Frankfurt-Main

I had some really foggy idea about what European train stations looked like, based on films, before my trip, but I really had no concept of their size, or of how many people moved through them at any one time. There’s something really romantic about train stations, and Frankfurt-Main didn’t disappoint. There were beautiful skylights, lots of ironwork, many vendors, and constant noise. The scent of the station is hard to put into words – soot and dirt and oil and gas fumes – sounds horrid but I found it to be intoxicating.  It was at the Frankfurt-Main station, as I waited for my "guides" to find the train I needed to board, that I was able to picture the station like an old black and white film – I completely romanticized everyone around me – the couple over there hugging were in fact newlyweds and the husband was about to leave for the war front. That woman pushing her children in a stroller was a war-widow. And that older couple – they were part of the Resistance.

Okay, so I wasn’t being very realistic, but it was so easy for me to picture the station and the people in a different time. Actually, when I think about the station now, I have to stop myself and picture things in color and in the present, not as some old film.