Volume 2, Days 93-95
My last stop before I leave Germany and I have run out of energy to do any of my regular traveling activities, like visiting museums or studying German. Like a Sunday afternoon marred by the thought of school in the morning, I couldn’t really bring myself to enjoy–well–myself. It didn’t help that my first day was somewhat fubar.
My last morning in Freiburg was fine as it goes. I cooked up a hot breakfast to finish off the eggs, cheese, pepper, and one onion. Though I made a valiant effort to generously pour sriracha hot sauce into the eggs, it occurred to me that buying the hot sauce was probably a pour investment. I did enjoy adding it generously to the veggies, curries, and what not I cooked, but I didn’t cook enough to get even close to using it up. The balsamic vinegar on the other hand, though it would be hard to finish off at least served me well through dozens of salads.
I packed up, checked out, and paid for the street car over to the train station, where I found my bus waiting a full 20 minutes before its departure time. I settled in with the ambitions to work on my computer. Shortly before departing, some guy decided to sit next to me (though I swear there were empty rows). He proceeded to manspread and gradually encroach on my personal space by that classic move of “taking a nap.” I couldn’t really maneuver with my computer and spent the 3 hour journey increasingly feeling claustrophobic as the guy behind me felt that sprawling out across two seats wasn’t enough and decided to make a punching bag of the back of my seat.
I was in a pretty bad mood when I reached Heidelberg, but at least the bus stop was literally 50 steps from the hostel. The hostel, on the third and fourth floor of an old warehouse (now office building), gave me some shit about not having “Bestatigung” (confirmation) of my booking. I had contacted the hostel through the same platform I booked many independent hostels in Germany. A staff replied confirming the price. I replied saying “Fine, go ahead with the booking.” They said okay. What more confirmation did I need? Well, apparently someone was supposed to add me to the system. I suppose I was lucky that school had already started because if the hostel had no vacancies I would have been up the creek. They also demanded a credit card for
Up in the room, I had another snafu to deal with. The room was fine, but I needed some internet (my Flixbus was without). So, with the Monday morning flight from Frankfurt on my mind and staying in Heidelberg until Monday morning, I needed to double check how to get to the airport in time for my flight. I had booked a Flixbus for the early morning which would deliver me to the airport 2.5 hours early, but when I was double checking when I’d have to wake up, I realized that I only had an hour. In my inbox was a string of emails explaining that the cancelled my bus and rebooked me on a later bus and if that booking didn’t work for me I could manually manage my booking through their website. The catch, of course, is that by forcing me to cancel the booking, they get to apply their cancellation fee and keep all my money, giving me only 1-point-something euro worth of credit for another trip. What a scam. Since there were no viable other Flixbus options, I had to go through Deutsche Bahn and prebook the train. I suppose the upside is that I will get to experience the ICE (high speed train).
I set out to explore a bit of Heidelberg, discovering that although my hostel is very accessible to the main train station (3 minutes by foot) it is a good 15 minute walk to the edge of the old town. As Heidelberg is also famous for having one of the longest pedestrian streets (over a mile) in Germany, it is another 15 minutes to the heart of old town. It was nice, but definitely affected how much and when I would bother going all the way “downtown.”
I grabbed an ice cream to cheer me up. It didn’t really, should have gone for chocolate over the fruit flavors. The weather was fine and I should have stayed out longer to enjoy it (being the last time I would see the sun before leaving Germany), but I was hungry and eager to use the sizable guest kitchen in the hostel.
I passed up a Penny, a Rewe and an Aldi on the way back because I spotted a Kaufland on the map (and it happened to be the closest to the hostel). Feeling a desperate need to eat as much German food as possible, I decided to make my own Kasespaetzle and kicked myself upon realizing that I should have kept an onion or two (I “donated” my extra onions to the free food shelf in Freiburg thinking I wouldn’t be able to use up the last couple). I made do with a package of Schwabian-style spaetzle, shredded cheese (Kasespaetzle blend) and seasoned butter. I also grabbed a package of Weisswurst and a couple pretzels after staring at the sausage aisle a long time. Needless to say, several beers were purchased as well, including an impulse buy of a 1L bottle of super-local brewed stuff (in a 2 euro deposit bottle!).
I had a little party unto myself and ate enough food for 3 or 4 people. I seriously overate. It was bad. Meanwhile, a package tour group mostly composed of gray haired Germans checked into the hostel, many of them poked their head into the kitchen and asked if it was the breakfast room. Nope, that is upstairs.
As I was watching shows on my computer in a dazed state in the lounge (a separate room next to the kitchen), two other travelers came in. They were from Belgium and actually staying in my 10-bed dorm room. As we were lightly chatting, another fellow came in while making a phone call with his airbuds (is that the Apple term?). The girls were just typical college students on a weekend trip, but he was interesting–born in Lagos, traveled a lot as a kid with a tennis pro mom, spent last dozen years in Germany. We played a game of chess. I lost, but in my defense, I was impaired. I never got a chance for a rematch.
We all headed up to the room at the same time, each individually arriving at the decision that it was bedtime.
| Tram | 2.4 |
| Flixbus | 14.14 |
| Hostel | 66 |
| Eis | 3 |
| Kaufland | 16 |
| Total: | 101.54 EUR (792 RMB) (USD 111.20) |
Running Total: 33918.2 RMB (USD 4762.45)
Daily Average: 364.7 RMB (USD 51.21)