Well, this will be the last europeblog post for a while. Not sure what to call the blog now.
Got into Frankfurt at 6:30 this morning after a gruelling 10 hour bus trip from Wrocław. Managed to fall asleep during the second horrible American movie only to be woken by a van full of polizei who came aboard to look at everyone’s ID. They took a few IDs (I think all names beginning with S) back to the van and spent 15 minutes comparing them to a list before handing back the IDs and arresting no-one. After that I sat uncomfortably and admired the German autobahns, including a tunnel about 7km long through what seemed like a fairly unmountainous region.
Those horrible American movies on the bus were – as most TV is – narrated by the Lektor. It has always amused me how the Polish Lektor is capable of emotionlessly distilling entire phrases of rich African-American dialect into one or two words. Often words starting with k or ch.
My hostel is just over the road from the Hauptbahnhoff, in the nice area with Turkish grocers and sex shops. So I don’t have to carry the bike box very far. It’s somewhere between 20-30kg so I’m going to get stung for excess baggage. The bike itself isn’t very heavy but the panniers, shoes, tent, etc, add up. Had to make a brown packing tape carry handle at the bus station in Wrocław. The builtin carry hole on the box tore out after walking it 100m, damn. Hopefully the box won’t tempt the destructive natures of Qantas baggage handlers.
Frankfurt is nice enough for a few hours of tourism. There is some nice old town architecture and the Main river banks are great. I think I managed to see most of it before sunrise. It was clear weather today but cold. At lunch I had a cup of glühwine by the old town hall and watched workers install lights in a huge christmas tree.
Tomorrow I think I will mostly stay inside, currently lacking the motivation necessary to visit the art galleries which will be open tomorrow. Hostel is nice in that it has a big luggage room and wifi for laptop nerds and facebook weirdos. On the downside my room really bloody stinks and I think I saw little insects jumping off the mattress. Hopefully I was just imagining them…