Day one of expedition. Captain's log.

Seeing as I have been awake since 4am and running on endless cups of coffee I feel I am in a suitable position to write my account of my first impressions of Kassel. Firstly may I say that I wish I was cool enough to just slink away and come back, that I pull of such style but, alas, I am not, as you all know. I shall keep this fairly regularly for those of you who may be interested, those of you who may be bored of Final Fantasy, or just fantasies, this may provide some light hearted reading.

So, 4am up, coffee, dress, in car, out of car, coffee, on plane, coffee, land, on train, arrive, coffee, find hostel, 3pm. Having done all of the travelling and booking in and attempting German, I found out that I have a few phrases up my sleeves but no idea what their responses are! This is where confusion kicks in on both sides of the conversation. I explored Kassel, there was a purpose, to find an adapter, but I used it as a reason to leave my hostel room. Which, by the way is like the rooms at Erasmus Park, but how they should have been, ie; clean, tidy and spacious with a working shower.

Kassel is lined with cobbled streets, in a much nicer way than Corrie is, it's beautiful, the houses have really well thought out brick laying, I know that sounds trivial but they're clearly old but the bricks still look fresh. Furthermore, there are so many of Joseph Beuys's trees, for those of you who have no idea what I mean by that; Beuys, towards the end of his career became very concerned with nature and preservation and decided to plant rows and rows of trees in Kassel, all with a block of stone next to them, this was in the 70's?. Well, now the trees are huge and they form a sort of canope over much of the city and the stones sit next to them looking rather inferior. As a Beuys lover, I find it great to be able to see all of these.

I found the shops, which werent of too much interest, but I did count 3 H&M's all within ridiculously close proximity of one another. And, the highlight in the shopping, an open Woolworths! It may be a mere distant childhood memory to us but over here it is very much in the present.

That brings us up to within about an hour of now so I shall go and dig out the bar and sit with a beer and maybe a book, depending on how pretentious I want to seem to strangers. I'll probably leave the book behind.

For now, Gut tschüs.