I have the worst timing ever.

Remember that time I told you Dortmund was on their way to becoming the German soccer champions? 

Well, way back in the beginning of May, they made that happen! The night of the winning game, it was complete madness in the city. Since I could hear the celebration from my bedroom window, I decided to go check it out. 

But that was only the spontaneous, post-win celebration. The official celebration would be an all day party about a week later. And even though they won the championship last year, this year was a big deal too, because they also won something else. I'm not really sure what it was, or how they won it. I just know one win was decided by the points of the season and came with a big silver plate looking thing. And the other was decided by one game and came with a big golden trophy cup.

And what better to do for the celebration (Meisterfeier, to the locals), than gather everyone, offer them beer, and parade the silver plate thing and golden trophy with the team through the city. So Katharina and I grabbed our BVB cups of beer and joined the masses to wait for the show.

they even turned the fountains yellow for the occasion

In retrospect, bringing that big cup of beer with was probably a bad a day. No, it was definitely a bad idea. It didn't take too long for me to realize I really had to pee. And about 15 minutes before the parade was supposed to roll through our area, the pee-dance set in (you know, when you bob up and down because you have to go so bad). But I figured, 15 minutes - I could make it, snap a few photos, then make a mad dash for our apartment that was maybe 200 meters away. 

But the city was overrun with people in the streets, so of course, there was no way they were actually going to show up on time. The minutes rolled on so painfully slowly. And I continued dancing in my spot, convinced that as soon as I left to seek a bathroom, they would turn up. Finally, after about 40 minutes of agony, I decided it was no longer worth it and headed off in search of a bathroom (I couldn't get back to our apartment because it was impossible to cross the street at this point). 

Of course, the only place with a bathroom was a tiny little pizza place with a line out the door. So I got in line and waited (and danced). And sure enough, about 15 minutes later, someone runs in the door "They're coming, they're coming!" Well too bad, I had already put in too much time in this line, and I was going to see it through to the end. 

I was able to catch the very end - at least saw the silver plate thing and golden trophy with my own eyes, which counts for something, right? But you can thank Katharina for all the pictures of the sacred soccer parade. 

That time we drank wine instead of beer

A couple months before, while walking around Dortmund, I had noticed a tiny little wine bar that looked super cute. I immediately made a little note of the place, because I knew it would be just up Patrick's alley for his visit. I know while he and Karrie were here, we did our fair share of beer drinking (as you well know by this point), but my brother is really more of a wine person, so one night we traded in the beer mugs for wine glasses.

 

The place is called der Weinkommissar (basically, the wine detective) and is just a little one room bar, not much bigger than the living room of our apartment. The wine was fantastic and the staff was so nice. They were so helpful as we pestered them with questions about the wines, trying to find just the right bottle to split! At one point, our waitress even said "I'll just open the bottle for you to try it, and if it's not what you want, you don't have to get it - I'll just take it home for me!" 

 

We had such a great time the first night, we went back the very next night. To be honest, we probably would have gone every other night after that, if we weren't leaving Dortmund after that. 

Go team!

The first night Patrick and Karrie arrived, I had a big plans for them: we were going to a Dortmund soccer match. 

Now soccer in Europe is a big deal, but in Dortmund it's a REALLY big deal. They are in love with their team here. And with good reason. Last year Borussia Dortmund, or the BVB,  won the Germany championship, and they are well on their way to winning it again this year. 

So right after arriving, after a nap and a currywurst, the three of us headed off to the Signal Iduna Park stadium (the largest stadium in Germany, btw) for our very first live soccer match! 

When we arrived, the atmosphere was just as lively and as exciting as I had hoped! The crowds were insane. I mean, this was the line* to get into the stadium. 

*of course by "line" I mean "giant mob of people"

And the crowds didn't end there. We had stehplätze, which literally means standing places. So we went to head to our standing block only to find it was just as crowded as outside. This was our view of the field, and with the crushing amounts of people, it didn't look like it would get any better. 

I'm not going to lie, the excitement of it all kind of faded when we realized we probably wouldn't be able to see the game. So we did the next best thing: went in search of some beer. We couldn't have wondered around very long till we found this nice little opening to stand in. 

It wasn't the best view, but at least we could breath. Since we found a reasonable place to stand, I headed off to grab us all some beers, and when I got back, our luck really turned around.

See the stadium worker in that last picture? She tried to talk to Patrick and Karrie while I was gone, but since she didn't speak too much English, it didn't go over so well. So when I got back, she approached me and the conversation went something like this

Her: Do you guys work here?

Me: Oh no, we were just wandering around...

Her: Ok, well it's just that you're not actually allowed to stand here.

Me: Well, we have Stehplätze, but there is not even room to breath down there. And they've come from the US to visit me, so we were just walking around to find a place to see the game.

Her: Well you wait here for a second, let me check something.

She then went and gave her section a once-over. After about 30 seconds she came back to us and told us she had found some free seats and to follow her. She led us through a few secret locked doors and around the stadium to another section where she walked up to the ticket checker there and explained our situation. He then told us that if we had any problems with our seats (i.e. if the people with the actual tickets came) to just come let him know and he'd help us out. 

It was the nicest thing and so exciting! So, just before the first half ended, we settled into our new seats, which had a much better view of the action. 

The rest of the game was great and we were all so glad that we got hooked up with some new seats. It really made the whole experience that much better! 

Welcome to Dortmund!

First I just wanted to say thanks for all the well wishes and kind words regarding yesterday's post! It was really great to hear that people do read the blog (and hey, comments are the way to my heart ;) )!

Now back to your regularly schedule post... 

Guess who came to Dortmund?

My brother, Patrick, and Karrie, his good friend from college, were here for just over a week.  Patrick has a little thing we like to call wanderlust (Why yes, that is a fabulous German word that has made its way into the English language). He likes to take advantage of my positions abroad and always makes it out to come visit! And I always enjoy getting to show him around and spend time with him.

It is always nice to have visitors because you get to be a tourist in your own city. Now, let's be honest, Dortmund doesn't really have much to offer in the way of Tourism. But I definitely never would have spent the time to go up the Reinoldikirche. And then I never would have taken these not particularly pretty, but reasonably interesting pictures of picturesque (cough) Dortmund. 

O Tannenbaum

The most wonderful thing about Christmas in Germany is all the Weihnachtsmärkte (that means Christmas Markets). Basically every city and town has one - whether it's big or small, old or new it's almost impossible to travel in Germany in the month of December and not see a Weihnachtsmarkt. 

The Dortmunder Weihnachtsmarkt opened its stands a week before the normal first Advent opening of most other markets. And for good reason - covering almost half of the city center, Dortmund boasts one of the largest Weihnachtsmarkts in all of Germany. With that much to see and buy, you might need the extra week!

Even better? It starts about 50 feet away from my front door. I get to see the Christmas market every day when when I leave my apartment. And although this takes its toll on my wallet and self control, it's so awesome to be in the middle of the action.

But even amidst all the excitement, one things stands out above all the rest at the Dortmunder Weihnachtsmarkt. At 45 meters tall (that's almost 150 feet in American speak), in the heart of the Christmas market stands the world's tallest Christmas tree (Guinness Book of World Records approved).

This baby started going up about 4 weeks before the market opened and lights up the city every night with it's 48,000 lights. And the locals are quite proud of this achievement! 

Dortmund has the tallest

I think got the black lung, pop

When I lived in Switzerland, the area was known for, well, pretty much being the most beautiful place ever. Surrounded by water and mountains everywhere, what more could you ask for?

When I lived in Forchheim, the area was well known for having a charming, traditional look.

When I moved to Dortmund, I learned the area was well known for it's history in coal mining. 

The Ruhrgebiet is so named because it is the area (in German: Gebiet) surrounding the Ruhr river. The Ruhrgebiet has a long history of coal mining and has unfortunately gotten a pretty bad rap because of it. Most people think of it as being completely grey and industrial. And in comparison to the previous places I've lived, it definitely isn't the most beautiful. But it isn't the ugliest place I've ever seen. 

During our conference in Düsseldorf (which is not part of the Ruhrgebiet), we headed back to the coal mines for a day. Ok, no, we didn't actually go into the mines, but we did visit the Ruhr Museum, an old Gasometer (basically a gas holder) with an art exhibit inside, and an old steel factory. 

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't the most exciting day I've ever spent in Germany, but it was interesting to learn about the area. It was also cool to see what they have done with all the left overs of the coal mining era. For example, we saw two Gasometers - the first hosted regularly changing exhibits and the second was turned into a practice diving pool. They filled the water with various objects like cars and parts of planes and use the tank for anything from amateur practice to professional training. The Steel factory had basically been turned into a giant work of art, the entire factory being lit in colored light every night. They also host an open-air theater in the summer. 

So I might not be in the most beautiful place in the world, but I'd have to say it's still pretty cool. 

You can't judge a city by its fountains...

But you can totally love way more because of them. Case in point...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, that is a statue of a horn player. But wait, look at the close up. 

Even better, it's a horn player emptying his spit (I mean, really his horn is upside down and just look at the concentration in his face, what else could he possibly be doing?) 



poetic, eh? A horn player empties his spit and thus was born a fountain. I could not think of a more appropriate connection. 

But really, he's called the Bläserbrunnen (the best literal translation I can think of would be the "wind player fountain"... kind of a weird one to translate) and is located in the middle of the Altermarkt (old market) in Dortmund.

Why yes, I also think it's a sign that I belong in this city