Nurenburg July 30 - August 1

So we got a 3 day pass for this weekend due to the fact that the unit here at Graf is on block leave. So me and four of my friends went down to Nurenburg. The trains here are actually pretty cool - I was thinking about it and so far  I recall this weekend was my first train ride (that I remember, I was probably on a train when I wasone or two when my family was over here). Anyhow, we got to the Hauptbahnhoff and there were thousands of people evewhere, very disorienting. First thing I did was run to the bookstore to pick up a map, and ended up getting one that was Espanol - so I had a Spanish map of a German city, very conducive to understanding the current situation. Anyhow, we made it up to the Hauptplatz (city center) where there were a million people, at least, and about 200 bier tents and food stands (I'm exaggerating, of course, but there were lots). We made it to the tourist place where the guy must have spoken 15 languages. He helped meut, pointed us to some hostels, and we left. The hostels were all full. So we went to the bigger hotels, where they wanted 185 euro (around $250) a night. For a minute we thought we were going to be sleeping on the street, till we found a little motel/bed and breakfast owned by a little Croatian lady that spoke no English. At all. So thankfully there was a German in her restaurant that spoke a little English, and between my terrible Deutsch, his English, and her Deutsch we finally got a room for 25 euro a night, which was a steal considering. So then we went out and ran around the Alstadt, looking at all the cool old churches and buildings, going up the castle on the north end of the Alstadt overlooking the entire city of Nurenberg, and enjoying the gut Deutsch bier.

We slept in the next morning, and got up and wandered around the city some more, enjoying the food and sights. I got sick of looking like an American, and had to go buy some clothes that would allow me to blend in a little better (I'm going to come home looking like Eurotrash). We tried getting out to the Doku-Zentrum, one of the old Nazi rallying grounds, but the bus system was messed up (well, we were a little lost too) so we didn't make it out there. We ended up sticking around the Hauptplatz, enjoying the music, food, and bier. We ended up in a small bar under neath the castle where the waitress was a South African whose mother was German - she spoke Deutsch and pretty good English, which was a life saver. We ended up making a few German friends, including the owner Wolfgang, and made it home just after midnight. Took the train home in the morning, and now I have the afternoon off before we start some hardcore training this next week.

Tschuss!