115

June 7th

I arrived in Frankfurt Germany on June 7th around 2pm very tired and foggy headed. It took me a bit just to figure out how to purchase a ticket for the train that would take me to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof which is the central station in Frankfurt and where I would eventually catch my bus to Brussels. I finally managed to get my ticket and figured out which train I needed and where to catch it. I was riding on the train and probably about half way to the central station the train stopped and over the loud speaker someone said something in German then every one on the train looked annoyed. I had no idea what was going on. Then all of a sudden all these uniformed people boarded the train and was checking to see if people had a ticket. Luckily I managed to purchase the right ticket because they left me alone. There was a guy near me though that did not have a ticket and a very loud discussion started taking place. The ticket checkers kept demanding that he pay the fine, at least this is what I thought they were talking about. We were sitting there for about 5 min going through all of this. All of a sudden someone else came over the loud speaker and said something else in German then all of a sudden every one one the train got up and got off. I had no idea what was going on so I just followed them. There was probably a few hundred people that got off the train. I followed them down these stairs then through a long tunnel then back up some stairs to another platform a little ways away from the train we got off. Just as the whole group seemed to settle on this new platform the train we had been on started to move again and the whole crowd seemed to give off a collective German swear. A few minutes longer this much small train arrived at the platform we were waiting at and then everyone squeezed onto this new train. I still had no idea what was going on, and if this new train was actually the train i wanted. I was just too tired to care. I eventually did arrive at the central station. I didn't have any plans for what I would do with my 10 hours I needed to kill in Frankfurt before I caught my bus to Brussels. I found a place to store my luggage and decided to just go wander around and see if I could find something to do. I really did not have any idea what I would find in Frankfurt so I just walked straight out of the station and headed down the first street I saw.

Little did I know that directly across the street from the station is the red light district. The strangest thing was I didn't really see any girls sitting in windows but I did have girls run up to me as I walked by someplace and hook onto my arm and then start to talk to me. This was awkward this was a fairly busy city street with lots of people and you are just walking along in a crowd and all of a sudden some girl sides up beside you asking if you want, well you know.

I kept walking straight down the street from the central station and eventually I happened upon the Occupy Frankfurt camp.

I was taking pictures with my old Canon AE-1 and one of the guys in the camp saw me and came up and we started talking about his old Canon that he still uses. I love taking pictures with my old camera. I love the feeling of having to set up your shot. Taking the time to get it right. I like having my old canon when I walk around too, I feel much less like a tourist when I'm shooting with that then with my new camera. Most of the pictures I took while in Frankfurt that day were with my old Canon.

After the Occupy camp I just kept wandering around and taking pictures of a few interesting things.

I saw this one building that wasn't

I then came across some ping pong tables in a park. Which to most would be pretty normal or just nothing big, but I'd love it if there were tables like this in Seattle parks. It's hard to find a table in Seattle. I actually saw these kinds of tables in parks in most cities around Europe.

I then started looking at all the ugly buildings in Frankfurt.

They are very oddly placed with all the older buildings

I eventually got tired of walking around and decided to head back to the central station, because I really could not find much else to do.

I decided to find a place to sit for a bit and rest and maybe reflect on the city. Finding a place to sit in the central station is actually not easy to do, there are only a few benches in the whole station. I found a quiet place to sit far off to one side of the station and wrote in my journal for a bit.

Frankfurt is the most beautiful / ugly city I've seen. So many modern buildings mixed in with the old. You have these plopped down space ships sitting right next to and hovering above these beautiful old apartment buildings. The red light district here is amazingly strange. It's like what would happen if you let a bunch of horny 15 year olds design a street. There are guys and girls sitting outside like doormen. The guys don't really bother you but the girls will run up to you, hug your arm, and ask if you want a blow job.

I sat at the station for a bit and took some pictures in and around the building, which was pretty impressive. It is a huge train station with a glass roof.

I got pretty board with the train station so I decided to wander in another direction. I eventually made my way to the river where I sat for awhile and wrote more in my journal. 

I'm sitting down by the river right now. It almost looks like the ship canal. There is a bridge to my right and if I close my eyes I can almost imagine that I am home. Except all the birds have a German accent.

I think by now it was close to 9pm and was starting to get a little dark. I didn't really know what to do with my self. I'd explored a good chunk of Frankfurt but I really could not find something to do. I spent most of my days with periods of wandering then sitting and resting. I was still pretty tired from the lack of sleep and the flight from the night before. It felt good though to walk so much seeing how in a few hours I would be getting on a bus where I would sit for the next 6 hours or so. I eventually just went back to the central station and waited. I then wrote.

I live at this train station now. It has become my home in Frankfurt. Throughout the day I've gone and ventured out into the city and every time I come back to the station. I've started sitting on the benches where the trains arrive and depart, mostly because they are the only benches in the whole station. Which I think is kind of strange. There are also no restrooms. You have to go to a "WC" and pay a fee to use one. Even at McDonalds. No wonder the streets smell like piss around here. I've managed to waste my day away. I don't think Frankfurt is a place I'd want to be my destination, but it's good for a few hours. 

Around 11pm I went and waited where the bus would pick me up, or where I though the bus would pick me up. There was no real clear direction as to where it would actually stop. I was just sitting outside the station looking towards the city. It had rained a little bit earlier in the day and it seemed like it would start again but mostly there were just big clouds moving over the city. A lot of the taller buildings would disappear and reappear as the clouds would pass. It made for a really cool affect as I was sitting there.

Frankfurt seems to have a pretty good night life and the big thing that people seem to do is to go to clubs. There were hoards of girls wandering around looking like they were going dancing. There was also a school bus driving around in circles loaded with a bunch of guys that were singing. These are just the things I remember. Eventually more people started to arrive at the bus stop and they too seemed not not really know exactly where they were suppose to be. A bus did eventually did arrive and it turned out that Frankfurt was just a stop along the way for this bus and actually started someplace else and would be going to London. I managed to find a seat to myself and settled in hoping to get some sleep. I think I managed to get a few hours of sleep but I think I spent a lot of time looking out the window at the country side that was illuminated by the moon. I would be arriving in Brussels on June 8th going on 3 nights of no solid amount of sleep.