@Goldkante in Bochum, Germany (click on image for the photo album:)

After my 2 days in Amsterdam, I was ready to go to Germany and see some of the World Cup craziness first-hand. I took a 5 hour Eurolines bus into Dortmund which was much cheaper than taking a train and wouldn't have been much faster anyways. I arranged to stay with a German girl named Nina, who is a cousin of an old high school friend of mine. I'd never met Nina, but we corresponded through email and it worked out perfectly in the end.

She showed me around the Bochum region, which used to be a working-class area of primarily coal mining and steel mills, and although the region is not as active in mining these days, the people still strongly hold onto their working-class culture. Most of what I saw wouldn't be considered very touristy: abandoned steel mills, coal mining areas, large silos, etc. but that's what I appreciated about this part of my trip, which was that it wasn't touristy at all. I mostly spent time with Nina and her family and friends, and getting to be a part of her day-to-day life. I played soccer and table tennis in the park, watched soccer games at the bar Nina and her friends worked at, and drank good German beer everyday while in Bochum.

In the photo album I made, you probably won't see too many exciting things, but I really had a good time in Bochum and made some good friends there so hopefully you'll be able to appreciate that in the pics. It was all thanks to Nina and her kindness to someone she'd never met before. I would meet her again in Prague a week later, as she planned to go there at the same time as me. But the next destination for me would be Berlin, where I had an excellent time! (the next album will come shortly, promise!)