January 25, 2009:Australia Day!!

I got up early and went for a run along the bottom of an old castle wall situated not far from my house. At the bottom is a small creek with a cobblestone path running parallel to it. The path meanders along the creek bed and occasionally crosses the creek with a little wooden bridge. This was nice, it was about 0 degrees Celsius and sunny out but it felt not too cold once the blood got flowing. I got back did the rest of my little workout and started my day. I was to meet Viola at 11 to get some German speaking in.

 

Just on time she arrived and we headed out to Kaiserswerth Park a neat little town north west of Düsseldorf right on the Rhine river. We walked along the Rhine and talked mostly in English for an hour or two then headed down town for some Starbucks. We walked along the Kö, a road lined with crazy expensive clothes and populated by old men and old ladies with fur coats and 2000 Euro shoes. Starbucks was a good time and afterwards Viola drove me back to Ratingen so that I could get ready for my next adventure of the day. Australia Day!

The same people from my previous adventure at the Irish Pub (Dusseldorf Expats meet up group) were hosting, together with the Dusseldorf couchsurfers a grand celebration of Australia Day on the shore of the Rhine River. I figured out where this was being held thanks to my great friend Goolge and has on my way. One S-Bahn and one U-Bahn trip later I found myself what I thought was quite close to where I was meant to be. I ended up walking for quite some time through a nice neighborhood filled with classy cars and classy homes. I walked past the yacht club and the outdoor pool, closed for the season of course, and finally and finally made it to a group of about 19 people mingling on the shore. They had a small portable barbeque and a decent size fire going.

 

“Hi, I’m Tom from Canada, is this the Australia Day celebration?” immediately I was invited into the circle and met with handshakes and “Hello I’m . . . from …” I met people from Pakistan, the USA, New Zeeland, Canada and of course Australia. There was Germans there too who knew people through the couch surfing thing or just wanted to work on their English. I would say the entire crowd was between 19 and 35 so I fit into the lower age demographic. Everyone had a different story to tell and it was great to meet people so excited about living in Germany. The Auzies made sure to yell the national anthem, sing songs and wave flags while we listened to Australian music and ate, from what I gather traditional Australian food, lamb and potatoes wrapped in tin foil cooked in the fire. I did not get around to trying the lamb, but enjoyed some baked potatoes and some beers. I met a nice girl named Patina from Germany who was quick to tell me the best clubs to go to and even offer me some German lessons, I got distracted by a rouge Frisbee and never got her contact info though.  After 5 hours of socializing it was getting cold and people decided to move things to a pub downtown.

 

I got a ride with a nice guy named JJ, a girl from Australia and a guy named Ryan from Mexico. We talked of Mexican politics and German beer and finally arrived at the pub. Here we continued the socializing until 23:00 when I decided to call it a night and head home because it takes me an hour to get home from there. I got home at 0:30 and hit the hay hard.