Day 3
9.00 AM
Just woke up in my hotel bed... however, I can't seem to be able to recall how I got in here. Ah well, I seem to be in perfect working order again, so I guess there's no cause for concern. But damn, I hate it when I wake up and the first thing I hear is "Good morning, sunshine!". Morning are never good, and the sun isn't even shining, ya idiot!
9.40 AM
Bah... breakfast. Still not in too good a mood. You can easily tell... my jokes tend to be more insulting than funny. Like when someone said "C'mon, give us a smile!", I responded "I don't see what's so funny. Well except for your face." So I just can't stand these overly cheerful people in the morning, due me. It's really for everyone's good that I usually get up in the afternoon if I can help it. I'll probably feel better after some caffeine...
10.10 AM
Back in the room, checking out some of these brochures for something interesting to go see today. We decided to do something relatively quiet today, and do something more active tomorrow. So today, it's gonna be 'Warsteiner Bilsteinhöhle und Wildpark'. It's basically a cave complex that's apparently over 60 million years old, with a wildlife preserve connected to it. As one could tell from the fair/market combo from before, the Germans seem to have a great fondness for sticking two completely different things that have absolutely nothing to do with eachother in one place. Ah well, I suppose it is convenient for the tourists. But I swear... if I see anyone named Simmons today, they're gonna get a punch in the nose.
10.30 AM
And we're off again. My CD gets popped into the player one more time. Suki datta... hitori sora o miage... *sigh* Maybe I shouldn't have picked this particular song to take with me. It's getting to me more than I thought it would.
10.40 AM
Come to think of it, a lot of these songs aren't really helping when I'm in this state of mind...
11.40 AM
Well, this is new. We're stuck behind a cart loaded with hay being pulled ahead by a horse. Oh well, we're having fun in our own way, singing along with (or trying to sing along with) Yamerarenai. It's just impossible to feel frustrated or unhappy when that song's playing.
12.15 PM
And finally, we doth arriveth. Of course, first order of business: Find some place that sells fries. And such a place is conveniently located in the same spot as well. And whee, my coke had a piece of lemon in it! But of course that wasn't enough for me. You should've seen the face of the waitress when I said "Ich möchte gern noch ein Lemon". And I got one, a whole one, too! ^_^
1.00 PM
Wow, lucky us, we're just in time for the next tour through them caves. Hmmm... well, this place is quite... errr... cave-like. Well it is.
1.15 PM
Heh, looks like the tour group startled a group of bats living in the caves. The women in the tour group nearly blew out my auditory receptors with their shrieking.
1.20 PM
I can't help myself. I just had to wander away from the tour group a bit and take a peek at what they didn't want us to see. ...looks like mostly just more cave to me.
1.25 PM
The tour guide got mad because I strayed from the path. Not that I can tell his shouting apart from the shouting he did during the tour, presumably to explain stuff about different kinds of moss and fungi that grow in the cave, or something. It's a German thing, I guess. They just like to shout a lot. And boy do they hate it when you completely ignore their shouting. Took the guy look enough to take 'whatever' for an answer.
1.35 PM
Ahhh, fresh air again. Bidding farewell to my good friend the tour guide with my most pleasant "Auf Wiedersehen", to which his reaction was similar to someone who was just told "I'll be back" by Arnold Schwarzenegger, we went on to the Wildpark part of the complex. I decided to pick up some of that special chow they sell around here for our animal friends. That that they aren't bound to be overfed by the tourists already.
1.45 PM
Whoa. Lotsa park, not a heck of a lotta Wild. This place is nothing short of a forest maze, with the notoriously bad German directional aids striking again with a vengence.
2.00 PM
Well, we did see some animals along the way now... raccoons, ferrets, foxes... none of which seemed to be very interested in the food I was bringing them. So I called the ungrateful bastards names. That aughtta show 'm.
2.15 PM
There be deer 'round here. Finally, some animals who'd actually eat the food I brought 'm. I was so happy, I ended up giving them over half the bag.
2.20 PM
Mental note... *sneezes* I'm allergic to deer. Big surprise.
2.35 PM
Found some lynxes way on the far side of the park. They were in the process of being fed. Some guy was harassing them with a dead mouse on a fishing rod until they'd knock the thing off the hook in frustration. They didn't seem to interested in actually eating the mice, really, just leaving them where they fell. And who can blame them, really? I'm tempted to run back and get these guys some ice cream, but then it'd only melt while I was in the process of getting hopelessly lost anyway.
2.50 PM
More deer, and some wild boars. Well, boars eat everything, so here guys, have the rest of the food. Enjoy! ...k, they seem to be enjoying eating the mud /around/ the food more. ...yeah. Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess.
3.10 PM
Hey, we're back at the parking lot, somehow. Don't ask me how we got back here, seems like a miracle we got out at all. Guess we'll be heading on back, but first I want another one of those cokes with lemon in it.
4.30 PM
Back at the hotel already. For some reason, the recommended route in the reverse direction was different, much shorter and faster. More of that German beer-induced logic, no doubt.
6.00 PM
We're just killing time until dinner. Got my sixteenth badge in Pokémon Silver, go me! But the biggest surprise awaited me in Viridian City's Trainer House. "Lee is your opponent today." Lee's a friend of mine back home. Lee: "I travelled out here just so I could battle you." *laughs* Why Lee, I'm flattered. Sure came a long way, pal. It was pretty neat, apparently the game remembered I battled him and had generated an AI-controlled Lee for me to battle, using the Pokémon he used at the time. I really enjoyed that, it's a very neat feature.
7.10 PM
We thought we were a little late for dinner, but turns out they don't usually start until like 7.20 anyway. Today it'll be chicken soup, broccoli, and what was apparently ham. But not the yucky kind of ham I don't like to eat... this seems actually pretty good. Tastes like chicken. Oh, and there were french fries too of course, there always have to be those. Different shape every day, but who cares about that?
8.30 PM
Well, we were absolutely stumped on what to do tonight. So I asked the guys, "Well, what do you do in an RPG when you have no idea what to do?" They took a little long to respond, so I answered my own question. "You wander around aimlessly." So we did.
9.15 PM
The sun's setting, and we seem to be standing in the middle of a freeway somewhere. Which wouldn't be so bad if only we were in a car. When we wander around aimlessly, we really do wander around aimlessly.
10.00 PM
We're back at the hotel, bored from our aimless wanderings. Track 6 on my CD works wonders as an Aimless Wandering theme, by the way. Since I don't know its title, I think I'll call it "Always To The East" from now on. But y'know, wandering aimlessly just isn't the same without the random battles to go with it. I was almost hoping more putties would show up. Ah well... we're just gonna spend the rest of the evening at the hotel bar and play a bit of cards. Also phoned home just now, my cats are all doing fine. That's a load off my mind.
11.50 PM
I'll never get used to going to bed this early. It just doesn't feel right.