The Hostel situation in Freiburg

   On Saturday after Basel, we headed to Freiburg Germany. Freiburg is located in the heart of the Black Forest in Germany, so we thought i would be a really cool place to visit. Our plan was to explore Freiburg a bit on Saturday once we arrived, and do a bit of hiking on Sunday before returning to Karlsruhe. However, this plan failed once we arrived at our hostel.
   If you don't know exactly what a hostel is, it's like a hotel but there are several beds to a room, and you most likely are in the room with people you haven't met before. It's also cheaper than a hotel room. For Freiburg, we booked a hostel that happened to have a spa as well. We booked this one because we were pressed for time and we didn't plan on using the spa anyway. When we arrived at the hostel, we were in for a shock as we looked outside the window to see an array of nude older people swimming in a pool! The sight was unavoidable from our room because the window was large and the curtains were quite transparent. I've never felt so awkward in my life!!! The awkwardness intensified as we climbed down the steps to face the owner to tell him we weren't staying there.
   We debated on who should tell the guy when one of our group members was brave enough to tell the confused owner, "This wasn't what we thought it was...", probably the worst phrasing for the situation. But how else do you confront the owner of a place that offers a "sexual handling" massage for 100 Euros?? (No joke here unfortunately) All in all, it was an interesting experience and makes for a good story. :)
   After the hostel situation we made our way towards Freiburg to walk around and explore a bit before leaving for Karlsruhe again. The city sort of reminded me of Gatlinburg, Tennessee except it was much more German looking and had an awesome cathedral. One thing that bothered me about the city was that there was a beautiful old clock tower that looked awesome except for a McDonald's logo attached to the side to match its color scheme. I HATE McDonald's! One placement of it's trademark can ruin a city's authenticity instantly, therefore I refuse to eat there or anything like it in Europe (and probably back in the States). Besides that, the small portion of the city I saw was assimilated expertly into it's forest surroundings. It looked like it belonged totally in the black forest.

(Note: this blog was written waaaayyy after I went because these things take a lot of time to write.)

The clock tower. I refused to take a picture of the McDonald's logo.

Sideways picture of the cathedral.

This person scared me because I thought she was a statue.

The hostel looks pretty on the outside, but there be old nudists on the inside!!