Strasbourg

On the first weekend, we joined the ERASMUS students on a day trip to Strasbourg.

Strasbourg is the main city for Alsace region in France but throughout history has been changing their nationality between being French and German.

The train station is quite a sight.
We went straight to the dock to go on the tourist boat.
I am more to independent travelling but I don't mind changing to accommodate when travelling in group.
Anyway, we have 40 minutes extra before the boat, so we walked back the charming street and made a stop.

a small scoop of ice cream for 2 euro, if I remember it correctly.

An Erasmus guy followed us.
Aida : What's your name?
Erasmus : Niko.
Aida : oh.hahaha. in Montenegroean, niko means nobody.

I swear by the timberhouses that she didn't mean to offend him. You can tell by the tone but we had to suppress our laughter.

Anyway, we went window shopping in the shops.
Alsace is famous for these

bundtcake/kugelhopf mould, the oval pot, tableclothes.

Well, as a fan of anything kitchen utensils, I highly consider buying them but was reasoned out by the fact that I am going to Colmar and baggage limitation because I'm flying back.

We then go on the boat trip. Nothing much to say it was a typical tourist thing. But for sure most of your pictures taken from the boat will look like these

the most photographed building in Strasbourg

After the bot trip we have an A4 size black and white map each and 4 hours. The first obstacle is the Asian shop selling beautiful pieces for a fractionated price. And I have 3 girls with me who don't mind the long q to the fitting cube and can only see the stuff inside the shop. Reading the map is rather tricky and after what seems like forever, we reached petite France to

- go into the souvenir shop for some shopping

- take picture with the sign

- sample and buy biscuits from the redflag bakery

- go into Asian shop and torn between buying the frozen stuff or not (all fingers pointing to me)

The signboard is typical for the region. They are in Freiburg too.

We were supposed to meet others at the restaurant and were runnig late.

Problem is, according to the map we are like at the other end. wisest choice is to walk along the river of which we did.

Then as we were turning into the street for the restaurant, we made few "come back, it's this way"

We went into the restaurant just as everyone is finishing their flamkuchen/Tarte flambée.  we ordered one for ourselves but I must say that the ones the BVMD made for international dinner is far better. We chat away and the girls arranged to meet the Spanish for some festival back in Freiburg later in the evening (FYI, they didn't find each other eventhough both parties went for it)

The thing that you have to know about the German is that they are not only punctual, but they also stride faster.

We were catching the train, which is like at the other end of the place and I stepped on banana skin. Just what I need!

We managed to catch our train back.

Conclusion is I take note that my further trips during the exchange will start no earlier than 9 am. 10 am seems to be the ideal time to take the train. They asked me how was the trip. I'd say it's average and I don't get to really wander the town because the time is too short. I think Colmar is less crowded, less touristy and more beautiful.