Volume 2, Days 58-60
Aachen is a small city that few people are familiar with. It came onto my radar via the German language podcast “Warum Nicht” in which the first 2 series of the radio play style learning show are set in Aachen. The city is strongly associated with Charlemagne who made it is capital (and is buried there), but has roots going past Roman times and is a spa town with natural hot mineral springs. The name Aachen derives from the old Germanic “ahha,” which doesn’t take a linguist to connect to “aqua,” i.e. water.
Having cracked open the Pandora’s box of a project, I find myself unable to shut the lid on my obsession. So the few days I spent in Aachen were more involved with manipulating data, writing scripts, and application development than any proper tourism. As the travel section of the blog, I needn’t get into any details of what I am working on, but I did manage to get out of the hostel everyday to look around town.
On Friday morning, my desire to hang out in the hostel lobby was slightly thwarted by the malfunction of the hot water dispenser (coin operated coffee machine), so I had to go to a bakery to get a caffeine (and sugar) fix. There was a small Asian boy helping out behind the counter with the two middle aged German ladies. The bakeries are definitely a highlight in Germany, but I feel I gain weight just by looking at the sweets.
Midday I set out into town again, taking a wider loop that brought my closer to the historical old town. Craving something cheap for lunch, I looked at a couple of doner restaurants before finding a shopping mall and grabbing Indian curry from the food court. Since I was at the mall, I went ahead and checked off the shopping that I needed to do: deodorant from DM (the drugstore) and a cheap pair of earphones from Saturn (the electronics store).
In the evening, I went out to find a Rewe hidden inside a courtyard containing a cineplex and lots of outdoor bars. I picked up a salad mix and a package of mixed olives, feta, and roasted red pepper/sun-dried tomato sauce to fancy up the salad.
In the morning, I had passed a church advertising a free organ concert in the evening, so I headed out that way after dinner. However, as I was walking up to the church, I saw some people getting turned away at the door because it was already completely full. On second thought, as it was a modern evangelical church, maybe it was for the best. On the way back, after passing the same gelato/frozen yogurt shop for the umpteenth time, I caved in and bought two scoops. It started raining on me when I was a block away from the hostel.
| Breakfast | 3.15 |
| Water | 0.44 |
| Chicken Madras | 6.9 |
| Rittersport | 1.09 |
| Deodorant | 0.55 |
| Headphones | 5.99 |
| Coffee | 1.8 |
| Dinner | 2.82 |
| Ice cream (double chocolate & kirsche) | 2 |
| Total: | 24.74 EUR (193 RMB) (USD 27.43) |
Running Total: 21904 RMB (USD 3113.43)
Daily Average: 377.7 RMB (USD 53.68)