A great weekend! Nothing can beat a interesting, funny and cheap weekend! Especially when you after this weekend can put another country into your collection.
We, Ulf, Nat, Dill and me shared the costs for a return trip to Mainz, Germany by car. That was all. Almost. Of course, we had one, maybe two bevs as well.
Mainz is Germany’s second oldest city, a student city with around 180.000 citizens. There is a beautiful Dom which is more than a thousand years old, a nice square and of course the one and only bar: Domsgickel. http://www.kneipe-domsgickel.de

As Dill said; "I think I am in love in Mainz". She also said: "Please, Ulf. Can you adopt me? I want to stay in this city."
Ok, I might not want to go as far as Dill. But I would absolutely like to return to Mainz.
We walked around in the Historische Mainz and saw many really nice buildings (both in rococo and from other time periods of architecture), some monuments and a park where the big wine market is taking place once a year.
I can strongly recommend you all to go there. At least ones in your life.

First of all, of course, we must thank Ulf. What a guide he is. Thanx! He organised this 48 hours stay in his city absolutely perfect. After arriving, which you do by going by Köln, a bit outside Frankfurt and then going through Wiesbaden, over the river Rhein and than park the car and enter his apartment in the city centre of Meinz. After eating a delicious Gnocci-meal and a Nathalia- favourite cocktail that I had to finish, I liked it very much by the way, we entered Ulf’s bar Domsgickel. The bar is not a very big one but big enough. And the best thing are that it is located exactly in the middle of Mainz, just a “stone through” (with a bad arm even) from the Dom. The bar has existed in 25 years and has, of course, its regulars. I took a barstool and sat on the same place for a couple of hours. First I was chatting with Dr Erik, Ulf’s friend that he share the apartment with, and then yeah, lets say that the night went on…
Someone came up and insisted that I should have an ouzo. I believe last time I had one was in Rhodes, Greece 1995. And because Nat was a bit tired I got one more! Nice!

We ended the night at the Red Cat. A nice club in a seller, with a kind of cave feeling, where you can role the dice to get your entrance prize. Ha, ha, I got 1! Inside I gave the visitors in the club a show of the dance polka. Or almost polka anyway. But of course, to do that you need to be two. It takes two to tango as we all know, but also polka... Ulf didn’t want to dance so I had to dance with Dill.

Day 2 = Match Day.
Mainz has a bit of a problem. Or maybe many problems when it comes to footie. One is that the team is absolutely last in the table, or as Claire put it: “We are first! …from the bottom“. Saturday the 25 of November they paid a visit to Hannover. This was kind of their chance to win a game. Hannover was like four from bottom.
While the girls saw the city a bit more me, Ulf and some more hard core fans warmed up with a beer. The game was a rally shitty one. No self confidence in neither of the teams. But actually, Mainz scored, or actually, it was a defender in Hannover. But of course, no luck goes to a team in the bottom of any league. It was offside! And in the next minute Hannover scored… and won the game 1-0.
We “celebrated” with a really nice Schnitzel at one of Ulfs regulars, a nice German Restaurant down town. Because Ulf had the Mainz football club shirt on everybody asked him of the result. Hmm, I guess that makes the loss even worse.

Gotta go to bed now, Uni tomorrow.
But if you want to know more of my Mainz-visit just check this internet site again soon.

SOME MORE... that I just have to tell somebody. I cannot keep it by myself anymore.

# I have heard some strange things in my life but one of the worse laughs I ever heard comes from my neighbour. I almost had forgot how strange it was. But home again in Rotterdam this was the first thing that I heard when I entered my room. My 20 year old neighbour is normally a shy guy. But when he has closed his door something is going on in his room. Have never heard a man laugh like that. I don’t know how it is possible to laughs this up pitched way but I guess he like the TV-shows that he is watching.

# I watched Dead Man with Johnny Depp Sunday afternoon. Great movie, really great! And wonderful music by Neil Young.

# Also watched the beginning of the film Night On Earth. Jim Jarmusch seems to know how to make a screenplay. But I still haven’t seen the last part witch take place in Helsinki. Need to see that part.