Thanks ge! =D
Getting to Frankfurt: We left late Thursday night on the 7th Nov...Moi was late getting to the airport, reached an hour before my 2am scheduled flight. =( long story...but i got there...anyway, even though our seats were confimred beforehand, we got seperated coz the lady beside me in the plane asked for an aisle seat.She was the animated sort of person, lotsa hand gestures, saliva flying...you'll get what i mean when I tell you she's a speech and drama teacher...once you let them talk, there's no stopping man...not that her topics weren't interesting but it's an 8 hour flight, and she went on for 6...after the first hour, i knew what i was in for and quickly asked where she was heading after the transit -- London...I silently thanked God coz if i was stuck with her for another flight i'd lock myself in the toilet voluntarily!
I was literally cornered as I took the window side of the seat. And she went on and on about literature and books..how she hates mid summer nights dream...the signlish language, and probably intorduced me to a whole list of authors that i never heard of even though I said i'm a science student. (constantly...coz she'll ask, have you read any of ___ books?..No?...OH YOU MUST READ ____)....and no matter what i did to HINT i wanted to stop...ie. put on earphones, take magazine and flip...to was to no avail!
Half they time i tried to peer over to ge's seat hoping she'd be awake and i'd be saved! (apparently she was...but she was so still, i thot she was asleep...=S)
She knew Pastor and his wife (same youth grp last time apparently) and had some views, OK lah, nothing new i haven't heard eh?...but i'm always happy to talk about pastor. Anyway, she still believes in God and attends church...
She also talked about her past abusive family etc..that she said she doens't tell many and was sorry that I had to hear it...she started talking about forgiveness, and tearing etc. =S so I did what I could encouraged her with God's word and promises and reminded her that her life is never a waste and she has to live it to the fullest -- it is never too late to realise it and start. And to just let it be the past...(FYI this is 4.30am SG time...thank god i'm a night owl)
Ironicially, at one point she 'fessed that she's the kind of person that is actually very quiet with strangers, but dunno why with me so open and chatty. *faints*....i said it was ok, that i'm a quiet person toos, but truth be told i seem to encounter this quite often --BIG HINT...still didn't catch it...haiz...for a drama and english expert, she doens't get it eh?..hahaha...
We took Qatar which I would recommend for affordable economy flights with the comfort you need. =) the In flight entertainment was gootch! We had to do a stopover in Doha after the first 8 hour flight leg. And because it was a long flight they gave otu these real cute stickers you're suppose to put on your chair to let the flight attendant know what to do if they found you asleep during meal service...
ge and me had a good laugh over what the flight attendant would do if we pasted the two stickers above! I just think the smiley face is so cute!
So at Doha, in the 3 hour transit (that later became 4), we spotted and A&W! Man...super crave for a root beer float (above)...now in singapore if you EVER complain about high prices, this root bear float cost me S$8 ok!Boarding the next 8 hour flight, our passport got checked like 4 times prior and ge was asked to cough out her identification card which is like !?!?! and the lady at the gate insisted that we have to carry an IC in singapore right?!....duh...doesn't the passport superseed the IC?!
ge gave her a !?!? look that could've hauled us into security!..HAHAHA...kidding lah...but still it was a =S request...
Took us some time to figure it out, and alot of hauling of luggage up and down the train...but we reached our hotel that is super conveniently located beside the main train station - Haupbahnhof...it was about late afternoon on a Friday.
Once we checked in... i had to do some work to make sure everything was ok for early Monday morning when the rest of the SG grp arrived. (coz the germans dont' work on weekends)we swiped the gummi bears given free in the hotel before deciding to explore the area. Winter time over there so it was dark by ard 5pm. For a start, we went to go see where the infamous red-light district (that was supposedly really near the train station was..and we heard stories about it...)
It was near lah...but on a parallel street behind..(pic below you can't see it, but its near here..hahaha)
Dinner was shared coz the qty was so much, we had the Oriental Teller: Kebab meat with rice and veges (yums!)...ate at the Haupbahnhof (where you can find almost everything) ...cost us 7 euros (SGD 14)
Next day we took really worthwhile halfday tour on foot with a guide that was an ex american airforce soldier and had travelled the world extensively for 20 years and had settled in frankfurt for the last 6 (to settle down). He spoke many languages as he had stints in japan and SE Asia.he thought we were students! hahaha...anyway, it cost us 10 euros each.
As commented in an older post, there's really nothing in Frankfurt and the tour covered it in that half day! So the nicest place to go really was about 3 tramstops from our hotel, known as Romerberg or Romer (Ru-mer)So above you can see the main square of the restored 'old town' as all this was flattened due to the 2nd world war...
This metal cobblestone is a project by someone who goes around europe placing them as markings where jews formerly lived and were taken from thier homes in the war. (it's still going on) Some people welcome them, some don't.
In the middle of the square is a memorial marker where books were burned once...
The only original half-timber house that survived the war...the rest in the square are restored.
Went past a Jewish museum that had a very long wall in memory of the german jews that were taken from their homes...their ashes are not here of course, but it is in memory of them. There are records of which camp they were sent to ...thier birth date...but when they died there is no record...
ge spotted this on above that had actually an entire family listed...
Above is St Bartholomew's church. Only the tower was left standing after the war...so everything else inside was restored..we were reminded in the tour, that bartholomew was skinned alive for his faith...*hair stand*....
This metal cobblestone is a project by someone who goes around europe placing them as markings where jews formerly lived and were taken from thier homes in the war. (it's still going on) Some people welcome them, some don't.
In the middle of the square is a memorial marker where books were burned once...
The only original half-timber house that survived the war...the rest in the square are restored.
Went past a Jewish museum that had a very long wall in memory of the german jews that were taken from their homes...their ashes are not here of course, but it is in memory of them. There are records of which camp they were sent to ...thier birth date...but when they died there is no record...
ge spotted this on above that had actually an entire family listed...
Above is St Bartholomew's church. Only the tower was left standing after the war...so everything else inside was restored..we were reminded in the tour, that bartholomew was skinned alive for his faith...*hair stand*....
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