Two Nights in Frankfurt

Well, another day in Frankfurt. I slept in a little longer then I wanted to and got going at around Nine, which proved to be Ok as most stores don't open until 10 anyway. I stepped out into the street, and decided to just start walking. So walk I did.

Frankfurt am Main got the crap bombed out of it during World War II so when they started rebuilding it, it became a more modern city then most European cities. Its the banking capital of Germany, the Euro is even minted here. As a joke, some people call it 'Main'hattan, as there is a definite skyline filled with sky scrapers here. It is actually a very nice city, but it doesn't attract the tourists like some other German cities do. So it really doesn't cater to tourists as much as, say, Munich does.

But that's ok, I went ahead, walked around, and just enjoyed myself as I familiarized myself with the city.

Oh, and I found an Art Store! I was in bliss for the five minutes I strolled around. I found that I couldn't hang around for to long or else I would spend a lot of money and then be at a loss of how to ship the stuff home. But it felt nice to be in my element once again! If only for a little while. *sigh*

Meanwhile, I walked around, bought a pretzel and ate it walking (typical American thing to do), familiarized myself with city, saw the Zeilgallarie (which is a really interesting Mall) and walked around that, walked a lot more, and ended up at the Frankfurt Zoo.

Hmm. Animals.

I bought a ticket and checked out Europe's oldest zoo for a couple hours. Some of the animals, being kept in a zoo all of the time and annoyed by the shrieking kids visiting on a field trip from school, were hiding out in their respective cages and I couldn't see them. But I was still over all impressed. I especially liked the Nocturnal Exhibit where night is simulated. I found the Bushbabies to be particularly cute. One of them hopped right at me and just stared at me for a few minutes. I stared back. Its eyes were HUGE!!! They were also really playful, jumping around as if they were showing off.

I want one.

Anyway, I took gobs of pictures at the zoo of all the furry little critters, and some that weren't so furry, when I found that I had traversed the zoo and was ready to see something else. I was at one part of the city and needed to get to another part so I grabbed a cab and asked about the Mathematic Museum I had read about (and I was certain it was located in Frankfurt). The cab driver didn't know what I was talking about and it isn't located on any maps so maybe I was indeed mistaken. *sigh*

I read about the Natural History museum and inquired upon that. The cab driver agreed to take me there and as he did so he showed me some other parts of the city and made recommendations on where to go, as most of the museums are in one section of the city, with an exception of the Natural History Museum. I decided to save those for when mom gets here, and it turns out that this was a good choice. Those are all closed on Mondays.

Well, I bought a ticket to the Natural History museum (known as the Senckenberg)and for some reason took an immediate left. Which brought me to a whole lot of animals, many of which I had already seen. Except those were alive. These were stuffed. Kind of morbid if you think about it.

Hmm, maybe the Natural History museum wasn't such a good idea?

Well, actually after wandering around in it a bit more, I did enjoy myself as they had an excellent dinosaur bone exhibit and I have had an infatuation with dinosaurs since I was a child. Overall, the museum was very impressive, I really liked their stuff bird display and I was looking for an example of the Peregine Falcon as it is one of my favorite birds but alas, they didn't have one. Had just about everything else though.

I had been recommended to check out the Palmengarten as well, but when I got to it, it appeared closed. This might be because I was trying to access it through an area that actually wasn't an entrance but I didn't know this and decided that my feet were starting to get sore and walked back to my Hostel.

Where I discovered I have a roommate from Japan! Even though I'm in a dorm with five beds, I was the only person in there last night. She had just finished traveling most of the big cities of Europe for the last month and she's going home tomorrow. I'm just starting off and discovered that she had gone to a few places I was going to and I asked her about them. I haven't really mentioned to anybody my military experience, that is something I have been recommended to keep quiet about.

Anyway, I took it easy for the evening, figuring out how the European Rail system works and having some Thai for dinner. (yeah, I'm in Germany and everything, but you know how often I get to have Thai? I have to go to KFOR Main!) I think I got the finer details of the trip planned out with room for flexibility.

Except for I've been told to get advertisements and things about Volkswagens in German. I did mention all of the men in my life are Volkswagen Nuts right? It would have been nice to know this detail when I went to the IAA fair on Sunday, because they had a quarter of one of the halls dedicated to Volkswagens. I could have gotten gobs of stuff!

Oh well.

I called home and found that my mom had indeed taken off in her plane just fine. I will confirm that she made it tomorrow. Since she will be getting here when everyone else is asleep, maybe we should just give a quick blog update and leave it at that?

I'll get pictures up soon.