All in Aalen

This entire trip can be divided into three parts: Ireland, the week on our own, and Aalen. Today we ended our week of country hopping to go to Aalen (pronounced "All In", hence the witty title of this post) Germany where we will meet with people from our university. While Maria and I were in Oslo we got an email from the organizer lady telling everyone to bring nice dress clothes, no jeans. I'm screwed.

It was an early Sunday morning! It felt early. We woke up at 6 and had to be out the door at 7, it was very rushed and I didn't have time to do my walk through like I've done at every place we've left.

Christin walked with us and rode the tram to the station. We said goodbye and I hugged her and thanked her for being so welcoming and awesome. Maria and I rode another tram to another part of the station where we found our gate. We could either take a train that boarded in 5 minutes or one that boarded in an hour. We took the latter.

While we waited I got a big yogurt with strawberries and a breakfast sandwich for like 6 euro. We got on the train and it was crowded. We don't have assigned seats but sat down at an empty table. When the train guy came through checking tickets, we asked if where we were was okay and he said we were in the disabled people section and that it was fine for now. My yogurt was delicious and my sandwich was hard as rock. I was worried my gums would be bleeding by the time I was done eating it.

No one asked us to get out of their seat. I nodded off a few times. Train rides are so boring I hate them.

Eventually we had to get off and get on another train. This new train was packed full. It was hot and smelled like people.

This blows.

Every seat was full. I sat near the doorway where luggage is kept. I was sitting on my suitcase. I would have felt sorry for myself but lots of people didn't have seats like me. They were standing.

The train stopped a few times and more people got on. It was too crowded and a mess. Everyone was in everyone's way. Why god why...

By 3:00 we got off in Aalen Germany. Aalen is located in the Black Forest part of Germany. I find humor in that I'm from the Black Hills and am now in the Black Forest.

Anyways, there are lots of trees in Aalen from what I saw. We found a taxi, asked how much it would cost to get to the hotel (I'm learning!) and it was only 12 euros so we jumped in. I didn't see much of the town.

We're staying at the Ramada and it is nicer than what I'm used to this trip. We checked in and checked out what we'd be living in for the next week and a half.

Not bad.

It's an average American sized hotel. Our bathroom is normal too. We even have a mini fridge! I'm very excited about that. They had little packages of Haribo gummy bears on our pillow and that made me really happy. Then I ate them all.

We went downstairs to the restaurant. We sat outside and the menu was in German. It was difficult to decipher but I recognized ribs and cheeseburger and caesar salad and ravioli. Everything was a bit expensive. I got the ravioli for 14 euros and it said it had egg. I love me some pasta so it sounded alright.

We have wifi here. It's too early to say whether it's good or not. We played on our phones to kill time.

Then our food came out!

And I get a salad!

The portions were bigger than what I expected and the salad part was very good. I love salads. The ravioli was... different. It was basically ravioli with scrambled egg and some spice I didn't recognize. The more I ate it the less I liked it. We hadn't eaten in eight hours and I didn't think we would be eating again tonight. I ate half the ravioli before throwing in the napkin because it was getting gross.

We went back to the room where I had a plan for my dirty clothes. Since our hotel doesn't have a laundry area for guests, I was going to do my laundry in the bathtub like a real vagabond.

I threw all my dirt clothes in the tub and put in warm water and one of Maria's laundry detergent balls. I very soon learned why we separate our whites and darks and did so quickly. It was tiring and, I'll be honest, a little gross. The room was warm and I was sweating and Maria was laughing at me and taking pictures.

But I got it done! Then I had a pile of wet clothes. I scattered items all around the bathroom, our room, my bed, and the balcony to dry. We'll see how they're doing in the morning but they're smelling ultra fresh.

I showered and Maria and I hung out in the room. The rest of our group won't be here until later tonight and the city is a mile away. We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in German dub. Maria skyped her family and told them about stealing that glass. She said, "Last night I stole- I mean Calla stole a beer mug from the pub."

Around 9 we were both hungry. Between the two of us we have one orange. We had no plans of walking to the city (everything would be closed since it's Sunday) but we walked around outside the hotel. They have a spa here, crazy. It looked really nice from the outside and has a hot springs, a sauna, and massage area. It's also very pretty scenery. Lots of trees and hills. It's not Black Hills pretty though.

Aalen sunset

We waited around for the rest of our group to show up. After an hour of waiting Maria remembered they wouldn't be here until midnight. I don't care about them that much so we went back to our room and went to bed at midnight.

I wasn't too dizzy today despite being on the train for several hours. It's a bummer to be leaving Berlin so soon. There was just so much to do and see and read and look at and eat that we ran out of time. I don't know if I'll come back to Berlin. I love the history but I do not love the city, which isn't to imply I hated it. I really liked Berlin! But it wasn't love.