Burussia Dortmund
Last night I went to a football game with my friend Ryan while Mark stayed in the room. Mark’s tendon has been acting up due to the amount of walking we’ve been doing. I don’t think he’s ready for Japan tbh, but he has 10 months to prove me wrong. I had an absolute blast. The game was incredible. I drank 2 Anheizen (It was some warm apple cider thing that was like 9.1% abv) and a bier that was 5.0% abv. The bratwurst I ate with the bier was good as well. I am a huge fan of it, but the bread was a little thick. I should have slathered it a bit harder in mustard and ketchup, but I didn’t wanna detract from the experience.
The game was awesome. One of the players scored 2 of the 6(?) attempts on net. He was really good and the opposing team was slide tackling him all day. The coolest goal was by the Ukraine team who slide tackled the goalie while he was trying to trap the ball and they went between his legs and got it in. It was a high risk, high skill play. I was thoroughly impressed.
At these games there’s a thing called “The Wall” which is behind the Burussia home net and they have all these crazy chants. Everyone was bouncing up and down to the beat of the drum (yes they had a DRUM) and it was awesome to see. Apparently they warn you that it’s very loud when you buy tickets for that section lol. Burussia for the win! Heja BVB!
After the game, Ryan and I got an Uber back to “near” the apartment and then hit up a kiosk (convenient store) to get some bier and vodka for the room. Mark was sleeping when we showed up around 11:30 PM. We promptly woke him up and chatted for like an hour and a half and then everyone went to bed. I only slept like 4 hours and woke up this morning at 5 AM. Funnily enough, we may skip Cologne today to fly to Hungary and hang out with a friend for a few days and just fly back to Amsterdam. If the boys don’t wanna do that, we’ll head to Cologne.
Museums and whatnot
I visited a few museums yesterday with Ryan while Mark chilled in the room and I got a “Der M” from the German McDonald’s. It was really good. I took an unboxing video lmao. The art and culture museum here was actually really cool. I enjoyed it a ton. It had stuff ranging from the stone age to mid-century Modern exhibits and many of the stone age stuff was unearthed in the area. Really cool. The Comics Museum was exhibiting a “Black Panther throughout history” exhibit and it had some SUPER RACIST comics and toys from the early 1900s. It’s insane to think people even thought that way. There was one about some dude who was selling white women to African tribes and then he just kills them all and steals their gold bars. It was absolutely crazy to think how far we’ve come (and how far Americans HAVEN’T in some regards) since then. Below, you’ll find some pics from the game and one of the toys I took a pic of. I didn’t wanna post the awful other stuff. The toy is bad enough.
The “Hotel” room
Not sure 100% on what we’re doing today. I will say, the room here is absolutely cursed. We have this balcony that is growing moss on it and the floor near the door is a fluorescent green color, indicating mold invasion. I will be giving this hotel a 2/10. The shower here is equally cursed. It leaks if you put the water in the corner and the shower goes from 25 degrees Celsius to 40+ in an instant sometimes. It sucks lmao. I mean, I get it’s only $50/night per person for 2 nights but omg wtf. It’s more like a hostel than a hotel, and even then more like a terrible apartment than a hostel. Oh, we also were given two half used rolls of toilet paper and it’s simply not enough. We ran out day 1 and now I have to hold it in until I get to the train station or airport. I will never stay here again. I will also be packing emergency toilet paper from now on. I already pack emergency duct tape… What’s one more thing? lol.
The “Training” arc; or the Flight response
I’m curious as to what the other two will decide we should do when they wake up. Mark has already expressed he wants to “head home” because he is miserable due to his respiratory issues (may be mold related and he’ll recover once we leave this witch hut), but I mentioned we can hit up the Apotheke if he thinks it’s a cold. I did check out the local grocer looking for toilettenpapier (toilet paper) and they had none, but I did pick up some shampoo which we ran out of after we forgot our full bottle in the last hotel in Utrecht. I hope that helps lift some spirits related to our predicament.
Regardless, this trip has been an absolute blast so far and I’m very excited to see where it heads after this. Hungary or Cologne? I’m considering doing some solo traveling through SEA after this. I think I could just stuff a backpack and go.
What do you think? Message me on Discord if you know my handle or hit me up on Twitter!
