Soest
/Friday began a short trip after finals before going home. I took a train to Manchester, a plane to Frankfurt-Hahn, and a bus to Frankfurt, arriving at 2 am, dead tired & trying to find my nice hostel two blocks from the station and eerily located in the red light district. It was not a problem & the police there were really nice. (the european city centers I’ve seen are really alive with partiers, police, and normal people late at night.) I found it no problem & the hostel was really nice and safe despite its location. In the morning I met up with Thomas & his girlfriend & we drove to Soest (on the autobahn!). I stayed with family friends who we met through an exchange program. They were really great hosts & showed me all around North Rhine Westphalia. We took a stroll around a nearby park and dam. It holds important drinking water reserves. The surrounding area is pretty & populated by small villages which look really quaint and charming to someone who’s never been far from a McDonalds or WalMart. The city center is very old and many of the buildings are still classic half timber, which is cool. The churches are made from a unique green sandstone, setting them apart from all the other churches I’ve seen. We ate dinner at a restaurant serving traditional German food. I had a schnitzel with mushrooms & I tried some local spiegel (white asparagus) with hollandaise sauce too. The schnitzel had great flavor, and the spiegel was very soft & had a more subtle, gentle taste than green asparagus. The beer is made in-house & is great. It’s smooth, like Guinness, and the bubbles are not harsh. It was all very filling. (photos, more photos)
