So this weekend I decided I needed a foray into France for the first time. Strasbourg is a close and touristy town with amazing cathedrals, fine wine, and picturesque canals running through the city. Dominating the town is the tallest structure of the Cathedral of Notre Dame (officially, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg), but everyone there simply states it as the Cathe´drale. It is bewildering, majestic, and, of course, full of construction and scaffolding.
The train ride to Strasbourg is only a little over three hours, so that is the way to go for me. I found I could actually take a plane from Frankfurt to Strasbourg for the same amount of money and nearly the same amount of time. But the great thing about the train tickets is they're highly flexible. If you miss a train, you just take the next one, or if you decide to leave a day later, it doesnt matter--still the same price. This proved handy as I ended up seeing two cities on the way back to Marburg. These were Karlsruhe and Heidelburg. Both amazing sites for me.
First about Strasbourg. Being I got an amazingly cheap hotel over the internet, it is on the outskirts of Strasbourg. As long as I can afford it, I am shunning youth hostels--memories of stinky feet, snoring patrons, and shady characters still haunt my nightmares. Besides, if your savvy you can usually find a hotel room for only about 10 euros more than the youth hostel. Well I tried to get a savvy deal. But it was a long walk and I had to ask several patrons where it was. A common question kept coming up when I was asking where this hotel was,''Are you gay?''. What? It was a creepy old man that asked me this the first time and I ended up just excusing myself walking away. But then I got asked a second time--and was wondering if it was something I was wearing. Lets see, beat up shoes, faded jeans, and a sweaty t-shirt--nope, that cant be it. Mistaken for a homeless man, a lost tourist, or a defected soldier from Iraq I can see, but certainly not dressed well enough for gay.
I then come up to my hotel, and all the questions become obvious. The hotel is pink (amazingly pink with all the dark houses around it), with big rainbows, and very colorful everything--especially on the inside. Even the walls were pink and purple. It also smelled a little too good. Hmmm, I think. A gay hotel (see picture above). Well, it could be worse. Getting in was a problem too. There was no reception--he probably had an important date. Just a sign that said STEELE-Room 9. But of course, every door has locked keycodes. I try a bunch of key codes and hope I get lucky--reservation number, my last name translated to numbers, etc. I have no luck. The door is unyielding. So I see a fire escape. I decide to get in this way and Voila! all the back doors up the fire escape are open. I think to myself that this is a very bad gay joke. The only way into the gay hotel is by going in 'the back door'. But I find my keys in my hotel room and thankfully, no one occupying it. I lock the dead bolt and go out the front door. My whole stay there, I never saw the reception guy, and I have yet to pay my hotel room.
In and around Strasbourg I go explore. Later that night I meet another traveler named Anya. She is a student in France, comes from Thailand, and doesnt seem scared to travel alone either. I think she is very brave. We talk some and agree to be friendly travel buddies the next day. I plan on meeting her to go see Heidelburg.
After dinner I try and rush back to the hotel to call the parents. I couldn´t get through so I say it here--Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! It was/is April 28th. I'm two days late, sorry, but calling from France, in a gay hotel room, with pink walls and no soap, while speaking with french operators, was one too many distractors for me. Next time I remember to send a card--pink, with gay men and rainbows on it. That will make number 41 a bit more interesting.
Later that evening, I end up seeing Zrinka, the girl I became friends with while traveling through Croatia. I knew she was in town there with a school trip, but I think neither of us was sure we would actually end up seeing each other. She was busy with her french school class and it didnt sound like she was going to get any free time. We actually did end up seeing each as I surprised her by walking up behind her. By that time it was pretty late. Zrinka, her friend, and I went out for a beer and shared a taxi to her youth hostel and my hotel. As I was talking to her outside the youth hostel, the police came up, asked if were speaking english (in english) and I told them yes. He then asked me if we seen two masked men run by. We told them no. They then ran off.
I think this was a little unnerving for both of us--so she went to bed and I went walking back to my pink hotel, pocket knife in hand, wondering if I was going to get robbed by two masked men. If this wasnt creepy enough, was the fact that I had to walk in a dark street with no lights that ran along a very, very, very old cemetary. So old all the monuments were falling apart and some of the tombs tops were missing. Pretty much every horror movie ever made was running through my mind and a large percentage of them had this exact same seen. Man walks alone. Man gets killed for being stupid and walking out late. After that walk, a pink hotel and brightly covered rainbows never looked so good.
3 comments:
This will be an all-time favorite blog entry for me, Terry. Absolute classic with all the requirements for good reading: violence, sex and misguided homosexual tendencies.... the last part reminds me of a story, just not as interesting as yours. It was one of those nights you and Brian left me at a downtown bar (I think it was a Halloween night). I forget how we got separated, but needless to say, we had two different goals for the evening, so I am sure it had something to do with that. I was wearing a giant afro wig and duds to match. I had no car and was inebriated beyond safe levels... I stood by the bus stop from 3am-5:30am waiting for the first running bus to campus as I had no money for a cab. It was damn chilly, too, and I had a short sleeve with no coat at the end of October in the middle of the night. While waiting for what seemed hours... actually it was hours a random overweight 60-something man approached me and started running his fingers up and down my shirt... it took about 30 seconds for me to really comprehend what he was doing. The minute he realized that I realized how irritated I was he quickly jumped back with a little fear in his eyes... nice to know I am still an imposing figure.
I do remember this night and remembering laughing at the story of being fondled while wearing a large afro wig. Especially since it was freezing that night. And the fact that you waited for two hours for a bus when it is only a 45 min walk home. You should have called the misses and had her pickup you up in the meat wagon she gets to drive.
Meeting two girls at the same time sounds great.
You should teach me how to do that.
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