Hameln and Hannover

Well I've been back a week now from my first trip as a lone traveler. And I would definitely deem it a success. I left last Friday afternoon. I very nearly didn't make it as I stopped to buy snacks for the road and the bus that was supposed to take me from the grocery store showed up super late. But I got to the big bus station with a few minutes to spare. And the charter bus I took was super nice. More comfortable than any plane I've been on recently. So after three and a half hours I arrived in Hannover. It was dark and raining and it took me another hour to get to my hostel because the directions said to take either tram 1 or 2, but I couldn't find either of those trams. Turns out they're underground at that point and I hadn't thought to go into what I considered the subway. But I finally got there and finally got checked in to my nice, albeit strange hostel. There was no staff in the hostel building. You had to go across the street to a much nicer looking hotel and check in there. But the beds in the hostel were nice with privacy curtains and shelves and even personal lamps. And it was quite clean, by hostel standards. And most of the tenants were nice, though I think there was a circus troop staying there with lots of hula hoops and things. It was very strange. Anyway, I picked up a döner (which was terribly disappointing) for dinner and read my book for awhile (I got a ton of reading done on this trip) before heading to bed.

The next morning I got up early, took the tram back to the central train station and bought a ticket to Hameln. The train ride was only about 45 minutes. And the city was absolutely beautiful. It's wasn't a very big city, so I just hung around all day in the old city part of town and marveled at the beautiful timbered buildings and all of the intricate details on everything. I thought it was awesome how the city fully embraced it's heritage as the origin of the Pied Piper. Everywhere you looked there was some reference to the Piper or to rats. The cobblestone streets had these little rat stones in them that you could follow around to learn about different things pertaining to the Pied Piper. I followed it for awhile, but the signs were all in German that was a bit above my reading level. One of the things that I really loved about Hameln was that strangely enough, it reminded me of home. I think it was the mountains on the horizon. I hadn't seen mountains in awhile. I actually spent a long time just sitting on this bridge that looks a lot like one in Riverfront Park, staring out at the water and the beautiful skies. For lunch I ate in a Mexican restaurant and apparently made friends with the man next to me who was so incredibly proud of himself for having finished a bowl of the restaurant's hottest soup (Which was probably not that hot. I know how Germans do spicy.)

Hameln was a wonderful place to visit alone. I don't think I would've had as much of a chance to wander and marvel and appreciate all the small things if I'd been with someone else. Like the miniature key chain with salt, pepper, paprika, and curry powder that I bought in a little store. I fell in love with it because A) it's tiny and adorable and B) I'm always sad when German restaurants don't have salt and pepper on the table. I also got the chance to laugh when 99 Red Balloons, a song that is normally in German, came on in a German store in ENGLISH. I never hear it in English in America, lol. And I got to try my first bubble tea, which was surprisingly delicious.  Mind you, I was trying to buy frozen yogurt when I got the bubble tea, but it was a worthwhile mistake.

The major tourist things that I did in Hameln were of course to watch the Glockenspiel figures of the Pied Piper and to climb up to the top of the church bell tower in the middle of  the market. It required climbing up a ton of really narrow, really steep staircases and I spent half the time worrying that the bells would start ringing and I'd go deaf. But the view was absolutely worth it. The only downside was that on the way down I had to cross through this room with three doors and I couldn't remember which door to go through, so I ended up sitting in the room until some other people came through and then just following them like a dork.

Anyway, I took the train back to Hannover that afternoon and had dinner at this outdoor restaurant. I ordered chicken strips and jojos and then totally freaked out everyone around me by proceeding to eat them with my fingers. You can't use a fork and knife on chicken strips silly people! It was a great meal though. There was something going on next door so they were playing lots of loud music that I got to enjoy, including one of my favorite songs these days, Haus am See. You can find it here if you're interested.

I went back to the hostel and planned to go to sleep pretty early so that I could get up early the next day. Unfortunately at about 3am I think I might've swallowed a bug, because I woke up with the worst tickling throat feeling and couldn't stop coughing. And about an hour later, when I'd just finally drifted off back to sleep, this jerk checked into the room and decided that 4am in a room with 20 sleeping people would be a good time to have a fight with his girlfriend on the phone. Sadly, he was an English speaker and I might've been the only other English speaker in the room, but I didn't want to get involved.

So the next morning I packed up and headed out. I had breakfast in a bakery and then went to the tourist information center to buy the red thread guide. The red thread is a line that's painted on the ground in Hannover. With the guide (that only costs 3 euros), you can follow it around the city and learn about all of the major sites. It was probably the best sightseeing set up I'd ever encountered. I was able to go at my own pace and learn a ton. I spent all day doing that. I also spent a considerable amount of time in the Town Hall, which was absolutely beautiful. I waited in line for like half an hour just to go to the top of the tower. I'd say it was worth it. You could see the whole city, plus you got to ride up in the crazy elevator that switches angles on the way up.

All in all, it was a great trip. I took way more pictures than I normally do (probably because I had no one to distract me with conversation) and I got to practice my German quite a bit because people in Hannover either don't speak English or don't want to speak it with me. But I got to relax and take it slow and just spend a weekend taking in how beautiful the world can be. It was exactly what I needed.

Now I'm just getting ready to head off to Italy in one week. I'll be spending seven days seeing Pisa, Florence, and Venice with Martina!! I'm so stoked to get to see here again :)

I'll post about the last week and this upcoming week right before I leave.

*Edit: Does anyone actually look at my pictures on here? Is there anyone who reads this that isn't already friends with me on Facebook? Because if I don't need to post pictures twice, I'm not going to do it. I just don't have the time. So if anyone would still like me to post them here, please leave me a comment below and let me know.