Frankfurt - Zu Gast bei Freunden

I had to travel to Frankfurt and Wiesbaden with my job and by chance Max and Kerni were in town at that time as well. So I deciced to stay a little bit longer so I could enjoy the company of Sidi and Andi who work in Frankfurt and of course of Kerni and Max too. My trip started Wednesday evening in Salzburg and quite soon it was clear that I would miss my connecting train from Munich to Frankfurt. So I had to take the train to Stuttgart – no problem so far. As I arrived there I found myself at the station together with approximately 1500 german fans who went crazy because of the 1:0 victory against Poland. As I had to wait for approximately 1.5 hours for the next train this already was my first intense world cup experience. After the last tiring train ride from Stuttgart to Frankfurt I reached the flat of Sidi at 4 a.m. in the morning. Last highlight of my trip was the taxi driver who did not know where to go (as it turned out hardly any of the taxi drivers know the city of Frankfurt really well).

Having slept a couple of hours Max, Sidi and I got up and explored the nearby Bergerstrasse which is a kind of shopping street that is packed with loads of nice little cafes, restaurants and bars. So we met Andi for breakfast there and then headed downtown to do the obligatory “sightseeing”. Our downtown tour was really nice thanks to our professional guides Sidi and Andi and all those international football fans. During the afternoon we joined some of those fans at the so called "Main Arena" where two massive video screens have been placed in the middle of the river Main.

(above: Andi, Wolfi & Sidi at the Main Arena; watching football in Andi´s flat)

Frankfurt and it´s streets are a fantastic place to be during the FIFA world cup. Unfortunately it started to rain a little bit and so we decided to go to Andi´s flat where we relaxed, had a drink and watched the next game before we moved on to a Spanish bar called `Destinos` where we met Sidi´s girlfriend Melanie and her friends. Event at this point of time we did not have enough and so we went to an Irish Pub and after that to a crazy bar called Chameleon before going to bed early in the morning.

Well, I had to work on Friday so I left for Wiesbaden. As my schedule surprisingly changed I was able to return to Frankfurt on Saturday morning instead of Saturday night. After my return to the flat (Kerni meanwhile arrived in Frankfurt too) we had breakfast together and …well, I have to tell the truth, started to drink the beer that was left in the fridge. In a way the theme of the day was set and so we headed out to enjoy another drink in a pub in Bergerstrasse before we grabbed a cab together with Andi in order to go to the “Beach Club”.

(Beach Club at the riverbank of the Main)

We all did not really know what to expect … it seemed to be a weird mix of club, bar and recreation club. And: yes it was. We arrived at about 2 o`clock in the afternoon and grabbed a deck chair straight away, ordered cold drinks (to make it short: beer was the most favoured refreshment on that day ;-), put your feet into the sand, enjoyed the offered games (table soccer, beach soccer etc.) and watched the football games on one of the screens. Only a while later friends of ours (esp. of Sidi and Andi) came and joined us. An awesome beach club, a beautiful day and great people – this means that we really enjoyed the afternoon.

At about 9 o`clock at night we had to leave the club because we were really hungry (well – they had food on the menu … and there were more and more people arriving – but we felt like moving on). Back at Sidis' we changed clothes (from flip-flops to sneakers) and went to a restaurant called “Cuervo” where we had an excellent Mexican dinner and fascinated the waitress with our Austrian slang and with our Austrian charm (our charm was obviously slightly enhanced by a couple of beers already). Melanie and Alex picked us up at the restaurant and we drove to the Unity club which is, according to what they said, the equivalent to Prometheus (Proml) in Innsbruck. Having entered the club we immediately found out that there is no similarity at all - well perception can be really different. Anyway - although we were already quite tired we enjoyed the club a lot!

Obviously I have to end this blog entry in the same way as I end so many of my entries: it has been a great weekend with great friends! Thanks to all those who made this weekend a “Zu Gast bei Freunden Wochenende”.