Mar. 20 – To Germany!
Today I went to Konstanz, Germany with Karston, my flatmate. It was a fun day! The city was sooo cute! We took a total of 5 trains to get there and back, and only once did a conductor come through to check tickets. Good thing, because otherwise, we would have felt that we shouldn’t have even bothered to buy tickets. Well, I found out that there’s an 80 CHF fine if you’re caught on a train without a ticket and you can only do it a few times before it becomes a criminal offence. Hey, you always have to weigh the pros and cons ;)
Anyways, Konstanz isn’t that different from St. Gallen, since they’re so close geographically. They didn’t even do any border checks in either direction. Konstanz did have much more of a bigger-city feel and less quaintness. There was also a very nice cathedral, which had such pretty stained-glass windows (see picture). Things are generally cheaper than in Switzerland.
For the first time since I got to Europe, I got to go out for a real meal! We went to this restaurant where we could eat in the courtyard, surrounded by an old building with vines growing over it on one side and a new building of glass and steel on the other side. Nice juxtaposition. Originally, we were both craving coffee and cake, but we were too early. It was about 2:30pm, and coffee and cake here is the equivalent of afternoon tea in England, so they weren’t going to get the cakes for another hour or so. Anyways, we had a late lunch instead. It was so nice to eat something that I didn’t have to spend time cooking. I had a linguine-like pasta with a saffron cream sauce and arugula. Mmmm. It was so good, except for the fact that I got saffron on my cream corduroy jacket, which I think is pretty permanent.
There were a lot of street musicians and all of them were playing different instruments and had different styles. There was even a boy playing a trombone-like instrument and he only looked about 11 or 12!
The shopping was pretty good. I finally bought a pair of black suede casual shoes, which I have been looking for ever since I got here. I even let the saleslady sucker me into buying a protector spray, which black shoes don’t really need, right?! Oh well, I can use it for other stuff. There was also a big mall with a Zara and an H&M right next to each other! By the time I got there, though, I lost my shopping mood – which is a good thing, because I didn’t need to be buying anymore stuff. The stores inside of the mall were aesthetically nice, but the mall itself – with low ceilings and no windows – was really not. Plus, it was so confining to be inside a mall after shopping outdoors in the town centre that we didn’t stay long. I think I really prefer street shopping as opposed to mall shopping.
Later in the day, about 6pm, we went back to the same restaurant for coffee and cake, and found out that they didn’t have any more cake left. Agh! So we just had coffee. Oh, and here I learned that I really, really, really have to watch what I drink before getting on a train. I had to go to the washroom SO badly that I almost got off the train in the middle of nowhere, just 2 stops away from our destination, which would have meant that I would’ve had to wait another hour to go just 2 stops (about 5 minutes). Knowing all this, I had to go so urgently that I was still going to get off the train and I was only stopped by the fact that the train started to leave the station as I got up. I had to use a lot of mental power to hold it until our stop, because then I was only 1 stop away. It seemed that, at that point, it was more worth it to risk peeing my pants than having to wait an hour for the next train when I was just one stop away. Once we got there, I literally ran to the closest washroom. I swear, I just barely made it.
We were stuck at that train station with 1/2 an hour before our train arrived, so we went to a café where I finally got to have cake – a yummy cherry custard tart, but nothing to drink.
Anyways, Konstanz isn’t that different from St. Gallen, since they’re so close geographically. They didn’t even do any border checks in either direction. Konstanz did have much more of a bigger-city feel and less quaintness. There was also a very nice cathedral, which had such pretty stained-glass windows (see picture). Things are generally cheaper than in Switzerland.
For the first time since I got to Europe, I got to go out for a real meal! We went to this restaurant where we could eat in the courtyard, surrounded by an old building with vines growing over it on one side and a new building of glass and steel on the other side. Nice juxtaposition. Originally, we were both craving coffee and cake, but we were too early. It was about 2:30pm, and coffee and cake here is the equivalent of afternoon tea in England, so they weren’t going to get the cakes for another hour or so. Anyways, we had a late lunch instead. It was so nice to eat something that I didn’t have to spend time cooking. I had a linguine-like pasta with a saffron cream sauce and arugula. Mmmm. It was so good, except for the fact that I got saffron on my cream corduroy jacket, which I think is pretty permanent.
There were a lot of street musicians and all of them were playing different instruments and had different styles. There was even a boy playing a trombone-like instrument and he only looked about 11 or 12!
The shopping was pretty good. I finally bought a pair of black suede casual shoes, which I have been looking for ever since I got here. I even let the saleslady sucker me into buying a protector spray, which black shoes don’t really need, right?! Oh well, I can use it for other stuff. There was also a big mall with a Zara and an H&M right next to each other! By the time I got there, though, I lost my shopping mood – which is a good thing, because I didn’t need to be buying anymore stuff. The stores inside of the mall were aesthetically nice, but the mall itself – with low ceilings and no windows – was really not. Plus, it was so confining to be inside a mall after shopping outdoors in the town centre that we didn’t stay long. I think I really prefer street shopping as opposed to mall shopping.
Later in the day, about 6pm, we went back to the same restaurant for coffee and cake, and found out that they didn’t have any more cake left. Agh! So we just had coffee. Oh, and here I learned that I really, really, really have to watch what I drink before getting on a train. I had to go to the washroom SO badly that I almost got off the train in the middle of nowhere, just 2 stops away from our destination, which would have meant that I would’ve had to wait another hour to go just 2 stops (about 5 minutes). Knowing all this, I had to go so urgently that I was still going to get off the train and I was only stopped by the fact that the train started to leave the station as I got up. I had to use a lot of mental power to hold it until our stop, because then I was only 1 stop away. It seemed that, at that point, it was more worth it to risk peeing my pants than having to wait an hour for the next train when I was just one stop away. Once we got there, I literally ran to the closest washroom. I swear, I just barely made it.
We were stuck at that train station with 1/2 an hour before our train arrived, so we went to a café where I finally got to have cake – a yummy cherry custard tart, but nothing to drink.
posted by lilswtamy at 8:56 p.m.
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