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Published: September 21st 2005
Hostel on the hill
Here's my hotel way up at the top!Hello all,
As promised, here is my blog. I may have to be quick as there is a host of people waiting for me. I arrived in Frankfurt on Monday, September 12 at 7am. Nice flight, good seat. Someway, somehow I was able to communicate my way to a train ticket and even make my way through transfers without a lick of German. And all this with the equivalent of my own body weight strapped to my back. Good times. I arrived in Bacharach, very cute little town packed with German tourists, and made my way immediately to my youth hostel, which was in a castle on a hill. Yes, you read correctly, on a hill. Please refer above to the amount of weight I was lugging around. Why oh why did I not pick a comfy hostel down at the city level. So after 40 minutes of hiking STRAIGHT UP, i arrived all sweaty and needing a shower and a nap, for them to tell me I cant check in until 1. So I waited around 'reading' German magazines. At 1,00 exactly, I asked if I could check in. And would you believe the Stacken Blackens gave me a dirty look for trying to go in so early. Anyways my nap and shower were great and I headed back down to town. I wondered around and after not hearing my own voice for so I long, I decided to start saying the occasional Guten tag (good day) to passerbys. Except sometimes I would forget and say danke (thank you) or bitte (which i think means please). Needless to say I got some random looks. I walked into a restaurant and asked in German if the host spoke English. She said NINE and walked off. I wonder what that meant. Luckily some German tourists, accompanied by Japanese friends invited me to thier table and we spoke English-Japanese for a few hours, while we enjoyed the most Glorious thing on the planet: Federweiser (called amorously, the Virgin Killer)...Delicious wine that is only available in this region in September. How great. Then after I was feeling better about the day I stumbled back up to my castle, i mean hostel, for dinner. I went to the cafeteria grabbed a seat and started eating. The cafeteria was soon taken by storm by 100 (maybe more) 10 year olds. Some even sat at my table with me. I have never been so overwhelmed!! ANd the noise!!! Pretty soon it was empty again and I was alone again. WOW! Ok so after that beautiful hikes, yadda yadda...tried to reserve a non castle room for the next night via phone. I asked in German if she spoke English and the woman yelled NINE and hung up. I wonder if I am saying what I think I am saying when I am asking if they speak English. Hmm. OK well thats all for now.
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Katei
non-member comment
NEIN = no
Can you speak English -> Kannst du Englisch Sprechen? (roughly pronounced cannst doo english spreck-ken) When they're saying nine, it's actually spelt nein which means No. :) A useful phrase - Excuse me, where is the youth hostel? -> Es tut mir leid, wo ist die Jungendherbege? (roughly pronounced "es toot me-er light, voe ist dee yoong-en-her-burger") An online German/English dictionary for you -> http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/ Might be a good idea to grab a German phrase book to help you through the rest of your trip :)