Frankfurt Area with Richie

So where do you think this picture was taken ? Russia right? No, guess again. Actually while meeting Max's friends at his birthday (See Baden-Baden), I made some new friends. So during my orientation program in Frankfurt, I spent a lot of time with Richard, who goes to University in Darmstadt (only outside of Frankfurt). It was really nice to have someone show me Frankfurt and the region of Hessen. Pictured is a church that was built some 100 years ago in Darmstadt, because Tsar Nicholas married a german princess (I'm not quite sure about this history? Dad can you confirm this?) who was from Darmstadt, and so this church was built. But the soil on which it is built is actually from Russia.

So to begin my story... Friday May 21st, I get ready to leave Tübingen and Jutta, and go to Frankfurt. At first I was going to take the train the whole way to Berlin, but after I calculated the costs of travelling the Deutsche Bahn almost 200 euro, which is very expensive despite my discount card of 50% with them, I decided to rent a car instead, which was the best money I have ever spent. It made taking my three large suitcases and all the little bags that i had, so much easier, and it was cool to be able to listen to German music in the car, and travel at my own leisure. Also I saved time, and I didn't have to make any connections with all my bags.

I got into Frankfurt about 20 minutes before my orientation was supposed to begin. I checked into the Tryp Hotel Frankfurt, the hotel that my program had selected for us, and we started our formalities with how to get acquainted with Germany, and what we need to do once we begin our internship... all bureaucratic procedures to say the least. However, in our conference room, we were each given a folder, a canvas bag, and on top of each table stood a bucket thing like dish with bottles of beverages for us to drink (like at the G8 summits or something important like that), so that was really cool, and I felt important.

After 6:00pm, our meeting was finished and I went to visit Richie at his home in Darmstadt, but I thought he lived alone or with some friends near campus. Actually, I went to his parents home (he didn't tell me) and once i arrived, I was asked to have dinner with them. I totally didn't expect this, but none the less, it was great to eat some real german food, and then later on we went into Frankfurt to walk through the city. We went to one of the skyscrappers which had an observation deck on the roof, and then had a cocktail and the bar below it. (look further down).
The following day, after my orientation part II, I checked out of the hotel and said goodbye to my fellow american particapatns, and I went back to Darmstadt where I would spend the night with Richie and his family. But since I was finished so early with the program, around noon, Richie and his dad took me to Ruedesheim, a place famous or its Riesling wines. There, the Rhein River flows between two valleys, and it separates the state Hessen from Rheinland-Pfalz. Unfortunately, that day in Ruedesheim, (a very touristy city), there was some sort of Harley-Davidson convention, and all the roads were full of bikers. In the picture above, I'm with Richie walking down into Ruedesheim from the top, where there is this huge statue of the a woman. I really didn't understand what it was about though. You might be able to see it in the background.
This of course is Frankfurt, the only city in Europe to have tall skyscrapers. Frankfurt isn't so big though, so it's amazing how much it has for a city only the size of Nashville (600,000 inhabitants). But it is the financial hub of mainland europe, so it plays a huge role. Here I went with Richie into Frankfurt again on Saturday night, and we went to this club called the Cocoon club, which was really cool, but not as crowded as one would expect for a Saturday night. Needless to say, we got home late, and of course, we stopped at McDonalds, because Germans eat there more than I do... so no more jokes at Americans only eating McDonalds you Germans, because you eat there more than I. :).
So can you guess what type of car I have? I was really lucky to get this car, as I, like always, ordered the lowest class car (a VW Golf or Mercedes A-class), but when I went to pick up my car, I was given a Skoda Roomster, which is okay, but I told them that I wanted a German car since I was in Germany (this always works), and they gladly changed it to this.... an Mercedes-Benz E 200 CDI in black. CDI stands for diesel, so it was great, because the fuel economy on this car was probably 42miles/gallon. Boy did I feel funny driving this car though. It was awesome, yet strange at the same time. Everyone gives you looks, and then when they see me a 22 year old, they just look bewildered. Especially in Berlin, where there aren't so many fancy cars, but you'll have to wait until this weekend to read that blog entry.
Here is a picture of the vineyards on the side of the hill coming down to Ruedesheim. Below you can see the Rhein, and the village.

Yes, and sorry to say, these were my last days in the West, or what is formally referred to Germany. The next morning, I had breakfast with Richie, and then got in the car and set of for Berlin. Approximately 540km, so it took me around 5 hours to make the trip.