I was going to go to bed early, but realizing that I may not have wi-fi come tomorrow, I’ve decided to stay up and write about the roller coaster that has been my last two days - not just the last two days chronologically, but the last two days of this high gear nomadic leg of my trip.
I disembarked the train in Karlsruhe, Germany, a small town on the north edge of the Black Forest, just ahead of two Syrian men discussing running off to join the civil war. That in itself was a noteworthy start. My hostel, by design, was just across the street from the train station. So I headed over to check in, drop my bags, and begin wandering around town. It was quicker than I expected, not because reception was fast or efficient, but because I opened the door to my room to be thoroughly unnerved by the fellow occupant I found there.
An older woman with grey hair and shabby clothes was sitting at the desk in the room, staring off into space. That was bad enough, but the energy coming off of her was just… terrifying. Not like she was dangerous, but like she was empty or something. She didn’t move when I entered, didn’t look up or acknowledge my presence. It made introductions a little hard, so I just dropped my things, used the restroom, and darted right back out again, a bit shaken.
Things improved from there though. It was my plan to visit the Baden State Museum at Karlsruhe Palace, located right in the heart of the city. It was about a half hour walk, which I thought would be pleasant. Indeed it was, for the first ten minutes or so.
The walk led past the zoo, you see, and it was the most lovely zoo I have seen in my life. No, I didn’t go in, but they weren’t very fussed about blocking off the view from the outside. At one point, I even detoured across a bridge that gave me the most spectacular view of the elephants. It made me wonder if there was even an admission fee to start with. Given more time I might have checked, but I wasn’t traveling to see animals I could see at home.
I made it to the museum just a few minutes after I knew the free admission period started. It wasn’t an expensive museum to begin with, but I like free, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As it turns out, the collection is exquisite; some of the best preserved artifacts I’ve ever seen. Then again, they might have been reproductions. I wouldn’t know, because the entire museum was in German exclusively. So I’m glad I hadn’t paid, because everything was very pretty, but half the time I had no idea at what I was looking. I certainly didn’t learn anything about history.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that forty-five minutes into the visit, having climbed the palace tower to get a look over the town, I caught sight of the lovely park I’d missed on the back side of the palace and all of a sudden couldn’t understand why I wasn’t already down there. So I quit the tower immediately, more or less dashed out the palace entrance, and threw myself down on the grass of the park land behind.
It was a large enough park with full enough trees that it was easy to feel lost without going far at all. I found a particularly pleasant spot in the shade of a giant oak, took of my shoes, and set about reading. I couldn’t bring myself to continue Mein Kampf, not when the weather was so pleasant and the surroundings so beautiful. I started Pride & Prejudice instead. I think I might be done with Mein Kampf for good. At least for a while anyway, technological issues withstanding. More on that later though.
It was a perfect afternoon in the park, minus the bee sting I got on the second toe of my left foot. I didn’t mean to disturb him, honest! I did have to head back eventually though, and so I did.
The creepy woman was in bed this time when I entered the room. I’m not sure if she was asleep or not, but she was sort of cocooned in the mound of junk. I think she’s living in the hostel, which is always a distressing proposition. She certainly has many more things than your average traveler. Even the ones who don’t travel light.
For obvious reasons I didn’t want to hang around the room, so I grabbed my computer and headed down to the commons. Because this hostel is more of a hotel with a couple dorms, there wasn’t anyone around either. Not looking forward to going back to creepersville then, I stayed up a bit too late. I don’t even think I accomplished anything. There were other people in bed and asleep by the time I finally went upstairs, but the creepy lady was asleep too, so it wasn’t uncomfortable to shower and get in bed. I made a promise to myself not to let her bother me too much the following day and finally went to bed.
After breakfast the next morning I boarded the train from Karlsruhe to Freiburg, a town much deeper in the Black Forest, and thus, I hoped, and ideal spot for hiking. I was not disappointed. Well, I was. But not by the hiking.
You see, I had checked numerous weather reports the day before, and all of them assured me that it wasn’t going to start raining in Freiburg until at least four o’clock. I could be back by then, or at least on the train. And carrying my umbrella on a nice long hike, compact or not, was hardly ideal. So I left it behind. Which you’ve probably already guessed was a big mistake.
No sooner had I stepped off the train in Freiburg than the downpour began. I had accepted that it might drizzle before four, which I hoped the tree cover would protect me from, but this was another story entirely. Besides, I still had to get to the tree cover first. So I gave in and bought an umbrella. Sigh. I don’t like spending money on things I already own, but it was either that, give up and go back, or get soaked through and ruin everything in my bag. At least it wasn’t too expensive.
The umbrella got me as far as Munster, the giant cathedral. They were having mass, so I wasn’t allowed inside, but it was what was outside the cathedral that I was more interested in. On Saturdays, there is a farmer’s market in Freiburg’s cathedral plaza. Thanks to the rain or the early hour, there weren’t as many stalls as I had expected, but it was still fun to wander around and see everyone’s wares. The most exciting? There was a tofu bratwurst wagon. Do you know how badly I have been wanting to try currywurst? Really, really badly. Not badly enough to eat meat, but badly enough that I ordered one immediately as soon as I saw the tofu variety, despite not being hungry in the least and having nowhere to eat it, in or out of the rain.
I realized my dilemma as soon as I’d paid, saddled there with my umbrella propped on one shoulder, a tray of currywurst in one hand, a roll and two napkins clutched in the other. Well crap. What now?
I managed to wobble through the market until I found a high, wet table behind one of the stands, but let me tell you, preparing a roll of tofu currywurst with one hand while trying to shelter from the rain is not easy. I would call it humiliating, in fact, considering the expressions of the people who noticed me on their way by. Don’t get me wrong, the wurst was delicious. But I was a mess by the end of it. Stains on my tank top, sauce on my fingers. There was even curry on the inside canopy of my umbrella, though I have no idea how that happened.
Despite that mild disaster, I was quite pleased with myself for having managed to try currywurst at all. And so it was with a renewed sense of accomplishment that I set off again for the forest. Accidentally on purpose, I entered the park from a little used back entrance. The park itself is a large stretch of dense trees on a high hill with the Schlossburg, a series of old castle remains, perched on top. Wandering up the steep, winding paths was everything I imagined it would be - so spectacular that I couldn’t possibly do the description justice at this time of night, so you’re just going to have to settle for awesome in the truest sense of the word.
It took maybe an hour to get to the top, where I found a few old foundation stones and a long forgotten clearing commemorating a chapel. Well, maybe not long forgotten, but at least forgotten long enough that I ran face first into a handful of rather substantial spiders’ webs on my way in. That wasn’t why tourists hiked the mountain though. Tourists hiked the mountain for the view.
In one of the various clearings dotting the mountain top was a tall tower with an endless spiral, groups of hikers clustered around the bottom. I climbed it with enthusiasm and was rewarded with a view for miles. Sometime along my hike through trees so dense you could only identify the rain from the sound of the drops on the leaves, the weather had cleared entirely. So this is more less what I saw.
I considered lingering at the top of the mountain, but the hiking was really the part I liked. Up more than down, but the down had to come sometime, and I still wanted to get back to Karlsruhe in time to do my laundry. So I wound down the tower, and then down the hill. On my way back through town the market had picked up considerably, so I bought a jar of local marmalade as a gift for the new boss I’ll meet tomorrow, and then it was on to the train, where I had one of the worst moments of my trip to date.
As I often do on train rides, I pulled out my Kindle to continue with Pride & Prejudice, which you’re probably not surprised I’ve decided I very much like. I opened up the cover, flipped the on switch, and… boom. Fried.
I do not know if you are familiar with the common glitch in the old line of Kindles where the screens sometimes break for no reason at all, but it’s a thing that happens. It happened to my first in the Sahara in Egypt, and now to my second in the forests of southern Germany. And one day before I’m all set to move to a boat where I intended to do little more in my free time than read.
As soon as I got off the train I called Amazon in a fit of panic. What I thought they could do for me I’m not sure, and sure enough there was nothing. The kind woman from customer service even Googled places to buy a new on in Europe (because clearly they can’t ship one to a moving boat… yet) but she didn’t find anything. Not because they’re not here; there are Kindle adds on almost every German train I’ve ridden. She probably just didn’t know what she was looking for.
In the meantime, I’d struck out on the laundry. You see, in an attempt to restore some sort of control while on the phone, I had been walking towards the spot the receptionist at the hostel had told me there was a laundromat. I had saved my laundry until the last day before moving to the boat because the hostel website said they had washers. Well, they were broken. Or they lied. But I’d been told to take my clothes elsewhere.
Thank goodness I hadn’t brought my clothes with me on reconnaissance though, because there was no laundromat to be found. At the time, however, I was too distressed about the prospect of having nothing but the absolute headache inducing brightness of my phone to read for the next two months to care much. Instead I decided to check out some places I thought might have Kindles in town, and so began my odyssey around town.
I went to five different stores searching for Kindles. Two didn’t carry e-readers, one was sold out. The fourth store I went to had a much better selection. They had, supposedly, all three of the newest versions. I was going to have to abandon the classic keyboard I love so much regardless. That model has been discontinued. I could, however, choose between the others. The catch? Only one of them had 3G.
Now, in a situation where I have reliable access to wi-fi, 3G isn’t that big of a deal, but I’ve had enough experience with my now defunct Kindle on this trip to know that the way I travel it’s a bit of a necessity. And the option with that necessity, of course, was by far the most expensive one. And it was a touch screen, and all fancy and tricked out and waaaay more than I actually wanted.
I thanked the clerk who had been helping me and went to buy and ice cream and mope. Rather than heading back though, I sat with that ice cream and I thought. I wasn’t going to be spending much money on the boat, and without any meaningful face to face company my books have been like my best friends this whole trip. It was worth it, I decided. I’d get used to the fanciness like I got used to my phone.
So I went back to the store and I told them I’d take it. At which point they launched what equated to a search for the holy grail. Apparently inventory said they had exactly one Kindle 3G left, and they turned the store upside down looking for it. Eventually, however, they had to settle for giving me a guilty little shrug. “Sorry, we can’t find it.” At which point I decided it really wasn’t meant to be, and began the long trudge back to the hostel.
There was store number five, which was a funny experience. I got a funny feeling as I passed a later shopping center, and turned in because I couldn’t come up with a reason why not. I hadn’t taken more than three steps in when a picture I could not have seen from the sidewalk slapped me in the face. It was a Kindle, or I thought it was. Except it was actually just a European brand of e-reader that looked a lot like a Kindle. I don’t quite remember the name, but it’s not even a Kobo, which is the competitor I’ve seen in Canada and the UK. It was just funny I’d felt the need to turn in there. The bookstore inside had plenty of them, but who even knows if they’re compatible with everything I’d bought to date? Amazon just makes things so easy! When their products work at least.
When I got back to the hostel I wasn’t quite ready to give in just yet. I’d read some rumor about a misaligned ribbon inside the Kindle while searching desperately on my phone on the train, so I plopped down next to my bed in my dorm room and proceeded to pry the back of my Kindle off. I couldn’t damage it anymore, right? The creepy lady was there again, same exact position I’d found her the day before, but I had more important things to worry about. When she realized I wasn’t going to leave, I think, she got up and left herself, which made me realize she was the source of the strange scent of cheese puffs I’d been smelling all of the last day. Go figure.
I got the back off, but I needed a screw driver to get at any of the potentially helpful pieces, so I headed down to reception to see if they might be able to provide. It was a good forty minute wait in line, but it wasn’t like I had much else better to do, and the receptionist had already snapped when I’d tried to ask without waiting. It wasn’t like I was trying to cut, but it only took a second to tell me if the answer was no.
As I was waiting, however, I did manage to make friends with a French woman waiting just in front. She was traveling with her son, and asked when she saw the open circuit board of my Kindle if the tablet was broken. It was, I explained, and a bit about my far fetched theory for fixing it. It turns out her sons actual tablet, a Samsung, was broken as well. Not like mine, but the screen had frozen. Well, as it turns out, I know how to fix that.
So the son ran and got his tablet, and I rebooted it for him, and then I had a couple of instant new friends. At least for the duration of our wait in line. I think seeing the circuit breaker made the woman think I was more savvy with computers than I actually am, but hey! I was savvy enough for her purposes.
Anyway, reception didn’t have a screwdriver. So I returned to my room, packed up my bag for tomorrow, showered, and got in bed. I’ve been fiddling around doing nothing for a while now, watching my dormmates one by one file in. The median age is much older here than any other hostel at which I’ve stayed. Probably because Karlsruhe isn’t much of a backpacking hotspot, and they offer beds like they offer rooms, so people who would never look for a hostel end up here anyway too.
It wasn’t exactly how I would have liked to end this leg of my trip. I couldn’t even get ahold of my mother, who despite the lack of good wi-fi I was totally willing to pay to talk to. Sometimes when you’re in one of those moods it just doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve calmed down since though, and I’m still excited for tomorrow. I haven’t decided if I’m going to try to find a Kindle in Paris. Maybe it’s just time to give up. I do have my phone, but my eyes are bad as it is. It wouldn’t really do to come back from vacation blind now, would it?
I disembarked the train in Karlsruhe, Germany, a small town on the north edge of the Black Forest, just ahead of two Syrian men discussing running off to join the civil war. That in itself was a noteworthy start. My hostel, by design, was just across the street from the train station. So I headed over to check in, drop my bags, and begin wandering around town. It was quicker than I expected, not because reception was fast or efficient, but because I opened the door to my room to be thoroughly unnerved by the fellow occupant I found there.
An older woman with grey hair and shabby clothes was sitting at the desk in the room, staring off into space. That was bad enough, but the energy coming off of her was just… terrifying. Not like she was dangerous, but like she was empty or something. She didn’t move when I entered, didn’t look up or acknowledge my presence. It made introductions a little hard, so I just dropped my things, used the restroom, and darted right back out again, a bit shaken.
Things improved from there though. It was my plan to visit the Baden State Museum at Karlsruhe Palace, located right in the heart of the city. It was about a half hour walk, which I thought would be pleasant. Indeed it was, for the first ten minutes or so.
The walk led past the zoo, you see, and it was the most lovely zoo I have seen in my life. No, I didn’t go in, but they weren’t very fussed about blocking off the view from the outside. At one point, I even detoured across a bridge that gave me the most spectacular view of the elephants. It made me wonder if there was even an admission fee to start with. Given more time I might have checked, but I wasn’t traveling to see animals I could see at home.
I made it to the museum just a few minutes after I knew the free admission period started. It wasn’t an expensive museum to begin with, but I like free, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As it turns out, the collection is exquisite; some of the best preserved artifacts I’ve ever seen. Then again, they might have been reproductions. I wouldn’t know, because the entire museum was in German exclusively. So I’m glad I hadn’t paid, because everything was very pretty, but half the time I had no idea at what I was looking. I certainly didn’t learn anything about history.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that forty-five minutes into the visit, having climbed the palace tower to get a look over the town, I caught sight of the lovely park I’d missed on the back side of the palace and all of a sudden couldn’t understand why I wasn’t already down there. So I quit the tower immediately, more or less dashed out the palace entrance, and threw myself down on the grass of the park land behind.
It was a large enough park with full enough trees that it was easy to feel lost without going far at all. I found a particularly pleasant spot in the shade of a giant oak, took of my shoes, and set about reading. I couldn’t bring myself to continue Mein Kampf, not when the weather was so pleasant and the surroundings so beautiful. I started Pride & Prejudice instead. I think I might be done with Mein Kampf for good. At least for a while anyway, technological issues withstanding. More on that later though.
It was a perfect afternoon in the park, minus the bee sting I got on the second toe of my left foot. I didn’t mean to disturb him, honest! I did have to head back eventually though, and so I did.
The creepy woman was in bed this time when I entered the room. I’m not sure if she was asleep or not, but she was sort of cocooned in the mound of junk. I think she’s living in the hostel, which is always a distressing proposition. She certainly has many more things than your average traveler. Even the ones who don’t travel light.
For obvious reasons I didn’t want to hang around the room, so I grabbed my computer and headed down to the commons. Because this hostel is more of a hotel with a couple dorms, there wasn’t anyone around either. Not looking forward to going back to creepersville then, I stayed up a bit too late. I don’t even think I accomplished anything. There were other people in bed and asleep by the time I finally went upstairs, but the creepy lady was asleep too, so it wasn’t uncomfortable to shower and get in bed. I made a promise to myself not to let her bother me too much the following day and finally went to bed.
After breakfast the next morning I boarded the train from Karlsruhe to Freiburg, a town much deeper in the Black Forest, and thus, I hoped, and ideal spot for hiking. I was not disappointed. Well, I was. But not by the hiking.
You see, I had checked numerous weather reports the day before, and all of them assured me that it wasn’t going to start raining in Freiburg until at least four o’clock. I could be back by then, or at least on the train. And carrying my umbrella on a nice long hike, compact or not, was hardly ideal. So I left it behind. Which you’ve probably already guessed was a big mistake.
No sooner had I stepped off the train in Freiburg than the downpour began. I had accepted that it might drizzle before four, which I hoped the tree cover would protect me from, but this was another story entirely. Besides, I still had to get to the tree cover first. So I gave in and bought an umbrella. Sigh. I don’t like spending money on things I already own, but it was either that, give up and go back, or get soaked through and ruin everything in my bag. At least it wasn’t too expensive.
The umbrella got me as far as Munster, the giant cathedral. They were having mass, so I wasn’t allowed inside, but it was what was outside the cathedral that I was more interested in. On Saturdays, there is a farmer’s market in Freiburg’s cathedral plaza. Thanks to the rain or the early hour, there weren’t as many stalls as I had expected, but it was still fun to wander around and see everyone’s wares. The most exciting? There was a tofu bratwurst wagon. Do you know how badly I have been wanting to try currywurst? Really, really badly. Not badly enough to eat meat, but badly enough that I ordered one immediately as soon as I saw the tofu variety, despite not being hungry in the least and having nowhere to eat it, in or out of the rain.
I realized my dilemma as soon as I’d paid, saddled there with my umbrella propped on one shoulder, a tray of currywurst in one hand, a roll and two napkins clutched in the other. Well crap. What now?
I managed to wobble through the market until I found a high, wet table behind one of the stands, but let me tell you, preparing a roll of tofu currywurst with one hand while trying to shelter from the rain is not easy. I would call it humiliating, in fact, considering the expressions of the people who noticed me on their way by. Don’t get me wrong, the wurst was delicious. But I was a mess by the end of it. Stains on my tank top, sauce on my fingers. There was even curry on the inside canopy of my umbrella, though I have no idea how that happened.
Despite that mild disaster, I was quite pleased with myself for having managed to try currywurst at all. And so it was with a renewed sense of accomplishment that I set off again for the forest. Accidentally on purpose, I entered the park from a little used back entrance. The park itself is a large stretch of dense trees on a high hill with the Schlossburg, a series of old castle remains, perched on top. Wandering up the steep, winding paths was everything I imagined it would be - so spectacular that I couldn’t possibly do the description justice at this time of night, so you’re just going to have to settle for awesome in the truest sense of the word.
It took maybe an hour to get to the top, where I found a few old foundation stones and a long forgotten clearing commemorating a chapel. Well, maybe not long forgotten, but at least forgotten long enough that I ran face first into a handful of rather substantial spiders’ webs on my way in. That wasn’t why tourists hiked the mountain though. Tourists hiked the mountain for the view.
In one of the various clearings dotting the mountain top was a tall tower with an endless spiral, groups of hikers clustered around the bottom. I climbed it with enthusiasm and was rewarded with a view for miles. Sometime along my hike through trees so dense you could only identify the rain from the sound of the drops on the leaves, the weather had cleared entirely. So this is more less what I saw.
I considered lingering at the top of the mountain, but the hiking was really the part I liked. Up more than down, but the down had to come sometime, and I still wanted to get back to Karlsruhe in time to do my laundry. So I wound down the tower, and then down the hill. On my way back through town the market had picked up considerably, so I bought a jar of local marmalade as a gift for the new boss I’ll meet tomorrow, and then it was on to the train, where I had one of the worst moments of my trip to date.
As I often do on train rides, I pulled out my Kindle to continue with Pride & Prejudice, which you’re probably not surprised I’ve decided I very much like. I opened up the cover, flipped the on switch, and… boom. Fried.
I do not know if you are familiar with the common glitch in the old line of Kindles where the screens sometimes break for no reason at all, but it’s a thing that happens. It happened to my first in the Sahara in Egypt, and now to my second in the forests of southern Germany. And one day before I’m all set to move to a boat where I intended to do little more in my free time than read.
As soon as I got off the train I called Amazon in a fit of panic. What I thought they could do for me I’m not sure, and sure enough there was nothing. The kind woman from customer service even Googled places to buy a new on in Europe (because clearly they can’t ship one to a moving boat… yet) but she didn’t find anything. Not because they’re not here; there are Kindle adds on almost every German train I’ve ridden. She probably just didn’t know what she was looking for.
In the meantime, I’d struck out on the laundry. You see, in an attempt to restore some sort of control while on the phone, I had been walking towards the spot the receptionist at the hostel had told me there was a laundromat. I had saved my laundry until the last day before moving to the boat because the hostel website said they had washers. Well, they were broken. Or they lied. But I’d been told to take my clothes elsewhere.
Thank goodness I hadn’t brought my clothes with me on reconnaissance though, because there was no laundromat to be found. At the time, however, I was too distressed about the prospect of having nothing but the absolute headache inducing brightness of my phone to read for the next two months to care much. Instead I decided to check out some places I thought might have Kindles in town, and so began my odyssey around town.
I went to five different stores searching for Kindles. Two didn’t carry e-readers, one was sold out. The fourth store I went to had a much better selection. They had, supposedly, all three of the newest versions. I was going to have to abandon the classic keyboard I love so much regardless. That model has been discontinued. I could, however, choose between the others. The catch? Only one of them had 3G.
Now, in a situation where I have reliable access to wi-fi, 3G isn’t that big of a deal, but I’ve had enough experience with my now defunct Kindle on this trip to know that the way I travel it’s a bit of a necessity. And the option with that necessity, of course, was by far the most expensive one. And it was a touch screen, and all fancy and tricked out and waaaay more than I actually wanted.
I thanked the clerk who had been helping me and went to buy and ice cream and mope. Rather than heading back though, I sat with that ice cream and I thought. I wasn’t going to be spending much money on the boat, and without any meaningful face to face company my books have been like my best friends this whole trip. It was worth it, I decided. I’d get used to the fanciness like I got used to my phone.
So I went back to the store and I told them I’d take it. At which point they launched what equated to a search for the holy grail. Apparently inventory said they had exactly one Kindle 3G left, and they turned the store upside down looking for it. Eventually, however, they had to settle for giving me a guilty little shrug. “Sorry, we can’t find it.” At which point I decided it really wasn’t meant to be, and began the long trudge back to the hostel.
There was store number five, which was a funny experience. I got a funny feeling as I passed a later shopping center, and turned in because I couldn’t come up with a reason why not. I hadn’t taken more than three steps in when a picture I could not have seen from the sidewalk slapped me in the face. It was a Kindle, or I thought it was. Except it was actually just a European brand of e-reader that looked a lot like a Kindle. I don’t quite remember the name, but it’s not even a Kobo, which is the competitor I’ve seen in Canada and the UK. It was just funny I’d felt the need to turn in there. The bookstore inside had plenty of them, but who even knows if they’re compatible with everything I’d bought to date? Amazon just makes things so easy! When their products work at least.
When I got back to the hostel I wasn’t quite ready to give in just yet. I’d read some rumor about a misaligned ribbon inside the Kindle while searching desperately on my phone on the train, so I plopped down next to my bed in my dorm room and proceeded to pry the back of my Kindle off. I couldn’t damage it anymore, right? The creepy lady was there again, same exact position I’d found her the day before, but I had more important things to worry about. When she realized I wasn’t going to leave, I think, she got up and left herself, which made me realize she was the source of the strange scent of cheese puffs I’d been smelling all of the last day. Go figure.
I got the back off, but I needed a screw driver to get at any of the potentially helpful pieces, so I headed down to reception to see if they might be able to provide. It was a good forty minute wait in line, but it wasn’t like I had much else better to do, and the receptionist had already snapped when I’d tried to ask without waiting. It wasn’t like I was trying to cut, but it only took a second to tell me if the answer was no.
As I was waiting, however, I did manage to make friends with a French woman waiting just in front. She was traveling with her son, and asked when she saw the open circuit board of my Kindle if the tablet was broken. It was, I explained, and a bit about my far fetched theory for fixing it. It turns out her sons actual tablet, a Samsung, was broken as well. Not like mine, but the screen had frozen. Well, as it turns out, I know how to fix that.
So the son ran and got his tablet, and I rebooted it for him, and then I had a couple of instant new friends. At least for the duration of our wait in line. I think seeing the circuit breaker made the woman think I was more savvy with computers than I actually am, but hey! I was savvy enough for her purposes.
Anyway, reception didn’t have a screwdriver. So I returned to my room, packed up my bag for tomorrow, showered, and got in bed. I’ve been fiddling around doing nothing for a while now, watching my dormmates one by one file in. The median age is much older here than any other hostel at which I’ve stayed. Probably because Karlsruhe isn’t much of a backpacking hotspot, and they offer beds like they offer rooms, so people who would never look for a hostel end up here anyway too.
It wasn’t exactly how I would have liked to end this leg of my trip. I couldn’t even get ahold of my mother, who despite the lack of good wi-fi I was totally willing to pay to talk to. Sometimes when you’re in one of those moods it just doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve calmed down since though, and I’m still excited for tomorrow. I haven’t decided if I’m going to try to find a Kindle in Paris. Maybe it’s just time to give up. I do have my phone, but my eyes are bad as it is. It wouldn’t really do to come back from vacation blind now, would it?
No comments:
Post a Comment