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Trier…. What a wonderful experience, and I say that with both sarcastic and non sarcastic undertones.The day began pretty well, considering Isaac and I were both at the Hauptbahnhof at 8:00, on time, actually before the time, and we had no problems catching our train from Mainz to Koblenz.The ride from Mainz to Koblenz was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I kept cursing the weather for deciding to pour instead of being a "slight rain" for which the weather channel had called.The train ride itself was also quite boring, for the fog from the Rhine almost completely obstructed any decent view that one could get from looking out of the windows of the train.Then, when were about 30 minutes from arriving at Koblenz, we decided that it would be a good time to sleep…. Except for just as we fell asleep, it was time to get off and switch trains.The switching itself was quite fine, and we got lucky enough to end up with one of those double-decker trains, which are the most fun to travel with.So we climbed up to the top where there weren't a lot of people, and settled in for our journey to Trier.Well, we were, still at that time, a bit tired, so I was waiting for the ticket man to come around and look at our tickets so that I could get it stamped and then go to sleep for a bit.Well, he doesn't come, and we're just waiting and waiting.Finally, about 45 minutes into the trip, he decided to come to our part of the train.I, being a pro at showing my tickets and stuff, have promptly retrieved my ticket from my luggage, and have my BahnCard 50 out for him to see. Well, as he approaches our seats, he leans over and looks at Isaac and says, "Was machen Sie hier aus? Warum sitzten Sie Ihre Füße auf dem Sitzplatz.Sieht das so gut aus?"Which, loosely translated comes out like, „What are you doing? Why are you're feet on the seat?Do you think that's ok?"To which Isaac promptly replies, "ja. Das sieht gut aus" Now, after hearing this, the ticket man proceeds to yell at Isaac about how he shouldn't have his feet up on the seat, and that it wasn't acceptable to do that on the train, to which Isaac doesn't respond, rather just sits and takes it all in.Then the guy looks at him and goes, " Was ist los?Können Sie mich nicht verstehen" Well, of course we understood, I just didn't know what exactly to say, and Isaac I think was just stunned that someone decided to give him a lecture on how to ride the train, something which shouldn't be done publicly to two fully grown adults riding the train.In any event, he then looks at me and goes, "Zügestiegel" and I give him my ticket.Well, he seems a little confused, since in order to save time and paper, the ticket was just made out for two people, ergo we only had one ticket between the two of us.I don't think that the ticket man quite understood this, because he seemed to keep waiting for the ticket from Isaac.So I decided that I'd had enough of him standing there berating us for something, which in my opinion, wasn't even that big of a deal on an RE train.Anyways, I look at him and go, "Es gibt nur eine Karte, wir sind beide auf dieser Karte",which for all of those of you non Germans out there pretty much just told him that we were both in the same ticket.So he proceeds to then stamp my ticket and then tell me to get off in Trier.I said ok, but he looks at me still and then says in English, 'Yeah, you understand, get off in Trier".After that he left, which was more than soon enough for us, since he was being such a royal pain.When we got to Trier, we were greeted by another sight, one which I had also not expected…it was POURING down rain.And I didn't bring my umbrella.I immediately ran to the Presse where I picked up some postcards and a Trier guidebook.These I quickly placed into my suitcase, and then headed out into the rain to find the hotel…..Ahh the hotel.2km MY ASS!!!In which direction because I do believe that it was more like 8 km.We found the street it was located on, but the street went on and on, with no end.Finally, after about and hour of walking, we see the hotel.It's quite nice from the outside, and it also has a nice view of the river….the Mosel.Well, we walk in and I tell the receptionist, in German b/c she does not seem to know English, that I reserved a room for the night and I would like to check in.I had to spell my name, in German which is kinda funny since CALLAHAN spelled in German has "Aha" in it.Think "HAHA" as in a laugh, but like "AHA" as in oh, I didn't know that.In any event, the receptionist tells me that she hasn't received any such reservation, and there is no record of me in the computer.Well, I then whip out my laptop, which I brought for just such an emergency, and I quickly showed her my letter from Travelocity stating that I did indeed have a room at the NH Trier.Well, she agreed to give me a room anyways, thank God, and after filling out some pointless paperwork, we were give our key and told to take the elevator to the 9th floor…rather the 10th because Germans don't consider the ACTUAL first floor to be the first floor, it's the Erdgeschoss.Upon entering the room, Isaac and I discovered that what they say about European hotels is true, they don't provide sheets, only the comforters, which to us as two guys just needing someplace to sleep in the mean time between Trier and Luxembourg, was just fine.After leaving the hotel, we went over towards the Lidel and went to the bus stop….OMG was that an experience.We waited for the bus for quite awhile, when it finally showed up, 12 minutes late (way to go German punctuality!!!) and seemingly in a rush, because it screeched to a halt right in front of us.Well, Isaac got on first and requested two tickets to the Porta Nigra, which would be the old entrance gate to Trier built by the Romans and still standing.It cost 2.20 Euro each, so Isaac paid.Well, the driver looks at me, who is standing behind this old man with a cane, and says quite briskly, "Get on" so I get on and he slams the bus doors and floors the bus, so hard did he floor it, that the old man almost toppled over.When we finally were able to get past the ticket counter, it was quite an ordeal to find a seat, for the bus was going so fast and swerving so much that it was difficult to keep one's balance.This kept on for the ENTIRE bus ride, with Isaac and I finally deciding to get off for the sake of our own lives.Perhaps the Bus driver was late and knew it, but no reason is good enough for driving the way that he did.After exiting the bus at Porta Nigra, we took some photos and then went off to find the other neat things that Trier had to offer.We began at the Constantine Basilica, the former Throne Room of Constantine the great, now turned into a church.The looked around there for a bit and read some of the history about it before setting off to fine the Dom.The Dom, one of the most famous things in Trier b/c of its archbishops and it's electoral status, was AMAZING.It also houses the relic of Jesus' seamless coat, but it wasn't on display when we went in.After exploring the cathedral, we went outside in the cloister, where we took some more photos, funny and the like, until we realized the cloister was filled with graves…a little creepy.After leaving the cloister, we looked for someplace to eat, finally finding a Pizza Hut.After engorging ourselves on great pizza, we decided to head for the Imperial Baths, even though it was dark, we figured that they would inevitably be lit up and therefore make a good evening photo.These baths, lemme tell you, were ENORMOUS!Even in the dark, one could see the gigantic proportions that the baths encompassed.After making a copious amount of photos, we decided to head for the Amphitheater, which was closed…odd isn't it?Why would a big hole in the ground be closed?Doesn't make sense does it?Anyways, after seeing that, we took about another 2 hrs to find our way back to the Porta Nigra, in the process finding the Electoral Palace of Trier and taking many photos there as well.Finally, we found the Porta Nigra, the entrance from which we needed to leave, and decided to first take some photos of it at night.They didn't turn out half bad, and we began our trek back to the hotel.Let me reiterate, 2KM my ASS!!!We finally found the hotel, again, and settled in to search through our Trier books to see if we missed anything.We decided to hit the Baths, Amphitheater and Karl Marx Haus in the morning before going to Luxembourg. When we woke up, or rather when I woke up, showered and then threw my towel on Isaac to wake him up, we hopped on the bus and went back to the Kaiserthermen, so that we could actually take the tour of them.The tour was led by yourself, but we still had to pay 1,60 euro to get in.TOTALLY WORTH IT!The baths are awesome. You could go down into the cold baths and also where the saunas used to be.It was like a huge maze, but cool nonetheless.We took about 30 minutes to wander around inside of the Kaiserthermen before we decided to head on over to the Amphitheater, which we also had to pay for.The Amphitheater, however, was not as interesting as the Kaiserthermen.Yes, one could enter into the Amphitheater and then go under the main stage to see the underground where the animals would have been kept and the wells for bringing water into the theater, yet that was pretty much it.Suffice it to say, I would probably have been ok with just a picture, for it looks way more interesting in photos than it really did in actuality.Though, this is only my opinion.After going to the Amphitheater, Isaac and I took the bus to the Hauptbahnhof so that we could catch the next train to Luxembourg, which incidentally left around 1.We made it, and were on our way to our first inter-Europe travel experience.More on Luxembourg later… … Grüße aus Trier!!!!
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