“This Place is Horrible!”: Düsseldorf According to Raffi

That exclamation is what Raffi uttered to me as he looked at the shower in the hotel room, then at the shampoo, conditioner and shower gel–all one substance–and guffawed.

Truth be told, I think he took out his frustration at the hotel over on the city itself, because he had a hard time appreciating it. He did, however, very much enjoy the food and the beer (which is really critical in any German city).

I, on the other hand, liked Dusseldorf. After we took the 3-hour drive from Luxembourg, set our stuff in the hotel, we went for a walk along Königsallee, a street whereupon lay many lavish stores and a shopping center. I realize now that I didn’t take a picture of it, so I found this one online (sorry):

 
Photo credit: TripAdvisor

Given that we could not dare to shop in any one of the stores, we didn’t walk in. We made our way to the center of the city, where I heard we would find many small restaurants, and the longest bar in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records)! The center contained a mélange of cuisines, from German to Italian to Portuguese to Spanish, and Raffi’s personal favorite, to Middle Eastern.

He insisted I take this picture:

What he didn’t know is that shawarma and kebab places are found in every cosmopolitan city because backpack travelers are suckers for them; the food is easy to carry and always very cheap. We sat down at a restaurant and ordered the place’s specialty beer. The waiter said, “Okay, big one for you [pointing to Raffi] and small one for you [pointing to me].” Raffi was legitimately peeved that it was assumed I would have the smaller beer; do I sense a feminist? Yes? No?

Our food was great! We shared a margherita pizza (not my idea) and both got bratwurst. It was delicious.

Raffi got some ice cream but he ate it too quickly for me to take a picture of it (shame). We rushed back to the hotel because he and I both had deadlines to meet for school. Our delay ended up being for 4 or so hours because first he took a nap while I was doing my assignment and then I fell asleep while he was doing his assignment.

By the time we finally left the hotel again, it was 10:30 in the evening. I really wanted to see the TV tower, so we found our way to it. We arrived by 11:00 and thus attained a 2 euro discount on the entrance fee (small win!) because the tower was set to close within the next 30 minutes.

I struggled to get a good picture of the view from the top: the reflections were horrendous. Additionally, the light inside of the tower was a lime green, really effing with my photos, so I put in some filters to dull the effervescent glow.

The tower had a wonderful ice cream vending machine which dispensed a fabulous Oreo bar for me and a tasty Kit-Kat ice cream for Raffi. Google Photos sometimes sees a masterpiece before I do, so it automatically made a collage of Raffi eating it, which I put in because it’s hilarious:

And here’s us in the tower:

I was told that the walk along the river is a worthy sight, so upon leaving/getting kicked out of the tower, we took a promenade. Here’s what we came across:

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Middle Eastern place because it was the only place open past midnight. I actually had the best water I’ve had during my 1 1/2 months here so far. Speaking of which, I’ve had such a hard time finding water I enjoy drinking, I don’t know what it is; Raffi agrees with me and refuses to drink just any water here. The good water we discovered is called Berrak and–oh sh*t I just looked it up and it’s TURKISH. Man, what a huge disappointment. I guess I’m gonna end on that note.