Arabella Sheraton Congress Hotel Frankfurt

first off, excuse the weird typing....broken keyboard...

What a strange 2 days we've had. So if it is 34F aNd pouring raIn, what do you do on holidAy? thAt 's right, you get yourself to A theme paRk! We spent all of a cold, wet yesterdAy At holiday park, one of europes lArgest theme paRks. we went to ride the laRgest roller coAster drop on earth- 85 degrees down- but imAgine our suprise when we pAy our 20 euro only to find ...

... like they have in Europe. It is fantastique. I LOVE it. I'm not so crazy about their barely cool drinks and pay toilets, but I'll take their public transportation system over ours any day. Then there's that whole Autobahn thing. Now tell me that a ticket-garner like me isn't going to love that! I will also say that so far, while the Europeans might not be the most helpful folks in the world, they are very orderly and prompt.

Bon Soir!

Continued down the Main River this morning. Docked at the small town of Aschaffenburg. No tours here; this is not a tourist town. I went off walking by myself since the town was right by the dock. I took the main street through town and found a few old half-timbered buildings. This is not an old or restored town. However, I did ...

... toilets smell. Bad. We transferred trains at Brussles to head for Brugge. I was repeating Flemish in my head. Dank oo. Dank oo. If I can say 'thank you,' I'm golden. Eh? Brugge had an expecadly small train station with a huge bicycle parking area. Sprawling yet clustered. Niels is waiting for us. He got here a few hours earlier from Koln. So, off we go to walk around Fantasyland Brugge.

... noticed that her pillows were different and not the comfortable ones that she had slept on the previous night. At breakfast, she found out that Sanga had complained to the desk that his pillows were uncomfortable; they had exchanged our pillows! Then Van Damme said that he found two big pails full of water in his shower? All quite strange.

We made our way toward the airport. We didn't know how long it would take as ...

It's 3 o'clock in the morning, it's freezing cold and I'm somewhere in Cologne. Infront of me is a little Spanish girl called Nuria who I'm getting to know better. Originally from Barcelona she and some other students are in town for a European Union conference thing and I've spent the evening in a Russian Vodka bar with intellectuals from all over Europe. Perhaps suprisingly much of ...

... table and watched the festivities while drinking good beers that we'd never heard of before.
The hot spiced wine really took away the chill and we walked around Frankfurt for a while. It's much more scenic than we expected! especially the older parts of the city and the river front.
That night we had a fun dinner with Katie's friend Heather and her boyfriend Sebastien. They took us to a local restaurant with great apple wine!

Time to say goodbye to my time in Europe. It has been a great 5 weeks and 2 days. My german has finally gotten decent, and now it is time that I keep it up on my own back home. I have already contacted several people I could possibly live with when I get back and prospects are looking good, although pricey! Some of the places have amazing views so there may be a potluck dinner planned in the near future. I have already been asked by several people when I am having my next ...

... not get physcially violent or verbally abusive to the Ryan Air staff members. We have the right to remove you from the airport without a refund." That just about made my day...however...I then had to go to another line to get my boarding ticket showing that I had paid the silly 60 euros. The madness did not stop there, We waited in a crazy line to get on the airplane, only to find that when they ...

... Entretanto ya decidí algunas cosas: - llevar este laptop pues veo que es lo mejor que puedo hacer para sacar las fotos, guardar datos, rescatar mis direcciones. - no dormir esta noche pues tengo que preparar mis maletas, hablar con mis contactos en Cambodia, Vietnam y Korea, comprar al fin algunos regalitos para ellos, y encima continuar en casa algo del trabajo pendiente de la oficina. la noche es larga...