Temporarily Stranded with Large Bathtubs

 

January 29-February 9
Strasbourg & Baden Baden, Germany

Super late update, but it wasn’t that interesting of a week. It was still better than the average week in College Station though. The week we got back from Rome, I only had one class. So, I only had 3 hours of commitment that week. I’ve been averaging about 7 miles each day. I don’t use any of the public transit, choosing to walk everywhere because I have loads of time. Some of those miles are just from my walks around the city.

Baden Baden

We went to a spa town called Baden Baden in Germany on Saturday. There were a few inside and outside pools with different temperatures. I preferred the hot tub temperature ones. The town itself was alright. It was a resort town, so it had expensive stores but was not architecturally glamorous. There was a super fancy casino that we checked out, but we couldn’t go into the gambling room because we did not fit the suit and tie dress code. We ate at an Italian restaurant because there weren’t too many German ones. The chef had pictures of all the celebrities who visited, including Al Pacino and Victoria Beckham. We asked and the chef did not want to take a picture with us RIP.

We never get return train tickets when we go places because we don’t know what time we’ll leave. We went with two other guys (one A&M guy and his friend from Georgia he’s made). They told us to get return tickets, but we didn’t listen. When we decided to look for a train ticket back that evening, there

Our Honest Reactions

were options online, but the app wasn’t allowing us to book them. We went to the train station to see if we could get a ticket there. We looked at tickets to Strasbourg and the only option was a train leaving the next morning, plus it would be 825€ for the five of us. Panic ensued. Not wanting to succumb to the fact that we were doomed, I started messing with the ticket machine. We then figured out that the tickets were for a different Strasbourg city in Germany, and Strasbourg France wasn’t even a destination offered. So, I decided to look for tickets to the neighboring German town of Strasbourg. Thankfully there was that option, so we got those tickets. The plan was to ride it to that town and then take the subway into Strasbourg. When we transferred to our second train though, the final destination was Strasbourg, meaning the ticket booth was just stupid. Did we learn our lesson, and now get our return tickets beforehand? No. Because everything turned out fine, and the tickets were actually cheaper than they were online. So it went better than planned (minus the 30 minutes of panic deciding which bridge we were going to sleep under that night).

We’ve become huge soccer (football) fans since Strasbourg has a national team. We went to watch the game at a bar Friday night and then went to the game the following Wednesday night. After their loss Friday, the 3-1 win Wednesday was great. We only got 3 seats together, so I sat in the row below next to some enthusiastic fans. I tried my best to fit in by screaming, cheering, and gesturing along with them.

I finally had my first full week of class. I’m in five total classes but one of them is just three days back to back so I do four on a normal week. After the previous week, the four were welcoming. I needed something to do other than walk the city. 

Off to Switzerland!!!

Au revoir!


PS: We ate dinner with a Vietnamese guy, and he told us that Charlie Puth was the biggest celebrity crush and pop star over there and it made my week. I could have had 100 guesses and never picked that man.