This one has a happy ending

Let me just forewarn you here this starts out as another sob story but as I write this I am feeling strong, confident and happy. This means the ending will be the sudden realization of new information and the main character will be better off and have learned something. I think there is a literary term for this but I will leave it up to you to put in the 50 cent word for that on your own.

I am able to start a conversation with a stranger. This is due to years of practice and forced encounters with people while using my friend Andrew as a role model. That guy can talk to anyone anywhere and hold their attention for as long as he wants, what a gift he has and what an inspiration to me he has been, thanks buddy. I am not that good but I am functional. I realized one reason I have been struggling here is I cannot join a conversation if I do not understand a single word they are saying. Instead I can sit in a crowded room and be completely alone, worse yet I am lonely as well.

I can survive alone and get done what needs to be done but I am the kind of person that really has fun socializing with other people. I do not need others around me, I want them around me. This makes it even worse when I am alone because I so desperately want to talk with someone to share what I am experiencing and to see if their experience is similar or different than my own. It feels so wonderful to me when people do little things like invite me to walk with them to the cafeteria to eat. We are both going there anyway but with that invite I know that they want my company as I want theirs. My friend JJ did this with me this summer at Gallaudet and well it feels good. I have not really experienced much of this on this trip. I will sit in the dining hall alone at a table with people all around me and honestly it is depressing.

Want to talk about depressing, how about going out to a bar alone having a drink and talking to no one except the bartender you ordered from. After finishing your drink you walk around the neighborhood only to return to your hostel without uttering a single word. Boy did I feel like a loser.

Before any of this, I had taken a self-guided tour of the city. Using my skills at finding the happening places I tracked down the local gathering place. While here I found a Woolworths (like the Wal-Mart of Frankfurt) store and took some pictures of the cheap junk they were selling by the bundle.

(A note for you faithful readers. I am on the train to Paris right now and I have been typing for the last 4 hours)

I also saw some break dancers in the street. That was fun to watch but I was still alone.
I am making an effort to force myself to talk to people even if I do not understand them. For example in Luxemburg remember my roommates I spoke with? Remember the dude from Japan whose name started with an H (sorry I forgot his full name) well I ran into him again. We rode the bus together from the Frankfurt train station (yes we traveled from Luxemburg to Frankfurt on the same train but did not see each other) to the youth hostel. His English was much better than my Japanese and we got along well. I invited him to join me if I went out that night, he agreed but I never saw him again.

See, it is starting to look up for me here. I am also much more comfortable getting around now. I can read the train schedules, take city buses, navigate the underground, and generally take care of myself alone in a new city and new country. That is a point of pride for me FYI.

I checked into the hostel and went to my room. There were ladies' bags and what looked like guys' stuff. I thought to myself I did not want to seem like a prude, maybe in Germany Co-ed rooms are acceptable with younger groups. I headed out to explore as explained above. When I returned, the women I guess had done laundry and their underwear and bras were strewn around the room. I thought maybe I should at least ask the front desk about this. They were pretty embarrassed and assured me I had been placed incorrectly and they in fact did not have co-ed rooms. Either way it would have been fine with me, not like I would have done anything except sleep in my bed alone anyway. I was relieved to be placed into an all male room.

I had dinner at the hostel, not because I was hungry but because I wanted to meet people. This was not very successful as I ended up eating alone. Undaunted, I headed to the café upstairs and went outside and asked in English if I may join these two guys. They switched to English and we had a great conversation. Turns out they are both from Cairo, Egypt (“we are like bothers” one of them said as I explained my background) and have moved to Frankfurt for work. They told me of the other location that people go to in the evening for fun. This is the bar I went to where I drank alone and returned to the hostel. I would not have found that area without their help. As I said earlier, talking to locals is a good way to find popular places.

After returning to the hostel, I went to the pool (as in billiards) room and sat and watched two French guys play for a bit. Finally in French I asked if I may play. They looked surprised and asked if I spoke French? Again in French I replied “A very little” which is a true statement. We muddled our way through the game and had a great time. Later in the evening the two of them saw me in a common room and came up to me and we talked about this and that and the clapped me on the back and went their merry way. That was AWESOME!!

Stoked now, I headed back to the bar area to try my hand at meting people again. I went to the Irish Pub at the suggestion of my Egyptian brothers, ordered a beer, and sat alone at an outside table. Ten minutes later a group speaking English joined me. They were a mix of Germans British, and Americans. It was the beginning of a wonderful evening. This is where I learned the terms bummed and fanny pack. We spent the evening drinking, talking and joking. Being that I was in a new place on my first night, I decided to take it easy. I nursed my beers and in the end I had consumed only three beers. The raucous group I had joints however must have killed at least one keg if not two. I knew my hostel closed and locked the doors at 2 am. I was about 5 minutes from the entrance at this point. At 1:50 I asked the obvious question of “will we continue until 6:30 in the morning or should I go turn in now”? The group (actually the guys) assured me I had a place to crash on their air mattress if we completed our evening before 6:30 am. Relaxed and enjoying myself, I settled in for the long haul. Most of us returned to the guys place and they continued drinking and I continued faking it. Two highlights of the evening included watching a man get arrested for public intoxication and the other is a bit longer in explanation. Back at the guys place two of the people apparently were dating and they sauntered off to a private room. The walls however were paper thin. After several minutes of listening to “oh god, oh god, oh god” I could not resist the temptation. I replied to them “Dana is fine no need to call me god anymore” the room exploded with laughter and the couple were suspiciously quiet after that. One of the people there in the room with me said "I can't believe you said that" or I think maybe she said "oh no you did not just say that". I sort of felt bad but then again I did not.

After the evening had wound down and most of them had dispersed, I grabbed a few hours of sleep in a corner on the floor. At 9 am I bid them farewell, I think they remember me leaving, and I headed out the door. It was at this point I remembered the cab ride here was 13 Euros and I had only 5 Euros on me. I looked around and started walking in what felt like a good direction. The first person I found spoke English very well. After asking for the Rein River he corrected me and said I was looking for the Mein River. The Rein was 40k down the road. I was really hoping I was NOT looking for the Rein. He gave me a general direction to head which was more or less where I was going anyway. I walked and asked several more time throughout the morning. Each time the expressions on their faces became less surprised. I took that to mean I was getting closer and at least within a reasonable walking distance. I walked fairly fast I would say at 4-5mph and I walked steady for two hours. Doing the math I walked about 8-10 miles that morning in a city I had never before seen in the daylight. I did eventually make it back to the hostel without any real incidence and I was and still am feeling very good about my travel-savvy skills.

Now I am in Paris and I have that traveler’s woe again. I have already made contact with an old friend of Heather’s, Sophie. I am meeting her and her husband this evening at a metro stop in the center of the city. I have already nailed the metro system in here in Paris so no worries getting there and back. That about completes my tales that you have missed over the days. Glad to keep you up to date and thanks for reading all this stuff.