Longest Day

Oh, boy. Long story short, I’m in Frankfurt now (well, a couple towns outside Frankfurt, to be more precise). For a couple of weeks. Long story slightly less short, I’ve been awake for over 29 hours, and they have not been gentle and soothing hours, either. Long story long… well, click on the ‘continue’ link at the bottom of the post.
My flights went really well, actually. I would have picked somebody different to sit next to me on the Detroit to Frankfurt leg, but other than that, I can’t really complain (oh wait, yes I can — just a sec). The only real problem was that I got into Frankfurt at 7:00am, local time, which was only just creeping up on my usual bedtime at home. So I didn’t sleep at all on the flight. The airline also refuses to UNDO my meal preference settings (I erase it every time I fly, but they’re stuck with thinking I want something dairy-free), so I missed out on a brownie with my dinner and the little egg+cheese+biscuit sandwich for breakfast. By the time that trolley starts coming down the aisle, there’s nothing I want more than a crappy egg+cheese+biscuit sandwich, but I’m denied it, more often than not. The substitute is a plain, packaged bagel, untoasted. Like I’m going to eat that when I’m headed to Germany! I will take this banana, and that is all.
I’d decided (on the plane, when I was shooting eye-lasers of hate at that bagel) that I wanted Rosinenbrötchen for breakfast, because what’s not to love? Raisins and bread! The particular bakery/cafe I went to had a sort of ‘icing’ baked on. If I were to guess, I’d say it was a dough made from flour, sugar, and butter, which had been rolled and cut out, and a thin piece had been placed on each Brötchen before it went into the oven. Basically, it was like a layer of shortbread BAKED ON to the bread. This is one of the many reasons I love Germany. I also had a black, black, strong cup of coffee.
Lunch was soft cheese on a hard roll with two tiny slices of tomato and one piece of lettuce — a bit lacking in that department, but it was still sooo good. I also had a second cup of black, black, strong coffee. Maybe that’s my new thing for Germany (I usually take cream).
And after I finally got settled into my little ‘flat’ (in has its own kitchen and everything), I went to the supermarket for some fixin’s. The photo above isn’t everything I got, of course, but it’s some of the stuff I’m most excited about. I decided to go all out at get full-fat vanilla yogurt, so I had to get ‘fancy’ muesli to go with it (it’s still the store brand, but whatever). I also found a persimmon — which, if you’re reading this, Ai, I was surprised to see called ‘kaki’ on the label. And after carefully considering the half-aisle’s worth of pickled items in jars (another of my German pleasures), I picked mixed vegetables. I had some for dinner tonight, along with tiny potatoes that I cooked and then tossed with herbed quark — and some broccoli, since I needed a short of green.
The strangest thing, considering how long I’ve been awake, is that I’m not feeling THAT tired right now. I think I went beyond the point where my body was hoping for sleep, and now it’s just trying to keep me going. I’m betting that I’ll sleep like a dead rock in a log tonight. I’m looking forward to it!

So, after I got off the plane, passport control was a breeze, no luggage went missing, and I even got on the right train, so I was at my hotel by 9:00am. The only problem was… there was nobody around. The doors were all locked. Ringing the buzzers did nothing. There was a sign saying to go to the restaurant next door, but the restaurant wasn’t open yet. I finally managed to get in when somebody was leaving, but the place was dead inside, too. A woman eventually wandered out (of her room, to go to the WC), and she sort of explained to me (in German) that the owner was in Paris and woudn’t be back until noon. At that point it was 10:00am.
So I lugged my suitcase (and carried my heavy backpack) down the street a ways to a coffee shop, where I got my breakfast. At about 10:30, I headed back towards the hotel, thinking I might camp out and read for an hour and a half. But when I got there, I tried the door, and it was open! Surprising, because it was still totally empty inside. I sat on some steps for a while, and then I thought I would go back over to the adjoining restaurant to see if anybody had appeared there. I grabbed my backpack, but left my suitcase against the wall in the hallway, since I had had enough of heaving it everywhere (up and down lots of steps, too). The restaurant was again a bust, AND, when I went back to the hotel, the door had locked itself — with my suitcase inside! Bum.
I figured there was nothing I could do until noon, so I wandered back to the shops (easier now that fate had relieved me of the suitcase) and had something to eat for lunch. I came back just after 12:00, and there was no change on the hotel front, BUT the restaurant was now open, and the woman there confirmed (in English) that the man from the hotel was driving back from France, and that he usually didn’t arrive until 2:00pm. (By the way, I left out an earlier part of the story where I found one of the kitchen staff before the restaurant opened, and he claimed the was absolutely no connection between them and the hotel. That did not fill me with a sense of hope.)
I told the restaurant woman that my case was trapped in the hotel, and then I set off to kill a couple more hours. When I came back, I was once again able to slip in behind another guest with a key (I was less sneaky about it than it probably sounds), and I was relieved to find my suitcase untouched. I sat there until about 2:40, afraid to go back over the restaurant and get locked out again, but then somebody came along and said he’d hold the door while I ran over. So I did, and THIS time, the woman got the hotel owner on the phone. It turns out she had access to my room key the entire time. I don’t know why she didn’t call him the first time we spoke, but she was very helpful, so I think she just didn’t realize how long I’d been waiting, and she fully expected him to show up by 2:00 so he could show me to the room, etc, etc.
So… I finally got into my little flat. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s much nicer than the places I’ve stayed at in the city, AND it’s loads cheaper. And I have the little kitchen, so I can finally try the veggie schnitzels and such. I eventually went back down to the main part of the hotel, and the owner had arrived, and he was very apologetic and not at all the careless monster I’d built him up to be in my mind. Today wound up pretty much being a big bunch of fail (except for the tasty food parts), but it’s done with now, so I don’t have to dwell on it (er, once I hit ‘publish’).
And THAT was the long story. I left out the boring bits, if you can believe it!