Rain or Shine We'll Find a Good Time

Waking up to rain on our window Saturday morning was not my ideal form of an alarm clock. The drops hit loudly and sure enough when I mustered myself out of my surprisingly comfortable hostel top bunk I found that it was pouring outside. So much for a leisurely breakfast on the patio overlooking the Moselle River. And to think that was the reason Katie booked Auberge de Jeunesse too...how rude! The rain put us in a lull and we moved slowly that morning. In fact we moved so slowly we completely missed breakfast. Had we gotten our butts in gear we would have avoided our first run-in a most disagreeable French woman. It continued to pour, we had our backpacks on again, and we had to walk a good 25 minutes before hitting an open pastry shop for breakfast. Apparently if you order a pastry at the counter you pay a certain price and take it to go. There is a separate and more expensive price if you sit down and they serve you. Do not mix the two! How were we supposed to know, heck that was never any Rick Steve's book that I read. There was no way that we were going back out into the rain before we finished our delicious pastries. We sat down at a table and she came running over yelling French. Why must they speak faster and faster when they can see I am understanding less and less. Luckily there was a kind gentleman who could tell by our "deer in the headlights" expression that we had no idea what we had done wrong and so we think he took of the situation by handing her a couple more Euros. The whole situation is all a blur and all I know is that I ate my croissant with chocolate and took the hint to leave as quickly as possible. 

The rest of the day in Metz was pretty much miserable. We walked through a couple stores, but that was a lost cause. We were Americans, age range of a teenager-looking person, dripping water, and had bags big enough that we could stuff the whole store into them. We received a couple looks not so favorable, were miserable ourselves and so decided to head to the train station and just sit. This turned out to be the best decision we had had all morning. It turned out that there was an earlier train to Strausbourg and it would leave in 20 minutes.

We hoped that moving an hour and a half north would lessen the rain, but no such luck. Strausbourg was a lot bigger than Metz, which was slightly daunting at first, but with Katie's excellent navigational skills we got to our second hostel quite quick. It is hostels like this one that makes me jealous that I did not live in Europe as a kid. The place was teeming with preteens and teens who were out on their own for the weekend. This hostel was much cooler than the first. It was about 5 stories high, had a bar, a big breakfast room, and our room was sweet. Lizzie and Katie slept on the two bottom beds while my bunk was lofted above. We decided that it would be best that I get shafted to the top every time since I was sleep talking about sleep walking all of Friday night. All of the bunks have had guard rails so I think I am pretty safe. Katie told me on Saturday morning that at one point Friday night I leaned over the rail and said, "Thank God I'm not on the bottom bunk. I'd be walking all over this place!" Katie told me to roll over and I don't remember anything. 

Our friends were coming up from Colmar, France to meet us in Strausbourg in a couple of hours; conveniently they were staying at the same hostel. Seeing that it was still raining like it does every other day here we didn't know what really to do, but to walk around until we found something interesting. We found the best thing possible. We were walking past this place called C&A when I mentioned something about how it might be a department store and maybe we should take a "curiousity break" now. Not only was C&A a department store, but it had a huge mall connected to it. You couldn't even tell from the outside that that was what it was. It went on forever. We spent the next few hours checking out a couple stores and basically wasting time in a dry environment until we could check into our room. 

Our feet hurt pretty bad and it was after 4 so we headed back and at the check-in counter stood our seven friends. What perfect timing! They had had some pretty crazy adventures leading up to us meeting them and we had all carried our backpacks all day so we took a quick break before an incredible night began. 

"Let's head to 'Little France'!" said Emily Edenburn. "There is a 'Little France' in France?" I asked. We wandered around aimlessly looking for just the right spot when through some intertwined streets appeared The Academie de Biere. The building had the structure of  German architecture, but served Tarte Flammbe, the must have regional food. Another thing to love about Europe and Europeans is that they love us, or more they love students. With our student discounts we got the house beer and a Tarte Flammbe and then if we bought another beer we got the third free. How can you say no to that? The beer was okay, comparable to Miller Light, but the food was amazing. It took the shape of a pizza but was based in a creamier sauce with bits of ham and onions on it. The onions I could have done without, but it was still incredible. 

We arrived at the Academie of Biere around 6 and probably didn't leave until 10 something. It was in this dinner that all 10 of us experimented with the food, played the million faces game, and 3 of us found our new favorite beer. Lizzie and I needed our free beer. The goal was to be reasonably cheap and a bit of higher content. The result was Erdinger Pinkatus, a dark wheaty beer. We talked our friend Robert into getting one as well and he said it is his favorite beer thus far in Europe. I never thought I'd like dark beers, but it was delicious. 

The next destination was Java, a discoteque. It took us a while to get there, but once we did it was well worth it. All we wanted was a dance floor and a beat to move to, but they offered us a stage and a completely American music night. We sang the whole of the Grease medley and some old songs that I never thought I would hear here. At 1 am it was time to round up the troops, but I couldn't believe it was that late already. Unfortunately the night had to come to an end. Adventures of the last day in Strausbourg will continue tomorrow. For now I need to get some sleep!

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