Language confusion and cheap hostel

Thank goodness for earplugs when some girls show up a couple of hours later, I wake but fall back to sleep pretty easily before being awoken by jackhammers at 8am but I got enough sleep in and I feel good.

1st class german train

I check out and there is more confusion with my payment seems where I booked it through the beds are more expensive but since I get 8 of my 10 Euro key deposit back to make up for this it ends up being a 3.50 Euro nights stay, complete with bedsheet hire and a fresh towel so I don't have to wet mine. Bargain in anyones language!

I go into town and check my emails to see if my new host has contacted me, no such luck so I decide to text him when I am on the train. I printed off a timetable of the trains I need to take there are 4 trains with 4 stops with sometimes as little as 2 minutes changeover between each. But I am happy I have my 1st class ticket with my power adapter and not too many children and some charming scenery going past in the background.

I put on the Moon Sparkle Parfum from Escada that I was given in Toulouse at Sephora, its quite amazing how this has become my scent of the holidays and every time I put it on it makes me feel happy and remember I'm on holidays and the adventures I am having. I will have to buy some duty free in London before I leave to come back. Speaking of which if you have any duty free requests put them in the week before I leave London.

I get a first class compartment all to myself so I put my bags on the seats, plug in my laptop to the power that they have in the trains and write some of my blog, alas there is no internet access but I can upload all this and save time when I next have access. And yes I know I am well behind in the picture uploading so hopefully when I am next online I will do a heap so check out the new additions to any blog and look for the photos.

I gaze out the window and take some photos of the scenery in the middle of the forest and pasture there is a big mound of god only knows, it is a strange sight, now I don't want to be alarmist that the Germans are plotting but it is a strange thing indeed. Welcome to Penny's fantasy land a nice to place to visit every now and again but you wouldn't want to live there.

I complete two train changes successfully and then arrive at Frankfurt, it is a large and from the station industrial city, I am glad I am taking a couple of days out to explore the countryside a bit more and recharge the batteries, one can only look at so many churches before one goes mad.

I use the slideshow feature of my computer and check out the photos what great times I've had and what amazing people I have met through Couchsurfing. It is quite interesting to see that they all have some of the same threads in each of them. I am so going to host when I get back to Australia it is the gift that gives.

We leave Frankfurt 10 minutes late so that means I have -1 minute to get my connection to get me to the next station. Of course I don't get it as it has already left by the time I arrive so I have a one hour wait at the station. I go to the DB First class waiting room which has squishy seats and power for the laptop. I am informed by the lady on the desk that even though I have a first class ticket Eurail ticket holders are not allowed in. I inform her the reason I am here is because your trains were 10 minutes late so I missed my train by one minute and now I have to wait an hour till the next train and will probably miss the next connection. She says No Eurail allowed. I am so tempted to challenge her authority and ask to see where it it written in the rules that 1st Class Eurail are excluded as I had gotten into 1st class lounges at other stations but really can't be arsed (hmm have I softened on my rights in old age?). I retreat to the station and chain my bag to the seat and wait.

First class on this leg is a laugh, yes there is more room, but there is no power and only 8 seats in the whole section. I didn't reserve seating for this leg as it saved me 8 Euro and two of the legs were going to be in 2nd class and I really didn't want to try and speak German in a little town like Weimar. It doesn't seem to be a problem.

I text my host telling him about the missed connections and that I will be at least an hour late. This host found me as I did a post in the German forum of couchsurfing saying I wanted to see some German Nature, I was sick of big cities in France and wanted to do some horseriding. I had 6 offers and he was one of the ones whose dates matched up the best and who had actually found some horserding for me. I will be his first surfer.

We meet at the station, he is how you expect a German to be. Shorts with socks and sandles and glasses and a funny German accent. He is pleasant enough and we walk back to his house, he carrying my small daypack. He then informs me there was another station only 3 minutes from his house but thought I would get confused so we walk 25mins to his house up hills. Glad I am getting fitter with all this walking with my backpack, it is warm and I feel a bit hot.

We get to Dirks house which is a flat in a converted house. He has one large room about 3 times the size of a normal bedroom a separate kitchen and bathroom. I have a blow up mattress on the floor.

He shows me his 1,000 pictures from his asian trip and then we head into town for dinner at a pizza restaurant where the small pizzas are bigger than dinnerplates.