So, today was interesting. I got up early to meet Marc in Koblenz before heading out to Luxemburg. There was no actual confirmation between the two of us, so I was very glad to see him there and ready to go. We made it to Trier alright, but then a combination of factors took us to the hole that is called Konz. We hopped right back on the next train to Trier, and with our Luxemburg day passes took an ICE to Luxemburg City. I won't say that it was a shock when we got there, but I certainly was not prepared for the French domination there. German is of course spoken, as well as English, but it is mostly Luxemburgish I guess and French. The way the signs are displayed for streets, and the fact that everything is in French there was a bit unfortunate. We got around alright though with German and English. When exploring a city, I will typically do not enough research, and then just figure things out as I go. Today was no different. Marc and I left the Hauptbahnhof in Luxemburg, then just started walking. We saw a cool monument, and then asked someone where we were. From that point on it wasn't so difficult, but per usual, we did end up seeing some government buildings and a closed library that you wouldn't typically see on a normal tour of the city (because they were entirely uninteresting). Also, it turns out that Luxemburg City is air conditioned. At a couple of points while we were walking down the sidewalk, there was very strangely, cold air blowing out of cloth that was hung down along the sidewalks. Maybe that was not intended though. We did get our act together eventually though, and saw the Bock Casements, which is an old fortress that dates back over 1000 years and was held by many different groups. It was a lot of small spaces and stairs. However, it was a perfect place to tour, because it was rather hot today, and underground stone passageways are quite cool to be in. Also, there were cannons, so that was cool; who doesn't like a cannon? After the Casements, we were kind of at a loss for what to do, so we just walked around the city, kind of looking for a place to watch Germany play, and kind of just walking. We ended up walking for a while, finding not much of anything, except for a kind of cool looking city, and found a bar with some screens we could take advantage of. Most people were rooting for Germany, which made sense, however there was a man near us who was clearly not. At halftime I went over and asked him if he was from Argentina, in Spanish. It turned out that he was in fact not, but for some reasons, that I still don't understand, was not for Germany. He ended up being an incredibly interesting person. He is from Bethlehem, and has been all over the world. As a Palestinian, who trains police forces, he was eventually forced to leave his home, and has been living in Asian countries for the last 14 years. He has lived in Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam I believe. He can apparently speak the local languages and dialects from those countries, as well as English, some French, a little German, and some Spanish, on account of living in Spain for 4 months. He has been in Luxemburg for 25 days and isn't quite sure what is next. He had favorable opinions of Americans that he has met (apparently none of which want to return to the U.S., which he vehemently told me). It is the power and the money that are the problem, not the people, but the governments. He told me that he blames 10% of the Jews for what has happened in Israel, only those with a lot of power. I got to read a song that he had written about coming from Bethlehem, and the struggle between wanting to return and have things be well again, and not being able to. He even told me that he was agnostic; he was probably one of the most colorful and well traveled people that I have ever met. His name is Jad by the way, Jad Aem. That said, there are many things about his stories that I do not believe. He seemed like quite the talker, but I think that the more important points that he had talked about were certainly based in fact. I spent the whole second half speaking with him, which was quite the experience. He said that if he weren't talking with me, he would be a lot angrier (Argentina was getting the game ripped from their grasp). I was happy to have met him for sure. Quite the character that man is (the paper that he had written his song on had some other writing that recommended a psychological evaluation, so that was another lens brought to the conversation. After our beers and the match, we headed to the Hauptbahnhof, and headed back to Trier on the next train. The train from Trier back to Koblenz took forever unfortunately, and it was incredibly loud in the beginning because of the recent blowout win. They kept on singing and singing and singing these patriotic songs involving soccer. Then when I got to Koblenz and had parted ways with Marc, I found out that my train was going to be a half hour late, which is absolutely unheard of with the Deutsche Bahn. With about an hour to wait, I headed out into the area surrounding the station and managed to find an outdoor café with a TV, broadcasting the Spain-Paraguay game. I was joined by a Japanese woman who was studying near Koblenz at a university, for her MBA. She was very nice, and we talked briefly about where we were from, and why we were in Germany. I believe her name is Aiko, or something like that. Eventually her friend who comes from China, but lived in the U.S. and now works in Berlin came (her train had been late). It was nice to talk with them for a while (she lived in Los Angeles, and her family comes from Boston), and have a beer, before my train came. I took my leave, a bit after Spain scored the only goal (the beginning was quite the goalie skill display). The train was late, of course though, likely because of the incredible abundance of soccer fans that piled out of the cars. At this point, I am getting quite used to that train ride, because it goes back and forth pretty often between Koblenz and Mainz (stopping in Ingelheim). On the ride back though, instead of listening to music I talked with an American soldier who was riding the train. He comes from Washington state, and in the last 5 months has joined the Army and gone through BASIC training. He was a pretty interesting guy, and it was nice to talk with another American for a bit. His bag and shoes gave away his status (no one in Germany wears Asics, only Adidas).
So, though Luxemburg City wasn't the most interesting place that I have visited, it did have a lot of culture. The best part was meeting the three people today. I like meeting people from all over, and they made it interesting, coming from a wide variety of places. I am tired though now, and am going to go to sleep in my bed.
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