I Think I've Seen Petrol-head Heaven

Last weekend Steve Paige and I caught the last weekend of the Frankfurt International Auto Show (IAA). Unbelieveable. Never have I seen so many cars in one place. Never have I seen so many people trying to see so many cars in one place. We easily spent 7 hours walking around and between exhibit halls with no more than 30 minutes of that to grab a couple of beers, a pretzel and some kind of meat lump in a bun. To give you some idea, One hall that had maybe 3 or 4 big car manufacturers and then a few smaller Customization and parts companies was easily BIGGER than the ENTIRE Calgary Auto Show. And that was one hall of about 8! I could talk for hours about what we saw and what was cool but instead I'll throw down some pics and give you a top 3:

1. Audi R8 - Completely chrome finish. Spectacular.
2. Lamborghini Reventon (Drop-top) - Waited about 15 minutes to get close to the bloody thing but it was worth it. One heck of a sexy machine.
3. Everything else! Kind of a cop-out but damn it if I don't just love all cars! I'll say this though, the exhibition itself was quite impressive. Car companies displays were as creative as they were stunning and they definately left an impression!







When we had finaly gotten through everything, Steve and I headed to our hostel - situated, it turns out, in the middle of Frankfurt's Red Light District. But, while in a shady neck of the woods, it was one of the better hostels I've been to. Only about a year old it had a full bar, clean sheets and a free breakfast (because the elevator wasn't working) - pretty much all you need! After getting there we settled in for a recooperative 45minute nap then grabbed some dinner and some Caiparihnas from the bar. We met a guy from Toronto and went on a Pubcrawl the hostel suggested.

It took us a while to find the meeting spot of the pubcrawl (outside the Haupfbahnhof), paid 10euros for our participation, were given a shot bottle of Jaggermeister and a wristband. We were also accosted by a bachelorette party. I bought a shot bottle of Schnapps from her because I thought she was funny... The pub crawl led us, unfortunately to 2 latin bars and a very expensive basement (I ended up speaking more spanish than german that night) and the drinks were so pricey and the crawl progressed at such a slow rate that we soon got bored and hungry and went venturing for food as well. After getting some shitty pizza, we stumbled back to our hostel past all the peep shows and strip clubs, brushing past a couple of what I'm pretty sure were hookers - one in a tight red leather dress and the other who was quite literally wearing nothing but string.. funny...

Next day, we capitalized on the free breakfast and had a remarkably chill day by the river. We walked around for a bit, napped on a bench, walked around some more, grabbed a beer from a biergarten, walked around some more, grabbed a kebap, walked around some more, slept for 3 HOURS in a park by the riveredge, headed to the HBF, grabbed some supplies and took our train home.



An equally awesome and relaxing trip that i'm glad we took!