I told her, "I had such a lovely time. We spent a day driving around the Italian country-side.. Stoping for pizza, nugat and gelato along the way..." But I told her that the most exciting and memorable part of the trip were the parts that certainly wouldn't have happened had we had more money, or had we not neglected to plan things in advance. I have always traveled like that. It occasionally gets me into trouble.. but it is the trips that involve me running down the road to catch the train, or spending hours in bars in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, that really 'make' the trip for me. Perhaps that sounds strange; that no one in their right mind wants to get lost in the middle of the night, or curl up in the corner of the airport clutching your belongings while attempting to get some shut eye, but... a trip that goes as planned just ain't as excitin'. I told my sister that no matter how much money I make, (though occasionally splurging on a holiday), I hope to always travel like I poor. The other bit, when it comes to planning things 'last-minute' will happen regardless of the amount of money that I make :P
We booked our flights through ryanair, a discount company that flies out of various cities (mostly) throughout Europe. Our flight was scheduled to leave Frankfurt Hahn at 9 in the morning. The city that we are doing Erasmus in is only about 3 hours on the train from Frankfurt, so sounds easy enough.. right?!
{SIDENOTE: I tend to use 'we' without realizing that most people don't know who WE is. I spend so much time with my roommate, generally my adventures involve her as well.}
So we figure, since we have to arrive at the very least one-hour in advance before our flight leaves, we have to leave at least 4 hours before our plane arrives, right!? Wrong again.. As it turns out, Frankfurt Hahn is not Frankfurt at all.. Frankfurt Hahn is just Hahn.. Frankfurt is 1.5 hours away from Hahn. So Frankfurt should just not be in the name at all. Okay, so we have to leave at least 5.5 hours in advance then... Alright fine, we have to spend the night in Frankfurt given that there are on trains leaving at 3:30 in the morning (but if there were, I guarantee we'd be on it).
So we settle for a blablacar. When people are traveling from one place to another and are looking for company, or to make the trip cheaper, they may post online and see if anyone wants to hitch a ride with them. We have used blablacar before to drive to Vienna, so thought a blabla car from Bamberg to Frankfurt should be no issue. The woman ended up not showing up to meet us. We even walked (okay ran) all the way to the bahnhof (central bus station).
So four hours later we hop on a train. We left at 7:15 and arrived at the Frankfurt Bahnhof at about 9:30. The bus we had to get on to the Frankfurt Hahn airport wasn't arriving until 2:30am. So, having not wanted to pay 30 euros to stay in a hostel for just a few (what we thought would be short) hours, we decide to waste some time in the book store. The english section wasn't too big, so after about 45 minutes, we were all book stored-out. Next stop was the McDonalds.. We weren't hungry, but were approached by many homeless people. It was starting to get late, and it was starting to get sketchy. So where could we go to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep?
In public areas in Germany, you almost always have to pay about a euro to pee. So what homeless person wants to pay a euro to pee, when you could, if you wanted, relieve yourself anywhere?! So a locked bathroom stall was a safe bet to avoid sketchyness.
About a half an hour into our bathroom stall nap, we hear a booming "KEIN SCHLAFEN." It was the caretaker.. We walk out of the bathroom with our tale between our legs... Two innocent girls just trying to get away from potential dangers that is the Frankfurt Bahnhof at night. It was now midnight... He looked at us with brotherly, fatherly compassion and motions for us to follow him. He walks to the back of the bathroom, through a hallway and begins to unlock the door. I look at Julia, slightly exasperated.. She nods with that "I don't get any bad vibes" look of assurance.
He unlocks the door and motions to a blowup mattress in the corner. He had a bed for us to sleep on. He then offers us 'orangensaft' and hands us a blanket. A few hours later, we were safely on our way to Frankfurt Hahn. Thank you guy, for your random act of kindness. I'll never forget you!!!
Anyway, once we got to Sardina, we had a wonderful time. Perhaps I'll sum it up soon :)
Ps: round two of getting to the airport sketchness definitely coming your way soon....
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