This past week I've been struggling to find the strength to do anything other than sleep, eat, and play CS:GO. My body has been going through drastic changes in terms of food intake, sleep cycles, and energy exertion. The beginning of Ramadan also meant that these changes will continue to mess up my body and mind.
I am not particularly "blaming" this as to why I sleep through all my mornings and stay up all night, but the definite reason I'm having such a hard time resetting my body clock back to normal is I had spent the whole month of May in Europe.
First glimpse of Europe
Before you go "OH MY GOD WOW YOU WERE TRAVELLING IN EUROPE FOR A WHOLE MONTH?!", I would like to clarify that I was not travelling around Europe for that whole month.
The plan was to go to Germany for four weeks for my research attachment in Giessen, then fly back home from Paris via Brussels.
Due to the strict office hours of the University of Giessen, the university I was to do my research attachment, I could only check into my dorm room on Monday. I had already bought my plane tickets to arrive at Frankfurt International Airport on Sunday, which gave me a whole day to just walk around and explore the beautiful city of Frankfurt.
Frankfurt am Main
The flight from Malaysia took around 17 hours (11 hours net) via Abu Dhabi and it was really pleasant. The food and service on Etihad Airways is top notch (definitely recommend them). I flew out from KLIA at 8PM (April 30th), arrived in Abu Dhabi at 12AM local time, flew out from Abu Dhabi at 2AM and arrived in Frankfurt at 7AM (May 1st).
Although on paper (or rather, on screen) it does seem excruciatingly long but it wasn't as horrific as I thought it would be; most probably because there wasn't any long waits at the airports and no unforeseen delays. On the first flight I watched two movies, some TV shows and took a half an hour nap, with meals and snacks in between. On the second flight I just slept and woke up to some good breakfast.
For the one night in Frankfurt, I stayed at the Meininger Hostel, nearby the airport. I couldn't check into my room just yet so I just left my luggage and unnecessary things and headed out to the city, about 15 minutes away.
A stone's throw away from the airport
My dad has been to Frankfurt on a few occasions before so he's already told me a lot on how things worked there, like the fact that there aren't any ticket turnstiles before you get on the subway trains. The rarity of a conductor coming to check for tickets was also something I had been told of, but it was something really surprising to actually experience. Of course, everyone would still have to buy the tickets because in the off chance that someone does check for your ticket, you would have to pay 60 euros if you didn't have one. But then again, once you see how people honor the honor system, you realize how much more civilized people here are than back in Malaysia.
Anyway, I honestly did not plan anything for my one-day Frankfurt exploration. My dad told me about places like Romer and the main river, but I didn't really do much research on cool places to see in Frankfurt. Plus, I really just wanted to walk around and bask in as much of the city as I could.
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof
Inside the Hauptbahnhof
One of the strips that sell Halal food
There was a lot to take in. For the first few hours, I wandered aimlessly around the city, which would explain why at the end of the day I managed to take 49,900 steps covering 26.38 miles.
Leg cramps, blisters, sweat and a lot of expensive water. pic.twitter.com/R5J36wq5oi— Ahmad Firdaus Yosman (@feardaooz) May 1, 2016
After walking around for some time, I found this absolutely beautiful park that ran along this amazing river. The trees were weird looking and leafless, the trails were filled with runners (even though it was in the middle of the day), the water was glistening in the bright Sun and the temperature was just perfect. I felt pretty lucky to have found such a chill place with so many people hanging out having picnics, sunbathing on the green grass and walking their dogs. It really was a sight to behold.
"This is a nice river" I thought to myself
Walking along the river was a peaceful experience. Once I found this place, I decided to just walk to wherever the river would lead me; and it lead me to this spectacular looking bridge, which, for some reason, had a bunch of locks hanging and dangling all around it.
Once I got on the bridge, I realized it looked extremely familiar - like I've seen it somewhere before. I recalled a photo album my dad had told me to save on my computer from his trip to Frankfurt and that's when I realized: I WAS ON THE DAMN FRANKFURT MAIN RIVER!
I was such an idiot. Of course it was the famous Frankfurt Main river! That's why there was so many people, so many cruise ships and such a lovely ambience. In fact, the bridge I was standing on was the famous Eiserner Steg (Iron Bridge), just 5 minutes away from the beautiful part of town called Romer. But, because I was an idiot, I walked along the river, crossed the bridge, spent an hour just wandering around, doubled back to the main train station, asked for directions before finally getting there.
I walked around the city for a few more hours before heading back to my hostel to check in and get some rest. I had lunch on the riverside, got some souvenirs for the people back home, prayed at the Turkish mosque and even walked along the river for the second time. It was about 7PM when I boarded the train back to the airport, which meant I'd spent about 9 hours just exploring a bit of Frankfurt am Main.
The next day I was to travel to Giessen, about an hour away from Frankfurt by train, to retrieve my dorm keys and office keys and to meet with my research attachment supervisor. It was a good day spent in Frankfurt just being free and seeing all the things before I began what would be an intense four weeks of research.
But I'll leave that for the next entry.
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