The Dusseldorf TravBuddy Meet-Up!

Wake up Warren!

So today is the day of the meet up but first we actually have to get there. Set the alarm pretty early and since we didn’t get to bed until early morning it wasn’t pleasant waking up. But I was so excited that it wasn’t too hard and me being the lovely person that I am jumped on Alex to wake him up. Think I kicked Wayne and mark to get up and then me and Ruby ran upstairs, jumped on Warren to wake him up and then proceeded to the guest room to do the same to Ben. Were such nice people eh? But I mean, who wouldn’t want such a pleasant awakening? Everyone wanted to have a shower so we started them in shifts. We were finally ready to head to the airport around 8:30am. I went in the car with Mark, Wayne, and Ruby while Ben, Warren, and Alex were in the other car.

The London group that took over Ryan Air! Alex, Ben, Wayne, Matt, Warren, and Dave. In the front: Ruby, Mark, and me

As we get to the airport parking lot Warren tells me that he just had a call from Matt (mat-uk) who just woke up!!! We thought for sure that there was no way he was making this flight. But apparently he was going to get a taxi so fingers crossed! Got to the airport and checked in and sorted all that stuff. Matt was on his way so we decided to wait for him before we went through security. Stupidly I bought a coffee on this side of the airport and I couldn’t bring it with me through security so I had to throw it out. Matt finally made it! Still can’t believe he did though cause I seriously thought he wouldn’t be coming. Alex and I got searched at security. We had forgot some liquid stuff in our bags so they took them all apart...it was awesome with my underwear just sitting there on the table for anyone to see haha.

Alex and me on the plane

Dave (wanderingwurzel) had texted Ruby earlier to tell her that he was already through security and sitting at the bar and Ruby, Wayne, and mark being the nice people that they are ditched us and went through while we were waiting for Matt. By the time we got to the bar they were sitting there nicely with their drinks and eating breakfast! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to eat breakfast but I guess it’s ok because I just took over Waynes. So there was 9 of us all together getting on the flight. I think I can say this is the first travbuddy flight with the most people being on the same one. And we all managed to get to sit together so it was awesome and we took tons of pictures! The flight was 1 hour to Weeze Airport. Turns out that Weeze is NO WHERE NEAR DUSSELDORF!!! It was soo far away! It took us the same amount of time to get from Weeze airport to Dusseldorf than it did for us to fly from England! It would have been closer to go over into the Netherlands that into Dusseldorf lol.

So pretty!

But we did manage to convince a cab driver to drive the 9 of us in an 8 person van to the central train station for 15 euro each so it wasn’t too bad. We also got to drive on the auto bahn!! I was under the impression that the auto bahn was a special high way where the speed limit wasn’t defined which is true but apparently it’s not just one highway, they are all over Germany! But it was still excited to be on it and driving fast. We arrived at the station and paid the driver and then we met Lauro (lauro) and a whole bunch of other travbuddies! It was soo good to finally meet Lauro and the others. Although there were some familiar faces there hehe. We split up into groups after this and Lauro took us to our hostel while Ben, Matt, Warren, and Alex went to their hostel.

Dusseldorf backpackers hostel!

The hostel was really cool and clean! And it was full of tb’s! Every time you turned a corner you were hugging someone else! Bumped into Tash (nycgirl79) and Jeff (jeffrois) at reception and gave them a huge hug! Was looking forward to meeting them so bad and it was good to finally see them in the flesh! Then ran into Ket (ketmeister) and others going down the stairs. Lauro and the others waited for us outside and after a bit of organizing and getting things ready, a big group of us set off back to the central train station to meet the whole group at 5pm. It was so crazy walking up to the station and seeing a MASSIVE group of travbuddies! It was actually kind of overwhelming meeting everyone and didn’t quite know what to do! There were the people from the London group that I recognized, gave hugs to Mike (globetrottingmike), Louise (1morespicy), and Matt (mattgtfour).

Ruby, Estephanie, and me

Also got to finally meet Jeremy (festerwetch), Wendy (wendyveer), Kat (katmac) and many more! Apologies for anyone I am forgetting. Everyone was there except for Warren, Matt, Ben, and Alex! Those guys, they were making the London group look bad! When they FINALLY got there Lauro did a roll call to make sure that everyone was present. We did manage to enquire a new travbuddy along the way. Some random dude in a bunny outfit loaded with little shooters who just wanted to be a part of our group so badly! He kept calling “here” or “present” to peoples names lol. He was on a stag do and I guess he had to try and sell all the booze that was attached to his body. At first I actually thought he was a tb’er haha. So after we established that everyone was present we headed to the underground or metro or whatever it’s called in Germany.

Lauro trying to do the roll call with the random german bunny man haha

We weren’t just a group, we were a mob! There was about 50 of us just walking all together to the underground and we all got on the train and just took the carriage over! It was awesome! We went a couple of stops over to the other side of the river. We walked back over the bridge and then along the river. It was a really nice walk but it would have been nicer if it wasn’t really rainy and cold but oh well! We did manage to get a group photo though, well a group photo minus Matt (make sure to see mat-uk’s blog if you want to steal it!) We stopped along a little bar/cafe along the river. I think we kind of overwhelmed them when 50 of us walked down the stairs and took up almost every table in the place! So then the drinks started pouring and it was great! A couple people gave speeches and a trophy was awarded to Lauro and some gifts given to others.

Travbuddies over taking the metro

It was really nice. I can’t remember who but someone got up and gave a toast to Lauro and then one to Eric for founding the site. It was really nice but it made us sound like a cult cause it was like, “To Eric, our creator!” haha too funny! So everyone was having a good time and having a couple drinks and what not. Everyone settled up and then we started to walk towards the city where we were going for dinner. This is where the meet up gets a little less meet up for me haha. We were at the restaurant for a bit before the food actually got served and I was kind of making my rounds visiting with other travbuddies and what not. I wasn't sitting with Ruby or Mark or them so I didn't quite realise how much the vodka had affected Ruby. When I got up to go to the bathroom that is when I realised she was fairly sick.

Alex, Matt, Louise, Warren, waiter, Me, Ben, and Matt

She was in the with Charlotte (vosking) who was helping her out. I got her some water and we tried to feed her some bread to soak up the alcohol but she was quite sick. Anyways I'm not going to get too into it but the medics were called and Ruby went to the hospital and I went with her. Not to worry though cause I don't want people to be too worried, all was fine in the end! We ended up missing all of the dinner. After some time I took Ruby back to the hostel and put her to bed. After she was nicely tucked in I caught a cab back to the restaurant to continue on with the meet-up!!! I missed the dinner but Warren and others so nicely saved me some of the dessert which was quite nice. By the time I got there everyone was ready to party and some were half way there and I was totally ready to join them! At this point a lot of people said goodbye and had to make their way home and who ever wanted to could continue on partying with the rest of the crowd.

Lauro getting his well deserved trophy!

We first walked to this club that wasn't too far away. It was actually quite stessful for that many of us all to decide on what we were gonna do! We stood outside that club for a little bit and then we realised the line went all the way around the building and it would take us a good half an hour before we got in. So then after some time we decided to go to the Old Town were there were a ton of bars. We got about 10 cabs or so and we all headed there. And holy crap was the cab driver crazy!!! People in Europe drive SOO close to one another. I have been in a car accident before where my sister rear-ended another car so everytime the driver would pull up really close and then slam on the breaks it would freak me out. I was desperatley trying to do up my seatbelt as he was speeding through town! Luckily though we made it there safe and sound! We all met up and then we headed to the bars.

Ket, me, and Tash

I think we all just walked into the first one that we found which was called, "The White Bear Bar" I think. All 30 or 40 or however many of us there were just walked right up there. And ofcourse we chose the smallest area to take over lol. We didn't walk back into the bar where there was more space, well mainly because we didn't want to be that far away from the bar! We basically took that whole area over and the beers started pouring. And then another, and another, and another! You get the point right? I think we got there around 12 or just after 12 but we were there till closing. I am not gonna like this was one of the best nights of my life. It was just soo fun! Everyone just got really tanked and was having a blast. The travbuddy meet up ended up turning into a MASSIVE sing along, mosh pit, and dance floor! There were some really famous songs that came on that everyone knows the words too so everyone was just singing along, dancing and drinking.

Me and Lauro

And the beer was flying! Literatley. I was drenched with beer!! I had it all in my hair, down my top, and all down the side of my pants, (trousers for you English people lol) it was a crazy mess! I think the best though was when, "It's raining men," came on. The bartenders were actually spraying us with beer and all these paper bits were flying everywhere and everyone was singing and dancing it was great. There was this crazy bar tender who would carry this massive tray that had about 20 drinks on it. And he would dance with everyone while he was carrying the tray, a sight to be seen for sure. Eventually it came to be 5am and the ugly lights came on. Oh how I hate the ugly lights!!! You get to see everyone clearly and it's just not a good sight after you have been dancing and heavily drinking for 5 hours lol.

Jeff and I

But we were not finished partying! So we started chanting, "WE WANT MORE!" until they played some more music. They did play a couple more songs but eventually we did have to leave. I think we ended up leaving around 5:30am and we all kind of piled out into the street and were drunkenly walking around. Poor Alex had left a little bit earlier and he couldn't get back in so he was outside waiting for us all when we came out awww. Eventually we all got into cabs and Dave (wanderinwurzel) and I were the last people to get in a cab and we headed back to the hostel. No one was in bed though! Everyone was chillin in the common room just hanging out, triyng to winde down after a good night! Ruby was awake too so she got to witness all our drunkness and I broke the bad news to her that the German hospital sent her a bill to her London address for 500 euros yikes! After a few drunken calls from Alex and the guys at the other hostel I finally managed to make it to bed around 6:30 or 7:00 for a measly 2 or 3 hours sleep! I'm not upset though, honestly I had such a great time partying and it was so good to meet all you travbuddies! I had such a good night and can't wait until the next party!