Baumholder Day 1-2ish (Finale) - Revisiting Memories

Well, I get back to "downtown", and look to see if anything was open. Most of the shops had already closed. It was 1:30pm at that point, and all the shops had closed by 1pm. Whatever happened to weekend shopping? ;-) Well, I was looking around anyway, and I come across an antique shop who's door was still open. So I went in. Apparently they were still "open" because they were moving antiques out to one of their trucks, but the gentleman said that I could look around some if I wanted. So I did and I found something for my brother's wife. She might actually have one already, but I figured wasn't that bad of a price, although shipping was kind of high... but then again, I'm not sure what shipping is yet. He said that 50 euros should cover the cost to send it to the states. I need to check if he overpriced me or not, but the guy looked like he wasn't trying to swindle me out of money. He just wasn't sure about the price himself. I hope that it wasn't more than that, or I would be short-changing the guy. :-/

Well, hope you like the gift. :-) Still have to mail out the others... I'll get to that soon. :-) So after the purchase, I grab something to eat from one of the few bars that were still open, and I waited for the bus to come on back. I came to see what I wanted to see, so I figured that I would just head back to Idar-Oberstein to do a little sight-seeing there before my train left for Frankfurt.

Right before I boarded the bus, however, I dropped my camera. It was scary for a little bit, because I dropped the camera onto concrete, and the power wasn't turning on. I was getting upset at this point, because all of the photos I feared couldn't be retrieved. So I figured, lets try a fresh set of batteries. And it worked. It started back up. The zoom button had been tweaked, but I could live with it. But the good thing was, was that the camera worked. Which allowed me to take #92 and 93, right before getting on the train to Frankfurt. :-) But before I boarded the train to Frankfurt I took a look around Idar-Oberstein. Small town obviously, but its community center was of decent size. Much like a typical mall or so. The path that I took to get there could be seen in picture #5. But I guess I was pretty tired by that point, because I didn't really take any more pictures of Idar-Oberstein.

Well, once again, I boarded the train to Frankfurt. We were actually going to Mainz first to switch trains. Well, as well going along, I was beginning to nod off. So I asked the guy across from me to give me a shake if we came up to Mainz before I woke (didn't want to sleep through the station). We were a couple of hours out, but still, I wanted to make sure. Well, at one point in time I woke to find this one young lady (with a couple of her friends (around 8)) with a bridal headdress on selling cookies to help pay for the wedding from what she was telling everyone. Well, I had my choice of a penis cookie or a nipples cookie. Well, if you don't know my answer by now, then you can look at #94. :-)

Well, after the cookie snack, I nod off again. I come awake when I saw the guy across from me stand up and get off the train at a depot that WASN'T Mainz. This worried me extremely, because from what I could understand from the man, he was going to Mainz as well. Or at least I thought. Did we pass Mainz? Did he not shake me when we got there. I double checked my watch and saw that the time that we were supposed to get to Mainz was past. This REALLY got me worried. So I looked for the bride and her friends. I thought I heard that they were going to Mainz as well, and there were a couple (including the bride) that spoke english. Thankfully the train wasn't that long, so I didn't have to search for long to find them. Well, I asked them if we had passed Mainz and they told me that Mainz was another two stops ahead. It was a great sigh of relief that I didn't have another "Berlin" to worry about. I guess the train got delayed somewhere. Couldn't say.

Well, we get to Mainz, the ladies continue selling their cookies at the train station, and I had about another hour or so before the train to Frankfurt came in. So I check out the station. It had a full bookstore which had some English books as well (which I needed additional reading so I bought one), and wanted something cheap and quick food wise. Well, not exact authentic German food, but McDonalds was quick and cheap. I heard from the professors that McDonalds was no longer able to combine pork with beef in the hamburgers anymore (Mom got sick when she had the burgers from McDonalds when we were out here last time), but I didn't want to risk it. Got myself some chicken nuggets. :-)

Well, I get on-board the train to Frankfurt, and after about an hour, I get there. (#95) Frankfurt train station was actually fairly huge. I think there was about 14 or so tracks coming into the station, and the station overhang covered all of them. It was quite impressive. Well, the hostel that I was going to was right down the way from the station. So I got outside the station, snapped off #96, and headed towards the hostel. Sorry folks #97 was actually supposed to go towards Day 3. Oops. Well, I get to the hostel, ring the buzzer to be let in. Walk up to the third story, where the "front" desk was, and check in.

It was buzzing with people. Well, I get down to my room (which was on the 2nd floor), saw a gentleman from France getting ready to head out to party. I probably might have joined him, if it wasn't for the fact that I had stayed up for about 36 hours straight, with a couple of cat naps here and there. So I arrange my stuff as much as I could, read a little bit more, and basically fell asleep with the book in hand.

That was my day 1-2ish. :-)