So there was this lovely señorita, who invited me to visit her in Germany for some time. As already mentioned in our article about the trips to good friends living abroad, such opportunities are not to be missed! In the post below, I will share my experiences of the trip to Germany and how I explored the beautiful cities of North Rhine-Westphalia – Dortmund, Essen, and Dusseldorf.
From Bulgaria to Germany – the colorful Dortmund
Should I visit her in Germany? The last time we saw each other was a long time ago, she will be my guide through the city, and I could even stay by her. For what more can I hope?
So, everything is prepared – tickets, luggage, things to do with/without her, vacation mood is ON. The plane took me to Dortmund – one of the biggest cities in Germany’s western state North Rhine-Westphalia with an airport. I had a few hours to walk through the city before taking the train to Essen, my final destination.
Dortmund city center
Suppose you try to search what to see in Dortmund, where to go, and so on, as I did. In that case, you may be surprised as I was, discovering the biggest highlight there: the Football Club Borussia Dortmund (BVB) and its stadium! Yeah, the stadium is the biggest in Germany, the 5th in Europe, the club has good performance in the last sessions, but still… I am not a big football fan, but even in Barcelona, the stadium and the FC Barcelona are not the main highlights – there is the cathedral, the park, the other works of Gaudi, the food, the beaches… So, yes, I prefer Barcelona. (even though it is still only on my wishlist.)
OK! Let’s go back to Dortmund: The second mentioned spot for the tourists was the U-Tower – a former brewery building. Nowadays, it is used for art and such stuff. It is near the railway station, and there is a metro station nearby. It is also the start (or the end?) of the main pedestrian street in Dortmund: Westenhellweg. If you go out of the railway station, cross the road and go straight for 5 minutes you will also be there. You will see one of the churches (let’s sound more professional as I didn’t search the name a minute ago: you will be facing St. Petri Church). On the side of Westhellenweg, right to the gothic church, you can try the famous German Würstchen with Pommes. Did I mention the BVB Doner, the BVB chocolates, etc.? Oh, I have just realized how bad it will be in Barcelona once I go there – the FC logo will be EVERYWHERE!
(Note: You see how I tell a story – it’s the main story plus a bunch of other mini-stories glued with my thoughts, memories, and self notes, references about what I have read, heard, or seen through the window. Of course, I can focus and only tell the main story but so can Wikipedia too (this is not a paid advertisement, please don’t go there now!) My idea is to share with you how I see things. And as you know: We only see what we know, we see with our eyes, with our culture, education, with our experience and character (once I discussed with two friends the restaurant we had just left – everyone had noticed a different thing. Of course, I only saw the most important thing, whatever it was, but this fact is not so important, so I will not even mention it.)
The people of Dortmund
Aaaand back to Germany: Dortmund is like a modern Babylon to me. For 4.5 hours, I saw people from almost all around the globe – all the races, many languages (sometimes even German 🙂 ). At some point, I realized I saw people from everywhere but from India. Strange, but I probably didn’t notice them – I am sure in Dortmund there are plenty of Indians too. After the short walk around the shops and a little talk with a German volunteer for Amnesty International, I caught the train to Essen. Twenty minutes later, I was finally there, but I had to wait for an hour for my beautiful host (my dear, I hope you are reading this and will invite me again soon!*). So I went to the center of the city. In Germany, the train stations are most probably always right in the center of the towns – you go out of the station, and you are in the middle of the action! Soon I found a free spot nearby on a bench between two drinking beer old ladies and (wait for it!) a nice maharaja with a bright turban on his head! That day I met the whole world!
* – an invitation for the next visit came even before publishing all the flattery
Visiting a good friend abroad – feel at home in Essen
City experiences in Essen
Feel like local, ride a bike! The bike paths’ infrastructure is well organized, and it’s a pleasure to ride through the city, the parks, or even from city to city. (After a couple of chocolates and desserts, I can’t ride very far, but during our 50km Grand Sunday bike tour, I was very happy. It was fun! Well, I tried to kill myself with this bike, but it was mostly because of the “too much happiness” – I didn’t know how to handle it.) In Germany, they even have traffic lights for bicycles!
By us in Bulgaria, in many cities, it will be a surprise to find a separate bike path. Once you found it, be careful – it can quickly disappear, it can end to a house wall, or you might have to stop because of a tree in the middle of the road. But maybe that’s the charm of riding a bike through the urban area in Bulgaria. You have to be constantly aware, always ready to react, fight, jump, climb the holes, pet a homeless dog happy to see you, eat something… And not the last – You have to be ready to bring your bike home on foot, as it might get broken if it is not prepared for the wild Balkan streets full of adventures. But let’s stop advertising Bulgaria and the Balkans and go back to Germany!
Be open and friendly, and you will be part of Essen: the population is a perfect mash-up of colors, races, languages, and cultures. If you mind your business, nobody cares what clothes you wear or how you look. No one cares about your life’s opinion; there is enough space for everyone. But, of course, like everywhere, the city might have a dark side too, which I overlooked and don’t really want to know, see and feel. (“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” but be aware of what and where.) Nevertheless, there are some lovely shops for almost everything, and at some point, my visit turned into a shopping tour.
Lazy days at home – the real vacation in Essen
I wasn’t glad about the weather. It was raining for half of my visit, so I stayed home and watched some of my favorite sitcoms and TV series. The moment also when I discovered that most foods and drinks here are cheaper than in my country. So I didn’t just lay on the couch watching the shows, no – I had a mission to taste all the tiny cream desserts my co-writer Lucy recommended to me. As a bonus to this mission, I added some other desserts, some chocolates, a few ice creams, some drinks, a nice martini. That was a hard time for me, but I survived! (And after that test, I was not even as fluffy as after I visited Ukraine… but this is another story!)
Several supermarket chains operate within Germany – SPAR, Kaufland, Lidl, ALDI, REWE, Penny, Edeka, Metro, Real, and others. Unfortunately, even though I love supermarkets, I didn’t have the time to visit all of them, just seven or something like that. Some of them are true neighborhood stores, with a lack of product variety, and maybe sometimes they are run out of various goods. But the real ones! Oh, God! The big supermarkets in the central area are places to get lost, get crazy wondering which type of cheese to take, or what chocolate to buy (there are only 80-90 types.) Yep, I had to try all the new types for me, so I can be familiar enough to recommend you a “must-try chocolate.”
But, before giving my advice, I have to ask you some questions: How do you prefer your chocolate to be:
-With nuts or without?
-Pure chocolate or with a filling?
-Dark, milk, or white? (Is the white chocolate even chocolate?)
-How much sugar are you OK to take?
-A fruity one?
-Or with some alcohol?
Try to guess who will stop writing to check the expiration date of the chocolates at home. And then I will do a magic trick, making the one with the nearest expiry date disappear.
One day trip to the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia – Dusseldorf
Preparing for the tour
During the bad weather week and my movie-dessert-coach-marathon-time, my dear friend surprised me with the best one-day opportunity: “During the whole week the weather in the whole region will be rainy, shady and cold, but tomorrow in Dusseldorf!” So, late in the evening, I decided to visit this city the next day. And because of the spontaneous decision, I wasn’t prepared for the tour. So, I decided to see how I would manage to go somewhere without a schedule and a plan (things I always prepare.) So I went to a city I had never checked things about: I didn’t know where to go, where the center is, what to see, where to eat, what to be aware of. Yeah, Lucy might say she had told me so many things, but, man, I didn’t remember anything: there was a white spot in my memory about this city. But it was a nice experiment.
Traveling to Dusseldorf
The following day, I went to the train station in Essen. It was my first time there to buy tickets, and yep, I got lost – in about 30 minutes, I was walking through the station looking for the ticket automat. No, I didn’t want to ask. I am a man, FFS! I can find it on my own! Yes, I found it, or it might be more right to say I found them, as there are two types of automates, depending on the art of trains you can use.
After buying a ticket, you can’t just jump on the train; you have to validate it on the validation machine right to the ticket automat. Only then, you have the right to use the trains. A nice thing about the German train system: Once validated, the tickets can be used in the next one and a half hours or more, depending on the destination zones. So, if you miss the first possible train for your direction, soon there is another one (on a different platform, part of a different path.) And then another will come, and another. You can also always ask by the INFO or all the stopped trains’ conductors to be sure that’s the one you need. I envy you for knowing that info because back then, I learned it for 2 minutes. The train stopped for 3 minutes, but I used 1 minute to go to the conductor and ask my question about the validation. And no, I can’t validate it on the train. During my school years, I was a sporty guy who liked to run, play basketball, and do other sports. That was a long time ago, but I still live with the sporty image of me. Sometimes win, sometimes lose, as one prominent Bulgarian footballer used to say. Sometimes I run, but the bus has left the station just before I arrive there; sometimes I managed to get on. In this case in Germany: During the second minute the train was waiting, I managed to run through the platform downstairs to the station, where the ticket automates are, to validate my ticket, to run back up and into the train. And there was a minute more left. Well, I was not very happy, because I used this minute and about 3-4 more in tries to find the conductor again to ask him the other question: Is this really the train to the central railway station of Düsseldorf?
Those were not good times for the German railway system’s whole karma and energy, as I might have sent some bad thoughts to it. And then I relaxed – I was already late with all this footwork trying to find and buy the tickets, so I said to myself: Don’t worry, you little running guy! Stay here and just enjoy the ride! Yes, you might arrive at the airport instead of the central railway station and the center, but you can get back, and nothing is so important! Be chill! Stop sending this bad energy to the system and the people working in it! They are not guilty that you don’t know where you are going!
And there came the ultimate chill, and I sit humble and quite waiting for what the future will bring. And after the airport, we arrived at the central railway station. Hm, why the heck do you write the last stop in this tiny font?! Why would you provoke the unsure passengers to wish you not very good things? Why would you make them worry about their future?! What if the chill doesn’t come? Yep, nobody cares! Breathe, you little writing guy! Breathe! (I tried to remember the station of Dusseldorf, but I couldn’t. But still, for me, there are two types of German train stations – the ones so well organized that I find everything straightforward. And the ones where I get lost, and I don’t accept their logic even after somebody explained it to me.)
Exploring Dusseldorf
So, I went out of the train station, and the city center was not there! OMG! Where is it? Nearby I found a map. OK, some random people found it, checked it, and went away. Looking at it, I saw most of the city’s highlights are far away, near the river. The previous tourists in front of the map might have figured out how to get there. And I decided just to follow them. It was the right decision, and I kept it for a couple of minutes, but then I saw the shopping center on the left side. You know, I love shopping centers and to be more precise, I love supermarkets, and in almost every shopping center, there is one – my special place! I was a little bit hungry, so I stopped keeping the direction and walked into the mall. As I said, I love to go around, watching the stuff, all the goods, mostly the food, clothes, shoes, sports equipment, bags, technical stuff, cooking tools, books, and other things. There were many shops, but most of the prices were higher than my monthly salary, so my speed through the stores increased. Finally, I found it! But it was not my favorite supermarket – the prices were also higher, and the things I wanted were missing.
So I walked out on a different street, and my internal compass (sometimes I call him “lack of orientation ability”) said to go to the left. It was a nice street, with many fashion stores I know. At that time, I received a call from Lucy, who told me this street might be the most expensive in Europe. She will probably say she told me where to go, what to see, how to make most of my time in Dusseldorf. But speaking with her, I saw my favorite shop, so I just waited for Lucy to stop talking, so I can grab some food. Leaving the shop, both of my hands were full, as so were my backpack and my heart. The day became much more delightful.
I went further where there was a store for toy train models, mini train stations, and other mini model stuff. An exciting toy store full of grown men.
But even though I was hungry, I heard Lucy said I have to go to the Rhine Tower (one of the city’s highlights, more about them you can find in our more serious and detailed article about the city… soon.) The buildings around were not very high, so I easily kept the direction to the tower. I arrived there and turned on my navigation to find the shop I wanted to visit. Meanwhile, I missed seeing the yacht harbor and the work of Frank O. Gehry, but well, I will go there the next time. So, I walked away.
Trip lesson: If you go through a big city and there are not many cafes and restaurants, and you don’t see many tourists but mostly locals – you may be lost! Or not! You may find something new, something more interesting than the one proposed in the travel guides.
The walking alley along the river is charming: there are many benches, cafes, a lot of space to sit and watch the Rhine, the bridges, the tower, the sky, the people, or your own business. You can borrow a book if you like it. Nearby is the old city, where are most of the tourists and the highlights – some churches, museums, malls. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the shop I was looking for. Yes, I blame the navigation! In the last shopping center, I took a paper map of the city and thanks to it I reached back to the train station. I traveled back to Essen and went to the shopping center there. I bought three shirts, four pairs of pants, and about seven desserts. It was a lovely day trip, after all.
Maybe next time I would be more prepared for exploring unknown cities.
Have you ever been to Dortmund, Essen, or Dusseldorf? What would you recommend us to visit? Share in the comments below.
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