My First Post - A Few Days in Germany

Today is officiall Day 3, so I'm going to retroactively write about Day 0 and 1 here, and 2 and 3 in my next posting.

Day 0, May 24

Today is the day I left. Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for the trip (Barbara, thanks for the endless advice on "various things")

I'm excited to see what I can manage in Germany, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, I'm flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Michigan to Frankfurt, which is a bit out of the way but oh well.

The trip to Michigan was pretty painless. However, due to weather complications, I got in 30 minutes late. International flights must be boarded 30 minutes prior to departure, and I got into the airport perhaps 45 minutes before departure. I'm sure I looked like a funny scene running with a massive backpack, laptop, and suitcase in tow. I made it with the gate *quite literally* closing right behind me.

THe trip to Frankfurt had it's ups and downs. The TV's had dozens of new release movies for my perusal which was nice, but I had the classic "seat next to extremely overweight person" dilemma which was annoying.

Day 1, May 25

Once I got to Frankfurt on the 25th, more fun awaited me. I had a huge amount of dollars in my pocket that I really wanted to turn into Euros ASAP. I saw a currency exchange at the airport and decided to do it there. Unfortunately, unbeknown to me (fine print written in German, go figure), those ****s at the airport charge a 7% fee on any conversion, and the conversion rate is mediocre. Lost some money, but oh well...

To get from Frankfurt to Freiburg, I knew that I had to take 2 trains and a taxi. Deciding to test out my newly-gained basic German (studied on the plane ride), I attempted to buy my train tickets completely using German.

That was a mistake...I bought first class tickets by mistake and spent an extra 50 euros meaninglessly...Yea, I know, "classic Josh", don't even get me started Kyle...

Well, let me tell you, first class costs 50 euros more for a reason...it's NICE!! The first train was 30 minutes long and I had a great time, getting personally served free soda (with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, go Europe!) by the attendants. I thought I had made the best mistake ever, but that wasn't to last...

The train was a bit late and I almost missed the connecting train, but thankfully I made it. I got into the front of the train barely in time, but I'd made another stupid mistake...

It was the back of the train. First class was 8 train cars away and I had a giant backpack, giant suitcase, and laptop in tow. I could take my licks and spend 2 hours in coach, or dodge my way through 8 cars.

Like hell i was going to waste 50 euors...I spent the next 20 minutes going through the cars, and when I finally made it to first class it felt like the promised land. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

When I finally made it into Freiburg (pronounced Fry-Burg, not Free-Burg), I got myself a disposable cell phone, got a quick cab, and I made it. WHEW!!