The Great Pub Tour '09

i've been a bit scarce around here and i appologize, its been a crazy couple of weeks since I've been in schools during the days, working at henrik's, running practices all week, playing on weekends, and trying to hangout with there crazy party animals. i guess i could get up earlier and write these things in the mornings...but we all know that wont happen, so im not even going to act like thats an option. i'm just going to keep squeezing writing in when i get a bit of free time.

Speaking of crazy party animals, me (23) Johst (30) Hassi (32) and Bernie (36) had a crazy adventure through tostedt last night. It all started 2 weeks ago when Hassi, (Hassi and Stephan are one in the same person by the way) asked me if i had been out to the bars in Tostedt, and i told him that i thought there was only one, called Decaf. we then set a day, tuesday because its my night off, to take a tour to see all the pubs in tostedt...there are 3 unless you count restaurants, which we didnt. Yesterday was that fabled day. the excitement was high when i got to Johst's at 7:00 (PM, they arent that crazy). we were to meet Hassi and Bernie at Decaf in 15 minutes to kick this thing off. since this town is not big enough to have 4 bars on the same street, the bars are spread out a bit and the choosen mode of transportation for such an occasion is bike. so we set off from Johst's pedaling East, away from a setting sun. I didnt know at the time that it would be enough; I only found out at the end of the night that the 7 euros i had in my pocket at the beginning would have been enough to get me through this tour, so we stopped at the bar first...Yesterday was payday and (mark this one in your calendars: 28/4/2009) now i'm officially a PRO ballplayer. Johst almost went turkish bowling through a crowd that had gathered in the playground of a local school on our way to the bank. its a good thing i was there to talk some sense into him and keep him from doing anything brash, i mean he at least had to make it to the first bar. so finally all gathered at Decaf, we had two beers before jumping on the pedals and heading to the next location, which happened to be a place called Relax. Relax is apparently a new place in town, before it was little dive bar that was described by Hassi as "darker, dirtier, and a lot more greasy if you know what i mean." now it is a nice little place with a few tables and two video slot machines that we saw a guy win a few bucks on. it was a bit strange however when after ordering our drinks the bartender left the place out of the front door and came back with 3 clean glasses. where he got them or why they werent in the bar is still a mystery to me, but nonetheless, the glass we clean when i got it. about half way through the 0.4 liter of frothy goodness, a couple of turkish guys walked in and johst began to get uncomfortable, so we had to split after just one beer. which was fine, because the atmosphere in there needed some spicing up anyway, i probably wont be going back there anytime soon. the next pub we went to was in a hotel and the bartender there is nortorious for being drunk at work. I was excited to catch a glimpse of this man and he wasnt what i had pictured. As we were riding over to the bar and they were telling me about him, i had pictured a big fat guy with a beer gut. but Ingl is a man in his forties or fifties in damn good shape, i later was told that as much as he likes drinking, he likes riding his bike, and im not talking just casually riding for fun or to and from work, i mean he bikes like 100km a day. I guess thats one way to sweat out all the toxins you put in your body the night before. I was also told that this guy loves giving out shots and he has a ton of off the wall alcohols that he likes to use. so between sips of beer, we took a shot of some alcohol from Jamaica, a shot out of an unmarked bottle that was very strong(i thought is was moonshine of some sort but they swore that it was a special clear german whiskey), red absinth, something like jager, a shot that i didnt take that was really spicey (glad i didnt do that one) and then a final shot for the road right before we left. thats all i can think of right now, but Johst, if there is any that i'm forgetting feel free to write a comment and correct me. it would have been okay if these shots were spaced out along an hour period, but the guys told Ingl that i had to get up and go to work tomorrow and his response was, "well, i guess we're going to have to get him drunk early then so he can sober up by the end of the night." so all those shots i was just talking about took up the the 20 minutes.it was also at this bar that Hassi took the title for drunkest man of the night, he claims it is because his wife doesnt let him drink anymore. and he also made friends with a random goth teenager and invited him over to join our table. that guy fell out of his chair while he was trying to light a cigarette, haha. not "full" -the literal german translation for drunk- we decided to go to one last bar before calling it a night. the last bar is actually right across the street from the Decaf so we made a big circle around the town on our tour. but when we pulled up, the workers were locking up and leaving for the night. Not letting this drain our spirits, we went back to decaf and had one last beer with the owners. It was here that i got roped into a long conversation with two older ladies about baseball and why and how and what i was doing there. they had a lot of questions and i had a hard time, in my drunken state, coming up with simple answers that they could understand. the best part of this last stop was the 3-4 handfuls of peanuts i had. it was a little after midnight at this point and a good time to head home since we were all getting full...some of us (Hassi) past full. walking into the house, i thought about getting on the computer and leaving a few drunk facebook messages, but surprising i made a good decision to just go to bed. It was a great adventure and one that i hope to have again...minus a few of those shots.

7:00 rolled around pretty early. I had to go back to the schools this morning in Wistedt at 8. I got up at 7 to take a shower and get some of the alcohol smell off of me, I dont know if it worked but no one mentioned it or asked about what i did the night before, so it must have worked at least a little bit. looking outside, i could see a fog/slight mist in the air and puddles on the ground. my first thought was of the dirt road that i have to go on and that it was going to be even tougher going this morning...just what i needed. i hopped on the bike, head still spinning, and began the laborious trek to school. I got there at 8:01 and didnt have a chance to go into the teachers lounge and grab a cup of coffee...i dont like it, but i needed some kind of caffine in a bad way. the day dragged on the way it always does when i drink the night before and wake up early to do something. that is until the last class of the day...by that point i had had some coffee and was feeling a bit better and a girl was in this class that i couldnt keep from laughing at. she was a spitting image of Vicky Vallencourt from The Waterboy. when i first looked at her, i started chuckling to myself, which caused the whole class to cease their conversations and look at me to see what i was laughing at, a bit embarrassing but i couldnt help it. I've actually found a few German counterparts in the schools; little Ben Baenen in Nenndorf and Vicky in Wistedt today are the most note worthy, but there have been a few other that remind me of kids i played baseball with when i was younger and kids i went to gradeschool with. its really what keeps me going through the day, finding german look-a-likes amongst the kids, its a fun little game i like to play to pass the time while they are chasing tennis balls all over the gym instead of catching them.


thats about the gist of whats been going on, ill try to write more next time, but again it is time for practice.

A-Ron