FRANKFURT, GERMANY
2016-08-14, 12:14, JASON
BUDGET, STAY: ANDRE'S HOUSE
From Cologne, we booked a bus the previous night and made our way into Frankfurt on yet another cold, wet day to go meet our friends Andre and Marcus.
By this point, we had transferred between so many cities so it was nice to just be able to relax and have a quiet place to stay. We rolled up smelling like two brokeasses and were greeted by Andre. We chatted and then promptly walked to his house. All along the way, we were chatting, so for everything that we were supposed to be seeing, we didn't. We saw a big Euro sign.. some pink pipes.. and a lot of Germans.
His flat was very nice, probably about a 20 minute walk away from the main center. A perfect walking-commute to work with Pokemon-Go. His flat was a lovely one-bed, one bath place, with a nice spacious living room decorated in IKEA-esque fashion.
As Andre headed out to work, Marcus, Thorin and I went for lunch. For lunch, we headed down to the local German supermarket and bought ourselves a loaf of bread, some cheeses, a salad, and then a couple of slices of ham. We popped the motherfuckers together and had a bomb ass sandwich. Of course, we bought a bottle of the cheapest wine and drank it out of plastic cups.
After that, we wanted to check out Alt-Sachsenhausen, an area famous for its apple wines, half-timbered houses, and narrow cobblestone alleys. After walking around the town for about 30 minutes looking for the place, we finally find it, sit down, and then buy ourselves a nice cup of apfelwein, which is the locally brewed apple cider. Flavor tasted a bit like a pig stay with a hint of apple at the end. Actually, it tasted a bit like the English countryside ciders we would drink in England. It's a pretty standard taste of cider that works pretty well, but personally for me maybe one or two glasses is enough. Then again, maybe after the third you're in it for the drunken experience and not the taste. But, we got one and then went on to Erdinger beers. Andre joined us after work, and then just started drinking there.
Getting sufficiently buzzed, we thought the only thing to satisfy our buzz was some good old Thai food, which was the cheaper German street food. Got that, smashed a curry, bought some wine at a supermarket, then proceeded to do the rest of the drinking at home. Somewhere along the way, we had to book a bus back to Cologne the next day since we were going to go from Cologne airport back to Copenhagen. We ended up booking a Bla Bla Car, which is essentially like a long distance Uber. With that settled, we proceeded with the wine.
The night ended with us just chatting and falling asleep slowly in the living room. The conversation was the usual banter among old friends. It was good to see them again. As mobile as young folks are these days, it's easy to go anywhere you want in the world. By definition, too, it's also just as easy to meet up anywhere in the world -- it's just that we never make the time, so seeing old friends was a great refresh. The man who drove us back to Cologne was a Moroccan diplomat working for the Malaysian embassy, who was en route to Dusseldorf and passing by Cologne. His kid spoke German, Arabic, English. The future of the world. Teach your kids more than one language. It keeps them relevant and openminded. Plus, getting mad in Arabic probably sounds a lot better than in English.