In the span of 1 day, I spent 2 euros on toilets; good thing I didn’t give change to some homeless beforehand, because I had a total of 7 euros in change. Just at the train station I got asked by 3 homeless. After a while I got annoyed and found a restaurant where I bought a tea, then hung out writing essays for job applications. After about 5 hours, I met my cousin outside the train station, whose every second word was a juron: he almost got driven over by all the insane Belgian drivers.
Once he picked me up, we were on our way through Germany, to Austria, Hungary, and finally Transylvannia. First stop: Frankfurt (besides the 5 other short ones between Bruxelles and Frankfurt to clean off the windshield because the fluid was frozen). It was -10C outside, with 20 cm snow on the ground from the night before. We met a friend who showed us a hostel, then her and I walked around the center part of town. We went into a mall, where the shops were closed, but the area around was open. The architecture of this building was amazing. The architect used triangle shaped glass panes to construct a mathematically sound three-dimensional saddle tunneling into a cylinder which descended through the middle of the mall. All of this was topped by the longest escalator existing in a mall. Along the river Main at night was similar to Budapest, except the buildings are a little farther away from the river banks. Despite the frigid temperatures, there were mice everywhere scampering around in the snow. These little creatures half the size of my fist scaled two flights of stairs faster than I could have run up them. Maybe they did it for exercice so they didn’t freeze to death? I have never seen this many mice in one place at once.
We stayed the night in Frankfurt Hostel, 60 euros for 3 of us (wagered down by my cousin from 69 euros) in a private room with bathroom. Not a bad deal. Also included a breakfast (which we almost missed). Breakfast was from 7 to 10, we woke up at 9:45, ran out the door pulling on clothes halfway down the stairs, hopping from one foot to the other while shoving our feet into our shoes. When we got downstairs, we were amazed by the quality of breakfast. I was half expecting some stale muesli and bagels with cream cheese. However, we were greeted by the line-up of coffee, tea, freshly baked bread with cream cheese, salami, ham, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, nutella, fresh plum yoghurt. Piling as much onto multiple plates as we could before they cleaned it up, we had a delightful breakfast overlooking downtown Frankfurt, around the corner from the train station.