Baden-Baden
I went to Baden-Baden last week, and it was a blast. Sascha and some friends of his were going on Tuesday, as soon as their exams were over. Sascha knows someone in Dusseldorf who has a flat there and could rent it to us for cheap. It was tough to find people who could come since they were going in the middle of the week, from Tuesday to Saturday, but seven ended up coming. I had invited along the guys from MSU, and Ryan R accepted the invitation. And I knew Sascha and his friend Peter vaguely, but the others I'd never met before. There were four guys and three girls total; I think we had a good group dynamic going.
Five of us rented a car to get to Baden-Baden. I was smooshed in the backseat of some little Opel combi next to Sascha and Alex, an Australian dude from the same city as Peter, also from Australia. Rabea and Peter were in the front. Rabea's a nice girl. She and Sascha were the only people from Germany on our trip. I think she and Peter have some sort of relationship thing going on, though I heard some gossip that they´re both dating other people and ... well, I won't talk about that here. Ryan R met us there; he took a train. He came pretty late; he said there were several delays because people kept jumping on the tracks or something. I guess Tuesday was the day to try to commit suicide on the train tracks. I don't know; I'm just going by what Ryan R said. And Rachel, a friend of Sascha's from Tennessee met us there also. She is an au pair for a family in Dusseldorf right now. She used to au pair in Aachen, so that's how she's connected. She was super friendly and a lot of fun. And she took care of us; she'd wake up early to go buy us bread and stuff for breakfast, do the dishes, clean up after us. It was great.
Baden-Baden's a nice place. There are a lot of old people there. It's situated near the edge of the black forest so it has lots of hiking trails. They have a casino there because that's what old people like to do. And, like in Aachen, it has thermal baths.
The first night there, we walked to the new castle in the city. It was a bit of a climb and we got a great view of Baden-Baden by night. Also, it was a cloudless sky so we could see the stars. The next day, we hiked to the old castle. It´s really cool looking--not really majestic and royal, fit for a princess or anything. It was just old and still standing; it had a cool layout. We'd bought some lunch food in the supermarket before our hike and ate it atop the old castle. Again, we had a great view of Baden-Baden. I simply love those panoramic views!
That evening, we went to the casino. We dressed up because it's a nice place and they have a dress code. The guys didn't really bring appropriate stuff. They were decked out in jeans and wrinkly collared shirts. But I put on a dress I'd bought in Paris and my heels. I felt so pretty. The apartment we stayed in had some really old stuff, including a cane. Peter took it with him for an old-man, gentlemanly look. Sure enough, we got turned away at the door of the casino. "Gentlemen must have ties to enter; no sports shoes," said the man at the entrance. We did have the option to go downstairs, though, to the machines. We just couldn't get to the table area. So we did. I won! Not much, but I was so lucky. Well, first I fed a ten euro bill into a slot machine. I couldn't read the German on the buttons, and I think I bet the max and lost half my money right there. Then, I accidentally cashed out. So I found one of those plastic buckets to hold my coins. Then, I fed one into a video poker machine and took off from there. First hand was a full house! And one hand after another I just kept winning; a pair here, straight there. The machine had "double or nothing" which I'm a sucker for, but I turned five euros into ten once by doing it! Soon, my friends were crowded around watching. It was exciting. I finally understand why my father loves gambling. I've never won before; and you can imagine that's not much fun. But this time, I had a huge smile on my face. I more than doubled my ten euros by the end of it. Like I said, I didn't win big, but it was enough to feel good.
Then Rabea and I, the two nicest dressed people that night, went into the area with the table games while the others waited outside. It cost three euros just to enter. Everything was so fancy in there. All the men had black suits on. Huge crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Gold trim adorned every wall. We didn't play, just watched. We saw more than one person bet 100 euros at once. In the bathroom, they had someone sitting in there; she would wipe the seat after you finished using the toilet! I've never seen that! I never had to tip anyone before just to use the restroom! That casino was a sight to see.
The following day, Alex and Peter went mountain biking. The rest of us walked around town shopping and stuff. We stopped for coffee/whatever at a cafe. I got "spaghettieis" which is a dessert made to look like spaghetti. They put vanilla ice cream through a pasta making thing to shape it like spaghetti. There is strawberry sauce on top and ground coconut for the "parmesan." I actually didn't like it that much; I'm not a fan of strawberries in my ice cream or coconut in general. I just ordered it cuz it looked cool.
In the evening, we went to the baths. We spent about three hours there. I liked it. It didn't have quite the same atmosphere as the one in Aachen, which really tries to make it a relaxing retreat. Here, more kids were running around and stuff. But that meant we could act like little kids and get away with it... ;-) just kidding. We behaved like mature adults pretty much. There was a steam room. I could hardly breathe in there; there was a weird aroma filling the room. I avoided the sauna since I didn't care to see naked old people.
On Friday, we did some more hiking. We just wandered through the black forest trying to find a lake to swim in. We got a bit lost and stuff, but ended up at this gorgeous piece of nature. We found a deep clear lake lined by cliffs on one side. We again had food from the supermarket with us and we ate it on the shore. A few people had brought their swimsuits and went in. I didn't have mine, but it looked like so much fun. So, I went swimming in my clothes. It was a dumb idea; I was sopping when I got out. But it felt so good to swim somewhere so natural and beautiful. I ended up changing out of my wet clothes and wearing my sweatshirt which was still dry and a towel for a skirt. I bet I looked very classy walking back through town in that. I should have tried to get in the casino--it was a skirt after all.
I couldn't believe I'd actually gone swimming in my clothes. I did another silly thing too; for lunch, I bought a can of whipped cream, with some sugar wafer cookies to put it on. I ate the whole pack, minus the few I shared with people. It was so unhealthy, but so delicious. Everyone was shocked that that was what I was actually eating for lunch.
Five of us rented a car to get to Baden-Baden. I was smooshed in the backseat of some little Opel combi next to Sascha and Alex, an Australian dude from the same city as Peter, also from Australia. Rabea and Peter were in the front. Rabea's a nice girl. She and Sascha were the only people from Germany on our trip. I think she and Peter have some sort of relationship thing going on, though I heard some gossip that they´re both dating other people and ... well, I won't talk about that here. Ryan R met us there; he took a train. He came pretty late; he said there were several delays because people kept jumping on the tracks or something. I guess Tuesday was the day to try to commit suicide on the train tracks. I don't know; I'm just going by what Ryan R said. And Rachel, a friend of Sascha's from Tennessee met us there also. She is an au pair for a family in Dusseldorf right now. She used to au pair in Aachen, so that's how she's connected. She was super friendly and a lot of fun. And she took care of us; she'd wake up early to go buy us bread and stuff for breakfast, do the dishes, clean up after us. It was great.
Baden-Baden's a nice place. There are a lot of old people there. It's situated near the edge of the black forest so it has lots of hiking trails. They have a casino there because that's what old people like to do. And, like in Aachen, it has thermal baths.
The first night there, we walked to the new castle in the city. It was a bit of a climb and we got a great view of Baden-Baden by night. Also, it was a cloudless sky so we could see the stars. The next day, we hiked to the old castle. It´s really cool looking--not really majestic and royal, fit for a princess or anything. It was just old and still standing; it had a cool layout. We'd bought some lunch food in the supermarket before our hike and ate it atop the old castle. Again, we had a great view of Baden-Baden. I simply love those panoramic views!
That evening, we went to the casino. We dressed up because it's a nice place and they have a dress code. The guys didn't really bring appropriate stuff. They were decked out in jeans and wrinkly collared shirts. But I put on a dress I'd bought in Paris and my heels. I felt so pretty. The apartment we stayed in had some really old stuff, including a cane. Peter took it with him for an old-man, gentlemanly look. Sure enough, we got turned away at the door of the casino. "Gentlemen must have ties to enter; no sports shoes," said the man at the entrance. We did have the option to go downstairs, though, to the machines. We just couldn't get to the table area. So we did. I won! Not much, but I was so lucky. Well, first I fed a ten euro bill into a slot machine. I couldn't read the German on the buttons, and I think I bet the max and lost half my money right there. Then, I accidentally cashed out. So I found one of those plastic buckets to hold my coins. Then, I fed one into a video poker machine and took off from there. First hand was a full house! And one hand after another I just kept winning; a pair here, straight there. The machine had "double or nothing" which I'm a sucker for, but I turned five euros into ten once by doing it! Soon, my friends were crowded around watching. It was exciting. I finally understand why my father loves gambling. I've never won before; and you can imagine that's not much fun. But this time, I had a huge smile on my face. I more than doubled my ten euros by the end of it. Like I said, I didn't win big, but it was enough to feel good.
Then Rabea and I, the two nicest dressed people that night, went into the area with the table games while the others waited outside. It cost three euros just to enter. Everything was so fancy in there. All the men had black suits on. Huge crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Gold trim adorned every wall. We didn't play, just watched. We saw more than one person bet 100 euros at once. In the bathroom, they had someone sitting in there; she would wipe the seat after you finished using the toilet! I've never seen that! I never had to tip anyone before just to use the restroom! That casino was a sight to see.
The following day, Alex and Peter went mountain biking. The rest of us walked around town shopping and stuff. We stopped for coffee/whatever at a cafe. I got "spaghettieis" which is a dessert made to look like spaghetti. They put vanilla ice cream through a pasta making thing to shape it like spaghetti. There is strawberry sauce on top and ground coconut for the "parmesan." I actually didn't like it that much; I'm not a fan of strawberries in my ice cream or coconut in general. I just ordered it cuz it looked cool.
In the evening, we went to the baths. We spent about three hours there. I liked it. It didn't have quite the same atmosphere as the one in Aachen, which really tries to make it a relaxing retreat. Here, more kids were running around and stuff. But that meant we could act like little kids and get away with it... ;-) just kidding. We behaved like mature adults pretty much. There was a steam room. I could hardly breathe in there; there was a weird aroma filling the room. I avoided the sauna since I didn't care to see naked old people.
On Friday, we did some more hiking. We just wandered through the black forest trying to find a lake to swim in. We got a bit lost and stuff, but ended up at this gorgeous piece of nature. We found a deep clear lake lined by cliffs on one side. We again had food from the supermarket with us and we ate it on the shore. A few people had brought their swimsuits and went in. I didn't have mine, but it looked like so much fun. So, I went swimming in my clothes. It was a dumb idea; I was sopping when I got out. But it felt so good to swim somewhere so natural and beautiful. I ended up changing out of my wet clothes and wearing my sweatshirt which was still dry and a towel for a skirt. I bet I looked very classy walking back through town in that. I should have tried to get in the casino--it was a skirt after all.
I couldn't believe I'd actually gone swimming in my clothes. I did another silly thing too; for lunch, I bought a can of whipped cream, with some sugar wafer cookies to put it on. I ate the whole pack, minus the few I shared with people. It was so unhealthy, but so delicious. Everyone was shocked that that was what I was actually eating for lunch.
Baden-Baden was a lot of fun. I'm really glad I went.
Our original plan had been to leave Friday, but everyone wanted to stay until Saturday. I had booked a flight to Valencia at 10:30 Saturday morning, so I wanted to get back to Aachen on Friday.
That evening, I arranged a ride back to Aachen through Mitfahrgelegenheit. It's a website where people post where they're driving to/from and people can carpool with them if they split the gas costs. It's probably the cheapest way to travel. And someone was going from Karlsruhe, which is a fifteen minute trainride from Baden-Baden, to Aachen that night. Ryan R had seen online that there was a music festival in Karlsruhe that night. He's into music and stuff like that, so he wanted to go. He, Sascha, and Rachel ended up joining me to Karlsruhe where they went to the festival and I hitched my ride. We didn't leave Karlsruhe until about 10:15, so I didn't get back to Aachen until 2 in the morning. I still had to book my return flight from Valencia and my hostel. I didn't get to bed until very late. And I had to wake up at like 6 to make my flight. It takes a while to make it all the way to the Cologne airport where I was leaving from. Now I'm in Valencia, simply exhausted, but loving Spain!
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