Nuremburg, Germany

Today was quite the day. Started it off at 7 when I got up and showered and then met Liz for breakfast around 8:30. We ate and then went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for lunch and then headed out of Vienna. Our train for Germany left around 10:30 and it was about five hours long. The ride went well and was pretty. :) Got into Nuremburg at 3:30 and then went to look for our hostel. CLT's directions were to "come out of the train station, look up to the highest point in the city and walk up there 20 minutes to the castle." Well, that didn't hardly work at all. We looked outside the train station and all we could see was tall buildings. Then walked around the whole train station, then through it looking for a map, then waiting and asking for directions that didn't work, trying to find the metro, deciding not to use it, etc. An hour later we finally left the station and I was pissed. We were supposed to meet up with the group at 4 but that didn't work so hot and the lack of any direction and madness really irked me. So, we finally got a direction and made our way towards the castle. It was way uphill and I dragged our massive suitcase up coblestone and just about killed myself on the way up there. :-/ Then, we couldn't find the hostel once we got to the top, so we wandered some more and asked the same guy for directions twice within 15 minutes. Argh, I was so frustrated! Finally, almost 2 hours later, we made it to the hostel at 5:20 only to have Dr. Schuetz standing outside to greet us. The bus with everyone else was even later than we were, so we ended up not missing anything anyhow. That was a great relief! So, I checked into my room, then had a decent pasta dinner and got a small nap afterwards. Liz and I went out to catch the sunset around 7:15, but it was hard to see so we sat and chatted a little which was fun. Then came back and read our book together and did a little schoolwork. Around 9:30 we went out with about 6 other people to a bar in town and hung out for a bit and got to know them better. It was a nice time and we made it back here around 11:15 or so and took a shower. Been a long, exhausting day for me and I can't wait to sleep!