Lost in Freiburg...well maybe Germany

So Jamie gave this great advice about getting places to stay before getting there....well, we decided to be adventurous and not do that. Kara had printed all these wonderful directions for driving through the Alps and across the German countryside and to Freiburg where we were planning on staying the night and dropping off the car in the morning, but didn't have a map of Freiburg itself...only the name of one hostel. However, she was not nervous going into town (surprisingly enough, since she has been a worry wart the whole time), but she was finally gaining confidence and we had seen a million signs for zimmers and Pensions (places to stay for those who don't know). So even if we didn't find the place, we could surely find something else. Well, we get into Freiburg and it is bigger than expected and we find no signs for rooms anywhere. Oh, and we arrived a few hours later than expected (partly due to sight seeing and partly due to construction detours and partly due to getting lost several times) so it was dark. We stopped and asked for directions from a gass attendent that spoke a little bit of English (like everyone here) and we somehow managed to get the gist of what he was telling us. However, some of the landmarks given were not found. And we couldn't find the street names of most of the streets. And they are very narrow and we didn't know if they were one way or not...but Julie got very good at turning around in tight spaces. ANd we got very good at finding our way back to this one roundabout which we visited about 5 or 6 times. On our last attempt we turned down a street....it started to lead us into a residential neighborhood and we thought for sure we were lost beyond hope. Then Kara spots this teeny sign just below a street sign. It was quite hard to read, but Julie stopped and Kara got out and ran back to see what it said. "Backbacking Hostel <----" We had found our way!!! In the most round about, not knowing where the heck we were type of way! After this, finding a place in Paris should be a breeze!...let's hope...

Off to Paris we go!

Julie and Kara