Köln!!!

Last weekend was the much anticipated trip to Cologne (Köln). It was fabulous! We left on Friday evening, and made it in about 9:30. Thanks to Lindsey's wonderful German skills we figured out the tram system, and made it to our hostel at around 10:30. Lori and I headed out to get something to eat, and stumbled upon a little Kebab shop where we got some delicious double layered spinach pizza type thing that was delicious. Then we headed back to the hostel, and hung out with the other in the hostel kitchen until late, then headed to bed.

The next morning we woke up to find the sun shining and headed out to see Cologne's major landmark, the Dom. The Dom is this giant beautiful cathedral. Cologne was bombed aggresively in WWII, and many civilians were killed and much of the city was destroyed. One thing that was not destroyed, however, was the Dom.

Since it was so sunny out, we decided to walk, but ran right into a giant protest. We were sure exactly what they were protesting, but the police had completely blocked off the street, so we had to take a very different route to get to the Dom.

When I got to the Dom I was blown away by how gorgeous it was! Every detail of the Cathedral was meticulously sculpted; I couldn't believe the amount of effort put into making everything. When we got inside we saw that mass was going on, so we weren't able to walk around the Cathedral. Instead, we decided to walk to grab tickets and walk to the top of the Belfry.

Compared the Dom, the Belfry in Bruges was a warm up. We walked up over 500 stairs to get to the top, constantly squishing up against walls to let tourists that were climbing down by. It took an incredibly amount of effort, but it was well worth it. The view was wonderful! From the top you can see for miles, and get a good view of the city, and the winding River Rhine.



We headed back down the narrow staircase and since mass was over we were able to wander around the inside of the Cathedral. Again, I was stunned at all the art in the cathedral and all the detail. The stained glass windows were beautiful, and there were beautiful paintings all around. I was really blown away by the Cathedral.

We left the Cathedral and headed to the weekend's main event: A football (soccer) game between FC Köln and Karlsruher SC. It was a total blast. The crowd was so energetic, and was constantly yelling, screaming and waving flags, and everyone was decked out in Red. Our seats were near the Karlsruher cheering section, so we watched as they did all of thier chants and cheers. They were constantly in motion, too, jumping and clapping in unison. The Köln fans near us responded by flipping them off. Sadly the game ended in a tie, and the Koln fans were clearly disapointed. It was a great experience though, and I'm so glad we went. We spent the rest of the night eating delicious food (Doner sandwiches, mmmmm) and just hanging out.



The next day we checked out of our hotel and headed toward the Dom again because the Dom area is basically where everything happens in Cologne. We toured around for a bit, looking at the little squares that have been rebuilt after thier destruction in the war. I parted with the group after a bit to head to noon mass at the Dom.

The Dom has a strict policy about not allowing tours during mass, and the man at the door didn't seem to understand that I actually wanted to go to mass. After a few minutes of confusing discussion, with my making motions like I was praying I was eventually allowed into the Church.

Mass was great, albeit freezing cold. The Dom has no heat, and we were also missing out on the sunlight, so its safe to say that it was the absolute coldest mass I've ever been to, but it was also really nice. I obviously know no German, so I wasn't able to understand a lot of it, but I was able to follow along fairly easily. German is one of those languages that often sounds violent and angry, but as the German hymns were being sung the language sounded quite beautiful.

After mass I met up with the group, and grabbed food. With a little over an hour before we had to be back on the train the group split up to see the last of the sights. Jackson, Lori, and I were walking around when we were entraced by a crowd of people dressed in strange costumes walking. Now Cologne has a giant Carnival celebration, but it wasn't really supposed to be happening until later in the week, and these people looked as if they were going to start Carnival Early. We were intrigued, so we decided to follow.

We followed the strangley dressed throng into a hotel, and found ourselves in the middle of a giant Carnival Party. We were in the middle of a huge crowd dressed strangely, and they were all talking, laughing, drinking and just enjoying themselves. We mingled with the locals, and snapped tons of pictures. It was a real highlight of the trip.



Then we hopped on the train home. All in all it was a great weekend.

Other highlights of this week include getting the most delicious Thai food (followed by a McDonald's strawberry crumble mcflurry) with the roommates, getting a Valentine from Adam, skyping with Alyssa, Raz, and Sohee back at Rochester (I love you girls), getting the news that the fabulous Anna Sklut got into the very prestigious ECHO grad program at Notre Dame (Anna Rocks), and attending a bioethics meeting at the Parliament (yay for respecting the dignity of human embryos!). All in all, it was a great week, and I'm excited for this weekend which should include more exploring of Brussels, and a possible Carnival celebration.

Goodbye for Now!

Em