Till's Birthday

My friend Till, from middle school at Cranbrook, invited me to his birthday this past weekend. I traveled by Deutsche Bahn to Darmstadt (near Frankfurt) to meet up with my friend Max. There we ate lunch at the Universitäts Darmstadt in the Mensa (or cafeteria). I have to say that German cafeteria food is no better than that in the United States. I had Käse Spatzle, which was very cheesy. Afterwards, we walked around Darmstadt to kill time before we met our driver who was going to drive us to Mettmann, where Till lives.

Apparently in Germany, and common way to get around is to find someone with whom to mitfahrgelegenheit, (or basically hitchhike but you pay the driver). Perhaps Max and I were unfortunate enough to get a bad and late driver, who really didn't drive according to the laws of the autobahn, always sitting in the left lane and so one, and was completely ditzy at figuring out how to get anywhere despite our efforts to explain to there where to go, and with the aid of Tomtom.

Finally, 3:30 minutes later, we arrived in Mettmann (mind you we would have arrived in just 2 hours had we taken the train which would have cost each of us an additional 5euro.

In Mettmann, Max and I were exhausted and tired. I had been traveling since 9am that morning, and we only got to Mettmann (near Düsseldorf) only at 6:30pm. Anyways, when we arrived we ate cake and celebrating Till's birthday. We also met his family and enjoyed the beautiful weather on their veranda. After dessert, Till invited his friend Christoph to come with us to Düsseldorf for the evening, and we were also joined by Till's girlfriend Jana, and his brother, Jan and his girlfriend, Maria. We took the local train into Düsseldorf, where we got off in Aldstadt, the most lively part of town, also known as little Paris. We walked up to the Rhein river after getting some Döner, (Max and I still hadn't eaten dinner), and a couple of beers. We walked altogether to the Rhein, and just spend the evening talking amongst one another.

I recommend anyone in Northwest Europe to go to Dusseldorf. The city is vibrant and really interesting and the nightlife is vibrant. Luckily, we we given excellent weather as well.

The following day, the day of Till's and Jan's Birthday Party, was spend first preparing for their party by setting up the basement and the patio. However, later on we went to a neighboring town, where we went with Till, Jana, Leon (Till's younger brother) and Max to and Eiscafe where we ordered ice cream, but to my surprise, the portions were larger than anything you could get in the US.
The evening was spent grilling fleish on the grill, and meeting Till and Jan's friends. Needless to say, we didn't go to bed until 5:30am the next morning, and we sang songs all nights and finished off 4 cases of beer among 12 people. We played card games, one called Kingson and I was amazed at how well everyone spoke English with me.