This morning started out bright and early doing last-minute packing before catching the 8h34 train to Strasbourg. Unfortunately I didn't have an assigned seat, so when we got to Angers and lots of people boarded, I was kicked out of my seat only to find one next to a very kind older French woman. Then a little boy that got on the TGV in Le Mans bumped me out of that seat and I ended up sitting in the jumper seats by the toilets for two hours until Julie came and got me to sit by her.
Before, when I was still buddy-buddy with the toilets, we had to pull into the CDG TGV station because somehow the radio transmitter on our train fell off or was swiped off by a vengeful tree we went by.
Well, we got into Strasbourg around 2pm and met Mary! It was so great to see her and we had such a good time catching up! She had been in the city since 7 that morning, so she was able to show us the way to our hostel pretty quickly. After checking in and dropping off all our stuff, we just went out and walked around. The weather was lovely and sunny the entire afternoon. We found a cool old covered bridge that spans the River Ill (yes, as in sick) that used to house syphillus patients. (I think the pun is quite funny.) Then we saw the old part of the city with all of the half-timbered houses, called "Petite France," and eventually found ourselves wandering closer and closer to the suburbs. A strangely difficult period of trying to figure out what to eat followed, but we compromised and found a lovely place that wasn't too expensive but still offered traditional Alsacian food. We got something called "rognons" covered in a mustard sauce with fries on the side and a pizza sort of tart. The rognons looked like either solidified pate or funny little sliced mushrooms. Turns out rognons = kidneys, but we didn't find that out until a few days later. Even if the taste was questionable at times, it's good to be adventurous and try new food!
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