europa 2010: frankfurt, germany...

after a grueling 12 hours and then some of travel time, i arrived in frankfurt around lunch... thankfully my backpack was one of the first off the plane, so i promptly searched the airport terminal for the trains... within minutes i was off, but not exactly sure where i was headed... i was a bit of a walking zombie at this point, seeing as i´d had nothing but disturbed sleep and had now moved an entire nine hours into the future... that´s right -- the future...

as i turned down the street that my hostel is on, i was greeted by sex bars and cabarets galore... i´d forgotten that my home away from home was billed to be in frankfurt´s "red light district"... my digs are wonderful though -- super clean, modern motif, open concept, classy silver hospital bed style bunk beds, all-you-can-eat breakfast for 4 euro and they even loaned me the laptop i´m writing this on...

i quickly ditched my gear and hit the streets... it´s an overcast day, but still a very comfortable 22 degrees... stylish people lined the streets as i trekked to the retail hot spot in the city centre... the sound of women´s heels hitting the cobblestone pedestrian only streets; a faint smell of perfume everywhere i go; a stunning clean atmosphere; modern buildings overpowering an obviously lost history of old ones... i walked and walked and walked... i also came to terms with the fact that the german language is way over my head... everywhere you look there´s a patio, a row of umbrellas, people clinking glasses seemingly in celebration... after being delayed a bit by a wrong turn back to the hostel, i finally gathered my sheets from the front desk and collapsed in front of this computer...

it´s still sinking in that i´m actually in europe right now... and this is only day one of much more to come... tomorrow: munich...

p.s. i discovered that i´m not a fan of wholemeal rye bread... weird. texture.