The youth hostel was pretty easy to find - I hopped on a bus and was there in 15 minutes. It turned out that you couldn´t check in until 1pm, so I dumped my stuff in the baggage room and went for an explore. This largely consisted of going into shops to escape the cold and buying lots of books. I got a few of Kafka´s books, which I´ve been wanting to read for ages and a few other random german books that looked good at the time:P

After making my way through every department store and bookshop in Frankfurt, I decided I might as well go and get my skis. I didn´t have a map, so I vaguely walked in a direction that seemed to correlate with the google maps image I had in my head...which was way off:P I eventually found a map and made my way to the Globetrotter Ausrüstung shop. After a short wait, the ski salesperson came out, listened to what I wanted and in very fast german, recommended a few pairs of skis and told me everything about them. I politely smiled and nodded and pretended to understand. Didn´t fool him though, he reverted to halting english and I kept replying in halting german:P There was a bit of confusion about whether I needed to buy new ski boots for the classic skis. I told him I´d used my boots with classic skis before and he told me that would destroy the bindings lol. He eventually went and got the bindings to prove his point to me and in the process of doing so, realised I was right after all:P I picked out two sets of no wax skis and bindings and a pair of classic stocks that looked pretty good and arranged for the bindings to be installed. I´m picking it all up and paying for it on 6th when I leave Frankfurt because I don´t really want to leave it in the hostel.

I went back to the hostel after that and unpacked. I was lying on my bed eating a bag of cornchips and setting up my new sim card (number is 01624 666 388) and generally relaxing when I heard this dramatic snoring suddenly start up. I rapidly turned round and discovered this dude sleeping in the bunk next to me, completely and invisibly covered by the blanket hahaha.

All those cornchips made me hungry, so I went for a walk. I was originally intending to go into the city centre to find a supermarket or something, but I started walking along the Main (which is right next to the youth hostel!) and it was so nice that I ended up forgetting the drink and going for a 3 hour walk along the Main. After an hour I got away from the freeway and the rest of civillisation and was walking past these garden allotment thingies. They´re really cool, people just go there in their free time and grow vegetables as far as I can tell. We should do that kind of thing in Australia. I like growing food, but it doesn´t really seem worth it when you´ve only got a tiny garden bed at your disposal. I turned round at 4pm, conscious of the dwindling light and strolled back to the hostel, where I discovered a few new arrivals in the room. Viki, a Srilankan born Frankfurt native and Theo, an American were making themselves at home, and after a while, this guy called Ben popped his head in. Ben is so hilarious. I met him when I first arrived at the hostel. He accosted me at the doorway and asked me why I was carrying a long bag with military stripes on it:P We stood there talking for about 15 minutes and every time someone walked out of the hostel, he´d insult them in German:P He taught me a few :D

Viki and I played Kicker (what they call Fussball over there) for a while (I got absolutely slaughtered haha), while Theo chatted up a few Spanish girls. Then Viki gave us a guided tour of the nightspots in Frankfurt´s Altstadt. It was freeezing cold - I was wearing about 4 layers and shivering, but he was just wearing a hoodie and said he wasn´t cold at all! I wish I´d grown up in Germany! Frankfurt actually reminds me a lot of Melbourne. It´s about the same size and the Main is just like the Yarra except wider. I wouldn´t mind living here...

This morning we had breakfast at the hostel and then Theo and I went out into the city for another explore. Kind of a weird experience being the tour guide and translator when I don´t know the city or the language that well lol. Viki promised to take us out to a few places tonight, should be good;D