Thursday, October 6, 1988

An International Gathering and a Good German Beer

Doug's birthday is today. It started out to be a relatively decent day, waking up around 10 a.m. to go into Hull. We picked up our BritRail Young Persons Railcard (pictured) to save money, and walked around for a bit. We caught the bus back in time for our 2:15 p.m. literature course, which was quite dull.

Following that we pretty much dogged around, ate dinner, then waited for Karin to show up. When she arrived at my room at 7:30 p.m., Doug, J.P., Karin and I left in Karin's car to her flat, where we met some others and took a bus into Hull so that we could go to a pub that Karin insisted "served a good German beer."

It took awhile and the walk from the bus stop to the pub was quite windy, but we finally got there. We met other friends of Karin's there, and had a table of 10 in the pub. It was quite a lot of fun, but Doug was a bit hostile at first. I assumed it was because of it being his birthday and this not being exactly how he wanted to be celebrating it. But he cooled down after awhile. Later, he and J.P. left the bar because of "prior commitments," but I opted to stay at the bar.

We remained for quite awhile, and I mainly talked to Suzanna (from Germany), Lieselots (from Denmark), and Karin (from Germany, of course.) And yes, the German beer was quite good. These are the classic moments that I'll never forget from this experience.

We left the pub after the final round, and after a walk in even more brisk weather, we caught a taxi to the Supabar Chinese Take Away, where I got sweet 'n sour chicken and ate it back at Karin's flat, along with everyone else.

When I was done eating, it was time to head back home. I entered the cold once again with Lieselots and Suzanna (Lisa and Sue) to walk them to their flat, and then continue my perilous journey (25 minutes in all) back home towards sleep.

I found out that Doug's "prior commitment" was a party that was still going on. I decided not to attend, because I was quite tired, and Doug and I were getting ready to leave on a weekend trip to London tomorrow. I hope the party was good, because Doug needed it.