Small jerseys and a big German Wunderkind....

Hola,

I have just started packing my stuff and as promised I wanted to create one last post before the actual trip starts writing about why I love Basketball and why I like Dirk Nowitzki so much.

Why do I like the NBA so much and US sports in general? Well hard to say, I guess it all started back in something like 1994 when my dad went on a business trip to LA. It was the days of Michael Jordan and little Peter was really really really small.

My dad brought me a gift when he came back which was a Michael Jordan Jersey of the Chicago Bulls. While scanning through my stuff because I have just recently moved into a new Appartment I found the Jersey actually...AND HOLY COW HOW SMALL WAS I BACK THEN :D

So the jersey on the left actually fits well today :)

Since then I started watching the Bulls a lot on German television and then in 1999 Dirk Nowitzki came into the league. As one can easily guess it is always easier to cheer for a team or be a fan of a sport when a fellow countryman is one of the best players on this planet. So I became a huge Dirk fanboy, watched NBA games all night long and always wanted to go to an NBA game.

At the same time basketball became really famous in Germany. With the support of HipHop it simply became really really cool to play Basketball. Baggy pants, sneakers and wearing an NBA jersey made you feel like a you are the MAN.

Dirk became quickly one of the best players of the NBA and was competing year after year for an NBA championship...and came short every damn year. While being really really good Dirk always stayed humble and hard working. That especially made me cheer for him so hard...even though it was tough falling short "with him" every year.

Now what really tied me to Basketball were basically 2 moments. In 2006 Dirk was in the NBA Finals, his team was up 2-0 games and everything just looked perfect for him winning a championship...and they fell short...again. Man was I frustraded, I thought I would simply quit on watching basketball, I couldnt feel more sorry for Dirk....but somehow I kept watching him play.

Then in 2011 he made it back to the NBA Finals, against the same team he had lost in 2006 he FINALLY won a championship. I remember I was watching the deciding game at 5 AM in the morning in Germany, I was running up and down in the house, I did everything i somehow could not to jynx Dirk and the mavs....and they made it...that was by far the best sport moment I have ever experienced.  One has to know that I am extremely emotional when I do and watch sports...thus those 2 moments really ripped my heart out and felt like the best thing that ever happened to me as well.

So Basketball gave me the single most disappointing and amazing sport moment of my life probably. I dont know how I will react when Germany becomes Soccer World Champion in Brazil next year (yes you read it here first, its gonna happen!)...but following Dirk throughout his career, through all ups and downs...will always be something else.

This interview just shows best why I like him so much. It is an interview right after winning it all...and it is breathtaking how humble he is and how you can see how satisfied he finally is...

Next to that I just love the US Sport system. Yes here and there it is too much marketing, those guys make WAY too much money but the Americans simply know how to create an amazing show. Period. What would I have given to study on one of the best basketball NCAA schools and root for my university? There are like 151123123123 sports channels in the US! There are shows talking about other sports shows that were dealing with a who cares ncaa football game? Thats just insane...but I somehow love it :)

Starting to pack right now as I will be quite busy until wednesday. Wednesday I will already  go up to Berlin to meet up with a good friend of mine, go partying with him and go karting and start the trip in style.

Thanks to all the readers again! I am beyond looking forward to that trip...next post will be up after the flight to Chicago summarizing the flight and the first NBA game of the Bulls (and probably some weird party pics from Berlin)

Trip details ...or how to visit 8 sport events in 14 days

HOLY COW ! 200 visits of this blog in just the last 2 days....thats INSANE! Keep it up followers :)

The second post will mostly deal with the schedule of the trip. But before I start I have to give some credit to a good friend of mine who helped me setting up the trip: Shout out to Katharina Heuermann!!!

If you are planning any kind of trip, especially in Europe and America and are looking for the friendliest service, secret highlights you want to see most huge travel agencies dont even know about you are in the best possible hands on this planet with Kathy! Check out her website at

Destination-K!

She will be glad to help you out in just about every language known to mankind, even eastern German :)



So what is my trip all about? Well it will be a mix of sport events and (sometimes guided) tours in cities I have never been to + all kinds of other things that make a lot of fun such as theme parks with insane roller coasters!

When going on vacation I dont really want to relax and lay down on the beach, I need some kind of action so I set up a quite tough schedule for myself (ya I know to create such kind of a schedule is rather lame, but hey c`mon... I am still kind of German :)

Somewhere in China I met my favorit Chinese dude!

Date Event Description 31.10.2013 Flight Berlin-Chicago Air Berlin (old) Business Class Flight 31.10.2013 Chicago Bulls-New York knicks Home Opener of the Chicago Bulls in the arena in which Michael Jordan infected the whole world with the basketball virus 01.11.2013 Chicago Sightseeing Sightseeing tour on a segway through Chicago 02.11.2013 Flight to Dallas through Philly some random United flight 02.11.2013 Dallas Mavericks-Memphis Grizzlies Dirk Nowitzki live at home against Marc Gasol… 03.11.2013 Dallas Cowboys-Minnesota Vikings The best football player on this planet against the best home crowd in the biggest and most modern football stadium known to mankind 04.11.2013 Theme Park trip Six Flags Texas visit…with lots of potential to wet my pants… 05.11.2013 Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers My boy Dirk vs a hopefully healthy Kobe Bryant…. 06.11.2013 Flight to Miami Some random US Airways flight 07.11.2013 Miami Sightseeing tour through Miami (beach) 07.11.2013 Miami Heat-Los Angeles Clippers The best basketball player on this planet vs the best point guard the game has right now… 08.11.2013 Everglades Day trip to the Everglades 09.11.2013 Flight to New York Some random US Airways flight 09.11.2013 Brooklyn Nets-Indiana Pacers The new team in town vs my favorit team of the eastern conference… Melo vs George in the newly built arena in Brooklyn 10.11.2013 New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs …watching the team of New York play Basketball around lunch time in the world famous Madison Square Garden 10.11.2013 NY Rangers- Florida Panthers …and watching the Rangers play some Ice Hockey in the same arena the same day later 11.11.2013 Sightseeing New York New York City Movie tour + couple of job interviews in the city I want to live in rather sooner than later 11.11.2013 Sightseeing New York More job interviews + a new york city stock Market tour (…ya i studied business so i am actually into stuff like this :) ) 12.11.2013 Shopping madness!!! Trip to an outlet mall close to New York to spend as much money as somehow possible 13.11.2013 Sightseeing New York Financial crisis tour in the morning (ya I am still a business student) 13.11.2013 Flight from JFK to Frankfurt Singapore Airlines A380 First Class in one of their "suites"

A380 First Suite (yes this is on AN AIRPLANE!!!)

Quite some schedule isnt it? I guess I will need some holidays after my holidays....but whatever, thats exactly what I wanted !!!


  The Hotels will mostly be 4 star Hotels I booked with Points I accumulated when travelling for my company. In Dallas I am thinking about renting a Corvette just to have driven one in my lifetime. Travelling business and First Class is important to me as well as I have a tough schedule and need to be relaxed when leaving the plane...flying economy just wouldnt do this for me and the airline miles I collected come in handy here as well.

Thats it for today! Next blog post will come shortly before the trip and will deal with why I love basketball and US sports in general so much and what I hope this trip will be like.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers

Peter

Before the trip ....Livin` the dream !

Hi everyone,

what is this all about?

Well... a crazy blog following some random dude on a trip that features a whole lot of THIS:

 



and hopefully plays like THIS:

wrapped into a trip that looks a whole lot like THIS:

Flights of the trip

the first post on this blog should just set the scene for my upcoming sport trip to the US and will answer the most important questions which are:

1) Who is that weird dude that is creating this blog and why is he doing that?
2) What is this trip about?

Most of the readers of this blog will most probably know me already. I am Peter, living in Erfurt right now, due to my job I am based in Germany but I am mostly travelling across Europe for my living.

If I had to describe myself in 2 words they would be sarcastic and ambitious. I have been, for some reason, while being reasonably lazy, able to reach all the goals I set for myself while reaching for new heights all the time (shout out to Herti and Done --> lets start that company  !!! ). I did so while enjoying life quite a bit and I have travelled quite a lot in the past to all areas of this planet.

Still there was one thing in the back of my mind that I always wanted to do: travel to the US just to go nuts on sport events. One has to understand at this point that I have been to the US already 3 times but all the trips were mostly focusing on the regular sightseeing stuff tourists just do while travelling to the country between the likes of Mexico and Canada.

Still readers: dont worry, this blog wont be all about sports, it will rather be a mix of a trip report to cities such as Chicago, Miami, Dallas and New York and I will try to explain why I love the American Sports cultures so much even tough it is so much focused on show, making money and being cocky :)

Staples Center - Los Angeles December 2012

I decided in late July that this year is going to be the year and I started planning my kind of nerdy trip. A couple of years down the road when my own family and stuff like that will take the majority of my time I wont do it anymore...so here I go.

Next to sports I want to meet good old friends as well during the trip such as the Florida-Nancy-Gang

Ya...the nice guy on the right side of mine is now in law school :D

 ...and of course the Grenoble-chaos-group...

Beijing 2k11

As this is one of the trips of my lifetime I will create a live blog of the trip as well which will serve as the diary for myself at the same time and with other trips upcoming next year (Kilimandscharo hike) I wanted to see if this way of sharing pieces of information about the trip is worthwhile or not.

Thats it for the first post, the second post will come up in just 1 or 2 days and will describe what the tour schedule will be about in detail !

Leave a comment if you like to, feedback is pretty much appeciated as I am doing this for the first time...

Peter