After
catching a bus to the other terminal, I met up with Shawn and Hayden, and
waited for Shawn’s brother, Paul, to pick us up from the airport. As we were
waiting we actually got interviewed
by a group of German 6th graders who were practicing their English. "Can
we make interview of you? Vat is your name? Vhere do you fly from? Vut is your
reason for travel? Doo you like Germany? Sank you!" It was great, the
little blonde boy was hilarious, and I don't actually think the tall one (next
to me in the picture) said anything. I feel for him—I definitely have a lot of
brushing up to do on my Italian before arriving in Italy, and I have a long way
to go before I'm confident, not to mention fluent, speaking the language.
After getting picked up from the airport, we went to downtown Frankfurt—finally
out of my Provo bubble—and what do I see? Twenty LDS missionaries! I felt right
at home. ;) They were waiting for new missionary arrivals to proselyte to locals
For lunch, we
went to this authentic German restaurant, Steinerne Haus (translated: stone
house) which was built 500 years ago by a Cologne merchant. It was the only
stone house in the area at the time and was used as a warehouse for silk, but
it's been a restaurant for the past century. Some of the food was absolutely
delicious, some...not so much. The pancake soup (which was basically soup with
cut up German pancakes in it) and the pork schnitzel were great, but I wasn't
the biggest fan of the bone marrow soup—shocker, eh? Tad too slimy for my
taste, but Shawn and Paul seemed pleasantly surprised by it... And a note to my
future self: do NOT order water in Europe—I paid 3 Euros (about $4.50) for the
smallest bottle of water I have ever seen—I think I'll bring it home with me as
a souvenir, might as well since I’ve already paid for it.
My 3 Euro mini bottle of water
Shawn and his brother Paul (who lives in Germany) eating some
authentic German schnitzel
Hayden's bone marrow soup and my pancake soup! 1) yuck 2) yum!
We spent the
rest of the day just taking in the beautiful town. I love all the architecture,
shops and street performers. There was a hilarious man painted like a golden
statue that ended up being quite the little charmer—winking at me and kissing
my hand! Street performers were all over, but he was my favorite—although there
was this creepy looking 'floating' man that was pretty interesting. I would
have put a euro in his tub if I could have worked up the courage to get that
close to him... My favorite sites were the Frankfurt Cathedral and the Eiserner
Steg Bridge. The bridge was filled will padlocks; we were trying to figure out
the history of them and why they covered the bridge, and found out that they
are called "Love Padlocks" and that it is a custom for sweethearts to affix them on the bridge
to symbolize their everlasting love—quite romantic, if I do say so myself.
Frankfurt!
Street "performer" who looked like/was(?) just kind of floating there..
My favorite street performer of the day! Quite the charmer!
Love Padlocks on Eiserner Steg Bridge
Now, after
visiting the grocery store on the army base (Paul is in the Air Force), we are
enjoying our evening in a beautiful house in a little German neighborhood in
Quiedersbach—it’s dreamlike. Paul's wife, Jenae, is an absolute doll. I can't
believe she's letting us stay here—she has 4 kids and gave birth to the forth,
5 days ago! Anyhow, it's actually just past 5am here right now, I woke up,
decided to check the time on my computer, saw that my grandparents were awake
(I guess it's probably normal at this time for them) and Skyped them! But my
pillow is calling, so until next time! Gute Nacht! :D
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