It was time to finally join the Beerlovers Marathon!
My friend Tobias joined me on the adventure
Getting to Liege
We drove from Hamburg in Germany to the city of Liege in Belgium, which is around 6h by car away. With a ride sharing app we were picking up many people on our way, which made it a bit longer, but also quite entertaining.
We had a pilot, a man from Turkey who wasn’t speaking any English or German, a guy from Lebanon who just came to visit Germany and Belgium for 2 weeks.
Also we had three guys from Burundi, who are becoming professional dancers and a girl from Cameroon who is studying in the city of Liege.
It was a good mix and we had many topics to talk about. Due to stopping many times in order to pick up and drop people, it took way longer, but on the other hand we had for the ride no costs, because it was paid by the people, also great.
Liege at night
We were in the city during a time where everything was closed, so we drove a bit around the city with very complicated streets on maps, but were not able to really find something we searched for, so we ended up going to some fast food chain from Belgium.
The food wasn’t that amazing, but decent.
It was time to find a parking spot for the night. Due to the event there were all hotels and accommodations fully booked, so not able to find something at a fair price.
We were driving with the car from Tobias and there it was able to put a big mattress inside, perfect for us!
The night was fine, it wasn’t loud at all. We were staying near the hotel in which I was staying in 2019, because in the city it wasn’t easy finding something in an area with green and without many people.
The day before the race
In the morning Tobias and I were playing some frisbee to wake up and discover the region a little bit, before it was time to drive in the city. From 2pm on it was time to receive the starting things, before we drove around the city in order to get some food.
We started in a German brand Supermarket and found basically all we needed. Also we were getting excited to buy some beer from Belgium, in my opinion they have the best beer in the world.
Most shops started to open not that early, so we had to wait quite some time in hot weather.
We found two local shops in which we bought some beer and also we were able to get some cool beer glasses.
Near the entry of the marathon there was luckily a parking spot which we chose and went to eat a kebab which was of course expensive, but still way cheaper then in Germany.
Beerlovers opening
At 14:00 the gates were open from the marathon. People were excited. It was happening in an old school where now the only studying which happened was the studying of 16 different kinds of beer.
We were receiving our starting things and were getting some free stuff as well, like playing cards.
It was filling up with many people and we were starting to order some beer, to know how it would taste the day after.
The beer tasted good, but it cost 3 Euros per refillment of beer, which you would receive with a token. Also for the cup, for the deposit, it cost 3 Euros. Basically if you find an empty cup, you could get another beer.
We were doing that and found four cups, which was great.
Besides the fact that the beer tasted good and that there were many nice people around, we were enjoying the whole experience. A guy who was working there also motivated us to play blackjack in another section. There you would play with the mentioned token.
I played with our four tokens which we had from giving back our first used cups and two of the found ones. After a while we realized that the dealer wasn’t really counting and made us win most of the time. We won many tokens and had a few more beers that night. At the end we still left with quite some profit and that was amazing!
Pasta Party
We stayed quite long at the party and it was so long that we were still there at the pasta party, which is basically just there for people who paid. We just stayed inside the party and were not kicked out, so basically had the pasta party for free.
It is not just three types of pasta which you are getting for the money you paid, it is also a free party and unlimited drinking beer.
We were not staying there too long, just had good conversations, a few beers and a lot of pasta!
The good thing was, the car was parked right at the entrance. It was just important to not leave the party until we were done with it, because getting back in wasn’t possible.
The night before the race
We eventually left the party and went to the car.
I flew my drone up and just wanted to take some pictures of the surroundings. A few guys from a pizza shop, right in front of the car, were talking to us. They were from Pakistan and I made friends with them quickly.
Super nice guys and we were talking for quite some time with them, while they were charging my phone.
Sharing some thoughts of Pakistan and the world itself. I enjoyed my time there and we were also receiving free drinks and a free pizza, which was amazing.
Sleeping was actually quite bad, because in the street were many drunk idiots like ourselves. They were screaming around a lot and I was waking up quite often. Most problematic was that there were no toilets around, not like the night before.
What’s up next?
In the next week, you will be reading about the Beerlovers Marathon itself!
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