"Franklin" Recap, Power Ranking, and Departure of our Swan

Started this leg of the trip off hot with tension between Bec and Goose because Bec is a “10 minutes early for everything” kind of gal, Goose is a “10 minutes early for everything in life except European trains” kind of guy, and Andrew is a “Sure, whatever” guy late for everything. After “The Sprint for Vienna” we obviously should have learned, but instead we arrived a cool two minutes early, which left us enough time to run up and down the same staircase twice, panic, and miraculously reach our train in time, 12:33 on the dot. The problem was the doors were closed, and in Germany leaving one minute late for anything is punishable by firing squad. So we yelled at a helpless employee while banging on the train door but to no avail. We only had to wait an hour for the next train thanks to German efficiency, and during this I drank a Starbucks to start off a slew of American purchases on the 4^th of July while Bec went and bought a dress she probably didn’t need (comfort purchase, very excusable).

Coming off of seeing Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest last 4^th, this was definitely the first day I missed being in America as it’s the 3^rd best holiday day of the year in the States next to Christmas and my birthday, and nobody in Germany seemed to care (weird!). I was highly considering bringing my American flag shoes and sporting my “Back to Back World War Champs” hat for this day in particular, but I figured I’d be slain by a bitter German vet on the spot. We saw some sites upon arrival, went to an American Sports Bar below a Marriott (duh), and went to an “Independence Day Party” nearby. Problem with this was that a) it was held in an Australian bar and b) nobody was there. Shoot.

Do we look like tourists?

 After this, we strolled home and Bec and I (somewhat sadly) watched previous 4^th of July fireworks footage on YouTube and listened to my ‘Merica playlist before engaging in a bottle-tossing gamble which turned out to be a huge mistake for me. The goal was to land your empty bottle in trash cans about 30 feet below and the loser had to wear a rubber, star-shaped American flag ring until the 15^th of August. The winner could take his/hers off. Both of us had these on, and my ring finger was already purple with lack of circulation so, needless to say, I wanted the thing off, and I wanted Bec to have to wear hers to a wedding on the 14^th even more. What ensued was a scandal over whose shot actually went in, and Becca proceeded to make outrageous “the majority of mine went in” claims. To compensate, this transformed into a new bet: whoever takes theirs off first has to buy PF Chang’s. So, for those wondering why I have a stupid (I mean…awesome) rubber Made in China American flag ring on my hand in every picture from here on out, that’s why, and someone’s going to have to forcibly remove my finger from my body if I’m going to lose this thing.

The next day consisted of Becca and I paddleboating for 5 minutes and Goose paddleboating us for 25, climbing to the top of a building, getting lost once and walking around the Dom area before the last meal and Bec’s departure in the morning.

Onto important things, the power ranking:

Hostel – 9

The hostel was actually a hotel. We had a three-person room the size of my wingspan that was a minute’s walk from the train station, which effectively prevented any chance of Becca being late for her flight home today. The free breakfast was actually weirdly OK, and the front desk fruity candy was out of this world (which led to a couple “I don’t need help I’m just taking the free candy” looks from me to the desk worker and “Oh, you’re one of those kids” looks in return). The air condition was the best yet, as I woke up cold for the first time since February, and the location couldn’t really be beat if you wanted to pay under 20 Euro a night.

Food - 8.5

Had some good street sausage yet again, but Bas Something-Or-Other stole the show. This was a small hole-in-the-wall joint down the street owned and served by Bas himself, and plenty of TLC was mixed into all our meals.

Sites – 8.5

“Bankfurt” isn’t necessarily a huge tourist site, but it’s a touch better than Berlin to walk around basically because they recovered better from the ravaging the allies handed them 70 years ago. Sorry again. Some areas were rebuilt in old German style and those look awesome (so, you’re welcome).

Best Site - Main Tower – 8

Went on top of an 800-foot skyscraper. This would be just another office in New York but it’s the 2^nd tallest in Central Europe (as well as 2^nd tallest in Frankfurt) and gives a pretty unreal panoramic of the city. Becca saw a newscaster with a turtle stuffed animal up here, and considering she’s been calling Frankfurt “Franklin” for about a month, I’m pretty sure this was her favorite moment of all of Europe. 

Franklin.

Nightlife – 6*

I don’t know if she did something wrong but karma would have it that on Becca’s last night here God opened up the heavens and it rained all night, requiring us all to retire early the 2^nd night in “Franklin.” Again, the life exists; we just didn’t catch much of it.

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Becca left today which sucked, and went something like this:


I hate goodbyes!

But even though the group we built has crumbled down, the keystone remains, and Goose and I have half of a continent to see in 2 weeks. And then there were two. Let’s do this.