The Frankfurt Beer run
If there was one thing that I noticed about Berlin, it was that liquor was CHEAP compared to Ireland. DIRT cheap. So cheap, that buying a not-so-large amount could cover the travel costs to pick it up. It worked out like this:
20 euro plane flight to Frankfurt (Hahn) and back
28 euro in bus tickets to airports/cities
10 euro for a checked bag.
The price difference was about 10 euro... meaning that if I picked up 6 bottles of alcohol, the trip paid for itself. SIGN ME (and Joseph) UP. But he's a wuss. He was buying for other people.
I arrive in a German airport for the 2nd time in 3 weeks to get my passport stamped. A full page of Germany. I love it. Despite nobody really speaking english, we get on the bus just fine and are on our way to Frankfurt on a mission: Find and buy hard liquor.
It is funny that my past quests to obtain alcohol involved me walking downstairs to Brett and Mike and giving them a wad of cash and a list of what to buy. No, I get the wad out from the ATM, fly to Germany, ask a CLUELESS tabakwaren attendent where the grocery store is (ask germans where the supermarket is, not grocery store -- they understand that), and proceed to walk into the alcohol section with a duffel bag. My how life changes in 2 years.
I ended up picking up 1x .7L bacardi dark, 2x .7L bacardi (normal, white), 1x.7L Ouzo, 1x.7L Parliament Vodka, 1x.5L Tabu 73 Absinth. All in all, a pretty good haul (esp. for ~80 euro). Joey was in front of me with 2x apple wien (or something like an apple wien), smirnoff, tequilla, Jägermeister, and something else. The guy behind me bought 2 carrots and a pack of gum. We wrapped the bottle in towels and set off to lock it all up in the Hauptbahnhof -- the train station where our bus would pick us up.
We set off on a walking tour around Frankfurt after that. And what a gorgeous city. Andi (as usual) was dead on the money about what we should see. The weihnachtsmarkt was absolutely beautiful... and I wanted to buy pretty much all of the the toys and trinkets displayed. The food was outstanding, the alcoholic drinks sold on the street were.... alcoholic (some better than others). And the Germans were actually quite friendly. Even the guy that told us the story about his knife fight in dublin where he knocked a guy down, then went away to get a metal pipe and came back to beat the guy. Lucky (for the other guy), he'd left. At the end of the night, we ended up watching 2 soccer games in an american bar (oops) and watching some 30-something year old swiss girl get molested by her co-workers. All-in-all, a pretty decent, chill night.
We spent far too long in the airport the next day. And I couldn't buy the cigarettes I wanted (for a friend -- not me). Stupid taxation schemes. But we made it back and there was only 1 broken bottle -- one of Joey's apple thingie's costing a while euro fifty. I'm drinking on the cheap for the week!
20 euro plane flight to Frankfurt (Hahn) and back
28 euro in bus tickets to airports/cities
10 euro for a checked bag.
The price difference was about 10 euro... meaning that if I picked up 6 bottles of alcohol, the trip paid for itself. SIGN ME (and Joseph) UP. But he's a wuss. He was buying for other people.
I arrive in a German airport for the 2nd time in 3 weeks to get my passport stamped. A full page of Germany. I love it. Despite nobody really speaking english, we get on the bus just fine and are on our way to Frankfurt on a mission: Find and buy hard liquor.
It is funny that my past quests to obtain alcohol involved me walking downstairs to Brett and Mike and giving them a wad of cash and a list of what to buy. No, I get the wad out from the ATM, fly to Germany, ask a CLUELESS tabakwaren attendent where the grocery store is (ask germans where the supermarket is, not grocery store -- they understand that), and proceed to walk into the alcohol section with a duffel bag. My how life changes in 2 years.
I ended up picking up 1x .7L bacardi dark, 2x .7L bacardi (normal, white), 1x.7L Ouzo, 1x.7L Parliament Vodka, 1x.5L Tabu 73 Absinth. All in all, a pretty good haul (esp. for ~80 euro). Joey was in front of me with 2x apple wien (or something like an apple wien), smirnoff, tequilla, Jägermeister, and something else. The guy behind me bought 2 carrots and a pack of gum. We wrapped the bottle in towels and set off to lock it all up in the Hauptbahnhof -- the train station where our bus would pick us up.
We set off on a walking tour around Frankfurt after that. And what a gorgeous city. Andi (as usual) was dead on the money about what we should see. The weihnachtsmarkt was absolutely beautiful... and I wanted to buy pretty much all of the the toys and trinkets displayed. The food was outstanding, the alcoholic drinks sold on the street were.... alcoholic (some better than others). And the Germans were actually quite friendly. Even the guy that told us the story about his knife fight in dublin where he knocked a guy down, then went away to get a metal pipe and came back to beat the guy. Lucky (for the other guy), he'd left. At the end of the night, we ended up watching 2 soccer games in an american bar (oops) and watching some 30-something year old swiss girl get molested by her co-workers. All-in-all, a pretty decent, chill night.
We spent far too long in the airport the next day. And I couldn't buy the cigarettes I wanted (for a friend -- not me). Stupid taxation schemes. But we made it back and there was only 1 broken bottle -- one of Joey's apple thingie's costing a while euro fifty. I'm drinking on the cheap for the week!
