Frankfurt, U of F and Karaoke

Wow. My first full night ended up being a lot more exciting than I expected. Everyone said (including my handy little travel book) that Frankfurt really doesn't have a whole lot going on. The nightlife is iffy and there are just a few museums hanging around the city. It's really just a travel hub, the place you pass through. That was are plan. At least until we met the other passer-throughs.

We met Christina from the University of Florida, who is traveling around before she begins teaching English in Italy, her boyfriend, Terry (also from U of F), and his friend Dan. Then there was Andy from Texas, who was in the Army and just got back from Kuwait, Yaz (?) who is from New Jersey and Darko, who is from Canada but is Eastern European. Frankfurt may not have much going on, but we made the most of what was there.

Last night the UEFA cup final was on, which is a pretty big deal in Europe. The match was between Manchester United and Barcelona. We ended up a little sports bar to watch the match. Barcelona won. Yay. I really didn't pay that much attention. But then, right before we left, the U of F boys challenged we Tar Heels to a little chugging match. Now I have always admitted that I can't chug. It's a known fact. But I figured that if Thomas did well we could hold our own. So we got our .5 liters each and settled in.

Now let me take this time to note the fact that UF was recently picked as America's #1 party school. Terry and Dan showed us why. Before Thomas could even get started with his beer, Terry had thrown his down and was done. Dan then picked his up and finished even faster. I guess NC boys like to enjoy their drinks....

We left there and moved to a little Spanish bar, where we were confronted by rowdy Barcelona fans. We quickly moved on. The Irish Bar next door was having Karaoke night. What red-blooded American doesn't like karaoke? We decided to see how the Germans did it.
When we walk in, someone is belting out Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." Not kidding. The next song? "Sweet Home Alabama." I couldn't make this up. I felt right at home. And, of course, we all started belting out the words.

Then it was our turn. Thomas and I started them out with a little Temptations, "My Girl," complete with the Temptation walk I learned in Germany. Christina and Darko rocked out scarily well on "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain. Then there was this questionable German guy who sang two songs: "Gay Bar" and "I Need a Man After Midnight" (those might not be the actual name, just what the chorus was. I'd never heard them before).

We finished them up with a rousing rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" before we stumbled out the door and started on the long walk back to our hostel. I never thought I would be singing karaoke in an Irish bar in Germany. But it was a great time!

This morning we got up to catch our train, but we ended up catching the wrong one. Ours was late and we ended up jumping on the one before it. Luckily they both had the same first stop, so after riding for an hour we waited and got on the right train. All ended well and we found our first hostel in Berlin. Apparently on Thursday nights you can go to the museums for free for four hours before they close, so we did that quickly just to kill some time. Then we got some amazing Indian food (mmm curry chicken) and came back to the hostel.

We're pretty wiped out so we're making it an easy night, but we should be plenty busy tomorrow! We found a free walking tour we are going to do, then we're going to take our chances on a pub crawl tomorrow night. We'll see how it goes.

Chris was right when he commented on the last post that free internet is not very common here. I'm cramming all I can into this hour. I hope I can find some more free internet soon, but I probably won't update tomorrow. But until then, you can check out more pictures on my Facebook page. We have video, but I haven't gotten a chance yet to put them on YouTube. I'll let you know when I do.

Until then, cheers!!