Unluck, luck, icecream

Friday wasn't really that much fun.
Not in the middle.

I got up waaaay to early after spending far too much time writing here to please the world (or three-four followers that I might have managed to enchant with my witty pen – sorry, keyboard), to go for a run with Nadine and Motte.
Convinced of being in slightly better shape after thirty minutes in the forest, we returned, took a shower and had some breakfast.
Bagage packed, and suddenly I was short of time. Oh, why do I never learn.
Nadine earned some critical looks as she cruised around the corners of Bad Rappenau in Italian style, to get me to the station in time.
My trunk was close to weigh 93 kilos, and I heaved it on board on the train that just arrived and said goodbye to my lovely Nadine.

After a few minutes, I took a suspicious feeling in my stomach seriously and texted Nadine.
Oh, yes, I was on the train in the wrong direction. And there were TWO possibilities.

My original route was like this:

Bad Rappenau -> Heidelberg -> Frankfurt (wait two hours and explore the city a bit) -> Köln -> Düsseldorf -> Velbert

Because of my lack of attention, my trip went like this:

Bad Rappenau -> Heilbronn -> Bad Rappenau -> Neckargemünd -> total block of railways because of suicide near Heidelberg (if I got it right) -> taxi with random strangers to Heidelberg -> Mannheim -> Frankfurt -> Köln -> Düsseldorf -> Velbert

Funny that I actually reached my original train from Frankfurt, because I was really starting to sweat in Neckargemünd. 

Well, me being very unlucky doesn't exist, so I managed to get all the way without any ticket controls even though I took a lot of trains I didn't pay for. Anyways, I would have managed to talk me out of it, because that suicide was not my fault, as far as I know.

A big part of my life Friday. On the train from Frankfurt to Köln, which I enjoyed very much

I didn't get to take a look at Frankfurt, but I had time to get my very own edition of Lonely Planet's "Europe on a shoestring", who kept me entertained on the journey.

TV tower in Köln

In Düsseldorf Miriam was there waiting for me with a wonderful hug.
Wow.
Life is a funny thing.
We haven't met since June 2009, and she is exactly the same.
It was so good to see her again, even though I had a little personal struggle with my tongue to make it pronounce the portuguese words correctly and not cominciare a parlare italiano, cazzo.
Not easy, but I managed.
After some hours my brain was adapting well para falar português.

That evening we went to a bar in Wuppertal and had a cocktail, met a friend of hers and then went back.

Yesterday we got up around 10, had breakfast, and I went for a run. I DID NOT GET LOST.

Before dinner (German style at one o'clock) with a lovely paella, Miriam showed me some of the nature around Velbert.

Miriam, minha linda

Velbert. Miriam lives in one of the blocks to the left.

Pwetty! I know it all looks the same to you, but it IS different to really be there.

Spring

People on road

After dinner (and dessert!) we went out walking again, now to be cultural.

The concrete monstrum in the middle of this photo is Maria, Königin des Friedens, a popular pilgrim goal

Original center of Velbert with the old church and houses encircling it

Matching colours

The modern church from the inside

 

Dark. And cold.

Having enough of the heavy darkness in this holiness, we wanted to try our luck as minigolf players.

Total control. Not.

 

Miriam in action. It didn't go as well as it looks, hahaha!

 

Minigolf

 

Skills. 

 

Minigolf seems to be the big thing in Velbert. We had to wait in line.

I must tell you that I won. HOHOHOHO.

With four points or something, but that is indifferent. I won, which is the most important part of the game, at least as I learned as a kid.
To celebrate our respectively victory and loss, we went to an (sorry for abusing superlatives again, but it is necessary for the description) A-M-A-Z-I-N-G icebar. Run by Italians, of course.  

 

Ferrero Rocher. 

After getting fat, we caught a bus to a bar where Miriam boyfriend works and added some more calories to our body by consuming a beer.

We had big plans about going out, but for some reason we were both very tired – I accuse Portuguese, because it takes surprisingly much energy to use a language you are not used to – so we ended up being very girly and watch beautiful "The Notebook" and sighed and cried and dreamt about perfect men.

I see that my camera took a nap during the photo import, so I'll post the rest tomorrow.

Today we couldn't find anything more useful than going to the icecream bar again. Nor could we find any reasons not to, so here we go with Wundertüte with strawberries and kiwi:

 

Y_U_M_M_I

Miriam's dad was also honoured by our visit before we came back to another delicious dinner. With dessert. Somebody up there likes me these days. 

Really like me.

When I went to catch the train, I didn't have enough coins, and the ticket machine did not seem to be in the mood for consuming either VISA or 20 Euro bill, so Miriam went back for the one euro I was missing. I lost the planned train, but when she came back, I put the coins, and it gave a 2euro coin back, but it did register the payment. Oh yes, saved some money there!
Only two euros, but enough to make me satisfied about my life.

I got safely to Düsseldorf and managed to find my hostel.

I am surprised. I stay at Backpackers-Düsseldorf, and I am thrilled so far. It is cheap, has extremely helpful staff, clean, pretty, FREE breakfast and WiFi. Hurrah!
I felt bad because of the ice cream, and went out to get sweaty in the streets. It must be a rare sight here, because people looked like they had never seen someone in holey tights and woolen top running along the streets singing Phantom of the Opera- songs.

After shower, I went out with one of my roommates to find some food.
We found another of the traditional Brauhauses, and had an enourmous plate of German specialities, e.i. fried potatoes, Schnitzel and salad, and of course the local beer.
I am so freaking full. Still.

Suddenly two men at our neighbour table said:
"excuse mii, coud I ask yu a question? Are yu fromm the U. S?"
I said no, I'm from Norway.

"We tu"

And I started to laugh so hard.

Even more when they told that they were here because of the Eurovision Song Contest.
I died.
In fact they are working for the Eurovision Song Contest, and are forgiven, because they said they hated it too.
But still. Really fun to speak Norwegian again after a month. And they knew about Sauda because one had a mother-in-law who was crazy about Bjørn Eidsvåg.

Small world. 

We were basically rolling our way back to the hostel, where I now sit in a common room with my belly full of Schnitzel, listening to some unappropriately loud Spanish girls on the second floor. Luckily my room down here is quiet.

Mum, this is for you, just to prove that I am using my common sense and not hanging out with suspicious looking guys in for example condom suits.

Oh, talking about being lucky; 

Yesterday on the bus back home, I saw that I had one missed call on the phone. From a Norwegian house number. Strange.

I was really curious, even though there was a big possibility of just being a mistaken call.
I went on the computer and found the name. Didn't ring any bells in my memory.
Then I checked my facebook.
One new message saying that "Congratulations, you got second place in our writing competition and have won 3000 NOK".

Five minutes of screaming and jumping around Miriam's living room before I called the number back to check if it was true.

O yes.
Thank you, that was my tickets payed for the whole trip!
And thank you very much, Eirik Daniel, for giving me the tip when I didn't have better stuff to do in Denmark.

I checked the website now, and they wrote about the winning texts.
The task was "How will 2020 be? What kind of future do you want?", and this is what they say about mine:
"Bojesen sitt bidrag er det mest humoristiske av dei tre vinnarbidraga. Teksten er lettlesen, og dei skarpe kontrastane blir skildra på ein besnærande måte."
(Google translate)

Competition arranged by Framtida, Magasinett, Mot til å meina and Lølandstiftinga, for those of you who might have an idea of what they are.

They didn't say anything about publishing my text, so I found out I'll have to do it myself:

It is in Nynorsk. Challenge for you

Maybe I get famous one day, and people will beg on their knees to spread some of my works, but for now I am my own PR-boss.

I just have to mention that I am following Japan, and it gives me goosebumps everytime they show pictures of the disasters. I wonder how it must be to be one of the really successfull countries in the world, and during two days, everything is literally falling apart.
It is really scaring me. But not so much the earthquake as the nuclear explosion. That is just another sign of how we are not supposed to mess with nature and challenge destiny. 

Time to sleep. I will thoroughly and efficiently go through every inch of Düsseldorf tomorrow, so I have to reload.