Frankfurt, part IV - Goethe House

Last day on the continent. Only item on itinerary: Goethe House, home to the prolific Romantic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. My flight was due to leave Frankfurt Hahn at 21:39, which still gave me an entire day in Frankfurt. I spent the morning at Goethehaus, and the afternoon... er, I hate to say it, but I was pretty whipped after an entire month of nonstop travelling, so I basically just chilled in the hostel before leaving at around 4 to get the bus to Hahn airport, which was a two hour journey from am Main.

Goethehaus. My favourite Goethe is his reworking of Marlowe's Faustus. Possibly cliche and probably predictable, but whatever. I liked that he made Faust redeemable by his insatiable desire for more knowledge, which falls in with the true Romantic spirit.

The house was located on Großer Hirschgraben, and this is what the street looked like.

Outside the Haus.

It had been converted into a museum that consisted of three sections: an exhibit, the actually living quarters and an art gallery.

The exhibit.

The living quarters - rather gloomy, I thought. If I had lived here in the eighteenth century, I too would have written about young and sorrowful men. And probably kept a few of my own, but I digresssssss.

The gallery, which I actually had many more pictures of, but since this entry's already pushing 23 pictures, I may have to save that for a "More Pictures" extra.

Grabbed some more wurst and sauerkraut when I came out.

 One last time, Frankfurt!

My last meal, yes at the Thai place. Thai red curry, my last meal on the continent.

As I mentioned, I caught the bus to Hahn airport, which, despite being named "Frankfurt Hahn," was more than two hours drive from the am Main and could under other circumstances be considered a scam for young and cheap tourists (yes, me). The drive however, stopping first at the more wellknown and real Frankfurt airport (the international one where I could actually catch a direct flight to Taipei) was incredibly enjoyable. It was rather magical, and I really enjoyed rolling through the gorgeous German countryside, the green hills and cottages and, ostensibly, lurking evergreen forests. You could imagine Hansel and Gretel, and The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs, and Jorinde and Joringel, all dwelling thither.

Hahn airport was small and rather shabby, and apparently used to serve as an American military base. Flight back was unremarkable, and as always I took an easyBus shuttle from Stansted to Baker Sreet. Then a straight ride via the Hammersmith and City line to Hammersmith, and home to Rene. And that was then, and we are in the now.

I shall do a wrapup later if I'm in the mood - this entry is already too long. Till next time - Bis wir uns wiedersehen!

Frankfurt, part III - the hostel

I enjoyed the value of the hostel so much - plus I took pics - so here goes. 15 euros per night, including dinner and breakfast, both all-you-can eat. Not exactly gourmet cuisine of course, but saves a ton of money, and fills you up.

The hostel as it usually looks.

Although I don't smoke, it is a nice touch, these balconies.

And BREKKERS.

And, well, that's basically it. Dinner wasn't worth snapping since it was basically just lumpy spaghetti, but still filled me up.

The rest of this entry shall be more photos taken from the first afternoon where I wandered around the city.

A few observations:

• Very multicultural. Possibly the most multicultural place I've seen in Germany, including Berlin.
• And as far as Berlin goes, Frankfurt looks and feels a lot more like the capital city. 
• Loads of Asians - south Asians, eastern Asians, southeastern Asians.
• The only Chinese supermarket I've seen so far! Actually, not one but about three of them. 
• The Thai place, YUM. I had already gotten to the point where I was already rather sick and tired of the local cuisine, aka wurst, and I just wanted to binge on noodles and rice.

The hostel.

Frankfurt, part II

Apparently this is still going to end up as loads of entries so might as well resign myself to that fact. Frankfurt is gorgeous and extremely photogenic, and was much more likeable than Fussen (in my opinion, anyway) but it got a bit bland after a while. Another photo entry.

I realise this is jarringly out of place, but I have to say this Thai place was like an oasis in the food desert. I came here for all my lunches - two, then.

Frankfurt, part I - the Old Town Square

I initially thought that Frankfurt would be a fairly quick wrapup but I actually have quite the collection of photos. This entry has 19 of them, but I really don't want to split it up because I want it to be themed.

Nothing much happened in Frankfurt, nothing worth writing about, anyway. I met a Taiwanese girl and of course we hit it off because we're both from Taiwan, but footnote friends again. Though I suppose I could find her fairly easily if I wanted to, since I know where she went to for high school, university and her MA, and she told me her name. Lin something.

Anyway, back to the morning, in Fussen. I woke up at 4am, washed and prepped and got ready to leave. Had one last cuppa coffee in the kitchen. I don't know what it is about this hostel but somehow I kept expecting the hostel owner, the grumpy German man, to somehow jump out at me and behead me with a machete. It was very cold, the house was dimly lit, and when I left, I found that the front door was unlocked, which freaked me out a bit to be honest. Our bedroom doors don't have locks either, and even though Fussen seemly like a fairly safe place, there's still no telling with the amount of visitors you get. I was quite relieved to leave, to be honest - I didn't like the hostel very much, it just gave off bad vibes.

I went out, and it was still dark, which also put me off. The sky was a velvety black, and - I shall remember this best about Fussen - I happened to look up into the skies, and it was completely filled with stars, so many that you could actually discern the Milky Way, running like an iridescent white band amongst the velvet. I don't think I've seen such clear skies in years. I stood there for quite a while, positively gaping. I think the skies were much more impressive than the castles,to be honest.

The train station was deserted when I got there, about 5:40am, since the 6am train bound for Augsburg was the first train. It was very creepy. I have no idea why I booked such an early train; what was I thinking?

No matter. The train was horribly uncomfortable - I vastly prefer buses - and it was ridiculously delayed. I had to transfer at Augsburg, though the transfer time was only 5 minutes thanks to the 20 minute delay, so I couldn't even step out and look around a bit.

The train to Frankfurt.

After four more hours of bum-numbing train, I finally arrived at Frankfurt.

And it felt oddly familiar. I am a city girl at heart, and I revelled in the frenetic hustle and bustle of Frankfurt am Main. It was such a welcome change to Fussen, even though I was only there for two days. I've never really liked small towns and villages - they unsettle me. The garish splendour and relentless energy of Germany's financial capital was like a balm to my spirit.

My hostel was easy peasy to find - right outside the Hbf. There was a really good view of the Hbf from my hostel, and it was called, quite simply, Frankfurt Hostel.

I don't think I mentioned this either, but the Fussen hostel, apart from being extremely dodgy, had atrocious WiFi. I could hardly get online. Frankfurt had a great WiFi signal, and the first thing I did after checkin was to sit myself down and get my long-overdue dose of online.

After the abysmal weather in Fussen, I was gratified to get lots of sunshine in Frankfurt. Spent the afternoon wandering around. Frankfurter Roemer, Cathedral of St. Bartholomew and Mainkai Street

were some of the places I wanted to see. I found my way to the Old Town and started from there. And from now on it's pictures galore!