A house painting we saw on the way to the Asian restaurant.
I felt sooo sorry that I missed the Düsseldorf meetup in April. First of all because I’ve live in Düsseldorf for quite long time as a teenager and know the city quite well. And my sister stayed living there after my return to Slovakia years ago. The second reason was that I was supposed to go there…only two weeks later, aaaarrrrgggh. Well, at least I hoped to meet with Lauro with whom I chatted for a while and who I knew lives in this city on the Rhine river. And then another travelbuddy I chatted with came up with the idea to meet while I’m in Germany.
Lauro enjoying his meal.
That was Bettina ( “dahling”) who lives actually in Frankfurt, about 200 km further south. She said she would come to Düsseldorf by car. Because of my and Lauro’s schedule we decided to set up the meetup for the 1st of May, the day of my arrival. I was supposed to land at the Düsseldorf International Airport at around noon, get then to my sister’s place and at 3:30pm I should meet with Bettina in the city center at the Rhine promenade next to the “Schlossturm”. After surviving a traffic jam on the highway and after getting some false direction descriptions from people who couldn’t be from Düsseldorf (no way), there she suddenly was, Bettina. I don’t know who saw whom first, we both had a description what the other wears. It felt like meeting an old friend I just haven’t seen for a while.
My best German friend Christian and his fiance Jessi, they will merry next year.
She’s a great woman and has some interesting stories to tell especially about her life in the US and her Turkish roots. And she’s somebody you can joke around with as well.
I showed Bettina around the “Altstadt”, the old center”, a little bit and then we sit down for some “refreshment”. We knew we would go with Lauro to some funky Asian restaurant, a special place called “Zum bösen Chinesen”, but we were hungry a bit already. A soup and some bread did their job to fill our stomach and while having my first Düsseldorf Alt beer we chatted about everything possible like our lifes, travelling, etc, etc.
My best German friend Christian and me.
Time was passing by quickly and soon we had to move to our meeting point with Lauro. First we picked up Bettina’s car from a parking house and drove then to the Central Station. Little bit later we were standing inside of the train station when I received a message from Lauro, he was already there, probably standing outside. And I was right, Bettina noticed him first and called his name loudly. I have to admit I was curious about Lauro. As for me I had the feeling he’s something like the ultimative travelbuddy, everybody knew him and he knew everybody. And what do I after seeing him for the first time???? Tell him how small he is. Geeeze, I guess the people who saw Napoleon first time in real did the same stupid thing. I would like to apologize…honestly. Maybe he’s not the tallest (I’m not either), but his personality is definitely 3 times as big and you notice that quickly.
This wasn’t supposed to be a meetup for travelbuddies only.
Chrisian fiance Jessi.
My best German friend from my highschool times Christian and his fiancé Jessi wanted to see me, so I asked them to join us as well. They arrived just a minute later after we met Lauro. The Asian restaurant Lauro suggested was located relatively near so we decided to walk. While walking I was happy to find out that my old friends seemed to get along very well with my travelbuddies. About 15-20 mintes later we arrived in front of the restaurant “Zum bösen Chinesen”. For those who don’t understand German, the name means something like “By the angry (could be wicked as well) Chinese”. The place was full (a good hint for the popularity of this place), but we were lucky and got a table. What’s little bit uncomfortable, there’s no menu card, everything is written by hand on boards hanging on the wall. But they prepare hand made noodles here and the great taste of the food makes it worth waiting a bit longer for your order. It was just amazingly delicious, at least what I had ordered.
Lauro and Bettina (dahling)
During the dinner we chatted crisscross, joked and laughed around and I managed to make some pictures as well. And I would like to point out that I did that just before everyone started to eat.
We just had a great time all together. It was already dark when we suddenly left the restaurant. Lauro was the first to say goodbye, he lived nearby. Little bit later Christian and Jessi separated from us as well, they had to catch the subway home. I brought Bettina back to her car and we continued talking. I don’t remember how late it was when she got into her car (we’ve been chatting for at least 20 minutes even in front of it), I think around 10.30pm. I felt sorry for her driving home for some 2 hours. But I felt she enjoyed that day as well as all the others. See you next time my friends.
