Germany 2019 day 2

Today was a day with a lot of walking. I woke up at 7am and after getting ready I walked down to have breakfast with my dad at 7.30am. Breakfast was as good as a hotel breakfast usually is, though the flow was odd so there was a lot of walking back and forth to get things, also I would've liked the bacon to be more crispy.

After breakfast we went back to our rooms to get ready and then walked to the train station to get on a train to the hall. Almost any train will do and it's just one stop.

Most of the day was spent walking around. We talked a lot to the Swedish exhibitors as well as my dad's contacts from Spain. We did tie some contacts with people from Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Ukraine which might lead to some new and interesting things. Mostly it all depends on the cost of transport. Which was one of the major reasons we didn't talk to anybody from the UK because as things are nobody can predict what will happen to transport costs and customs after Brexit has been completed.

Most of the time I spent quiet and listening, but I would like to credit myself with some ideas. More than my language abilities (which don't really matter because we never speak to anyone who knows French or Japanese) I believe that my occasional ideas is why my dad asks me to come along to these things. I have literal life-long experience with his business, but my dad and I see things differently and so we think of different things and I believe that's sometimes of use to him.

Reason why we never speak French or Japanese? French-speaking countries usually only deal in cookies or chocolate which are of no interest to my dad's business, and when it comes to Japanese the transport is either too expensive or the expiration date is too short. Also there are hardly any Japanese exhibitors at this thing. We talked to a few during my first year at ISM back in 2016, but nothing came of it due to above reasons. I really like Japanese things and would love for my dad to deal with them, but from what I've seen in Japan and otherwise, none of their things really fit what he does so dealing with Japanese things would mean opening a brand new chapter.

As is almost traditional we had bockwurst for lunch and then spent some more time walking around the fair. These days are odd because it feels like we're doing the same thing for ages and it feels like time doesn't move but then it's suddenly 4pm and you start to wonder where the day went.

Just before 6pm we left the fair hall and went back to the hotel. We changed clothes and then met up with some friends at the bar Dominikaner, which is just across the street from our hotel. This bar has become our meeting point over the years and we always meet up here for a couple of pre-dinner kölsch (beer). Anytime anyone at a bar or restaurant asks what you want to drink, always answer kölsch. After our traditional beers we walked over to a restaurant our friends knew of and had dinner there. And then we spent a whole lot of time there just talking and hanging out. Around 10pm we went back to our respective hotels.

Now there'll be a little bit of reading and then it's sleepy time. Breakfast at 8am tomorrow!