Towards the Finish Line

Forgive me Father, it has been six days since my last blog attempt. Actually that's not quite true, I typed up a good and long one for ya'll and accidentally deleted the whole thing before I posted it! Out of frustration I took a day or two off.
Right now I'm in Station Hostel in Cologne, and I'm preparing for the upcoming flight in a day and a half. I have to say, I'm looking forward to being home! Having run out of money and a pack that weighs twice as much as it did when I left, I feel rather unmotivated to go anywhere other than home.
The last couple of days have been pretty fun though! Since leaving Berlin, I went to Nürnberg and Erlangen. In Erlangen, I stayed at a hostel with about 50 Italian tourists. Unfortunately for me, I was put on the hall with the teens who, in their infinite wisdom believed my room was inhabited by another Italian teen. For the whole night and most of the morning, they would knock on my door , to which I would reply, "It's 5AM, this is the fourth time, I'm not F***ing Italian leave me alone!!!" I don't think they understood me. In any case ,Erlangen itself was quite nice. It's just a cute small German town with a couple of Churches, a University, and a Schloss. I had some lunch there and walked all around the town just to remember it from the last time I was there.
Later in the day, I headed to Nürnberg where I promptly got lost. Only later did I realize that I had been standing under a building that was painted yellow with blue letters about the size of Volkswagens saying, "HOSTEL", right in front of the train station. Germany 1: Byron 0. I rested for a little while in the hostel and went out to dinner at a nearby Biergarten. The specialty right now in Germany is Pfifferlingen, a mushroom that only grows in the wild. I had an awesome pork steak with mushroom cream sauce and potato latkes. It definitely ranked up there with my top meals in Europe. I went back again the next day! I met two girls from North Carolina who were going North to Amsterdam and I tagged along to get to Cologne. Now, we arrived in Cologne at around midnight, assuming that accomidations would be easily found. Sadly, we were terribly mistaken. Upon arrival, we appeared at the hostel already disheveled and tired to find there were no beds free. No problem we'll just find a hotel! And thus began our Journey! Two hours later, we had scoured an entire city of fully-booked hotels, having checked over 30 hotels on foot and about 10 more by phone. We had walked through the same parts of the city so many times that we started doing the Sesame Stree Count skit. "Three! Three times we've passed by this statue without finding a hotel HA HA!" We seriiously contemplated sleeping in the train station, but apparently there was some kind of Punk convention there and it seemed likely that 3 sleeping American tourists were a prime canditates for a little bit of the good ole' revenge against the establishment crowd. So, after walking a bit more, a friendly hotel attendant offered to call his other buddy who had a free room to let. He invited me and the girls inside because it was raining and waited while he called. So there we were, wet, tired, disheveled, and likely two inches shorter from the weight of our packs in the reception room of some trashy hotel with porn on the flatscreen TV at 3 in the morning. I have the address if you wanna stay there it was a really classy place! When the attendant finally hung up the phone, there was good news and bad news: Good- There was a room free. Bad - It's on the other side of town. So off we went, across town and to the promise of clean sheets and a shower! We arrived, we paid, and we slept. The next day, we all woke up so sore that we just stayed in and watched movies most of the day. We didn't miss much though, it was really rainy outside and with the cold, none of us had clothes that fit the change in weather.
So, now I'm in the hostel down the road in Cologne on the second to last day of my trip, and I gotta say, the whole thing was awesome! I'm certaintly ready to come home, but wow what a great time that was! There's so much I haven't been able to write and probably even more that I've forgotten about! I really will miss Europe and the fun little cultural quirks that I've come to expect at every turn. That being said, there are a few things I really miss about home. I no particular order they are.

1. Ketchup - there's something nigh blasphemous about the sweetened ketchup they sell here.
2. Sushi - WAAY too expensive here. As with all things European, the less of something you get and the less the work that is put into preparation usually translates into great expense.
3. A real Pillow - Most hostels have these square pillow-like things that typically must be folded over many times to provide any sort of cushioning.
4. My car. - Thank god for personal transportation!
5. Clean clothes. - One pair of jeans, week and a half of trains, no washing facilities. I really do smell like train station now.
6. Real soap - I have one type of soap... Universal soap. It is used to clean my hands, my hair, face, body, dishes, cars, animals, whatever I need to clean! Universal soap does it all... poorly. Instead of coming out of the shower smelling clean, I smell like a really sweaty new car or a dishwasher filled with jockstraps.
7. Real anti-perspirant! - Seriously, I'm gonna have to throw away some shirts just because their decency has been compromized by the expansive sweat stains induced by the heat wave and inadequate deoderant.
8. Trustworthy Food - Every time I eat, I wonder, " Is this the one that's gonna get me?" Usually the answer is NO, but you sure as hell know when the answer is YES. This one leads directly into the next topic, which is...
9. A standard type of toilet. - I never know what to do about the toilets here. It seems as though there must have been some European conference that decided to create a variety of toilets that could not be operated properly by foreigners. I have a number of favorites. First there is the aforementioned Turkish toilet; a simple hole in the ground, I would have better luck in the sink which, at points, I seriously considered. This is likely the most dangerous toilet. Those untrained in proper usage may end up having to change pants or socks afterwards, an awkward situation to say the least. Two, The High Tank. The tank is placed high above the ground as to increase the water pressure in the bowl when flushed. Obviously, the designer was familiar with the concept of projectile motion, because it seems that the bowl was actually designed to deposit its contents wall behind the toilet. Avoid these, many function within the parameters of the, "Normal Toilet", but the one that screws up really messes with your whole day. Three, the Infinitoilet. This toilet has two settings, flush, and not-flush. While there is nothing inherently dangerous about this variety, once flushed, the water will continue to flow with incredible force until the stop button is pressed. Although, it is a waste to keep the water running, it does instill the user with a distinct feeling of power at having done something that requires the dedication of such vast resources to move. Bucho and other similar minded men, you may need to avoid the temptation to press the button, leave a note, and leave. Four, the Poop Deck/Observation Lounge. This toilet has very little danger associated with it, but is a bit odd none-the-less. To save water, a very small volume of water lies at the very front of the bowl. The back of the bowl is simply a large horizontal porcelain shelf meant to put what you have produced on display instead of dropping into the water. Five, and last of the varieties that I will detail is the Ice Trough. This is a trough built into the wall that is filled with ice. Now, at a stadium I could see why this is needed, but at fancy restaurants? I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to pee into it or use it to chill my drink while I found the real toilet. Be aware, this is should NOT be used to chill your drink.
Well that's all for now, perhaps one more post before I jump on the plane home! Tschüss!