I told this story to my family and realized I'd never written it down here. This is a lesson learned about van/RV life and the challenge of portable toilets.
My van came with a portable toilet. Meaning I can carry it out of the van and empty it in an RV dump station.
Let me tell you that if no one shows you how to empty one and you just go do it its gross and embarrassing depending on if you have an audience or not haha. Not easy to figure out the first time. I finally had to go to YouTube and find someone to show me...
I've emptied the convenient little thing a few times by the time this story takes place. So I'm thinking I've got it handled.
I'm in Flagstaff visiting a friend, who's in the van with me at this point. I'm at a busy gas station with a free RV dump station and am parked near it and ready to go for it.
Most of you RV'ers know that most stations have a heavy metal lid that you prop open to allow access to the pipe. I had the toilet all prepped (taken apart and the nozzle moved and the "lid" unscrewed.) so I'm struggling a little to get the heavy metal lid to stay open, I've managed to empty most of the toilet but am sloshing the "blue juice" around a bit (not great). And finally at one point I'm leaned over the whole operation and the heavy metal lid slams down and splashes the blue juice (and all its contents, uh hem) directly up into my face and hands etc.
I of course, drop the toilet gently on the ground and try my hardest not to scream out because I'm not sure what's on my mouth or not. My friend in the van sees whats going on and is trying really hard not to throw up and also laugh at me at the same time. I'm freaking out because I can't open the door to get the wipes and soap and clean clothes and matches. She's still trying to control the puking while I'm signalling to get me something to clean up with.
Once I get myself mildly cleaned up I realize there is a line of RV's and vans nearby me, all have seen the splash of the blue juice, all are in stitches. I look at the nearest guy and he gives me a look like "did you seriously just do that? Amateur".
I grabbed my toilet, cleaned up all I could (it didn't take the brunt of the splash) and drove away as quickly as possible.
Needless to say, you should never misjudge heavy metal!
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
What could possibly go wrong?!
I'm not even sure how to start this post. SO many words and phrases come to mind when I think about what I've done over the last couple of days. Sketchy, buyer beware, sight unseen!!? And my favorite one; well, did you ask the guy that?
I recently joined a group. I bought a camper van (1991 Chevy Chinook). Apparently there is a group...look it up. On a nice random Saturday in March I helped a friend from work go and pick up a camper van he had bought. I thought, oh that'll be neat! Then I drove it back to Boise and I LOVED it! So much so that I went home and searched far and wide for one of my very own. I found one finally in a town called Henderson Nevada, just outside Las Vegas.
And I bought it. Sight unseen!!?
So the following Saturday (and I do mean literally one week apart~I was THAT motivated) I was headed to Las Vegas with my friend (The recent van tripper) to pick up my new ride and bring it home.
There is nothing quite like that 10 hour journey through the eastern side of Nevada. Jack rabbits the size of large dogs, small towns with no amenities and more traffic than that little road can handle.
We arrived in Henderson about mid day Sunday. We both still aren't sure what time of day...you see at some point late in the night there was a time zone change, neither of us caught that. Then the following day was daylight savings, which we both knew about but already had no idea that we'd changed zones and there you have it. Two people going along completely out of time, haha.
When we finally found the right address and pulled in we were greeting by a posse of very large somewhat scary looking people. One of whom I'd spoken to on the phone. Who never actually gave me his name?! Sketchy. My van buddy and I went for a test drive around the place and were instantly in love with it. When we came back to the parking area and were exchanging money and paperwork etc he decides to ask for more money. The one thing I didn't mention is that he was asking alot for the van, my bank wouldn't even loan me that amount. I talked him down in price a little originally and he was pretty sure he could have done alot better than my offer but a deal was a deal.
He walked me around the van, showed me where to hook everything into (not how to use it) and then mentioned I should top it up with gasoline when I get a chance. No problem.
As I was driving it down the road to a gas station I noticed that the gauges weren't working. The speedometer and battery, oil, and temp gauge were non functioning. No problem.
I told my van buddy Andrew that I didn't need gas because it said it was full. So we checked the fluids and walked around it a little but and then took off down the road. Our goal being to get the heck out of Las Vegas. That place (its outskirts) are dirty, hectic, windy. We were hungry and both a little uncertain about how well this van was going to run.
At one particular intersection I made a left turn and the van died. Turns out when the gauges aren't working the GAS gauge isn't working either. Oops! I was able to roll it into what luckily happened to be a gas station on the corner. No joke I thought, how lucky was that. Little did I know that their card swipe on the pump wasn't working and did I know how many gallons it held? Well did I ask the guy that? No. So I told her "just put $20 on the card and I'll see if that does it". Nope. Okay, here's $40 in cash, "lets see if that'll do it". Still no. Sure, here's my card again "lets see if $15 will finally do the trick". $14.34, finally! I'm still totally uncertain as to the actual number of gallons but I was just under 32 gallons in my new 1991 Chevy G20 camper van, and just under $75 to "fill" it up.
All good now, we headed out of Las Vegas to the last stop on the highway before we had 259 miles of open desert to drive to get to Ely. Loves fuel stop, so much nicer sounding than the hell on earth that it was. Busier than I've ever seen a place. And just as I pulled in a tour bus pulled in. It was awful. But I was getting about 11 mpg so that was worth the stop. Since I still had no working gauges and no idea what kind of gas mileage I would get. Because no, I didn't ask the guy that.
Now all this time I'd been going along thinking everything was sort of okay. While I was in the Loves I picked up a couple little things and my bank card was declined. I thought I might know why but didn't have time then to deal with it. When I got to the little town of Alamo (which by the way, that gas station sells a ton of camping supplies, worth the stop!) my bank card was definitely not working. So I had to make a call and beg forgiveness for not calling them ahead to mention my little trip to Vegas. If I hadn't just lived it I would have definitely thought there was fraud happening. I was in all kinds of new and strange places.
I topped up the tank, did a rough estimate of mileage (based on Andrews trip odometer) and we took off. Trying in earnest to make it back to Ely NV at least. A mere 4 hours from Vegas....no problem.
Somewhere in the desert the jackrabbits and antelope are laughing. Climbing up a little hill my van came to a halt. Just enough power to roll it to the side of the road and stop. Andrew, being the sensible van owner he is, was packing a portable power pack. Basically a battery with jumper cables attached, so we jumped it, got it running and sped down the road. Till it did the same thing again...
After getting it running the second time we hustled as fast as we could go to Ely and made it there with no more incident.
At this point it was more fun. We had food, set up the camper, pulled the curtains (which were ALL intact and functioning) and made the beds. The easiest thing to do in that camper as they had nothing to do with electrical or gas.
The next morning we got moving pretty early. It had cooled down quite a bit and there were dark clouds way out in the distance so we thought getting a quick move on would be good. That was wise too because somewhere in the desert (again) the van quit one more time. This time there was high wind and blowing snow. That is never fun, for Andrew, who was outside the van trying to jump it. We got it running again and while it was running Andrew was messing with the fuses. I wasn't paying attention to it that much until he put a new fuse in and the engine suddenly started idling better. We both perked at that. It meant we could at least keep the van running if we kept a good fuse in there all the time. And there you have it. Van candy. We went through six in total. Yeah, electrical problems. Buyer beware!
Oh and it never hurts to see if things like wiper fluid work....or wipers. Because once the storms came they never subsided. It was beyond windy, snowing, raining, hail occasionally. It wasn't until I was in the middle of all that chaos that I realized the wipers worked, phew! But the wiper fluid spray didn't. Its really hard to see out of a windshield when its covered in road grime. Really hard.
Other than the wiper fluid, the wind was the last major obstacle to getting the van home. When I finally laid my head down on my pillow, in my own land based bed. I was still feeling the sway of that gentle gail force wind.
Next post I'll talk about the joys of registering a vehicle you're not totally certain wasn't stolen or something. Ha!
I recently joined a group. I bought a camper van (1991 Chevy Chinook). Apparently there is a group...look it up. On a nice random Saturday in March I helped a friend from work go and pick up a camper van he had bought. I thought, oh that'll be neat! Then I drove it back to Boise and I LOVED it! So much so that I went home and searched far and wide for one of my very own. I found one finally in a town called Henderson Nevada, just outside Las Vegas.
And I bought it. Sight unseen!!?
So the following Saturday (and I do mean literally one week apart~I was THAT motivated) I was headed to Las Vegas with my friend (The recent van tripper) to pick up my new ride and bring it home.
There is nothing quite like that 10 hour journey through the eastern side of Nevada. Jack rabbits the size of large dogs, small towns with no amenities and more traffic than that little road can handle.
We arrived in Henderson about mid day Sunday. We both still aren't sure what time of day...you see at some point late in the night there was a time zone change, neither of us caught that. Then the following day was daylight savings, which we both knew about but already had no idea that we'd changed zones and there you have it. Two people going along completely out of time, haha.
When we finally found the right address and pulled in we were greeting by a posse of very large somewhat scary looking people. One of whom I'd spoken to on the phone. Who never actually gave me his name?! Sketchy. My van buddy and I went for a test drive around the place and were instantly in love with it. When we came back to the parking area and were exchanging money and paperwork etc he decides to ask for more money. The one thing I didn't mention is that he was asking alot for the van, my bank wouldn't even loan me that amount. I talked him down in price a little originally and he was pretty sure he could have done alot better than my offer but a deal was a deal.
He walked me around the van, showed me where to hook everything into (not how to use it) and then mentioned I should top it up with gasoline when I get a chance. No problem.
As I was driving it down the road to a gas station I noticed that the gauges weren't working. The speedometer and battery, oil, and temp gauge were non functioning. No problem.
I told my van buddy Andrew that I didn't need gas because it said it was full. So we checked the fluids and walked around it a little but and then took off down the road. Our goal being to get the heck out of Las Vegas. That place (its outskirts) are dirty, hectic, windy. We were hungry and both a little uncertain about how well this van was going to run.
At one particular intersection I made a left turn and the van died. Turns out when the gauges aren't working the GAS gauge isn't working either. Oops! I was able to roll it into what luckily happened to be a gas station on the corner. No joke I thought, how lucky was that. Little did I know that their card swipe on the pump wasn't working and did I know how many gallons it held? Well did I ask the guy that? No. So I told her "just put $20 on the card and I'll see if that does it". Nope. Okay, here's $40 in cash, "lets see if that'll do it". Still no. Sure, here's my card again "lets see if $15 will finally do the trick". $14.34, finally! I'm still totally uncertain as to the actual number of gallons but I was just under 32 gallons in my new 1991 Chevy G20 camper van, and just under $75 to "fill" it up.
All good now, we headed out of Las Vegas to the last stop on the highway before we had 259 miles of open desert to drive to get to Ely. Loves fuel stop, so much nicer sounding than the hell on earth that it was. Busier than I've ever seen a place. And just as I pulled in a tour bus pulled in. It was awful. But I was getting about 11 mpg so that was worth the stop. Since I still had no working gauges and no idea what kind of gas mileage I would get. Because no, I didn't ask the guy that.
Now all this time I'd been going along thinking everything was sort of okay. While I was in the Loves I picked up a couple little things and my bank card was declined. I thought I might know why but didn't have time then to deal with it. When I got to the little town of Alamo (which by the way, that gas station sells a ton of camping supplies, worth the stop!) my bank card was definitely not working. So I had to make a call and beg forgiveness for not calling them ahead to mention my little trip to Vegas. If I hadn't just lived it I would have definitely thought there was fraud happening. I was in all kinds of new and strange places.
I topped up the tank, did a rough estimate of mileage (based on Andrews trip odometer) and we took off. Trying in earnest to make it back to Ely NV at least. A mere 4 hours from Vegas....no problem.
Somewhere in the desert the jackrabbits and antelope are laughing. Climbing up a little hill my van came to a halt. Just enough power to roll it to the side of the road and stop. Andrew, being the sensible van owner he is, was packing a portable power pack. Basically a battery with jumper cables attached, so we jumped it, got it running and sped down the road. Till it did the same thing again...
After getting it running the second time we hustled as fast as we could go to Ely and made it there with no more incident.
At this point it was more fun. We had food, set up the camper, pulled the curtains (which were ALL intact and functioning) and made the beds. The easiest thing to do in that camper as they had nothing to do with electrical or gas.
The next morning we got moving pretty early. It had cooled down quite a bit and there were dark clouds way out in the distance so we thought getting a quick move on would be good. That was wise too because somewhere in the desert (again) the van quit one more time. This time there was high wind and blowing snow. That is never fun, for Andrew, who was outside the van trying to jump it. We got it running again and while it was running Andrew was messing with the fuses. I wasn't paying attention to it that much until he put a new fuse in and the engine suddenly started idling better. We both perked at that. It meant we could at least keep the van running if we kept a good fuse in there all the time. And there you have it. Van candy. We went through six in total. Yeah, electrical problems. Buyer beware!
Oh and it never hurts to see if things like wiper fluid work....or wipers. Because once the storms came they never subsided. It was beyond windy, snowing, raining, hail occasionally. It wasn't until I was in the middle of all that chaos that I realized the wipers worked, phew! But the wiper fluid spray didn't. Its really hard to see out of a windshield when its covered in road grime. Really hard.
Other than the wiper fluid, the wind was the last major obstacle to getting the van home. When I finally laid my head down on my pillow, in my own land based bed. I was still feeling the sway of that gentle gail force wind.
Next post I'll talk about the joys of registering a vehicle you're not totally certain wasn't stolen or something. Ha!
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Staying in Germany...Visa Related
In doing all of this I've also learned from some of my German friends some things about dealing with German people.Its definitely a different bunch and adjusting to their thinking has been a challenge for me. I'm used to seeing Germans on holiday, so its completely different!!
I started the job hunting process officially, I made that decision when I was at the Bodensee in Lindau sitting there staring at the Alps thinking 'yeah, I'd LOVE to stay here'. So I put travel on hold and have put my nose to the grind stone so to speak.
At the registration office she said (I found a nice English speaking one) that I am supposed to find work and get a job offer as soon as I can. That way I can go back to the office with the letter of intent and they begin the process of securing my visa. So all this time I thought I was supposed to wait three months then they would say okay was a TOTAL misunderstanding. When you do this, get here, go straight to work looking for a job! So far it seems it could be any job. They have a thing here called a 400 Euro job. Means that's all you get paid, its part time and they give you all the money without withholding taxes etc. Which for me would be ideal assuming I had English tours set up already. I could do both. (Karensworld=karen's own reality~usually :)
I have a list of a few more questions to ask the people just to make sure I'm covered. I did ask her about working somewhere besides where I'm registered. For example I'm registered for the residence permit in Esslingen but I could get a job in Tuebingen as long as I go back to Esslingen with the job offer. All paperwork through the same place otherwise doesn't matter the region.
My next question will be about working on a river boat, those are contracts for a period of time and I'd want to stay here after that.
Another thing I did was I walked into the Tourist Information office and asked about walking tours (this was in Tuebingen). She says "we offer a walking tour of the city every day but not in English" so I of course say, "well how about English tours"? She looks at me and says " there is alot to learn and the people we recommend take a training class". I said "well I can learn the information, that's not a problem" but she was already not too interested. At any rate what it told me was that I'd have to really prove I was worthy for them to recommend me and also that they may not recommend me at all because I'm not high enough caliber. Sheesh. The lady in Esslingen TI was alot more friendly about the whole thing but I'd still have to learn it and then 'sell' it to them. Which I could do with time and effort and will continue to work on those ideas but I'll have to get a job in order to stay and work on that.
I will be asking the registration lady about starting a business and that counting for my visa/residence permit requirement. I'll find out and get back to you.
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| I'm sorry but that's funny |
I've applied for many jobs and have sent inquiry emails to a lot of other people. Since the straightforward approach seems to be too much my friends thought it would be better to write and ask if they were hiring, would they be interested, here's my quick story etc. seems to be working, they do respond to that. Rolf seemed to think that since Germans (not all) see the problem first that I should present them with their problem (example-you don't have English tours) and then give them the solution. Dani doesn't see it quite like that. She says just be specific and honest about what you're interested in and they will respond.
Either way you need to be specific. I live with big generalizations all the time. If not this, than this. That doesn't work out, oh well, moving on. Its not quite that easy for some people here. And even my being that way stresses them out. Ha! Its not their problem ya know? :)
After all was said and done I had been working on fun and unique tours in Tuebingen (because that's where I was at the time, why not start there) and then my living arrangement changed there so I had to abandon my efforts for the time being . I had a great idea to get in touch with the people at the German American Institute (not that helpful a place other than for networking) and offer to help Germans practice English if they'd follow me around and help me practice my tour. Mutually beneficial.
So most of these notes are specific to the area I'm in. Stuttgart is a big place and I don't really care much for it at this point, not in a touring perspective anyways. Its not a bad town really. But the little villages on the outskirts are where there is a lack of English tours. I think even in Esslingen if they didn't have much demand my other idea is to offer tours so that local Germans can practice English also. I mean, why not? Make it a fun event every now and then and let the people come talk to an American.
So that about sums it up. I've got an interview coming up in Cologne on June 18th. I'm really excited about it. Otherwise I'm still sending out inquiry emails to everyone I can think of. Tomorrow I'll go visit the local hostels and see if anyone is hiring. I think I'm in the wrong town for that kind of busy summer action. Stuttgart isn't top of peoples lists much.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Friedrichshafen in Circles
I walked alot today. Turned out after all that hassle getting here yesterday the walk to the island is a total
piece of cake, I'm not paying for the bus again!
I went into town by way of the train bridge and saw a new part of the island this morning. Once I'd made it around to the harbor side of town I decided to sit down and have breakfast. Americanisch style.
People that serve breakfast have options. Small Medium Large. American, Bavarian, Mediterranean etc. its fun. When I ate breakfast with Sabine and Marcus in Limburg (a blog entry I've yet to make) we ate the
large breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bread, spreads, meat and cheese. Today I debated...the Bavarian breakfast consists of pretzel, weisswurst (sausage) and .5L beer. No joke. I knew I'd be sleeping in my chair after that so I went with the American Breakfast today. Eggs sunny side up, covered in a crisscross of bacon and hotdogs, a side of bread and some butter and jam. It was so good! Gotta say, I love bacon, so finally having some american style bacon really made my day.
After that massive meal I walked around a bit and realized that since its a holiday in Germany NONE of the shops were open. I mean, why make money on a day when thousands of additional visitors were in town? Call me crazy! So after only being able to window shop I sat down and thought about what to do next. I'd seen the island almost entirely. I'd paid money to see Bregenz Austria so I headed back to the train station and found I could go visit another little village by train for really cheap so off I went for 4.25 Euro to Friedrichshafen. Cute place. So busy there today! Its another town on the lake. Also closed for the holiday (restaurants are still open, don't get me wrong) so before I realized that attractions like castles were closed also i walked to the far end of the harbor to go see the Schloss there. Yep, gated up tight. Ugh. Nice walk along the lake though. Lots of crazy people in that town.
I circled back around to the staircase that you can climb up and have a view out from. It was really cool, kinda swayed in the breeze, which was a little weird feeling, but hey, could have been I was swaying from having climbed those stairs too, hehe.
I made another lap around the town trying to find the train station, I needed to get on the train at a different station than i got off of so it was a struggle. Especially as the tourist office was also closed. I mean, why help thousands of extra tourists get around your city? Weird! I guess they deserve a holiday too? Not if it means wandering around an extra hour on my part it doesn't. ;)
By the time I got back to Lindau I had food on my mind again (don't worry this was HOURS later) so I found a cheap Thai place that made really good food fresh to order and was cheap too! Fun. Its kinda scary Asian restaurant style from the outside so people don't give it a chance but the meal was really good.
I bought a cheap beer at a snack shack and sat at the harbor and watched the people. That is a lot of fun, there are some crazy people wandering around Lindau!
Just as I walked back to the hostel (hell on earth) the thunder came and then the rain. I literally walked in just in time for it to start pouring rain! Phew!
Tomorrow I head back to Tubingen to have more of an official wander around the city according to their guide. Maybe beg for a job...I really want to stay in Germany!
I went into town by way of the train bridge and saw a new part of the island this morning. Once I'd made it around to the harbor side of town I decided to sit down and have breakfast. Americanisch style.
People that serve breakfast have options. Small Medium Large. American, Bavarian, Mediterranean etc. its fun. When I ate breakfast with Sabine and Marcus in Limburg (a blog entry I've yet to make) we ate the large breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bread, spreads, meat and cheese. Today I debated...the Bavarian breakfast consists of pretzel, weisswurst (sausage) and .5L beer. No joke. I knew I'd be sleeping in my chair after that so I went with the American Breakfast today. Eggs sunny side up, covered in a crisscross of bacon and hotdogs, a side of bread and some butter and jam. It was so good! Gotta say, I love bacon, so finally having some american style bacon really made my day.
After that massive meal I walked around a bit and realized that since its a holiday in Germany NONE of the shops were open. I mean, why make money on a day when thousands of additional visitors were in town? Call me crazy! So after only being able to window shop I sat down and thought about what to do next. I'd seen the island almost entirely. I'd paid money to see Bregenz Austria so I headed back to the train station and found I could go visit another little village by train for really cheap so off I went for 4.25 Euro to Friedrichshafen. Cute place. So busy there today! Its another town on the lake. Also closed for the holiday (restaurants are still open, don't get me wrong) so before I realized that attractions like castles were closed also i walked to the far end of the harbor to go see the Schloss there. Yep, gated up tight. Ugh. Nice walk along the lake though. Lots of crazy people in that town.
I circled back around to the staircase that you can climb up and have a view out from. It was really cool, kinda swayed in the breeze, which was a little weird feeling, but hey, could have been I was swaying from having climbed those stairs too, hehe.I made another lap around the town trying to find the train station, I needed to get on the train at a different station than i got off of so it was a struggle. Especially as the tourist office was also closed. I mean, why help thousands of extra tourists get around your city? Weird! I guess they deserve a holiday too? Not if it means wandering around an extra hour on my part it doesn't. ;)
By the time I got back to Lindau I had food on my mind again (don't worry this was HOURS later) so I found a cheap Thai place that made really good food fresh to order and was cheap too! Fun. Its kinda scary Asian restaurant style from the outside so people don't give it a chance but the meal was really good.
Just as I walked back to the hostel (hell on earth) the thunder came and then the rain. I literally walked in just in time for it to start pouring rain! Phew!
Tomorrow I head back to Tubingen to have more of an official wander around the city according to their guide. Maybe beg for a job...I really want to stay in Germany!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Flashing at Lindau
I arrived at Lindau around 2 pm and because I knew my hostel wasn't on the island (its small but still) I chucked my (now much smaller) bag into a little locker and chose to wander around the old city a while. I'm so glad I did. The sun was out, it was a beautiful day!! I got a map with a suggested walking route on it and then I meandered as I do around the city. I had forgotten they have ferries going all over the lake so after I'd wandered for a while I decided I'd take my chances and hop on a ferry to Bregenz Austria. The weather is supposed to turn cloudy/rainy tomorrow so I thought better go now. You
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| Harbor at Lindau |
My real adventure today came when it was time to head to the hostel. I hadn't eaten by this point (it was 7 pm) because I knew the hostel reception closed at 9 pm and I was certain there was food near the hostel.
So in my hungry angry delirium state I walked out to the bus area without having even picked up my bag from the locker...haha oops! I went back for it and then hopped on the bus as they suggested in the directions for this place. I got off the bus and proceeded to wander aimlessly around in circles because the directions were pretty unclear (okay, they were exact but I went east instead of west)
I arrived at the hostel totally pissed off, tired and hungry, which is never good. I got checked into my room and went to have a look and forgot that it was a co-ed dorm room so I took off my shirt and was standing there in my bra when a poor young fella came in. Ha! I didn't even think about it! I'd been staying in female dorms mostly so I wasn't thinking. Anyways, he ran out and has still not returned. I really must have impressed him.
Okay so I'm now tired angry hungry and embarrassed, I go upstairs to take care of that situation when the guy tells me there isn't food nearby and that I'd need to go back onto the island for it. Seriously?! I bought a single ride bus ticket because I thought they had some special deal on tickets here.I paid 2 euro when I could have bought a 5 euro 24 hour ticket. I was so mad.
The only thing that saved that reception man from my fists of fury was that he sold beer (which is always like a meal here) so I had one of those and am now about to call it a night.
Tomorrow who knows. The weather seemed to hold today but I'll see what I wake up to. Maybe a bike ride around the lake or maybe I'll just sit and watch the mayhem at the harbor in Lindau.
This place is so beautiful. The lake is huge as I said, the Alps are right there. Now all I need to do is try some local cuisine and I'll really have it made!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Crazy for Cologne
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| Rub for good luck |
I arrived here Weds afternoon. I sat next to a man who was older but spoke really good English. He had lived in Dallas Texas of all places. He had plenty of suggestions for my visit to this area. It isn't hard to find things to do though really. I got checked into the hostel, showered and cleaned up and then headed out for a walk and some food. On the other side of the train station (which is huge!) I found the Dom (Cathedral) its huge! Really cool.
The train station here is so big, has everything you need. Food all types, clothes, accessories, souvenirs, Burger King and McDonalds, outside on the one side is a curry wurst stand if you're hungry for cheap street meat. Its great. I like to go there and just watch the insanity as people change platforms and figure out their next move, and do they go this way or that. Its so crazy.
I walked around the Dom at first but was followed by a guy who wanted to know all the details of my entire life, which made me really uncomfortable so I told him to get lost. Lets see, I didn't get far that evening
Thursday though, Oh, I should mention I bought a city map at the train station and studied it...preparation!! Yeah!
I got up eventually and made my way out the door to see as many sights as I could manage. Eight hours roughly I saw a lot of stuff!! This place is great. I walked to the river and found every tour group in Cologne there starting their city tour...wow. I wandered along taking photos, circling the blocks trying to find things they recommend I see etc and had such a great time. That was bout 9/9:30am and nothing was open, no one
I'm trying to think what else that day but it was full of amazing things and I took tons of photos of course. I paid to climb the steps up to the 'top' of the cathedral for the view. Awesome. 533 steps altogether. It wasn't so bad until coming down when all those tour groups (think Washington DC in May~nightmare) coming up the stair case built for barely one...it wasn't fun. But I did it and then I went back to my favorite part of town and had a few beers....oh another thing! I went to a place called Bier Esel, its supposed to famous for its mussels (according to my map) I get there and the waitress says "its finished". Well, what does that even mean?! She brings me a menu in English after that and it says mussels are in season September to February. Ugh. So I ordered "Kolsch fast food" which was bread, cheese, onion rings. I get a plate with a hard rye roll, cheese and actual slices of red onion (typical American thinking onion rings was fried onion rings, haha) so I graciously ate it and left. Fail.
Thursday night I bought some food at the grocery store for dinner and talked with some people in the hostel. One kid from Croatia had a ton to say about every place. He was really entertaining! Lots of advice.
This morning (Friday May 3) I got up wondering what to do as I'd done most of the things on my list. So I walked back to the Roman tower because I took a picture of something I thought was it Thursday and then realized it wasn't it so had to go back. I also visited the Eau de Cologne 4711 building. Cool place. Love the
I did finally give up and go back to the Rhine Garden (area at the river) my favorite place. Grassy area near the beer gardens. I had come prepared today and brought my shawl for sitting on the grass. I ended up taking a nap, it was awesome! I layed there and thought about nothing.
This afternoon I got stopped by a man who wanted to know where I was from and then take a photo of my shoes. I mean really? I was in flip flops which people think is just the weirdest thing! Why is that so weird. Today I wore, shorts flip flops strapless top. It was enough to put people over the edge. Like its cold here? Its not! Sheesh!
I finally went back to the hostel and changed tonight. Sheesh. I wanted to go back to Fruh (U with two dots) they have a cool cellar area. Turns out its really the place to be so there was a huge group of people waiting for tables. I had no idea! So I sat there all alone, had a few tiny beers (why do they only serve Kolsch in .2L glasses there? Seriously, lame. But the waiter was really nice and the atmosphere was worth it, I guess.
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| 3 little marks are for keeping track... |
Tomorrow I pack up and head out to new places. Yeah.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
North Friesland Gap
Just noticed there is a missing day in the blog lineup. I mentioned going to Flensburg with Niklas but then skipped ahead. By the way that looks like Fry's land, like the french fry but its "Freezeland".
We did go Flensburg, intent on doing a brewery tour of the Flensburg Pilsner but they require reservations. So we went to Hansen's brewery by the harbor and had a great time tasting the brew there, they literally brew it then it's poured out of the container directly, so fresh! I'll show you.
After that we headed to North Friesland. I'd name the villages but there were so many and I was pretty certain Niklas was driving in circles. Ha! We caught up with a bunch of his friends there and they had a party at someones house (someone not living with their parents...I totally get it) it was fun. I was the oldest one there of course but they all guessed I was 26 years old so they are my friends for life now hehe.
Saturday we got up and drove up to Tonder which is across the border in Denmark. Really cool town but everything closes early in the afternoons there so the town was deserted. We drove to a place called Dagebull (u has the two dots, but I don't have the button) and had fresh shrimp straight from the North Sea.
It was totally amazing, they serve them straight on a bread with some mayo! Really fishy tasting but not ocean fishy, it was hard to describe. Not quite as salty but definitely fishy. Yum!
After that we headed back to Kiel and then you see my post for the time after this...hell.
We did go Flensburg, intent on doing a brewery tour of the Flensburg Pilsner but they require reservations. So we went to Hansen's brewery by the harbor and had a great time tasting the brew there, they literally brew it then it's poured out of the container directly, so fresh! I'll show you.
Saturday we got up and drove up to Tonder which is across the border in Denmark. Really cool town but everything closes early in the afternoons there so the town was deserted. We drove to a place called Dagebull (u has the two dots, but I don't have the button) and had fresh shrimp straight from the North Sea.
After that we headed back to Kiel and then you see my post for the time after this...hell.
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| Tonder Denmark |
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