First Trip Around Germany....... Alone (May 11-13) -- Part 1

Kiel Train Station

(Everything typed in real-time...as it is happening, Enjoy!)

Man, I had to keep my word to myself and get out and travel throughout Germany! Its the second week of the season and we have a bye week (no games scheduled) and I knew I wanted to get out and travel. Originally I planned to go to Amsterdam with a teammate but as the free weekend quickly approached us, his plans seemed to be fleeting as there weren't any confirmations in place for the trip.  I refused to sit still and end up being stuck in Kiel for my off weekend. I began to research different places I could travel to, with or without anybody!  Several places came to mind that I had previously heard of, or that friends here in Kiel suggested, such as Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; Pargue, Czech Republic; etc. I wanted to stay inside of Germany so I first chose Berlin because it is the Capital and I heard there were great parties in the big city. I had a couple friends telling me they would go with me but between work obligations and just plain laziness those plans also flaked. I was still considering going alone but after realizing that we play in Berlin the following week and that me and my teammates would more than likely stay in Berlin after the game to party, I figured I should take this opportunity to travel else where (somewhere we will not play this season) so I began to research options outside of Germany. Copenhagen (Denmark) and Prague (Czeh republic) came to mind because I had previously heard of these places in movies etc.  However, given such short (and very last minute) travel plans  I decided to look for different places in Germany (where I wouldn't visit for a game). After looking at our game schedule, Viola, there it was, Frankfurt, Germany! This is another huge city that I had heard of before coming to Europe and even better, we don't play a single game there. With the help of my good friend/teammate (speaks fluent German) the night before I researched a very cost efficient way to get to Frankfurt. After solidifying a way there through a popular carpool website here in Europe, I quickly researched a hotel to book. I was a little worried about finding availability due to the fact that I was booking the hotel room the morning that I was scheduled to leave! After comparing several mid-ranked hotels and hostels on TripAdvisor.com I decided upon a hotel named the Mercure Hotel-Kaiserhof City Center.  I just went off of price (decent for such a last minute booking) and location (as the name suggested, located in the city center just steps away from the main train station) and most importantly, Faith! So there it was, 8:30am on a gorgeous morning in Kiel, Germany and I had set travels plans for a weekend in Frankfurt, Germany.....alone! Im thinking to myself, "I am not scared and this is what I wanted, to travel... So let's get iiiiittttt!"

Train Ride Into Hamburg

Hamburg Main Train Station

 My travel plans called for me to catch a quick hour long train ride at 2:20pm to the bigger city of Hamburg where I would meet my carpool partners for our scheduled departure of 3:45pm to Frankfurt.  Google maps tells me it takes approximately 5 hours and I'm thinking to myself, "damn, that's a long time to be in a car with some random German folks I just met in another part of the world that I am totally unfamiliar with!........ Fuck it" hahaha. Sometimes in life you have to take risks and in my experiences, most of those risks have turned out to be awesome decisions that created life-long pleasurable memories! So here I am, sitting on the train to Hamburg a little anxious (not necessarily nervous) to really begin this journey to the bottom of Germany! 3:03pm

6:35pm

Hamburg Train Station/Mall

Curry wurst!

Boy do I feel good right now! Got to the main train station in Hamburg which was more like a mall, and felt even more anxious knowing that I would soon meet my fellow travelers. As I walked aimlessly through the station in search for the passenger pick up area I walked past a curry wurst food place and I had to stop and treat myself to the awesomeness locked inside those little sausages and pommus (fries). Soon after I finished my food I contacted my driver and he assured me that he would be there shortly in a small blue car wearing a black shirt and black ball cap.  After taking out some cash from the ATM (in case some crazy shit happens and I have to ditch these random people and make a run for it! Haha. But seriously) I made my way outside and after a few calls back and forth we find each other.  Relief!  He's a tall young looking German guy (later found out he is only 22) wearing a faded black shirt, basketball shorts, a snap back hat, and Chuck Taylor's; skateboarder look. Not what I expected but definitely a lot better than the 35 year old weird looking German guy who was planning to butcher me (this is what I was prepared for mentally!).  The guy, Joe, spoke great English and immediately came off as a cool guy that I wouldn't mind riding with and as we walked to his car he told me that his girlfriend would be accompanying us (also a plus knowing he isn't gay! -no offense).  I could see her as we approached the car and I'm thinking "ok Joe, not half bad! I see you have a little taste".  She wasn't my usual cup of tea but she was a tall and slim nice looking German girl with a pretty face; good job Joe.  We all get in the car and start to drive, Frankfurt here we come!

My Travel buddy, Joe!

The Road to Frankfurt

We begin with the usual small talk, where are you from? What brings you here? Blah blah blah. They were a bit impressed with my ambitious decision to travel alone after only being here for a month; Bawse!  Anywho, we get the usual stuff out of the way and hit the autobahn and now we're cruising. I fall asleep after about 45 minutes of driving which I definitely said I wouldn't do in case these random people took me off into the German woods to never be heard from again. Haha.  For some reason I felt at ease after talking to them and the light drizzle of rain that started up didn't help either.  Sleep!  I wake up after about an hour to my phone ringing and it's my coach.  Earlier I found out that he used to coach in Frankfurt so I called him to see if he had any contacts for me out there and much to my appreciation he did and was calling me to confirm that he had a friend (female- always a plus!) that lived there who would take good care of me in the big city!  Now I'm feeling even better about this trip knowing that I would more than likely have someone there who knew someone I knew and could show me the ropes!  In the midst of all of that, my boy Joe let me know that they would be down to grab a few brews later tonight if I didn't have anyone to hang with. Cool.  The next cool thing happens a few minutes later; their iPod dies. Haha.  He turns and asks if I had an iPod and if I wanted to play some music. Of course I do, two actually (iPod and iPad) and so I hook it up.  Now obviously I want to play something that we would all enjoy but i didn't think we would have the same taste.  I asked what artist he knew of from America, his answer: Cyress Hill. Ummm, "Jump, Jump"???  Ok, this will be a bit harder than I thought.  I play a couple songs from Wiz Khalifa and they seemed to think it was ok so i decided to pull out my other iPod and turn it to the playlist entitled "white boy". Hahaa, seriously!  It is a list of songs that I gathered throughout college at Duke University (predominately white) and everybody knows after years of some partying at Shooters near Duke' s campus, you'll come across some good "white boy playlist" worthy songs.  I know every black person has a playlist similar to this! Don't front!  So as the songs by artist including 3OH!3, Finger 11, P.O.D, and David Cook are currently coming through the speakers I notice a few grins and head shakes. Yes! Showing off my diversity in music a little bit. As I am typing this experience on my iPad I notice that the ninth song on the playlist is playing but shit, I only have 12 songs on this list! Hey, I said I was diverse but I didn't say how much! Haha.  12 songs out of a few thousand isn't too bad huh?  Well, with a little under 2 hours left on the road I'm trying to think what list i could play next.  I could say fuck it and just play my usual Wale, Meek Mills, and Project Pat but I think the 'gangsta shit' might be a bit overwhelming so maybe I'll play some Michael Jackson! Haha. But seriously, they looove them some MJ here in Germany. Yea, that sounds like a plan. Now, I told myself once we got under two hours left I would make my first drink of the trip. I bought two fifths of vodka before i left and they are sitting here next to me in my back pack and I must keep my word to myself, right??

Vodka...

Well, cheers! 7:25pm. ETA: 9:00pm








9:25pm

Almost there!

Of course I played about 25 minutes of Michael Jackson but once I started drinking, I had to go ahead and start up the rap tunes for the rest of the hour and a half ride! Haha. They seem to like it a bit, or maybe they were just acting, but who cares! ha. We made a bathroom stop and went 15mins out of the way on accident once we left the rest stop so we are a little off schedule but GPS says we are only 18 mins away from my hotel and now I'm getting excited. Ready to see what it's alllll about! I checked the weather forecast before I left Kiel and much to my disappointment it said 90% chance of rain tonight, bummer! We are now 17 minutes away and the skies are clear so hopefully the Lord felt my heart asking for a wrong forecast for this weekend (20% chance on Saturday night) and will let the rain hold off until I leave. Here in Germany (at least in Kiel) you can never be too sure about the weather. Sunshine one minute, rain pouring down the next! Let's keep our fingers crossed! I can see the lights of Frankfurt now as we are driving in

Frankfurt = Manhattan of Germany

.... Yessss! 9:33pm


9:48pm,  I made it!! Quick video outside of my hotel...





















Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts! Thanks for reading! More to come soon!

Friends in Germany!

(First 2 Weeks)

Well, obviously I did not know a soul here in Germany before I arrived, with the exception of a female friend living in Hannover (4 hour drive from Kiel) but I barely know her, so I knew it would be interesting to see who I would become friends with.  Since I am here primarily to play for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes, I knew that I would naturally make friends with my teammates and more so the other 4 American import players (each team is allowed up to 5 American players only).  All of us import players live in this HUGE 5 story villa.  The other import players include:

 --Free Safety #2, Jacob W (played at Eastern Michigan) who for some odd reason reminds me of one of my brothers Hashim in DC. Haha

-- Wide Receiver #10, Jamal S (played at Millersville University in Pennsylvania) who is the exact same person as Marcus Jones that played with me at Duke Univ.  and if you know Marcus then you basically know Jamal (former Abercrombie & Fitch model) Haha.

--Running Back #1, Trevar (TD), who played at Delta State, a small D-2 school in the heart of Mississppi. He is originally from Stockton, California and since I played in Sacramento (only 30-45 mins away) the past two years I heard a few things about Stockton. It’s a little rough there. Haha.

--Quarterback Jeff #12 (aka ‘J-Dubb’ or ‘Franchise’ haha) who played at Western Michigan years ago and has been the quarterback here and the face of the program for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes.

All of us, with the exception of Jeff, are African American (to some extent- Trevar is mixed with “Messican” {Mexican}! Haha) and although Jeff is white, he definitely has his swagg up! Disclaimer: Race has never been a determining factor in how I choose my friends. We all seem to be cool with each other and we all jump in the fire together as we embark on our first night out together in Kiel, one of many to come.  We went to a big popular club called The MAX and we had a ton of fun.  The most interesting thing to me was that they had a separate room upstairs which was entitled “The Black Music Room”. Seriously, that’s what it’s called.  I was a little confused and a bit disappointed that this segregation was as obvious as it was but once we made it to the club and I heard the unfamiliar techno/house music being played on the main dance floor downstairs, I was ecstatic to walk into the “black music” room and hear the likes of DMX, Snoop Dog, and Lil John.  I mean, yea it was all music from the mid-90s but I’ll take that over the techno mix ANY day.  It was a little weird because I literally felt like I was back in middle school listening to all these old songs (no, it was not old skool rap night).  Again, I was still satisfied. We all had a great time and it was clear who I would gravitate towards in terms of friendships while I’m here in Kiel.

“Friends: 1 Month Later: The American Dream”

So after living in Kiel for a month and partying nearly every night for the first 2 weeks and every other night the last two weeks, the “American Dream” has surfaced! “The American Dream” crew: “Big Bawse: Mike T”; “Baby Bawse: Trevar D”; “Franchise: Jeff W”. Haha.  Through various nights of partying, drinking, going out and interacting with the opposite sex, these aliases have seem to fit perfectly to the proper person. Nothing wrong with the other guys Jacob and Jamal but based on personalities and the “I’m with whatever” attitude, the American Dream crew naturally came together! Haha. There are several entertaining stories I could tell that all happened to the “American Dream” within the first month of being here in Germany! But due to the mature content of such stories and the public access to this blog, I will have to withhold those stories! Lets just say there having been mornings where someone has woken up, looked in the mirror, and was missing his front tooth… without a single clue of how it happened! Someone passing out due to the over indulgence of substances which led to everybody having to call it an early night and leave one of the best party towns in Germany after planning to stay the night. Someone having their ass grabbed & caressed (sensually) by another man and then promptly slapping the SHIT out of that random german guy, not once, but twice! These are just a few of many stories from the first month! We have even thrown around the idea of having this experience filmed as a reality show entitled “The American Dream: The real WORLD abroad!”. It would definitely be a hit show and I even went so far as to send a message to the director and producer in Atlanta of a reality show that I was featured on back in 2009 as I prepared for the NFL draft.  This could be a very lucrative project! Only time will tell if this idea will be made into a reality. 

Other German Homies!

 

In addition the “American Dream” crew, there are a few other of my teammates (not Americans) that I have become good friends with, more so than any of my other teammates! 

There is one teammate that I have been hearing about before I even got to Germany.  “Big Aaron”.  During the conversations between my coach and I, he would tell me about certain teammates that also would have a big impact on the football field.  Aaron was a guy that he told me about because he is a huge guy that has played Defensive End for the Hurricanes for the past two years and he plays with a mean streak on the field.  I was looking forward to meeting him and causing some hell on the field for the other teams.  Once I got to Kiel and went to our first team meeting, I immediately noticed the 6’6 275lb man come in with tattoos completely covering his arms and hands…… and his face! Haha.  I immediately thought, “Damn, Im glad this fool is on MY team!”  We talked after the meeting and he already reminded me of some of my friends that I grew up with back in Alief (aka The SWAT)! Over the first couple of weeks we had a few practices where we realized we had a lot of things in common as he spent years in America in California and Arizona.  He speaks fluent German and English and it’s always great when we go out and me and Trevar are trying to communicate with some German girls, he always is able to step in and assist us! Haha. 

Another teammate that I’ve become good friends with is another guy who lives in the house with all the Americans.  Lansana aka “Prince of Zamunda” is from Berlin and his parents are originally from the Sierra Leone and he also speaks fluent German and English.  Recently he assisted me in my solo mission (everybody else chickened out) to travel 5 hours south to Frankfurt, Germany!  He comes up to my “pent house” room to kick with me and my boy trevar and we always tell him about how life is in America and how the “Bawses” handle business! Haha. We show him classic movies like “Martin: You So Crazy” and “Def Comedy Jam”!  He a cool dude and can also ball out at cornerback!

  

Getting To Germany!

{This post is sooooo late, sorry! I was supposed to post it like 2 weeks ago}
Hallo!

So, I’ve been in Germany now for a little over 2 weeks and talk about ‘hitting the ground running’!  I have been meaning to update my blog with a post talking about all that was going on here but I literally did not have a single second to sit and type.  My first two weeks here have been quite awesome to say the least.

Lets see, where do I begin??

Getting To Germany:

The flight to Germany wasn’t bad at all.  Thanks to my non-stop packing through the middle of the night and the lack of sleep my procrastination caused, as soon as I sat on my British Airways plane to London (layover destination) my eyes were shut for 6.5 of the 9-hour flight.  By the time I woke up, had a little food, and put on a movie we were already getting ready for our descend into the United Kingdom. Perfect.  I was a bit nervous about flying that far because I did not know who in the hell I would get stuck sitting next to or even worse, in between.  Luckily I had an isle seat next to a mid-sized lady who was with her husband so she usually was leaning toward his way, leaving me ample armrest room. Awesome.  Although this was my first time going to Germany, it was not my first time taking this exact 9-hour flight from Houston to London.  In 2011 I took a trip to Nice, France with a beautiful friend of mine to see Sade’ in concert and we had to fly through London first so I was a bit prepared for the flight.  Once I arrived in London at 8am, I felt like a veteran in my flying experience because I was familiar with the huge Heathrow London airport.  I went to my usual Starbucks near the Gucci and Louie V store to have a breakfast croissant and Iced Vanilla Latte. “Like a Bawse!”  After a little over an hour wait, I boarded my next flight from London to Hamburg, Germany which was a short 2 hour flight and I enjoyed the luxury of my own row of seats.  Again, “Bawse!” Haha.

Once I arrived in Hamburg, I realized that one of my teammates was also on the same flight from London. It was not hard to tell this because he was the only other black person on the flight. Haha.  We soon found our luggage at baggage claim and after a short walk around the airport, found two other black people who turned out to be another teammate and our head coach, Coach Esume.  I immediately felt at ease once I was in the company of my teammates and coach because I had suddenly realized that I was veeeery far from home and that I would remain this far for the next 7 months.  From Hamburg we had to travel about an hour North on the autobahn to our home in Kiel, Germany which is located just off the Baltic Sea (hence the name of our team, Kiel Baltic Hurricanes).  Leading up to the trip I kept hearing about the “Autobahn” which is the freeway here in Germany that has NO speed limit! I was definitely looking forward to burning some rubber on this famous ‘no-limit’ highway.  My coach opened it up a little bit on the autobahn but I think he wanted us to be in Germany more than a couple hours before he really put the pedal to the medal.  Although we were not going 220 on the autobahn, others definitely were and it was quite apparent as they zooooomed by us over and over. Now my need for speed on the autobahn had surged!

We finally make it to our home for the next 7 months and “wow” was my first reaction when I saw the 5 story villa.  It is huge and sits right on the corner of a small intersection and I am already envisioning the fun that will take place at this address. Haha.  Once I get into the house we are all greeted by members of the “Green Pride” fan club who have worked diligently to set up the house and our individual rooms. They are the first authentic “germans” that I have come into contact with and I must say that I was a bit impressed with their English.  Although their English sounded a little funny with the german accent, I was glad they could speak it! I was told that my room was on the top floor of the 5 story villa and as I drag in my two huge suitcases I immediately ask “So where is the elevator located?”.

One of the green pride members looked at me as though I was speaking Japanese and directed me to the steep and daunting staircase.  Although I did not want to carry my bags up the stairs 5 flights, I couldn’t show weakness on the very first day! Haha. After I make it up the stairs I reach a door that has a sign on it “Mike Tauiliili” and now it was the moment of truth! Months before arriving in Germany I was creating pictures in my head of what my living accommodations would be and they were not always grand!  Anyhow, now I am walking in my room and boy was I surprised! I immediately thought to myself “Oh hell yeeaaaaa” haha.  The room was very spacious and with an area for the bed, a separate area for a small dinning/desk area and a good sized living room area.  I was thoroughly impressed, given my fear of having a closet sized room (I hear that is normal for European countries)! So I start to get settled in my room and I’m thinking of all the great things that will happen in this room. The potential this house and my room has for some great parties and gatherings. Although im a couple thousands of miles away, it wont stop me from getting a party started like I do where I am!