Tuesday, May 09, 2006

drive-by Germany

May 6, 2006: 6 hours after leaving Paris by train, I was in Dusseldorf. Frank picked me up at the station, and drove 45 mins to their place, out in the countryside, near the border with Holland. Big difference between the cities and here! It's all nice and quiet and idyllic... They have horses and a dog and a cat and guinea pigs and there's sheep around... although we actually haven't spent much time here. After only half an hour after arriving we drove right back out to Dusseldorf to visit the town. No pics of that night, unfortunately, I was told it wouldn't be safe to bring my camera there... turned out it would have been fine. I would have just looked like a stupid tourist, which is ok, I am, after all... ;)

It's a big drinking town, there are several pedestrian roads with bar after bar, of all different kinds. A bit like Madrid, but the streets are much wider, and there aren't any annoying "chupito" people trying to get you into each bar. We walked through the Promenade, which is basically the street by the Rhine river, also filled with bars and people just hanging out and drinking. Cool sight-seeing spot: across the river you see the TV tower, tallest building around, and it has a lights-clock along its length. They explained how to read it, and they said it's the biggest digital clock in the world! Pretty neat.

The rest of the night was spent bar-hopping. Typical things: bachelor parties. Apparently everyone that gets married around here comes to Dusseldorf with t-shirts customized to have the groom-to-be's name, and they start the day doing stupid stuff (like putting on a diver's outfit and slosh around a public fountain in front of the cathedral of Cologne, fishing for things the others throw at you...) and then bar-hopping, asking people to participate in different ways, like paying to kiss the future groom, or asking to be bought a drink... all I saw was lotsa drinking and singing and making noise...

Other typical thing: coasters have an extra use in the bars of Dusseldorf. Waiters use them as tabs, to keep track of how many beers or drinks they brought you. With a pencil they write down a price, and then start putting lines around the edges. They keep going around 'til it doesn't fit anymore. Then they switch to a new coaster, and I saw a waiter just write the previous amount in roman numerals, before continuing to notch around.

Last typical thing: If you ask for beer, as soon as you have about 2 gulps left in the glass, they don't even ask if you want another one, they just take your glass away and put down another. If you don't want them to bring more, either leave the glass half full (don't let it get too low!) or put a coaster on top.

I thought Germany was a big beer place. It actually has a very scarce selection. But it's supposed to be really good, and most bars will have home-brews, kinda like wines in italy, where most restaurants will have a house wine.

The night was quite uneventful. We sat down at several places until fairly late, catching up, people-watching, talking about culture and places. The only random interruptions were from a guy who tried to pick up a fight with Frank over something stupid. A waiter was called and the guy was kicked out... I didn't understand a word. *shrug*

At the same place, there was a girl going around with a breathalizer. For 2EUR you could test your blood alcohol. Frank clocked in at about 0.8, while I clocked in at 0.67! Which is so not fair, he drank sooo much more than me, I was only on my 2nd real beer. Before that I had a mini generic german beer, a shot of Killepitsch (damn nasty strong stuff!) a non-alcoholic jeger[?] beer, and a couple of beer coctails, one with sprite, one with coke. (They were trying to get me to like their beer... they didn't have any other kind! lol.) I finally discovered a Weisse. Which came in a huge glass only, though... After two of those and a bottle of Grolsh, I said enough.
Our designated driver Steffi, who had a baby 5 months ago and still can't drink, patiently hung out with us and then drove us the 45 minutes back, some time around 3am I *think*...

German words I learned tonight: "Ich rauche nicht. Yep. Prost!" ;)

Next day, even though we all wished for more sleep, we got up at a decent time and headed out to Cologne (Köln in German!). The drive there was a bit longer, and my poor stomach and head made sure to remind me all day how much fun I had the night before... ugh. With baby in tow, we first had something to eat, to try and gain some strength, and then headed off to the famous Cologne Cathedral... Inside it was pretty much the same as every other gothic-style church I visited, like Notre Dame and St Denis, maybe just with more space... but the outside was huge, very detailed, and impressive. I think it's the most elaborate one I've seen so far. Plus interesting history behind it (read the wiki)

I forgot to look up on my trusty guide any info, so I had no clue on what other places Cologne is famous for. We headed towards a museum that was supposed to have a Rembrandt and a Durer... but the entrance was 8EUR (the Louvre was that expensive!) and it was deserted, so we decided to skip it. We walked by the Promenade, not as pretty as Dusseldorf's, but relaxing. Wasn't much talk today, we all were kinda tired and lacked the energy... :P

After a lazy stroll about we drove back. We stopped home, then went out again to pick up their other car from being serviced. On the way back, my stomach finally gave way. I had to ask Frank to pull over, he quickly veered into a driveway and I walked out and threw up lunch and whatever else had managed to stick around from the night previous.

By the time we got home it was already 9pm. Instead of having dinner we hung out in the living room and watched pictures and videos, of their wedding, of trips and events, and of my trip. Before we knew it it was 11:30pm! So we all retired for a much needed night of sleep.

Despite my weak stomach, I tried a couple of german dishes while I was here: on Fri the "Sauerbraten mit Knödel und Apfelmus". The second dish, on Sat, is the one that didn't survive my nausea: "Kohlroulade mit Kartoffelpürree." I think I should have tried the stuff I knew from the German restaurant I tried in NY, to have something to compare it against. Ah well, I'll have to go back.

Also, I learned about the Dutch/German interactions. Their languages are similar enough, but they make fun of each other and in general seem to have a rivalry that goes back centuries... kinda like north vs south of Italy, or Dusseldorf's vs Cologne's beer...

Ah, and here I saw my first (and hopefully last) old-style Dutch toilets, the ones with a "shelf" instead of a hole inside... (picture here) so your business is nicely on display for ya to inspect before you flush... Definitely odd. And smelly. Oh, wait, no, that was me. lol.

I'm off to Holland tomorrow, already. In the afternoon I'm going to be driven to Nijmegen, which is only 15 mins away, and I will probably find a train to my next temporary home...

Cool places to come back for: Duisburg (I think) for a castle/goth club where they have medieval dinners once a month...

Phew!

Oh, and here are some pics. Sorry I didn't bring the camera to Dusseldorf! :P

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Que maneras de Servicios Sanitarios!
Guacala :S :)