reisezentrum in Appenweier, and therefore we were stuck.So, we decided to do the next best thing and walk around Appenweier and see if there was a café or something to do until our train came.Lucky for us, we found a church to go and explore and then we found a café to go into and have a drink.This was really nice, and the waitress was really nice too.Jessica and Monica both got Hot Chocolate-esque drinks, while I got a Bailey's Coffee.This was good, but then, like any mixed drink, I hit the liquor, and it got a little intense.I finished most of it, but I did have to leave a little in the glass.I'm not ashamed or anything, b/c there was A LOT of Bailey's in that coffee.I saw the woman make it, and I'm telling you, there was more Bailey's than coffee…just sayin.
Anyways, we eventually decided to head back to the Bahnhof to see if the next train for Strasbourg had arrived, and luckily this one was on time and we hopped on and got our transport to Strasbourg.Now, I've always heard that in Strasbourg, because Alsace (which is the region in which Strasbourg or Straßburg is located) has changed hands so many times, the people speak both German and French.However, upon my arrival I decided to purchase a city map, and discovered that French was dominant (probably because it was France) and so I needed to quickly call my French skills back to mind.We made it our of the Hbf of Strasbourg or the Gare Centrale in French just fine and proceeded towards the main attraction of the city, the Cathedral.We stopped by a random church after crossing over onto the main island of the city, but there really wasn't much there, so I'm not going to go into detail about it.Then we walked towards the cathedral and found this cool little house that was probably eight stories tall or so, but it only had two windows on each floor of the building.It was the most random thing I think I've ever seen.Anyways, we finally made our way to the Cathedral and started taking photos.It was really cool b/c they never built the second tower on the Cathedral of Strasbourg, so it's kinda like looking at an unfinished piece of architecture….but one that's been unfinished for about eight hundred years.In any event, it was really pretty because the sun had come out and the day was gorgeous.The inside of the cathedral however, was a little bit of a let down.There was a lot of decoration, true, but I don't feel that it was really pretty like say the cathedral in Cologne.Don't get me wrong, it was very pretty and well worth the trip, but I was to be completely truthful, a little disappointed.However, we got to see the Astronomical clock light up and take pics of that as well as this cool sculpture of Christ on the Cross.There were a lot of interesting things inside of the cathedral, and we pretty much saw them all, but it was quick because we were in a time constraint b/c of the tardiness of our train earlier.
So, after leaving the cathedral, we walked down to the river surrounding the city and saw the boats taking people on tours around Strasbourg, but we decided not to take one, we wanted to eat instead.This, more than anything was where my French had to come in handy.Jessica wanted to eat pizza, which was cool, but like most European cities there are smaller restaurants lining the streets, and we picked a pizza one.As soon as I entered I knew I was going to have to speak French.NOBODY was speaking either German or English, so I braced myself.First of all, we found a seat, but then nobody came to serve us, but everyone around us was staring, so we knew we had made some sort of faux pas, but we didn't know what it was.Finally the waiter come over and asked if there were three of us, and I, as the only French speaker, told him yes.He then told me that we couldn't sit there because it was only for two people and so we had to move to another table.When we finally found one we sat down and decided to order two pizzas.This was cool, but again, I knew I'd have to order in French.However, thanks to Dr. Waskiewicz, I remember ordering in French.So when he finally came back to our table I politely said, "Nous prenons un pizza salami et un pizza Margharita".That was it.He also asked for drinks, but we didn't want to pay for any, so we said no. Afterwards, I also had to handle paying and all of that since, as I've stated several times already, I was the only one who spoke French.So I did that and we were off.Now, here is where I have to go and talk about myself a little.I was SO proud of myself for the whole French thing that I just was ready to go about the city again.Then Jessica surprised me by telling me that I had also done a very good job and she was impressed.This was a nice complement b/c she's one of my peers, but she also speaks German, so coming from someone who already knows another language, it's nice to hear.I guess I just work well in a pinch, so I was alright.Anyways, we then decided to go and see the Ponte Couverts as our last sighting of the day.We rushed, well not really, to Le Petit Paris and saw the bridge and probably the MOST beautiful part of Strasbourg, Le Petit Paris.
After seeing all of those things, we went back to the Gare Centrale and caught our train back to Appenweier and then back to Mainz.Luckily for us, the trains going back weren't running late or canceled, so we made it back in record time.This is unfortunate for this narrative because it doesn't leave me with a good story to end with….except ….IT TOTALLY DOES!!!!Ok, so on the train coming back we were riding from Mannheim to Mainz and there were these Americans and Australians/Brits who got on the train.They were all completely wasted and were being extremely obnoxious.So finally, after listening to them for about half an hour, Jessica looks up and goes, "Urgh!I just wish I could go up to them (the Brits) and be like, 'You're everything that's wrong with this world!!!....well, except Communism!"It was so funny, that Monica and I were laughing so much we almost fell off of our seats!!!It was the perfectly funny way to end a day that, although it started off a little rough, ended up being really fun.
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