Nuremberg, Germany
After Arriving to the Nuremberg Hoptbanhof (main transport station) at 3pm on the Friday before Easter, Kyrsten and I had to figure out the U metro (way easier than the S metro). We buy our one way ticket and hop on the correct train. We get off on the right station and start walking towards our Air BnB that Kyrsten had booked for 3 nights due to the lack of affordable Hostels in Nuremberg, same problem as in Wurzberg.
We get to our place after walking through, what felt like, a more run down part of Nuremberg on the west side of town. Once we got in were quite amazed just HOW SMALL the place was!
You walked in and no joke, two steps later you're in the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. There was also a very small bathroom attached as well. The bed took up the whole entire "bedroom." It was literally the smallest living quarters I have ever stayed in.
That first night we went to a brewery that was around the street from us where they spoke no English, the writing was in German cursive and couldn't barely understand anything. We both got the three sausages with sauerkraut and bread, which was pretty good!
They give you sourkraut as a filler food, like white rice with Asian food, and I don't like sourkraut THAT much but I still ate it all. I ordered 3 hefeweizens which I did enjoy very much and Kyrsten got two of their dark lagers which she also enjoyed. We try to find a little store for more beers back at our Air BnB but nothing was open as it was Good Friday. We head back to our pad, turn on a movie, and call it a night.
The next day, Saturday, was our day for exploration. I woke up at 8am and worked on my laptop for a few hours before Kyrsten woke up around 11am.
She got ready and we left our room at noon on Saturday. We started walking and stumbled across the coolest pastry shop called "Der Becks" where we both got a little panini and had a great little conversation with the nicest lady behind the counter! We continued walking towards the castle which surrounds a huge part of the city. We walk and walk and go up on the ledge of the castle, making our way to the top of the castle where we overlooked the whole city before stopping at a small brewery called "Nuremberg Alm"for a beer on our way back down.
I had a Marzen from a bottle I saw as I was walking in, that the waitress didn't even know they had, and was pretty good! Kyrsten had a unfiltered light ale which was OK! Once those beers were depleted we walk around the corner to this other brewhouse that was packed, rude server, and not decnet beers. I saw that they had a bock, I asked for it as that is arguably my favorite style of beer, and she said it was only out of bottles... Apparently I couldn't order it and I was upset about that so I settled for a red ale that was actually pretty good. I didn't like the atmosphere enough to stay there for another beer so we left.
We started walking to another beer place I had researched before leaving our pad and it started pouring as we were walking over the most quaint wooden bridge ever. The place we were looking for didn't open until 5pm and it was only 3pm so we continue to walk in the rain until we see a sign that says "Distille" with a lot of liquor in the windows, so we stop in. It was a distillery shop!
They do hard alcohol tastings and I wanted some more alcohol as I hate starting to drink and then stopping . We met the most awesome Asian girl who was from Houston, TX and moved to Nuremberg for her husband. She showed me some 70% FIRE Scotch and Kyrsten some 45% peach liquor. I enjoyed that tasting so much but didn't buy a bottle because I'm not fancy as fuck! I'm the kind of guy who will drink a 40 of malt liquor walking around the nice part of town. Maybe if I had a home of my own in my den I would have bought a bottle!
We stop at a liquor store right across the street from the distillery shop and pick up some more beers and Kyrsten buys me another little bottle of Jager.
We start our trek back to our pad to kick it before going out to dinner. I can't remember what we had but I do remember most things were closed as Saturday night came around. We stocked up on some food and a little bit of drinks, what we could hold in our hands and pockets, because tomorrow was Easter Sunday and we knew everything would be closed.
After passing out that night, Easter Sunday came around. I woke up around 9:30, which is late for me, and Kyrsten woke up soon after. We wanted to make the most of our last full day together so we got ready and hit the road. It was a sunny morning and we were in the mood for walking around so we stopped at the same coffee shop as the previous morning because of the nice lady behind the counter.
When we were eating our panini and drinking our coffee, it started to get dark outside and within minutes it started raining. The rain quickly turned to hail. We both didn't want to walk in the rain/hail so we decided to head back to our pad to watch some movies on Netflix. After two movies and almost 4 hours later, we try to walk outside again, try to find an open place for food and explore, it started pouring on us.
We were both pretty annoyed that it was raining/hailing on our last full day together. We head back to our pad after walking a block or two to end up watching another 2.5 movies. I had made us some chicken and pasta for dinner. We both fell asleep before 11pm.
Now that it was Monday, Kyrsten had a Flixbus booked to head out to Munich at 1:45pm for a 7am flight to London, then Phoenix, then Oakland planned for Tuesday morning.
We woke up, cleaned up our little mess, packed up all our shit, and left the Air BnB by 11am. We hopped on the U train and made it to the Hopbanhof by 11:30 and guess where we went to wait for 1:45... You guessed it right... McDonalds...
When the time came I walked her to the Flixbus and said our goodbye's. Until next time!
That's not the end of my journey in Nuremberg though as I was meeting with an old Marine friend of mine in 3 hours!
I checked in to my new hostel, A&O Hostel (Same as in Venice or Florence, I forget lol) which was right next to where I dropped Kyrsten off, and right next to the Hopbanhof as well. I didn't know when my buddy Daniel Cotten (@cotten on Instagram) and his friend Louis were going to arrive so I made the executive decision to head to the Hopbanhof to buy some beer.
As I enter the Hopbanhof I notice some messages from Daniel, he was also at the Hopbanhof!
I told him to meet me at the same McDonald's Kyrsten and I were at a few hours prior. I grabbed two beers, 7.5% and a 10% both from Carlsberg. I meet up with my friend and meet his friend. After a long day of travels they were tired so I let them drop their stuff off in my hostel room and relax a bit while we talked and relaxed. We only had one more hostel mate that night, who was an ex-army guy named Guy.
Daniel, Louis, and I decide to go grab some food at a Pizza Hut in the main downtown area. It was some bomb pizza, oh yeah... I also had a Dunkel there too! It's more of a restaurant compared to back in California.
On the way home I grabbed three more of those strong beers. I was in a weird mood as I had said goodbye to my travel buddy for the last 2 weeks and I could feel another new chapter of my life egging on. I drank two more of those beers and I was feeling real good at this point. I hopped in the shower real quick and Guy, Louis, and I decided to go out drinking on the town. Daniel was tired so he stayed back.
We hopped on tram and started making our way to a carnival that was happening in Nuremberg.
We all three had a beer there after arriving to an awesome atmosphere with a colorful waterfall and sausages and people everywhere! After that beer I'll admit, I was pretty drunk! We go to a beerhall there where they had live music and everyone was dancing up on the tables and stools. We all get a liter of Pilsner and I start dancing up on the table because I was feeling all the American music they were apparently playing. After that it was about 1am or so and apparently we hopped on the tram, where I took a little snooze, before going to the bar where Guy worked. We ended up meeting some people there and they kept buying me drinks and one of them was a shot of tequila for some chicks birthday... I was hammered. It was 5am at this time and I just had to go to sleep! I never stay up this late!
I didn't wake up until 12:15 the next morning and I was supposed to be out of the hostel at 10am! OOPS!
I make the trek back to the hostel, pack up my shit, drop my key card off, grab Louis's bag and jacket along with my packs and start making the 0.7mile trek to Starbucks where Daniel and Louis were... I felt like throwing up the whole walk but the Marine in me came out and I made it.
I ordered two drinks and a sandwich and sat, starting outside the window as everyone passed by in the gorgeous sunny spring day. It was now almost 3:30pm and we could check in the Air BnB that Daniel had booked. We start walking and it was another 0.4 miles but it was a gorgeous walk, a whole different perspective on the city this day! It takes Daniel about a half hour to find the apartment complex so I went on the little square on the bottom of the castle where everyone was out lounging in the sun drinking their wine and beer. I was hungover so no alcohol for me, just lounging and enjoying the weather.
We finally get to the room which was right around the corner and decide to rest up before going out to eat. They both take a nap but I was so in to my new audiobook, "Crushing It" by Gary Vaynerchuk which was JUST RELEASED that day and I listened to 2.5 hours real quick. We headed out and went to the Hopbanhof for food at Burger King that night. After walking around for a couple hours we head back to the apartment and rest before going out. I was still pretty hungover so I called it quits and passed out for the night. They didn't end up going out that night either.
The next morning I do yoga and meditate. They were antsy so they went and got food while I was meditating. I met them at the same Starbucks we had met the two days prior.
We decided to take advantage of our last day together so we started walking and walked 4 miles all around the city, grabbing some food along the way. We get back to the apartment around 1.
We all took a quick nap but Daniel and I were up while Louis was still sleeping. We were hungry so we went back to the same Pizza Hut as the two days prior. They messed up his drinks about 3 different times but eventually we evened it out. We head back to the hostel to get Louis and we start making our way to the Carnival we had gone to 2 nights prior, but this time I wasn't smashed. We walked the 2 miles there, seeing a whole different side of Nuremberg we haven't previously seen.
We arrive at the Carnival and go to the same place and I got a dunkel that was tasting extra good that day. Daniel wanted to see me chug half the liter in return for him buying me my next drink, so naturally I did haha. I have another dunkel real quick before we worked our way over to the same bierhall from before. We order two drinks each there, get front row to the band playing mostly German music this time, and have a good time drinking and rocking out! We decided to head back to our apartment and call it a night after that. We walk the 2 miles back, stopping at two different McDonald's on the way home. We get back at around midnight and call it a night.
The final day in Nuremberg I woke up, did my yoga and meditated, and then packed up all my stuff to get ready to go grab some food before hopping on my 7.5 hour Flixbus to Cologne, Germany. We stopped at the Hopbanhof one last time for a pastry.
I say my goodbye to my friends and just like that I'm on my own again to another city, this time in Western Germany as I make my way to my final destination, the UK where I have my return flight back to Oakland on May 10th.
Throughout the time with my old Marine friend Daniel who owns a gold shop in San Francisco called "Gold Exchange", www.goldexchange.com, we talked about him and his angel investor friends being able to front upwards of 1.5mil for me to start a brewery. I was so excited to hear this! It will definitely get my ass even more in gear to start my own brewery!
Man I have such a great life and I'm so thankful for the opportunities that have been handed to me!
Thanks for reading everyone! Stay tuned for my next blog post which will be about Cologne, Germany and all the Kolsch I drank out there!
Cheers,
Ty Stevenson