Well, that was a fun month seeing a few countries and a lot of friends, but let’s not forget that my main goal of going to Europe was to gain fluency in German.
Volume 2, Day 57
My one travel hack is to always try to arrange my connections according to the schedules of hostel check-in/checkout while also prioritizing location to minimize the amount of time I have to be lugging my suitcase around. Flixbus has two terminals in Brussels, one of which was a stone’s throw from my hostel, but it made sense–both economically and in terms of departure time–to book the bus leaving from the north train station. Even counting the cost of public transportation, it was a couple euro cheaper, and I was able to stay in the hostel until a few minutes before the 10am checkout time.
With an 11:35 bus departure, I had plenty of time. In an alternate universe where I was traveling light, I would have even considered walking the less than 3 km distance across town, but I certainly got an adventure out of the Brussels subway system. The ticket machines only accepted credit card or coins, and it turns out I was about 40 cents short of 2.10 single ride ticket. So, I hauled my suitcase back up the flight of stairs and up the block to the first fruit seller, where I bought a can of (lemon) Fanta in order to break a 5 euro note.
When I got back to the machine and purchased my ticket (with exact change), I noticed there was a handful of coins in the coin return tray. More than a handful, really. I didn’t count, but there was at least a dozen 5 and 10 cent pieces. In other words, the fates had provided me a way to avoid the little side trip, but I wasn’t paying attention. I felt guilty about pocketing the windfall, so I popped halfway up the stairs and deposited the coins in the paper cup of the beggar who had been sitting there all along, also blissfully ignorant of the old practice of checking public telephones for loose change.
The subway system was laid out just like a streetcar system, but moved underground with the minimal amount of architecture to keep the roof from caving in. To get from one platform to the other, one simply crossed the tracks at the provided crosswalk, looking both ways down the spacious tunnels.
I alighted at Gare Nord (Fr: north station) and looked around for somewhere to eat an early lunch. The KFC was still serving breakfast, and the other dozen eateries were basically just selling croissants or sandwiches. I wanted something a bit heartier, but by the time I made a full loop, the KFC had already switched over to the lunch menu. I’ve been craving fried chicken for a while, so it was nice to scratch that itch with a box meal. One interesting quirk worthy of some Tarantino dialogue is that you have to buy the sauce separately for something like 20-30 cents for a standard sized packet. It’s so unamerican.
The bus left from just outside the station and it was a fairly uneventful ride. I passed through Liege (for the second time) and I still think it is a spiffy looking train station (with a giant Rubik’s cube in front), but harbor no regrets about otherwise skipping it. After a 20 minute break at a highway rest stop with one of those restaurants that span the highway, the driver asked us to ready our passports for a border control check that ultimately did not exist. For some reason, the driving route detoured through a section of the Netherlands in order to enter Germany instead of just heading due east from Liege.
When I got dropped off in Aachen, it felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, and again I was a 2+ km distance from my destination, exactly on the opposite side of the otherwise small town. I walked two blocks to the west station to catch a RE train to the Hauptbahnhof, from which my hostel was only 50 meters away.
This was my first time staying at an A&O Hostel, an ultracorporate budget chain whose motto is “Travel for All.” It was significantly better than the Generator Hostels. Though they sold snacks and drinks, they didn’t ban outside food and it was more cosmopolitan than a full on party hostel. Of course, I had to pay extra for sheets. I wonder if this is a Germany only thing. I didn’t stay at too many hostels over the last month, but none of them had charged for sheets.
It was a pleasant surprise to find myself in a four bed dorm (when I was expecting 10) with en suite bathroom (including a small foot towel with the shower). The elevator advertised a guest kitchen in the basement, but I found just a locked room. So, I won’t be cooking for myself these days. One other interesting thing about the A&O hostels is that the prices are always changing, as can be seen from the television monitor above the reception. Not just an uptick for the weekend, but a real time adjustment based on occupancy rates (I infer from seeing it change throughout the day).
Having checked in and changed to more comfortable clothing, I headed over to the nearest supermarket — a discount place, but not a brand I am familiar with — to get a bottle of mineral water. I almost cried from joy at the sight of the prices in Germany, so much more affordable than Benelux, France, or England. You seriously can’t beat 19 cents for a 1.5 liter bottle of sparkling mineral water.
After working on my computer for a bit and making a cup of coffee (using the free hot water from the otherwise paid coffee vending machine), I went out to a shopping part of town to look around a bit. I have a bit of shopping to do (deodorant and earphones), but I wanted to do some comparison pricing. At an Aldi Sud, I picked up a salad mix, loaf of bread, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar (to commit to eating more salads), then returned to the hostel to eat my simple meal.
In my dorm, there were two kids from Central Asia (Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, respectively) who were in German for a monthlong summer program. What was interesting is that we chatted to each other through German. It can be easier, especially if you are not so advanced, to communicate with other non-native speakers, who are more likely to use the canned “standard” textbook phrases.
I settled into my top bunk and picked my entertainment option for the next week or so–I’m finally going to watch “Freaks and Geeks”–and tried to go to bed early. It is definitely late summer, and I am moving south again because the sun was setting around 9pm.
| Fanta | 0.8 |
| Subway ticket | 2.1 |
| KFC Sampler Box (orig rec, hot wings, popcorn chicken, chicken fingers) | 9.95 |
| Flixbus | 11.11 |
| Vending machine Espresso | 2 |
| DB intracity ticket | 1.8 |
| Hostel (4 nights) | 424 RMB (54 EUR) |
| Sheets | 3.5 |
| Water | 0.44 |
| Aldi | 5.56 |
| Total: | 714.6 RMB (USD 101.5) |
Running Total: 21711 RMB (USD 3083.83)
Daily Average: 380.9 RMB (USD 54.10)