sick bags available upon request.........
There was slight apprehension within our group as we set off for Cologne. We were, after all, foreign football fans with no particular affiliation towards FC Koln.
But that apprehension evaporated swiftly when we explained we were, in one word, Liverpool.
The attention and respect that one word garners is both empowering and humbling in equal measure.
Within those nine letters comes over a hundred years of history. That word represents Liddell, Hughes, Dalglish, Rush, Hansen, Gerrard and Torres; it's synonymous with 18 league titles, five European Cups, Rome, Dortmund, Istanbul and decades of forging friendships through our behaviour abroad.
Nothing betters going away to watch your football team play renowned European teams with illustrious histories and traditions, safe in the knowledge those sides are just as eager to play our legendary club.
Friendships are made and anecdotes are formed to be retold through the generations - it's the essence of Liverpool Football Club and its supporters.
With our original Koln acquaintances now doubling as both a tour guide and ringmaster through the streets near the RhineEnergieStadion, word spread of our heritage.
An inundation of requests to sing You'll Never Walk Alone soon followed, as did the offer to pose for photographs - photographs that would no doubt decorate a pub similar to the one we sat it.
It was at that point I realised just what a special entity supporters of Liverpool Football Club are. It was at also at that point I realised what a special city we are.
I said in a previous column how the city and the club are an organic process. Neither would have the reputation it does without the other.
It's a football club which has always tried its best to stand by Shankly's beliefs of socialism; it's a city which has always strived to help each other.
That's why it was poetic Shankly stood with his arms outstretched on St George's Hall in 1971, and not on the steps of Anfield. He wasn't embracing Liverpool Football Club alone - the show of strength before him was that of a city.
It's the reason why we have Spirit of Shankly, a supporters' union named after the great man himself - a union which has always acted with the fans and the city at heart; a union which does a lot of work for the local community, and a lot of work for the city.
It's the reason why hundreds of thousands welcomed the football club home after Rome, Wembley, Paris and Istanbul, proud of what they'd achieved as a city and for their city.
It's the reason why most fans we meet reserve that special respect for us. Language barriers are torn down to share our stories of following the Reds home and abroad.
And it's also the reason why we told those Koln supporters that we were Scouse, not English.
With such a strong loyalty to both our football team and our city, it's difficult for me, and several other supporters I know, to conserve any energy for the national side.
Those on the outside will regard it as insular. For me, it's more about celebrating my city and my heritage. It's about celebrating my beliefs.
Supporting Liverpool is supporting a football club like no other. It's not just a job every Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Supporting Liverpool Football Club defines who you are as a football supporter and as a person. Every positive gesture will maintain our reputation or cause a rethink to those who have us wrong.
It's why we're proud of our club, our city and our people, because they all work together to preserve that reputation.
