Blog

Regine lives in the city of Bonn (next-door neighbour of Cologne), and she's one of the amazing 10 companions with whom I went on the Salkantay hike to Machu Picchu, back in Peru in April. She came up to Cologne for the evening to have a little reunion with me, and to show me the sights and sounds (and food and drink) of the city. She hasn't changed since Peru: she's the same warm and friendly person, who always looks like she's ready to dance, and who's amazingly a vegetarian in Germany. We ended up going for some great Indian curry here in Cologne, which we followed with some delicious Kölsch beer.

The Station Backpacker's is a reasonable enough place: big, full of party spirit, and right in the heart of fun-packed Cologne. My biggest gripe is that the hostel has too many levels, and too many winding stairs to take you up to them: you kind of end up racing up and down them a lot. Otherwise, it's a well laid-out affair, with good staff and even better fellow guests. As with yesterday's hostel in Freiburg, it's just a pity that I can't stay here longer — but my schedule is rather hectic at the moment.

In a continuing battle with the forces of incompetence, I finally received and managed to pick up my new ATM card today. at 10:30am, I went online from my hostel in Freiburg, checked DHL's tracking service, and saw that my package was in Zürich, and was "with courier vehicle" (i.e. actually in the van, about to be delivered to Mark and Susi's surgery). So I grabbed the tram to Freiburg train station, just managed to catch the 11am train back to Zürich; and by 1:45pm, I too had arrived back in Zürich, and had caught the tram over to the surgery. And what did I see, quite literally just as I walked in? I saw the DHL guy walking out of the building, having only just delivered the package — took him all day just to drop it off there; how bloody pathetic!

Before buggering off out of the place, this morning I took a little stroll around the charming city of Freiburg — the first place I've ever visited in Germany — and explored its historic centre. My buddy Killes had already shown me a fair bit of the town last night: but it was too dark and rainy last night to see anything properly; so today, I re-discovered it again in better conditions. I stuck mainly to the area of the cathedral and the daily morning market (home to plenty of different foods), as well as the central shopping area. Sadly, all I had was about an hour to complete the tour, before I needed to leave: a bit rushed, but better than nothing.

While visiting Freiburg's Christmas market this evening, my friend Killes introduced me to Glühwein: that is, traditional German mulled wine. Glühwein is a central European specialty particularly common around Christmas time, and it can invariably (in December) be found in a town's main market, served steaming hot inside an ornate mug. It's quite delicious, it warms you up, and apparently the fact that it's hot only serves to make the alcohol stronger. I didn't realise it at the time, but this was to be the first of many cups of Glühwein (and the first of many Christmas markets) that I'd encounter while in this part of Europe.

The Black Forest Hostel is a lovely big hostel, situated in a quiet street not-too-far from the centre of compact Freiburg, and (as its name suggests) just down the road from the start of the famous forest itself. The hostel was pretty quiet when I stayed there this evening; but it has a great common room — complete with couches, beanbags, TV, pool table, and fussball — which I'm sure would be great fun with more guests around. I didn't have time to hang around here for more than one night: but if my schedule had allowed it, there's no doubt that I would have chilled here for longer.

Occasionally known as Gerhard Killesreiter, Killes is a resident of the town of Freiburg (in Baden-Württemberg), and is also one of the oldest, most-valued, and most central members of the Drupal developer community. Seeing that I was passing through his neck of the woods, I was lucky enough to get a hold of Killes, and to meet him in person for the first time. Despite his fierce reputation as a "blunt, rude newbie-killer" when online, Killes is actually a very friendly and easy-going guy in real life, and he was more than happy to take me out for a tour of his town, and for some dinner and drinks this evening.

I've heard of express international deliveries taking time, but this is getting beyond a joke. Seeing that I had nothing else to do today — apart from having to urgently leave Zürich (to see my friend Gerhard in Freiburg tonight) — today I spent most of the day sitting around in Mark and Susi's office, waiting for my bloody ATM card to arrive. I always thought that DHL were reasonably competent; but apparently, that is not the case. After calling and making repeated enquiries, it seems that the package arrived in Basel last night; that they had it in Zürich by this morning; that they then sent it back to Basel later in the morning; and that it didn't get back to Zürich (for a second time) until this afternoon. I finally gave up waiting for it, and grabbed the train up to Freiburg: but I'm going to have to come back for it tomorrow (which will be a right pain in the a$$); and I'm extremely frustrated that it's taking this long for the frikking thing to get here.

I already explored Zürich yesterday; today, I couldn't be a$$ed doing very much at all. What with the horrible weather outside, and with nothing in particular to see or do in the city, and with unlimited free Internet access right where I was, my choice seemed obvious enough. I just hung around inside Mark and Susi's apartment all day, catching up on a bit of blogging and online reading, mucking around with some Internet gadgets (such as the cool custom map drawing feature in Google Maps), and otherwise keeping warm and dry. My new ATM card still hasn't arrived: where the hell is it? It's supposed to be getting sent by express DHL courier; but it's been 4 days since it left Sydney, and there's still no sign of it. I hope it comes soon — because nice as it is staying with the family, I can't hang around here forever.

For dinner tonight, Mark and Susi took me out to a super-upmarket Italian restaurant in downtown Zürich, where I didn't hesitate to order a delicious plate of home-made gnocchi (my all-time favourite food on Earth) in a rich cheese sauce. Maybe it's just because I was too cheapo to afford hitting the restaurants down there — but it was better than anything I had while in Italy. The wine and the dessert were nothing to complain about, either. Stopping and seeing the family certainly does have its advantages!