So now came the dilemma of figuring out when to get off the bus. None of the bus stops that we passed had any signs telling you where you were so I knew I was in for a fun time. Since I thought the driver said that I was going to the �station�, I kept my eyes peeled. I never saw it, but luckily I still made it. The bus came to a stop that looked just like every other stop we had made over the past ten minutes. But then something was different because everyone on the bus got off. I thought for a couple of seconds and then decided that this would be my stop too. If this wasn�t the train station, it was still obviously someplace that everyone else wanted to go, so I was sure that I could find something of interest. Once I was off the bus, I realized that I was at the train station, along with what seemed to be half the population of the city. It was a very busy place. People were going to trains, buses, and the subways, as well as getting off of them. Some people were shopping at the small kiosks, some were eating at the small restaurants, and some were just hanging out with friends. The place would be bustling with people who would all soon clear out giving way to a new group. This train station in itself was quite an epic. Somehow I found a phone that would use my AT&T calling card but it took me more than 15 minutes to finally figure out how to work it. Then after talking for two minutes it would hang up on me. I ended up calling Shannon about three times and basically got to say hello and goodbye. I didn�t call my family to let them know I had made it because it was too early in the morning back in the states. For the rest of the day I looked but couldn�t find another phone that would let me use my AT&T calling card. In fact, for the rest of my trip I never found another phone that would let me use it. That was the most worrying I did all day�hoping my sister didn�t think something bad happened to me. In fact, hoping my sister wasn�t worried was the only worrying I did the whole trip. From the train station, I decided to just start walking. I contemplated a few different routes but decided on the one that I felt the best about. This turned out to be a good decision because a few blocks away I asked a man if he knew where a hostel was and the direction he told me was the way I was going. But it took me only a few hours of being in Germany to figure out Germans aren�t the best at giving directions. Looking back I think that maybe the first guy gave me pretty good directions, although he didn�t know the names of any of the streets I was supposed to turn on. However, the second guy and the third girl were definitely not professional cartographers. Needless to say, I got to see a lot of Frankfurt by foot before I finally stumbled into the hostel.
I guess when I got to the hostel it was pretty close to the beginning of check-in time because there were quite a few people lined up. I�ve been in quite a few hotels that have been quite expedient at getting their patrons into rooms. I�ve also been in some that I had to wait a long time to get a room. This hostel experience was nothing like either of the two situations just described. It took forever. I don�t know why it was taking so long, but after standing in line for about fifteen minutes and seeing that it was probably going to take at least thirty more, I opted for a better plan. I walked across the street to the Rhine River and crashed out under a tree. The nap only lasted twenty minutes but it really helped me get my head together a little. After the short siesta I decided to try my luck at the hostel again. This time I got in a little quicker. I got a four-bed room that I was to share with two guys from Tokyo and a thirty-one year old guy from Algeria named Abelkader. After a quick nap I went back to the Rhine to write and then headed to find a grocery store where I spent 1.83 Euro on my dinner, which I partially shared with one of my Japanese roommates. I spent some time wandering around town and then went to get some shut-eye. When I got to the room I started to write some more until Abelkader came in. We talked for over an hour that night. He has been living in Dublin for the past five years. He said that he loves it there and mentioned that the girls in Ireland are the most beautiful girls in the world. I think that I have started to see a pattern from people I have met already when it comes to talking about the females from their respective countries. They all believe that their women are the most beautiful in the world. This was true in every case except from the two Canadians that I hung out with at the train station and the airport the day that I left Europe. They seem to think that all the girls in Toronto are ugly. I finally fell asleep by about midnight, which was much later than I had expected. For the record, I don�t expect to write as much for each day. I just thought the first day was quite emotional, funny, and interesting and warranted some detail.
