Frankfurt!!!!!

We have finally accomplished the first official leg of our journey, that being to Frankfurt, Germany. After an extremely long, sleepless 8 hour flight with a good meal, we finally arrived. Upon arrival, the differences between the states and here were instantly visible. The bathroom had a separate place for the paper towels and toilet paper in the airport. People were speaking dialects that I'd never heard - and not just German. As soon as we boarded our train, my first real look at a bit of the German countryside was a good one. Lots of tall, thin trees and a thin layer of snow. And cold. As we began to enter Frankfurt, there were countless little plots of land with little structures on them. Possibly gardens? Not sure about that. There were acres to miles of many, many of them. The train station itself was this huge, tall building with dozens of open doored bakeries, older women with scarves on their heads begging for money, and pigeons :] It was a very active, moving place. DEFINITELY not like anything in America. As soon as we began to walk around the city a bit, we hit a section of street that seemed to be dominated largely by Turkish folks - complete with markets, restaurants, men-only coffee joints, the works. It was really interesting, and there were definitely some things I'd never seen before!