Saturday, March 20, 2010

Our hotel is about five minutes from the center of "If I studied abroad here for 4 and a half months, I'd be bored out of my mind!"

So, Alexandra and I are in Strasbourg. It's an adorable little city near Germany with a little bit of both French and German culture. From what I've heard, the city changed from France's possession to Germany's back and forth. After Alexandra's spring break adventure in Hamburg, she's decided she prefers the German part of the city. I've decided that if I lived in Germany, I'd starve to death. Aside from the pastries, there isn't one thing I would remotely consider eating. Not enough chicken, you know?

After waking up at 4 for some reason, I ended up taking the metro and Alexandra and I met at Les Halles and took ligne 4 to Gare de l'Est. We got there really early, then got on the train into our first class seats. Thankfully, we didn't pay too much for them, because if we had paid a lot extra, it wouldn't have been worth it. The seats were bigger, but it's not like second class seats are too small. They gave us a free glass of juice with our seats. Ultimately, the only real perk was that the seats had a little protrusion at our heads against which we could lean to sleep. So, we did a little. The train ride was short, though. They don't call it Grande Vitesse for nothing!

When we got there, we walked to our hotel. Obviously, it was too early to check in, so we left our bags there and explored the patisseries. They have nutella croissants here! They're awesome! Then, we bought tourist books with discounts, took a trolley ride around the city (good thing there are no cars on the road here because the driver drove really slowly), chatted with the trolley driver (who loves America, but has never been there), walked around a lot looking for a place to eat, saw the wine cellar underneath a hospital (obviously, French people think wine is the best medicine), checked into the hotel, went inside the cathedral here (Notre-Dame...copy cats?), did a little shopping (Alexandra, not me), then went to dinner at a fancy restaurant. I had snails and salmon and ratatouille. They also gave us like liquefied mushrooms. I didn't really like those. The funniest part was when they completely forgot about us after we asked for the check. Then, thirty minutes later, we finally paid and left.

And that was my day. Tomorrow, we're going to be serious about sight seeing, but it doesn't seem like there's a ton to do here. It's a cute little town (I wouldn't really call it a city), but I miss Paris. I would have been bored sick here for four and a half months.

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