A day in Aachen with hecubah

[de_pressie]

Last Thursday I went to Aachen with hecubah (Sanne). We'd go shopping that day and she might come along to my birthday party afterward. With only 2.5 hours of sleep (I had gotten into bed at 3, alarm was set at 0530) I went to the train station, but missed my train as I had to get a bandage for a cut I had gotten from a piece of glass. I messaged Sanne I'

Comments

[sparkzplug]

How could you not love Starbucks?
I love everything about it! XD

[de_pressie]

Oh, but I did! I could've handled a Venti too. ;-) It's Sanne who doesn't like the taste of coffee in general who didn't finish it all; but for a girl who doesn't like coffee, she did very good. :D

[sparkzplug]

Venti sized cups are the best! Especially if it's filled with mocha flavoured yummyness! :D
Yay for Sanne! :D

[de_pressie]

It's sooooo good. Still, I'm glad there's no Starbucks around where I am daily, or I'd be gaining pounds a week. :D

[sparkzplug]

Gaining weight AND spending alot of money!
I'm pretty sure by this time last year, I should have bought shares the for Starbucks company, that's how much I was spending in there :P

[de_pressie]

Heh. I didn't even think of the money-part. ;-) Whenever Samantha and I are in Berlin (or any other town with Starbucks') we spend half our money for food in there, I think. :')

During our week in Berlin, we tried to go to every single SB in town. :D

[sparkzplug]

I spend most of my money in Starbucks, more on the drinks, but a good share goes to food! :D

I have to get to another country so I can say I've gone to a forgein Starbucks. ;-)

[de_pressie]

Until recently it would've been impossible for me to go to a Dutch one. ;-) They only recently opened up their first two branches at Amsterdam Airport. Until then, the nearest one was in Aachen, Germany. A 4-hour train ride away. And yes, I have to admit to traveling four hours, purely for... Starbucks....

-hides away in a corner now-

[sparkzplug]

I'd do it too! I'm completely ashamed to admit...

I went camping a few summers away in a pretty remote place, with a local coffee shop, which wasn't horrible, but I ended up driving around aimlessly until I found a Starbucks, yes I'm that pathetic.. :P

[de_pressie]

Local coffee shops can be good, though. Better even than Starbucks. As long as they put their heart and soul into it, I'd much prefer a regular cappuccino over a flavored SB-coffee-drink. ;-)

[sparkzplug]

It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't great either.
There are plenty of local places around, which is why Starbucks probably isn't doing aswell as it did last year, I'm not around to keep their sales up. :P

[de_pressie]

I'm sure you make all the difference. :D

In Europe at least, I think it has more to do with a tendency of people to choose more eco-friendly food. :-) As Big American Enterprise, Starbucks doesn't really have an eco-friendly image, even though they say they do care.

[sparkzplug]

Of course I do. XD

Starbucks is all about posh, expensive coffee, that's never going to change and people are starting to realize that. Which is why places like Bridgehead and more local places are doing much better. :-)

[de_pressie]

Over here in the Netherlands there's Bagels & Beans. They sell, well, bagels, coffee, tea and fresh juices in a more personal style. Including pre-thought-out spelling mistakes on the menu. (When I checked their online menu I noticed they don't have the spelling mistakes anymore as a feature; one of the jokes still there are opening times; they're usually open from 8:59 untill 17:32. ;-)) :D Their cappuccino wins every test where they test cappuccinos in the Netherlands. They can add me to their list of regulars. :-)

[sparkzplug]

Sounds really great! :-)
I haven't found any places THAT cool yet.
That's one thing I like about Bridgehead, which is a fair trade coffe place. They're locations are quite small and they sell organic stuff and regular aswell as speciality coffees, but it's not as personable as Bagels & Beans sounds.