I live in a dream! This is a little bit how last week went...
Wendesday: Kaila comes over for dinner and we talked about how we wanted to travel. By the end of our meal we decided on France...that weekend.
Thursday: Tickets found, hostel booked.
Friday: 2:15 pm and we're on our way to France!
A mere 3 1/2 hours later we RAN off the train in the beautiful city of Strasbourg in Alsace. Somehow, the two of us were under the impression that we would be fine, because everyone should speak German, since it's you know...on the border. WRONG. Neither of us knew any French and very few of the French knew German or English. It proved for an interesting trip, full of shrugging and pointing (which made it all the more fun).
Once the two of us figure out how to get out of the train station (since we couldn't read the signs), and after being welcomed into the country by two soldiers at the top of the stairs pointing guns at our faces...we began our mission to find the hotel. Harder than it seemed. We asked for directions in a hotel, got a map and STILL ended up wandering...and wandering. Finally, after asking a friendly young man at the tram stop, we were able to find it, and as it always happens in these situations, it was right under our noses the entire time!
I must go into detail about this "asking" I speak of, if that is what we're going to call it. I walked up to him paper in hand and the BIGGEST, GOOFIEST smile possible. Suddenly remembering that I don't know French, I just point and shoulder shrug. He starts speaking French, and our only response is, "Sprechen Sie Deutsch....oder Englisch??" To our surprise...no German, and a little bit of English. I was still relying on the pointing though.
After taking the obligatory elevator mirror picture and settling in, we set out on the town to explore it in the dark!
We went to a cafe and sipped some wine, which went perfectly with the Joghurt Milka bar we were sneaking under the table...classy.
The next morning we feasted on our croissants and cheese (which we brought from Germany) and were out the door by 8 AM. Nothing opened until 9 or 10 which gave us ample amount of time to explore the city without the crowds in the still, crisp, Fall morning, IN FRANCE.
Then we found a fleamarket/farmer's market
Followed by a climb to the top of Notre-Dame Cathedral
And a boat tour...
Followed by lunch in the park
and a delicious dessert
which we enjoyed on some steps in Gutenberg Platz
right after we found a little bit of French-German culture
followed by a lovely concert by a band! They were so good, and the singer was from New York! There was a man there dancing the WHOLE time, almost more entertaining than the band. I took a video and will put it up soon! We slowly made our way back to the train station for our 3 hour journey home. It was the perfect trip. I'm still on a little high from being there and it made me want to live in a big city, and learn French!
Once we crossed over the border to Germany we got our fix of..Doener before continuing home.
We've also decided we're great people to travel with...
Train ride round trip: 36 Euro
Tram round trip: 3 Euro
Food: 8 Euro
Climb to the Cathedral: 2.50 Euro
1 hour Panoramic Boat Tour: 4.50 Euro
Hotel: 20 Euro
2 Postcards w/ International stamps: 2.86 Euro
Four boxes of Liebig Soup: 3 Euro
Total Trip to France for the Weekend Roundtrip/Person: under 80 Euro (no, I couldn't do the math in my head)
We'll be here all year...