06-Oct

Surreal moment #23AA:

It's after 01:00 and I'm sitting in an old bar in Altstadt, Düsseldorf. The proprietor of Spinstube Bar -- an elderly man who doesn't appear to know English -- wears a yellow shirt with suspenders, a red tie, and a lovely red leather vest to top it off. I'm pretty sure this establishment has a staff of one. The sound system, which includes at least seven pieces of equipment (cassette, turntable, CD, amplifier, receiver, mixing board, etc), is playing something that sounds like ABBA singing in German about Mexico, complete with cheesy Spanish trumpeting. For all the technology invested in sound, this place has only five tables and could seat about twenty. The decor is a mix of Halloween style fake spiderwebs, many different kinds of lamps suspended from the ceiling, and a collection of award ribbons and imprinted miniature copper pans hung on the wall. The video feed of the fake fireplace plays in the corner and I'm not sure how to interpret the Christmas light-wrapped wagon wheel hanging next to the giant fake spiderweb.

I chose this place out of all the choices in what is called "The longest bar in the world" because it didn't have Van Halen, top 20 pop mixes, or dance music blasting into the street. Communication is kept simple since I hadn't learned any German for  my unplanned visit:
"Ein alt bier bitte."
"Danke."
"Ein pils bier bitte."
"Danke."

I flew into DUS with 26 euro in hand as the only funds I would have until I reached SFO. I didn't want to withdraw too  much in Italy and be stuck with euros, but I also didn't plan on stopping in Germany, so I didn't give my banks the heads-up that I would be pulling an all-nighter here. And so, I left the airport for my 11 hour layover, step by step, slowly, to confirm that I would have trains to return and funds to ride such trains...but there's some point, after staring at price charts and rail maps completely in German, that you just get on the train. So I did. Take a guess and figure it out if things go bad.