One thing that I have begun to realize about American society is that we strive for simplicity, while the rest of the world is content to continue with their old traditions, regardless of convenience. The most pertinent example of this is the fitted sheet. In Europe, beds normally do not have a fitted sheet covering the mattress. Instead they rely on expert bed-making skills, tightly wrapping a second flat sheet around the bed and tucking it tightly beneath, a task that would be made far more simple by adding a little elastic to the sheet...The issue arises when you have individuals…specifically Americans accustomed to the fitted sheet…whose bed-making abilities fall short of what is necessary to keep the mattress covered. At school I have survived because I did manage to find a fitted sheet at the CORA, however, such a luxury was unavailable to me in the hostel I stayed in this weekend...
At one o’clock in the morning, when I arrived at the hostel in Köln, I was hoping to find a warm and inviting bed to crash in…honestly I was so tired from the 5 hour train ride, that I thought I could have cared less where I slept, as long as it was a bed. Upon entering the room, I was a little perturbed that the bed had not been made for me. My tired apathy thought…Ok that’s cool, its cheap, they expect you to make your own bed, I’ve totally got this. But when I examined the linens provided for me I was truly perplexed…laying on my bed was a flat sheet, a pillow case, a pillow, a featherbed thingy, and a large sheet sack…I had the pillow / pillow-case match on lock-down, but was the sack? A slipcover of sorts I was supposed to push the mattress into? Or was I supposed to sleep in it like a sleeping bag? My worry about the hostel’s sanitation kept running through my mind. I examined the entirety of the mattress looking for remnants of bugs or eggs as my backpackers guide to Europe had encouraged. It was spotless, but they could be hiding right? I decided that my best game plan for making the bed was to put as much fabric between myself and the possibly bug ridden mattress as possible, regardless of whether I sacrificed my own warmth. I began by laying the “feather-bed” onto the mattress, and covering it with the flat sheet, which I then attempted to tuck around as tightly as a fitted sheet. I stuffed my pillow in its case, stuffed myself into the large sack and waddled as best I could from the light switch to the bed. Instead of fixating on the obscene roughness of the sheets, which couldn’t have had a thread count higher than 50, I lay there petrified of what could possibly be living within the mattress, featherbed, or pillow. At some point my exhaustion set in and I did fall asleep.
In the morning, after my alarm had sounded and as I lay in bed wondering whether I had it in me to brave the bathroom or not, I begun to think about the large sheet sack I was currently enveloped in… All night long I kept getting tangled up in it as I tossed and turned, surely, I mean Surely Europeans couldn’t find this comfortable…a sleeping bag could not be the appropriate usage for this sheet sack… And then it came to me. The “featherbed” that I had laid down as a mattress pad was of coarse not a feather bed, but a duvet insert, and my sandpaper sleeping bag was in reality the duvet cover…I felt a little disappointed in my own intelligence, got up and started the day.
Friday was spent pursuing through the city of Köln, the highlights of which were their Cathedral, “the Dom,” which ironically had no dome…the Chocolate Museum and the Museum Ludwig, a modern art museum that took us the better part of the morning to see. I personally loved the Museum; it had fantastic collections of Picasso, Warhol, Max Ernst, Dali and Kirschner. My least favorite part was the constant grumble coming from Zach as he insisted that half the works could easily be reproduced by a four-year old and the other half were offensive…
Saturday we were on to the tiny town of Treis-Karden to see the Castle Burg Eltz…which we had to hike to…like actually walk in the woods for an extended period of time to see. I swear I think it was the first time in at least three months that my tennis shoes were worn…However, in spite of the blood, sweat, tears and mud (actually there was no blood, it just sounds better if there was) the sense of satisfaction when we finally reached the castle was incredible. Tucked within the mountains bordering the Mosel River, this castle dating from 1250 was quite a diamond in the literal ruff.
Having showered up from our grimy morning, Saturday night we were in the town of Heidelberg, which was quite the happening scene. I felt so Cosmopolitan mingling with so many other college students, the only downfall was that none of them really spoke English, so we kinda kept to ourselves…Sunday morning we explored their ruined castle on the hill, and took the funicular up for quite a sweeping view of the Neckar River Valley.
I have had several requests for our address here in France and it is as follows:
Georgia Tech Lorraine
Attention : Name
2-3 rue Marconi
Metz-Technopôle
57070 Metz
France
I love goodies, especially jelly beans and anything with peanut butter and chocolate, my shoe size is 11, celery green and pink are my favorite colors, and my birthstone is Ruby…and ummm, Zach, he’ll eat pretty much anything that isn’t rotten…
Until next time,
Lots of Love!
New Pictures of this Weekend have been added to my Webshots, http://community.webshots.com/user/HillHerb