This is the third weekend I've traveled and the third time I have stayed in a hotel...don't worry, I know you all want a funny or crazy story of me staying in a hostel (shoutout to Mom and Bob's Youth hostel story), but I already have them booked for London and Dublin next week-so don't worry, the fancy traveling will come to a halt.
We left Friday afternoon following Italian and caught the 1:12 train. We get out of Italian at noon every Friday and have about a 25 minute walk back home to the Montarina, so catching these 1 o'clock trains can be risky! Thankfully our train on Friday only had one stop. The last two weekends I've traveled, we've had about four or five different train transfers, so it was a relief this weekend not having to worry about running from train to train. Our five and a half hour train got us in to Strasbourg around 7:00, a perfect time to have us drop our bags off at the hotel and head in to town for our first French meal of the weekend!
Our hotel was about a five minute walk from the train station so we quickly checked in to our hotel because everyone was acting a little bit grumpy without food! The eight of us split in to two different rooms with four beds that ended up being very spacious. The highlight of the room you might ask? Well, it looked over a French bakery so we all knew what was on the agenda the first thing the next morning.
We asked the front desk receptionist for recommendations for a restaurant nearby. I was too nervous to use my French at that point because we have been learning Italian at USI and I've been mixing up pronunciations and conjugations. She gave us a map and circled some restaurants that were in our price range and we set out on our first adventure for the weekend. It's always difficult navigating your way through a city in the dark, nonetheless a European city where they speak a different language.
We probably wandered around for a good 45 minutes trying to find a restaurant that fit our price range and had some French cuisine. We passed a quaint restaurant called Le Maresaille that had twinkling lights and vines along the side of the town home building. We took a quick look at the menu and it fit our requirements and was even rated on Trip Advisor. We walked inside and I knew I needed to make use of my many years of studying French. I took four years of French in high school and am working on a French minor at tech, so this was the perfect opportunity to use my skills. We walked in and I asked the waiter for a table for eight people...and he understood me! He came over and brought our menus. We all knew we would have to try some French wine while in France! When he returned, we ordered our meals and I ordered mine in French. I could tell the waiter really appreciated the fact that I was speaking in their language, some of the things I said may not have been right but I kept making the effort!
Most of the group ordered steak, but Molly Rose and I ordered a dish that was off the restaurants specials. It was Camembert with salad and fries. We got the fries part incorrect and ended up getting a plate of salad with an entire wheel of fried Camembert cheese. It was basically a gigantic mozzarella stick, but with fancy, delicious French cheese. I can live off of cheese and crackers so I thoroughly enjoyed my cheese wheel and wine! Following dinner, our waiter informed us of the homemade desserts-tiramisu and creme brûlée! Our waiter was one of the sweetest French men you could ever meet! When he first brought out our meals, everyone was saying "oh my gosh" once the food came out and he would laugh and mimic us, and always had a smile on his face. It was a great way to start off the trip.
Saturday we woke up and walked a couple steps across the street to try our first French bakery of our trip. I ordered a cafe au lait and a pain au chocolat. It was a steal, only two euros! This inexpensive meal was dangerous--how could I stop from buying one euro French pastries?! My friend Meredith did some research before we got to Strasbourg and found out that Strasbourg has some of the oldest vineyards and is home to many wine cellars. There was a certain wine cellar we wanted to visit, called the Cave Historiques des Hospices des Strasbourg. The reviews said it was a difficult place to find, and they were right. The wine cellar was oddly located underneath a hospital, not really a place you would suspect for a wine cellar. When we walked inside, we first walked through the store where they sold numerous bottles of wine and then made our way to the cellar. There were probably thirty huge wooden barrels that were over six feet tall and six feed wide. We walked around and took some photos and realized that there was wine and cheese on a nearby table. I asked a man in French who was manning the table if we could try the wine because we were unsure if we had accidentally stumbled into a private tasting. He answered in French that it was a private event and I replied that it was ok with a smile and said thank you. A couple minutes later, he pulled me aside to the table with my friends and offered us the wine and cheese with a smile on his face, while whispering "shhh!" Not only did our new wine friend give us one free glass of wine, but he would come over and check on how we liked the wine and would let us taste a new type of wine.
There are many advantages of being a student. One of them is all the discounts we receive! There was a great deal for students who wanted to visit the dozen museums around Strasbourg. We purchased the day pass for six euros and toured the museums that were right by the Norte Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg. We toured the Rohan palace, which had three different sections. There was a section devoted to archeology, the interior design section from the Rohan era and then the "Beaux Arts" which contained art that used to be displayed in the Rohan palace. We then toured the Norte Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg museum. I was impressed by all of the well preserved pieces they had in the museums we went to!
Following the museum tour, we wanted to reward ourselves with French crepes! We found a little cafe near the cathedral that had just what we wanted. I ordered a cafe au lait and a Suisse crepe which had ratatouille, cheese and egg. It was the perfect treat for lunch. I had to hold off on getting two or three more crepes, they were that good! Little did we know, it was actually National Crepe day that day!
We leisurely made our way back to our hotel and stopped in shops along the way. We wanted to head back to our hotel to rest a bit before our wine tasting later that evening. Since Strasbourg has some of the oldest vineyards and wine cellars, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try some of the wine from the region. The tasting was in the bar of a hotel near the center of town. We got to try four different wines, the first was sparkling, the second was a Chardonnay, the third Pinot Noir and the last was a sweet white wine. The first two wines we tried were organic which I thought was interesting! We learned that Pinot Noir is the only red wine in the Alsace variety to produce red or rose wines. We all felt so sophisticated sampling the different wines from the region!
The next day, we went to another boulangerie for Nutella croissants and coffee. Half the group headed to a service at the cathedral, so the other half and I decided to window shop and then find a little cafe for some coffee and to reflect on the weekend. We met up with the rest of our group and walked around the gardens, opera house and the European Union parliament building.
I had a wonderful time visiting Strasbourg. It was nice to have a weekend where we weren't pressured to fit in all the tourist activities that you have to see in the major cities.
Strasbourg trip: 31.01.14-02.02.14
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