France, 3 Juli 2010

OK, so I went to France today. Again, but more properly this time. Yet there were still some disappointments. I had modest goals for the day and none of them were achieved. We were going to go last Saturday, but Germany had a game. So, we went today, when Germany had a game. My host moms aren't really that interested, which I understand, but what interest the one has, is that she doesn't want to find a place to watch in Strasburg, but she'll blow the friggin' vuvusela for almost five minutes straight when we get home, scaring the cat.

Anyways, France. To get there, we drove almost twenty minutes to Hornburg, to buy tickets for the train to Strasburg. We did have to transfer trains once, but it was fine. The trains are very crowded on the weekends, with lots of suitcases, bikes and strollers along with the people. The going ride was fine, but coming home was another story.

Once in France we had to orient ourselves. We went first to a hotel to ask for a map, which we got no problem. If you didn't know, Strasburg was once a German city, but was officially France's in 1680 or something like that. After getting our map, we went to McDonald's to bum a toilet. I had a feeling we wouldn't succeed, because the European McDonald's don't like to share and put code boxes on the bathroom doors so you can't get in. But, luckily, someone who'd bought food and gotten the room code was there and let us in, too.

Hold that thought, I have to tell you what happened before we went to the hotel. Strasburg has a series of canals, and while I was photographing one, I went closer to the railing. And promptly stepped (just my heel) into a big pile of dog shit on the sidewalk. Now, I'd heard from a lot of people that the streets in Paris are really super dirty, but I didn't expect that here. I mean, seriously? That's bad. Luckily my Pumas, my better pair of tennis shoes, don't have deep tread, so I didn't take too much of it with me. But really, it was not fun.

Anyways, back to the bathroom at McDonald's. I think they knew we were coming. I get in to the stall, blah, blah, blah, and there's no toilet paper. And stalls in Germany and France and Austria are rooms, so you can't ask the person next to you to pass some under. You'd have to open the door, while remaining seated, to receive the paper. I'll stop there, but now that I think about it, these were really signs and omens for the rest of the day.

We then walked to the cathedral. On the way we looked in all the windows, especially at all the lovely and gorgeous cakes, tortes and tarts, and chocolates that I didn't get to buy or taste. Yes, one of my goals was to eat something from a real French bakery or pastry shop. I wanted to wait till the afternoon and not spoil lunch, plus it was so hot, if I bought anything it would have melted. So I waited. Well, next time I won't, because I did not get to try any of those things. I mean, anyone who's seen the movie Chocolat dreams of chocolate and stuff like that, and I missed my opportunity. I'll stop whining.

We got to the cathedral square and it was closed. So, instead I climbed to the tower. This was the easiest one yet. The stairs weren't too steep and they were wide enough that I didn't have to clutch at the handrail the entire time up. And this one had windows you could look out on your way up. This is good because one, you can see, and two, you can stick your camera out and take pictures of the flying buttresses. Or the water spouts that were cows. But it proved to be a little disappointing, because you couldn't go up all the way to the top. Just to the flat part of the roof. Which, they put really high wire fencing that curved in, so you couldn't look over the edge very well. That indicates, to me, that someone committed suicide by jumping off. Then to get down, you go down the staircase on the other side of the cathedral. The one other cool thing about this one, was that it has one of the few intact and working (old) astronomical clocks in Europe. They're very cool clocks, which I researched all last week at work, and tell not only the time of day, but sunrise/set times, astrological month, and date, too sometimes.

After the cathedral, we wandered around looking for lunch. We made a big loop and ended up back near the cathedral. It was really hot and with little shade, I just wanted to drink something and eat something light. Well, that proved to not work out so well. I had a flamm kuchen, without onions. It's basically like eating a really thin, weird bacon pizza that substitutes tomato sauce with some kind of sour cream. Good, but a lot and not very satisfying. I could have gotten the apple one again that's awesome, but I told myself, "No, we're going to eat something ridiculously sweet later."

After lunch, we went down to the boat tour. This was actually pretty good. Since the city has a bunch of canals, but not near as many as Amsterdam, it was pretty. The boat was OK, it had a roof that gave us some shade, but there were still a lot of people and the AC was very feeble. But I could listen to the tour in English, which I did, and the narrator had an Irish accent, so I got some ear candy. I learned and retained several stories.

The first, was about a hotel that dates back to the sixteen hundreds. One night there was a fire, and most everyone escaped by jumping out the one window. However, a large monk got stuck in the window and caused twenty people to lose their lives.

The second, is that we can thank the Irish monks who came to spread Catholicism to Strasburg for the invention of Muenster cheese.

The third, is that A Kind Louis of France came to Strasburg, but then road thirty miles away to find a hotel, because he thought if he stayed under a Protestant roof, he'd be damned.

So that pretty much sums up the boat tour. It was about 90 minutes I think. After the boat tour, we got out and headed towards La Petit France. I'm not sure why they had to designate this area if we're already in France, but whatever. The name made me feel like I was at Epcot or Europa Park. But we ate a scoop of ice cream each, which mine finally had enough chocolate. Their dark chocolate, is like a normal chocolate for us. This ice cream stand also offered Rum Raisin, Mango, Rhubarb, Brownies, espresso and amaretto as flavors. My ice cream was very good, though I had to sacrifice taking pictures in order to eat it.

Along the way some lady from a shop offered us free cookies. My was a "croquant" or something and quite good. My host moms bought some kugel cakes, which taste like a less sweet version of the Easter Bread Mema buys for Easter. So, I didn't like it. My host mom ate half of it when we got home. And then Frau Brause bought two macaroons the size of small footballs. Really, that big.

We found a cafe to drink something. I think its very hard for Germans to walk and drink something. Apparently its also relatively socially unacceptable to drink anything out of a bottle in public unless its beer. That's annoying. Anyways, at the cafe there was a group of guys around their 30's. They were all singing and wearing shirts they'd scribbled on with sharpies or something. And one was dressed as a sexy bunny. Complete with white fishnet thigh highs.

I had to ask and I thus learned the tradition of the European bachelor party. On the last day before a guy's marriage, he is made to dress up and is given a basket full of sweets and small objects. He has to go around in public, dressed up, and sell what's in his basket. All the money he earns is put towards drinks with his friends that evening. I think our version of the party is better (with the exception of the potential debauchery that occurs by some), but maybe less amusing for me. I mean, its not every day you see a dude in a fur lined pink bikini top, short skirt with a rabbit tail, elbow length gloves and fishnets. Oh, and bunny ears. I wonder where in the world they got that costume in his size.

Once our drinks were finished, we made our way towards the train station. We still had to find a chocolate shop for me, which didn't happen. There were just literally none along the way, and instead of deviating (which is also the word the French use instead of detour) from the route a few streets over to where they were, my host moms were like, "There'll be one in the train station." I didn't really believe them and I was right. Its not like there's a duty free shop in the Strasburg train station. So I didn't get to buy and French chocolate for everyone back home. I was kind of mad, but now I'm just annoyingly resigned. My host moms tried to say, "Its not like its Belgium chocolate" but still...I've seen Chocolat and want that experience. And that does not include Johnny Depp.

We got to the train station rather early and just waited around after finding a post box and not finding chocolate. The train was super hot, because there was no AC. Which is just a dumb idea. With the number of people inside, plus bikes, suitcases and strollers and the heat outside, they really needed AC. The only good thing was that the engineer came over the loudspeaker and announced that Germany was beating Argentina 1-0. We all cheered and then went back to being miserable.

The second train had AC, finally. Here I started to cool off, but still felt amazingly sticky and overall gross. When we got back to Hornberg, I'm like, Let's go home! Which we did, but with no AC. Am I just too accustomed to the US's system? But then again, if its hot, and you do have AC, why suffer? I guess that's what I don't get. I'm fine with the houses not having AC, they really don't need it here. But in the car, which get's hot, it does exist. I think this may be one of the few exceptions of the US being more logical than Europe. And apparently it was only 29 C in Strasburg, but the pavement, cars and lack of shade made it worse.

Once home, I came upstairs to take off my shoes and drop my purse off. The city was already going nuts because Germany'd won. And then I hear this vuvusela, really loud. The cat was also right out side my room. My host mom blew on that damn horn for almost five minutes straight. The cat's afraid, and I"m annoyed, so we just sat on the steps till it was over. Then I watched the game's highlights and analysis on tv. My host mom then asked what I wanted to eat, and I said, "Nothing" because I was still too damn not.

So she decided on this Rosti potatoes, which is basically like a really flat and crispy bunch of hashbrowns. At this point I felt a bad headache coming on, so I told her and then came back upstairs. I took some IBProfen and dozed for almost forty minutes. I say almost, because the cat came in. At first I though, "oh, she knows I'm not feeling well" and then I quickly realized she just wanted attention. I petted her for a few seconds, then tried to ignore her, thinking she'd just lay down and sleep. Instead she proceeded to rub her head on my pillow and ribs, which is a really weird feeling. Then she decided it would be cool to step on my ribs. This is surprising and does feel rather uncomfortable. Now on the other side of me, she continued rubbing her head on that side of the pillow. When I didn't give her the attention, she decided she'd go. And apparently the only way to do that, was to step on my ribs again.

I felt better after the nap and then went downstairs for dinner. My host mom also said she could make some "Steaks" which turned out to be a touch cut of pork. That's not a steak. I was hungry by this time and it was all right. I do feel bad, though, because the pork is always hard to cut, but then again, its hard to cut something that's cooked "well done" with a butter knife. I feel like I have to use such force to saw through the damn meat, thus risking clattering the silverware horribly on the china. But I don't want to ask for a better knife, because that could be insulting to the cooking. I think American's do meat better, too.

After dinner I just spent time on the computer. Gavin and I talked on Skype for a bit and I finally got to wash all the sticky, French dirt and stuff off me. Sleep was good, and I got to sleep in!