Frankfurt

It seems I have not been blogging frequently enough, because it is already an effort to remember what happened yesterday.  It seems much further in the past.

I was going to say, for example, that yesterday morning I woke up exceedingly early to catch my flight, but I did not.  In fact, I went to bed very early - shortly before ten - and woke up after only an hour, and for the rest of the night I could not sleep.  This meant I had time to do some yoga and also take my first (and, so far, only) run of the trip along a bike path by the water at 3 in the morning.  Reykjavik is a very strange and very cool city.

Bright and early - at 4:35 a.m. - the bus arrived to take me and a few others to the airport.  Actually, to the bus station, for a half-hour staging period, and then to the airport.  Everyone in Reykjavik seems to be very relaxed; I had lied about my departure time when I booked the bus in (making it half an hour earlier) and still by the time I got to the airport I was slightly uncomfortable with the lateness.  But I checked in without incident (there are two airlines there, apparently, and most of their work seems to be shuffling passengers through on their way from the US to mainland Europe... on the way home, I will be one of those).

The flight passed without incident.  I had had the foresight to book a window seat, so I was able to sleep a bit, and I ate a ham and cheese croissant that was not only better than any plane food I've ever had but also better than most such sandwiches I have eaten in the US.  In Frankfurt, there was no security whatsoever - nobody looked at or stamped my passport as they had in Iceland, and (unlike in Iceland) I didn't even have to walk through a lane saying "nothing to declare"; there was a sign that said customs, with an arrow, and it led to the exit.

Immediately I found Frankfurt more difficult to navigate than I remember other cities in Germany being.  I spent about a week in Germany during my post-college Europe trip; however, on that occasion I had a travel companion, and I think we must have had a guidebook.  On this trip, I  had difficulty right away just figuring out which bus to take to get from the terminal to the train station and whether I needed a ticket.  Signs were only in German, which I don't speak at all, and I was operating on very little sleep, and it was 85 degrees and I was lugging a month's worth of luggage.

Eventually I found the ATM, the train station, the ticket machine.  The trip to the city was short.  My hotel was not too difficult to locate once I bought a map.  After settling in I went out to explore the city.  I walked in a big circle around the uptown portion of the city, seeing architecture and museums, and stopped in a grocery store to pick up ridiculously inexpensive food for dinner.  After eating, I went out for another walk, but discovered that stores start to close at six and that everything except a few bars is shut down by eight.  (The red-light district I accidentally happened upon was not closed-down, however).

Today's major activity was a tour I had booked before coming here.  It was a walking tour that was supposed to last 2.5 hours but ended up lasting four, and it was very good.  We saw historic areas, archeological remains, modern shopping districts, and even a farmer's market; I took many picture which I will post just as soon as the very-slow hotel wifi finishes uploading them (it's taking about a minute per picture).

After the tour, I went to the Goethe house and saw a great deal of Rococo furniture.  Then I went across the river, noted that there were museums that I was not interested in walking past, and sat in the grass for a while.  Finally, I walked around a mall and some kind of purse-and-cosmetics-and-groceries superstore, where, thirsty and figuring I could use with a second bottle on my train ride tomorrow, I bought a bottle of water that advertised some kind of special cap (I thought it would be a sport cap, but it turned out to be just a funny-looking cap that cost more) and involved a 25 cent surcharge (for the bottle, I guess?  which is just the kind of plastic bottle all water comes in?).  I decided for that amount of money I should get a bag too, even though I obviously didn't need it - yesterday I had been stuck carrying my groceries in my hand, which was not convenient, because the store would neither give nor sell me a bag (perhaps the cashier didn't understand me, but she said they had none), and of course I do have a few plastic bags and a drawstring bag with me, but I figured I could use another).

So, that is Frankfurt.  Tomorrow I go to Paris.  It's an interesting city, although much of its interestingness comes from it's being in another country.  If Paris is the New York of Europe (well, isn't it?) and Reykjavik is the Telluride, then Frankfurt is the Columbus, Ohio.  There are a few sights to see, but mostly it's just Germans, going about their business, riding their bikes to work and smoking and eating ice cream (and, apparently, going to strip joints).  There is interesting architecture but a lot of traffic, and although the food and weather are good, the atmosphere is chaotic and grim.  I'm glad I came here and saw it, but I won't be sad to leave.  Especially because the next and terminal stop on my trip is exciting, un-grim, highly romanticized Paris.