Baden-Baden, The Black Forest, Mainaue (my-now), and a Whole Lot of Plans Not Working Out!

My first weekend travel was an absolute nightmare but totally memorable and super funny when looking back on it all!! We set off to what we thought was a good start woke up with plenty of sleep and headed down to the train station. Alex couldn’t get her eurail validated again so that stunk but it was ok cuz there were six of us; matt, jon, jeff, lex, alex and me, and we could buy a 5 person ticket and a 1 person ticket and for there and back it cost us each only 15 euro. It took us a while to figure out how to buy a ticket but then we realized that we bought the one on the way back right there too and it might have validated it so we thought we were gonna have to buy a whole nother set of tickets for the way back but we decided not to worry about it and we would figure it out later.

We’re riding along on the train when all of a sudden we decide we really need to figure out how to validate our tickets but none of them will fit in the machines so now we’re thinking we bought the wrong kind of tickets and we’re riding the train illegally and we try and get people to help us but they don’t speak that much English and they really have no idea what our tickets are for either so we were just like, ok we’re gonna just play the ignorant American card when the conducter comes around and hopefully he’ll have pitty on us. Then a few minutes later alex comes up to me and matt (we didn’t get seats all together at first) and tells us that she left her eurail and copy of passport at the train station and she’s gonna go back and get it! She’s super upset and I have no idea what to do and she called ula (one of the workers in the house) and she said ula laughed at her and said “I can’t help you you should go back!” (all in a silly accent of course). And Her D. the program director wasn’t answering his phone. I told her I would go with her and she said she didn’t want to ruin my trip and it was fine and before I could process anything we were at a stop and she gets off the train and I’m standing there like wanting to jump off the train but she took the single person ticket which would mean I’d be riding without a ticket and I was looking from her (outside the train at this point) to matt and my brain was just freaking out cuz I didn’t have any idea what to do but my instinct was to jump out the train with her and before I could do that we were off leaving her behind!!!

I called her when we got the station where we were transferring trains and she said she was fine and then later she called back (all on jeffs phone) and said that she had found her passport copy and her eurail and she would meet us at our connecting station cuz the trains left every hour so it was no problem waiting for her to come! Thank goodness everything worked out and she found us fine at the train station thank goodness cuz jeff’s phone died right after he told her where at in the trainstation we were! She told us that as soon as she saw the train pull away she started bawling and was trying to read the train schedule and this guy came up to her and was realized she spoke English cuz he had heard her on the phone I think and was like, “why are you crying??” and she said he was trying to help her but since she was crying and he barely spoke English he had a super hard time trying to understand what she needed! Poor alex! I felt so bad for her! =(

So we’re on our way again, meanwhile we find out the tickets we’re traveling on aren’t valid and the reason is because we thought that when it asked to punch in two numbers it was asking how many people there were when really it was asking what day are you traveling on. So we were basically traveling on tickets for October 5th when it was September 15th! And of course we got checked and the guy thank goodness didn’t even say anything and just told me to write the names of the people down on our ticket!! Thank goodness!! So we finally get to konstance and we get out of the train station and are basically like, ok…. Now what??? 

Where's my Eurail/copy of my passport??

How do you buy a train ticket???

How do you buy a bus ticket? What kind do we need?

This picture is for Ashlee!! They told me I looked emo when I first woke up so I had to take a picture!

We wanted to go to mainau which is this amazing island in between Switzerland and germany and it has all these flowers and statues out of flowers and gardens and green rooms and rose gardens, basically any outdoor lovers paradise! But of course, none of us really know how the heck we get there so we’re looking at the bus menu trying to figure out where it is and then trying to figure out which direction we need to take the bus. Also we’re not sure if the tickets we have work for busses as well and the bus we think we’re supposed to be taking keeps coming by so we just decide to hop on it and again decide we’ll play the stupid American card if they ask us for our tickets and just show them the tickets that we have that don’t really work! Fortunately we did take the bus in the right direction and we figured out the right stop and got off and enjoyed mainau! It was really worth all the ridiculous stuff that happened in the morning and it was a beautiful day and just totally amazing! I have pictures but it’s just not as great! You can’t see how many plants there were EVERYWHERE! And again germany has the best stinkin playgrounds of my life! There were like huck finn playground with baby rivers around them that you floated on rafts on! It was awesome!

Pretty Swan!

It's a Seven Dwarf!! Made out of trees and flowers and bushes!!
Courtney Says: "I love this place!!"

Yup and that is definitely a peacock!! 

There was like miles of flowers!! It was so beautiful!!

These were my favorite ones!!

Just an amazing fountain!!
Chris McNeal Says: "okay, that's pretty."
Courtney Says: "Shannon I'm sooooo jealous!! This was the first weekend trip we took too!"
Me: "No way??? We're so sisters!! haha!!"
Sister Says: "So pretty. Love the people in the background"

We decided this place we're in front of was the best place to ever get proposed to/married in/anything romantic!

Yeah, that's a real peacock! Just running around!

Ashley King Says: "That's a actually a really good imitation!" 

We were starving so we ate there and this guy that was our waiter was so funny! We wanted the family meal which came with 8 schnitzel and 2 kilos of fries for 30 euro (like 5 each) but apparently that was only if you had kids so then he started with just our drink orders and it gets to me and I say oh nothing for me and he snaps “why?” and I was so surprised so I looked up and said, “because I’m not thirsty…” and he goes oh, and then looks at the next person to order and right as they’re ordering he takes all our menus and says I’ll bring you the family meal, just tell them your kids are playing over there if the manager comes by!! It was so funny! So we basically demolished the meal and the boys ate all the fries it was pretty ridiculous!!!! But amazing, and so good!

Just our family size dinner for the kids who were out playing on the playground (we were told to say!) Nothing left at the end besides two radishes! 

We looked around a little more and discovered a castle and the most amazing place to get married EVER! Mainau was pretty much the best place for all that kind of stuff, proposals, first dates, anniversary’s, weddings, it was just that beautiful and romantic! So we realize we should probably head back so we can catch our train and get into Baden-Baden so we can get our reservations. We again are super nervous about riding the bus and not sure if our tickets work or not and are relieved when we get off the bus and back at the train station. So here’s where the story gets super interesting again….

We make it with like 30 minutes to spare at the train station so we’re siting there just hanging out at our trains area when this one train pulls up and stops in the lane that our train is supposed to be in, which is normal, but it stays there for like 20 minutes and the closer it gets to our time to leave we’re like this stupid train needs to get out of the way so our train can come, and it better not be broken down or something cuz we want to leave, by this time we’re tired and cranky! Well it comes to our trains time and our train isn’t here and this one is still in the way and finally it leaves. Meanwhile almost every single one of us has gone down to check the schedule to make sure that this isn’t the train that’ we’re supposed to be taking and we keep second guessing but we’re sure it’s not it doesn’t say the right thing on it! So it leaves and yes, I’m sure you’ve guessed it, our train never comes!!! So then we ask this lady “this train we were supposed to be taking isn’t here are you taking it too?” and she says “no!” and then we said what time it was supposed to be here and she goes “oh it’s probably not coming” or something like that and we said “is that normal?” and she said “no!” so then we check the schedule and of course that was the last train of the night to Baden-Baden! So now we’re stuck and we have no idea what to do when lex (who speaks a lot of bit more german than any of the rest of us) remembers that she saw a sign in german on the bus map we were reading that says youth hostel!

So unsuspecting of what's to come...

Ummmm where's the train?

 So we go back out to the bus stop and try and find it and then we try and buy bus tickets because by this time of course with our luck we’re gonna get caught on the bus riding without valid tickets, and the stupid machine wont give us tickets and we can’t figure out what kind we want to use. This lady sitting next to us can tell we’re having troubles so she comes up to help us and can’t figure out what kind of ticket we need (of course) and so she tells us we can just ask the bus driver and then trys to help us somemore and then says she’ll ask for us and we told her she didn’ t have to that we’ve already troubled her enough. We try and figure it out for a little bit more and can’t and our bus comes so we don’t want to miss another means of transportation so we just jump on the bus, and of course the lady does too and she ends up right in front of jeff and jon and is giving them dirty looks the whole time cuz she knows we’re riding without tickets and they’re freaking out that she’s gonna tell on them and this creepy guy with a growling dog is right next to me… and finally we get off at the stop we’re supposed to get off at, and again… we have no idea whatsoever where this youth hostil is and its dark and all I want to do is take a shower cuz I feel disgusting and go to bed!! This lady points up and goes youth hostil and then walks away so we were like, ok I guess we’ll go up there. So we start walking up this hill with no youth hotel in sight and are just hoping we’re going the right way! We still don’t see anything and are loosing hope thinking we’re gonna be stuck on the streets and good ol texas jon says in his thick accent, “you know how y’all were wondering how many hobos have slept in that ol’ train back there, I’ll tell you 6, us, lets go back!” and we all just die laughing cuz it’s so true!!! We were so ready to just sleep somewhere, anywhere!! Finally this guy comes walking down the street and lex asks him in german if he knows where the hostil is and he told here just keep going up the hill and it’s to the right. So we finally find it and as we’re getting closer I hear alex from behind me say, “is that a graveyard??” and I’m like “what?” and jeff looks over the hedges and I hear him say “yup!” and I start freaking out! Yes, right next to the hostil we were walking towards to sleep at there was a graveyard!!! I freaked!!

So once we get in there I don’t even care about the graveyard anymore I’m so sick and tired, and just want to drop dead! The guy makes us fill out all this paperwork so we can be apart of hostel international, and then I notice all these ways to tie knots and examples of course hanging on the wall at the front desk and I’m like oh this is reassuring all the guests no how to tie fool proof knots now, excellent (sarcasm)! So then we finally fill it all out and bring it back up to the guy and he says to us, “is too late, no more rooms!” none of us said a word!! I’m leaning on the counter for it to help me stay in an upright position and I just stare at him with my mouth open and we all just stood there, and no one knew what to say, and then like 30 seconds after we’re just sitting there staring at him, he goes, “I just kid! Haha! Give me your information!” he had no idea the day we were having!! That totally would have been our luck!!! We were so relieved! So we get in, I took a shower, drank some hot chocolate, and fell asleep, but not really! It was one of those sleeps where you’re just laying there with your eyes closed all night because you know how I’m a freak about dirty things touching me, I was so scared if I fell asleep I’d toss and turn in the night and my sheets would come up and then I would be touching the mattress in the morning!! Paranoid I know but I can’t take not knowing whats been in my bed!!! Ahhhhh!!

So we get up early and decide we’re just going to go to baden-baden instead of the black forest as well and take an early train back into Heidelberg because all any of us wants to do is go home!! So here I am thinking this is the worst EVER and I’m thinking maybe I don’t like traveling and how am I gonna be able to do this every weekend but I get up and we buy bus passes from the bus driver himself so there's no confusion and get on the 3 hour train ride, which since I was sick was passed out on the entire time and I’m sure there's some lovely pictures as well because I can’t breathe through my nose so my mouth was wide open! We finally get there and again, don’t really know exactly where we’re going but kind of get lucky (for once in the trip) and take the bus in the right place and hten kind of guess which way we think the roman spas are going to be and we got right again!!

So here’s the awkward part, the spas are nude there though!! You know how I’m like afraid of nakedness so it was so awkward but the packages was only 21 euros for 3 hours and only 8 dollars more for a 30 minute massage and it all sounded so good and I definitely think we deserved it from our miserable weekend so we all paid for the massage packet! And in the pictures all the ladies have towels around them in the spas and in the massage picture its over their butts so we’ere like this is ok, we’re gonna be fine!! Definitely liars!! They told us to get naked and didn't give us a towel and then when they would give us towels then they woul take em’ away from us!!! I was so embarrassed the whole time!! Oh and I forgot an important part, sorry, it was separate!! Heck no was it coed, there’s no way I would have even thought about doing it if it was coed!!!!! Are you kidding me! But the lady did warn us of this one part where it’s like three different temperature swimming pools in the middle and that was coed and the guys we went with were like well why don’t we work it out so we’re not in there at the same time (cuz how awkward would that be, I’d never be able to look at them again!!!) and all of us girls were like ummMm… you don’t even have to worry about that because there is no way we’re going in the coed part!! You couldn't pay me to!!

Caitlin Johnson Says: "DID YOU GO TO BADEN BADEN?
Me: "haha! Yeah!! It was like basically the most unlucky weekend of my life but the spa made it all worth it! Even though it was incredibly awkward!! haha!! First trip of the year, definitely bonded with my roomates!!
Courtney Says: "I love it!" 

The nude spa!!! Ahhhhh! Still can't believe we did that!! 

So heres how it went, once they made us get naked, with no towels in case you forgot, then we went into this room with these huge showers and it was so warm and then you went into this room that felt like Hawaii and I felt like I was getting a tan just laying in there, it felt so good and then the next room was even hotter but that room was pretty ridiculous it was so hot we only stayed in there for like 2 minutes!! And then it was the massage time with soap and brushes but we had to lay FACE UP at first!! It was so awkward!! That is defninitely not how they were in the picture and that’s where they took the towels that they gave us for the hot rooms away from us =( and then there was this amazing sauna that made me feel so much better cuz it was like aroma therapy air and it was like I bought a vaporizer and I just sat in there forever and could feel my nasal passages and throat clearing and I just breathed in so deeply it felt amazing!! But then I walked in a second time and I thought I saw a guy and I was like no, I’m not sure, she probably just had short hair and then I sat by lex and alex and they were like there’s a guy in here, and I freaked out!!! I was like oh my gosh I though so!!! So we’re all siting there like trying to cover ourselves up and he’s like behind us and I’m like freaking out cuz I’m thinking is this the coed part??? She said it was a pool and I was freaking out that our guys that we came with were gonna come in any minute!!! But we didn’t want to get up because THERE WAS A BOY IN THERE!! So we’re just sitting there and finally he gets up and then he realizes he was in the wrong room because he goes to go into the girl massage room and gets yelled at!! And he turns around smiling and embarrassed and walks out!!! So awkward!!! So then there was a cool pool you swam in and then this freezing cold pool that I didn’t want to get in but I was like I payed for it to I might as well!! And then the most awkward part of all was the moisturizing room, and it was filled with mirrors and you put this really nice lotion on in there, but it was the worst cuz it was like you coul see yourself naked and you knew everyone else could see you naked!! Ahhhhh!! I was so awkward and there was like a space wehre there wasn’t mirror and I kept trying to hide behind it so at least I wouldn’t have to see me and know everyone else could see me!! And then we weighed ourselves, I’ve defnintely already lost 6 pounds, not good!!! It’s only been a week!! And then she asked us if we wanted to rest and we were like “yes!!!” so she led us to this room and we layed on these beds and they wrapped the warmest and softest blankets I’ve ever felt around us like a cacoon and we got to sleep! It was pretty much amazing!! And then the last step was that you could read in the nude but that was a little awkward so we skipped out on that and finally got to put our clothes on!! But I really did feel a million times better and I felt the cleanest I think I’ve ever felt and my skin felt so soft!! It was amazing besides the fact that they took our towels away from us!!

The funniest part is that we were done before the boys were and they were a little unsure about it and I think they liked it a little bit more, maybe a lot bit more, than we did!! There faces when we saw them were so happy and like relaxed, it was hilarious!!!

All washed shampooed and shined! haha!! 

So in the end we made our early trip ride back to Heidelberg, thank goodness!! And ate a big/cheap meal at food corner and came back and relaxed!! It was sooOo good to be home and I was glad we came back a day early! I think we all were!! And I was also glad we went to baden-baden because I really didn’t even want to do that I just wanted to come back!! But going there made me change my mind about traveling and that it really is worth it you just can’t be sick and can’t have a super unlucky day!! Mainau and the roman spas in baden-baden were definitely worth it all though!! And I’m totally going there whenever I get sick now!!

Luv shannon