My day as a homeless person (May 3rd)

Today was my last day in Heidelberg and I made my way up the hill to see the castle. Again, a bajillion steps reminded me of my lack of conditioning, but after collapsing at the top, I quickly regained my form and set off for the castle.

As I tried to present myself as a student, I was nevertheless forced to pay the full price to the castle and the full price for the tour. SO wish I would've brought my ISU card!

The tour started and a German man with a perfect British accent launched into a bit of the history of the castle. Now, Scott and I had been our fair share of tours on the trip, so I've become somewhat of a critic of tour guides. While no one could top the horror of Red Jared, this guy was Captain Boryphill. He struggled to present concise information about the castle as he would pause for literally MINUTES to try and find the correct English word for something. So frustrating!

Overall, we saw about 3 percent of the castle and I lost one hour of my life and 4 euro.

Anyway...

I salvaged a bit by walking around the castle gardens, which were quite beautiful and provided a great view of the city. I also saw the WORLD'S LARGEST wine barrel, which could hold something around 220,000 liters of wine. Pretty sweet!

I speedily walked/fell down the same steps I gaspingly crawled up and I was back at my hostel. They had a lunch special for only 5 euro and I wolfed down the well cooked schnizel and potatoes. I think they might put crack on their food cause it tastes AMAZING!!!

After lunch, it was off to the train station where I was to head to Freiburg.

This is where things get a bit crazy.

I got on the train and I noticed the ultimate destination of Interlaken, Switzerland...where we had hanglided a few weeks before. I seriously comtemplated going back and meeting up with our Aussie gliders, but I decided that it would probably be weird going back there alone without Scott and Katy...just wouldn't be the same.

But I felt like I had my fair share of Germany and I was eager to get moving south. So I planned on spending a few days in Geneva where I would yodel a bit more and snack on some Swiss chocolate.

If only...

I pulled into Geneva around 9:30 and, as Scott and I had done without any problems so many times on this trip, I didn't have a place to stay. But no problem, right? I headed to the first hostel.

"Fully Booked."

No biggie. I headed to the next hostel.

"Fully Booked."

Awesome.

Alright, no hostels? No problem! I'll just get a hotel room for the night.

WRONG!

The most inexpensive hotel I found was for 130 Swiss Francs and as my strongest character trait is cheapness, I wasn't about to pay that.

Ok, no problem! There was a night train heading for Barcelona in a few hours that I would catch. I guess I'll just skip Geneva and France.

WRONG!

Of course, this train didn't run tonight.

I was stuck in Geneva with no place to stay. I would experience what it was like to be homeless for one night.

And to add to my troubles, I was back on the Swiss Franc, not the Euro. Luckily I got to chatting with a shopowner and I got some pizza and a Snickers (too bad I didn't have my emergency stash of Snickers!) and got some Swiss Francs back in exchange for some Euros. And the shopowner was also nice enough to offer me a place to hang out all night if I needed to, because his shop was open 24 hours.

Not wanting to spend 8 hours standing around a convenience store, I tried my luck on the mean streets of Geneva. I walked around the lake and I started to get drowsy....and it was only midnight!

I walked back and forth a few times between the lake and the shop, but I needed sleep so there was only one thing to do...pull up a park bench, get out my travel blanket, and try to get some sleep.

I truly felt homeless. I tried to bundle up against the cold of night and slept lightly so I would awake with every passerby, and hopefully be able to avoid any problems with the local police.

Time slowed down for me this night, but FINALLY dawn arrived....I had made it!

I decided that I had had enough of Geneva and it's inflated prices, so I hopped on the earliest train I could and got some sleep on the train.

Hopefully I won't have to go through a night like that ever again....