So I'm finally back home in Stuttgart and have to discuss all my adventures of late...
Düsseldorf was the first place I went and after getting a lift with two weirdos there, I guess I should have known what to expect...but I didn't. It's actually a really beautiful city and one of the few places I can say seems to mix German history with modernity just enough that it's still pretty without looking like it's a popular Amish hang-out or giant slab of concrete. As soon as I got there though I felt kinda nervous, I had no idea where I was going and later found out that the seedy area every city has happens to be around the main train station in Düsseldorf and so it was there that I met Pervy. Pervy told me I had beautiful eyes as I walked past and in my natural defensive and people-hating way, I ignored him and walked on, only to have him mount his bike and follow me - for the next two hours. He talked about everything and anything and no matter how rude or hostile I was I just could not get rid of him! After his many failed attempts to get me to go home with him to 'make party' he should have gotten the point, and yet no. Luckily he didn't speak english so I called mum and told her that if I was murdered she could have Bubba - I never liked that cat anyway... In the end he went into a pawn shop to sell a necklace or something and asked me to wait for him...I ran for it. I flat out ran as fast as I possibly could and only stopped to run into a church and ask Jesus to protect me from the scary man...he did.
That being said though Düsseldorf offers an awesome Aquarium and quite possibly the worst museum ever - the Goethe Museum - I highly recommend it...
Bonn - I got there at 8am and wandered round to see the UN building the second I got the chance. I'm fairly certain that I am the only person who would consider it a tourist attraction, but I'll admit that I did quiver with excitement until the security told me it was time to shuffle off. Bonn also has the best museum ever. It's called the Königsmuseum and it has thousands of stuffed animals and insects. Sounds gross I know but they're all posed in their natural habitats doing the natural kinda things they would do if it weren't for all the stuffing and embalming fluid...ok, still gross but I did get to see my first real moose! Kind of. I am still adamant that I will ride one one day, but I concede that they are rather a bit bigger than a cow.
When I travel I eat on a budget of roughly 2 euro a day so I have more money to do things, Bonn was my third day travelling and I was beginning to feel the lack of nutrition and need to go postal - luckily I was couch surfing all week and stayed with awesome people who were willing to feed me, or I would have been seriously comatose by the end of the week. Naturally when you're hungry everything looks delicious and seeing a special on goddamn knödel I'll admit I considered it...lucky I came to my senses and realised the only reason it was on sale is coz no one likes it. Knödel = death. Best german travel advice you'll ever get...
Köln - My favourite place of the week. I just loved it. I loved the chocolate factory, the random ancient buildings spread sporadically throughout the city and the millions of churches. The Dom put shame to the similarly named Church in Berlin and I went several times just to make sure my first few impressions weren't soiled by the truckloads of Japanese tourists giggling and using flash on their cameras despite the signs making it clear that photos weren't allowed... I went to the Prätorium too, which were old ruins from the Romans. I didn't even know the Romans had been chillin' in Germany but they had the creepy underground ruins to prove it. I have clearly been watching too many horror movies of late though coz I was the only one down there and I totally panicked. I think I stopped breathing at one point I was so certain someone was gonna come up behind me with fishing wire and strangle me to death before ripping out my kidney and eating it in front of me as I died....too much detail??? One needs to be prepared for these things...
Anyways that was my short version of events, but I have a week in Stuttgart upcoming so I'll have plenty more time to update you all on everything else.
Hope all is well.
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