Just to set the context, I'm currently on a train in Germany, and it's May 19th, 18:50 local time.
Nadya was a truly great hostess/tourist guide! As she said herself, it was very liberating to speak Guatemalan again! As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, she let me stay at her apartment last night.
So this morning I woke up at her apartment on her comfy yellow couch, covered by two cozy blankets. It was about 6AM and noticed that both my computer and the room lights were still on! :O I quickly got up to turn them both off, and happily agreed to my body's petition to go back to sleep.
Not 2 hours later, I semi-heard one of Nadya's roomies come out of his room and make hiself some breakfast. I sat up to see what was happening, and I sleepily babbled "Guten Tag". He cheerfully said "Buenos Días! ¿Quieres té?" "Ah", I thought, "that must be Nadya's spanish roomie she told me about last night". I just sheepily said "No, gracias... tal vez en un ratito", and laid back down on the couch.
About an hour later, I heard some more noise, and heard another guy come out of his room. This time it was a blonde guy, and I inferred "hmmm, that must be the german guy!". I said "Guten Tag", but he didn't respond, so I just stopped talking. I began walking around, looking for some milk and bread to eat, and we both walked around the table a couple of times. He seemed either really shy or silently hostile, so I tried to make my presence small.
A few minutes after the german guy left the apartment, Nadya came out of her room, already dressed up and ready to go out. I thought it was already 1030, time to leave for Darmstadt and Frankfurt sightseeing, but luckily it wasn't that late. It was only a few minutes past 9, and I still had at least an hour to get ready.
She offered to make me a Guatemalan breakfast: eggs and beans! I was delighted! I gleefully said yes to the eggs but no to the beans (thinking she would make whole fried beans), and told her I would take a shower while she cooked breakfast.
The shower was a little unexpected experience. Unlike some other showers I've seen in Europe, this one had enough space for me to freely wash my body without bumping into the walls, and had a fixed "shower faucet" instead of the kind you have to guide with your hand. I was delighted. I turned the hot water knob a whole lot, and gradually cooled it down with the cold water knob until it felt just right. Then I got naked, got in, and showered to my heart's content.
It wasn't until I finished shampooing, lathering, and rinsing off that I noticed that 1) the curtain was made out of cloth instead of plastic and I had soaked it completely, 2) the shower faucet was at an angle that let a small amount of water out of the shower area, and that I had soaked the floor around the toilet and the sink as well, and 3) the water wouldn't go down the drain. So then I thought "oh oh".
I dried myself off as best as I could with my towel, then used it to dry off the floor as much as I possible. I had to squeeze the water out of it into the shower area at least 5 times before the bathroom was semi-dry.
*****
Will speed entry up from here on... not in train anymore.
*****
I then got out of the bathroom, Nadya served us both breakfast, we went outside and walked around the main things to see in Darmstadt (a russian-style church and the Hundertwasser building were the things I liked the most), we walked back to the apartment, I met Nadya's indonesian roomie, we then walked to a bus stop, we took the bus to the train station, we took a train to Frankfurt, and we walked around Frankfurt aaaaall day! It was great! (It helped that the weather was very sunny!). We took lots of pictures, saw an evangelical church and the main catholic church in Frankfurt and noticed how different they were from the ones I had seen in France and Spain, crossed a bridge over the Main (I think that's how you spell it) river, ate some Bratwurst and had some Pils beer, and I drank some Apfelwein. It was very lucky that that very day there was some kind of celebration going on in the central city plaza - there was a stage all set up, musicians, and stands with typical german food everywhere! "Quite lucky", I thought. After I bought a couple of souvenirs, we walked back to the train station and we said goodbye. Nadya went back to Darmstadt and I came to Köln! And now I'm heeeeeeeere! And I saw the cathedral (IT'S HUGE!!!! but very similar to the one in Orleans... I was almost disappointed by that - seems Köln's is lacking in originality... or maybe Orleans' is). I got a hostel (I had a hard time finding it, but I found some city maps posted on the streets) here in Köln for like 20E, breakfast included, WiFi included!!!, I'm so happy with the hostel! It's almost like a hotel! Except that I'm inside a dorm room with 8 beds, all of them occupied now with my arrival.
I'm charging up my camera batteries and will soon shower, find out about Köln nightlife, dress up, and then walk out to find some European party going on! With good pumping electronic music! (I hope :P)
Plan for following days: tomorrow: see Köln, travel to Düsseldorf in the evening, spend one night and one day there as I will here in Köln, then travel to Berlin and meet Darja!! :D
Thanks Nadya so much for your touristic guide, you're awesome! :D
To be continued...
P.S: This is the first time in my Eurotrip that my blog catches up with my trip! :D
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