Volume 2, Day 17
In the end, I didn’t find any reasonable accommodation in any of the nearby cities which I might have otherwise wanted to visit (such as Dresden or Wittenburg), but I was able to secure a booking for two more nights in Leipzig and send out a request for a booking in Magdeburg through the Independent Hostels of Germany. Unfortunately, in order to stay in the Central Globetrotters, I would have had to move to a more expensive room. Fortunately, I moved to an even cheaper hostel.
Of course I spent the entire morning hanging around and even after checking out, simply returned to the lounge and plopped down on the sofa for a few more hours. I was in no rush to walk the 700 meters over to the other hostel until I could check straight in.
I did not sleep well. That massive quantity of food left me with a nightlong case of indigestion. After giving up on sleep in the early morning, I had a coffee and decided to sweat it out of me by going out for a run. On my various incursions into the old town, I had noticed the occasional historic marker with a blurb about the history of music in Leipzig. The markers are connected in a music trail of Leipzig covering more than 20 site around town and with stainless steel arrows embedded in the street to show the way. The Bach museum actually had a full map of the sites and said it takes about 2 hours to walk it (excluding visiting museums). Having put off the full trail, I decided to follow it on my jog as a scavenger hunt. It was barely seven kilometers (including to/from the hostel), but it was fun.
While I was hanging out in the hostel lounge waiting to make my maneuver to the next hostel a guy sat down at nearby and set to work decorating black and white printouts with highlighters. We got to talking and he gave me a full sales pitch for Leipzig. He was from England, but had lived there a long time and loved the city. He made several references to business partners, but I didn’t inquire into what he actually did for a living. He, very helpfully, suggested I teach English or apply for uni in Leipzig. Okay.
The Sleepy Lion Hostel wasn’t far, but it was not a fun walk with my luggage and a very uneven sidewalk. I paid cash at checkin and took an elevator up to the second floor to find my 10 bed dorm room. It was actually a series of three connected rooms with four, four and two beds. Each room more cramped but with lockers and a few other pieces of furniture. The bathroom was en suite.
I dumped my stuff and immediately headed into the old town to find a cafe. It wasn’t that I needed much more coffee (having liberally helped myself to free coffee), but that I wanted a lazy afternoon. I had also skipped breakfast and lunch as my stomach kept working away at that pizza. I found a bakery, ordered a large coffee, two pastries, and sat there for not even two hours. I took an inside seat to avoid the smokers and the direct sunlight. I eventually got bored, especially when I ran out of my 30 minutes of free wifi, so I returned to the hostel.
I went to the kitchenette (much smaller and only consisting of fridge, microwave, and tea kettle) to get some water and I bumped into a familiar face. I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but there was a Chinese lady staying at the last hostel. She sometimes listened to her programs without headphones, and she found out I spoke Chinese when I intervened in a misunderstanding between her and another guest (they were both trying to help the other one when neither of them needed help). Since then, she hasn’t constantly tried to push food on me or ask me for favors, such as ordering beauty products online for her niece. Of course, she also kept asking me why I don’t teach English in China. Anyways, one of the perks of moving hostels was finally getting some distance from this overly friend, but completely inept traveler (for example, she doesn’t quite understand the alphabet. Seriously, how do people survive in foreign lands with so little competence?). But she also moved to this hostel and began asking me to help her book a hotel for her in Naples. I tell her to just use Ctrip like I do, you can even (sometimes) pay in RMB with WeChat or Alipay.
Frustrated, I even tried to pull up the app to prove that you can use your mainland payment options overseas, but the hostel was experiencing some internet issues and I didn’t even have a workable signal with my cellular data. I went upstairs to grab my shopping bag because I needed to buy enough food on Saturday to last me until Monday.
When I got to the Aldi, I kind of went a little nuts buying this and that, cookies, gummies, yogurt, liverwurst, sliced rye bread, sliced cheese, canned goulash soup, paprika chips, mixed nuts, wine, etc. I’m finding it harder and harder to resist the call of all the junk food that is so reasonably priced, compared to China. Apart from fresh vegetables, everything in the supermarket in Europe is cheaper and more delicious than what can be bought in China.
Back in the hostel, I had my dinner, then headed upstairs. I gave myself a pat on the back for rationing out the food. I chatted with one of my roommates (a Korean guy) for a bit then settled in to watch a movie. When I finished the movie, I went to sleep.
| Hostel (2 nights) | 30.6 |
| Coffee and pastries | 5.5 |
| Groceries | 13.09 |
| Total: | 49.19 EUR (383.7 RMB) (USD 55.76) |
Running Total: 7204.8 RMB (USD 1046.94)
Daily Average: 423.8 RMB (USD 61.58)