Man, I'm racking up these Cologne trips, right?
Last weekend I was there once again for Dora's pre-birthday celebrations. This time was one of the best seeing as the weather was wunderschön and we managed to gather a 20 strong group to party with, including ones we haven't seen in aaaages.
I reckon I can save a hell of a lot of time by saying that 50% of our time there was spent sitting on the bank of the Rhein, getting sunburnt, eating ice cream and people watching.
There's the recent spectacle of people in roller blades showing off on the paths in front of all the restaurants and hotels, which I've never seen before, and which just seems to scream 'attention whore'.
Our first hostel was fairly bog standard, nothing really to complain about, except that the price they were asking was a little much. The second one, split between 6 of us, was awesomely swish and a big improvement, apart from the fact that they charged for bedsheets and someone had puked lasagne in the lift, which Marina slipped and fell in.
On Saturday, after an unending stream of new faces, ice cream cafes and free city travel, we met up with Dora and her family, who as real people/proper grown ups could afford a hotel with free bed stuff and clean lifts.
In the evening we all went to an Argentinian restaurant for steaks. When I say "for steaks", that's quite a literal statement, as nowhere on the menu did I see anything to the tune of "the steak doesn't come with anything unless you specifically order it". Thus this marks the first time a man has handed me a plate with nothing but a huge chunk of cow on it and said "guten appetit".
Birthdays plus British people plus foreign country equals alcohol abuse, to quote the well known equation, so Saturday night we went out um party zu machen. First stop was a cocktail bar for pre-drinks, a wonderful phrase which should shortly enter the Oxford Dictionary and the catalyst of many a good night out. We spent about an hour in here because shortly after the bartenders begun making our 20-strong drinks order, they lost the piece of paper.
After this we went to a sweaty sweaty club called Underground, which may be the only club that I've been to in Germany that isn't at least 2 years in the past as far as music is concerned. I also exploited the method of hobos this country over by picking empty bottles up off the floor and returning them to the bar for Pfand. Basically, 50 cents per empty bottle. I made €5.50 this weekend.
Sunday I reckon was one of my best days of this year abroad. The weather kept it all together and racked itself up to 21 degrees, the cue for more ice cream, beer and river-chilling. Beer was essential for hangover repair. In the best move of the day, I cancelled my handy lift back to Neuerburg and had an awesome day in Cologne, because God knows you don't pass up this kind of day to sit on trains and then cook dinner for one in the arse end of nowhere.
Another particular highlight was finally climbing the Dom instead of just looking at it. I counted 504 steps; turns out there's 510. Anyway, it was well worth the half an hour it took to haul up the rucksack I should have left with my friends. Here's the view from the highest reachable point (about 100m high).
Here's an example of the literally millions of bits of graffiti thats accumulated on the inside of the towers over the years; not current, but still relevant.
The final act, and a pretty sweet end to a perfect day was Asian food in the Haubtbahnhof with Glen. Man, I could live in that thing. The haubtbahnhof I mean. Not Glen. But he is still pretty special.
And then I rode the 3 hour purgatory journey back towards Neuerburg just in time to catch up with all of my 12th grade students who were about to head off to Tuscany for a week. This is pretty much my entire friendship group within this school, as well as my favourite classes. This week is gonna blow.
Oh yeah, we found this in Cologne. That's not a paint job, it's furry material.
Coming home on the train I was sat near a guy with a huge beard. This really made me want to go travelling and grow a beard. I can hardly grow a beard now but I'm certain travelling would release beard growing qualities. I'd see cool stuff and embrace other cultures, but a cornerstone of the whole thing would have to be the achievement of a beard.
But, in 2 weeks I'm heading off on my mini Eastern Tour with the Leeds folks, which will be amazing as long as I remember to book everything right. Who knows, I might grow a beard.
