September 17

Day 6: September 17 

Travel

Frankfurt and Eiserner Steg

Still tired from the previous day full of hiking, all five of us, especially Logan, sluggishly forced ourselves out of bed at eight in order to all have time to get ready for our next four-hour train ride to make it to Frankfurt. Although the train left at 11:22, we had to get five girls dressed, made up, and fed in only two and a half hours. After a few arguments between who gets to shower first or who is taking up more space in the mirror, everybody was finally ready. After an oddly quiet taxi drive, we arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which only Ella was able to pronounce without offending the cab driver. The Hauptbahnhof has extraordinary glass walls and ceilings, which allowed natural light to brighten up the atmosphere. We all decided that this was the most beautiful train station any of us had ever been in, except Laurel.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Pretty quickly,we found where our train was departing from and ended up not loosing anyone because of our method of making our own train of people, or in other words, we held on to the person in front of us. After waiting for a bit, we boarded the train. Logan and I did a crossword puzzle in German with the help of Google Translate while Laurel, Ellie, and Ella slept. Soon enough, we arrived in Frankfurt. As soon as we came off the train, some with tired eyes and others with intellectually spiked minds, we caught a cab and made our way to the Eiserner Steg.

 Upon approaching the bridge, it was obvious that it was our destination. It was the most attractive bridge with the most people on it. After paying our driver, we excitedly began to walk towards the structure. Almost immediately after our first steps on the bridge, Laurel exclaimed how many locks are on the bridge. Then, a second later, she almost cried because she forgot her own lock. It wasn't long before Ellie became Laurel,s new hero for thinking ahead and pulling a plain silver lock and key out of the small bag she had. All of us decided on a perfect spot for our lock. While most of the other locks were couples declaring their permanent love for each other, our lock would be a symbol of great friendship and tight bonds. We continued to walk further along the bridge so we could see the buildings along the river. It did not take a very long time to walk across the whole 170 meters of the structure. We decided that we would get a closer look at the interesting buildings we saw from the bridge.

Eiserner Steg

We walked around Frankfurt, seeing churches, businesses, and shops. We ended up splitting into two groups. Logan, Ellie, and I wanted to look at the vast amount of shops that were scattered around, while Laurel and Ella were more interested in history. We agreed to meet back at Eiserner Steg to make our way towards our next apartment that we would be staying in. After a half hour of walking, we reported back to our meeting spot to tell the others our time. The scholars learned a lot about the 'smallest metropolis in the world' while the shoppers told them about how different the fashion in Germany is compared to the United States. Not long after our short conversation Ella's stomach growled, hinting that it was time for us to eat, but Laurel insisted that we had to check in first. After a hefty meal, everyone made the mutual agreement that we had enough for the day and it was time to crash. We prepared ourselves for the next day of fun, adventure, and camaraderie.