On Thursday the 27th, I took the train from Liège, Belgium to Cologne (Köln), Germany. It was a pretty short train ride, lasting barely even an hour (not to say it came cheap, hence a one way ticket was about 34€ or ($45)).
I arrived at the train station in Cologne at about 4 PM, greeted by Jonas, his sister, and his mom. We said hi, hopped into the car, and headed to their apartment about a half hour away in Sankt Augustin.
When we first got there, Jonas showed me around their apartment. His mom and sister slept on the main floor and he had the basement to himself. It was attractive and good sized, I forgot to take pictures of it though.
His mom is a good cook and made us made spaghetti the first night! Most of the food we ate wasn't distinctly Germany, except for schnitzel of course. Jonas' girlfriend came over for dinner, and then we just rested at home for a while until we left for a party.
We took the local train (5 minutes by foot), that runs every 10 minutes, to the party. Thankfully Germans tend to be very good with English so I was able to socialize with a lot of people. You had to be 18 to stay past midnight, so unfortunately I wasn't cool enough to stay very late. But I was tired anyways from the nature of traveling.
The next day, Jonas, Emily (Jonas' sister), and I took the train to Cologne. The first thing you notice when you step outside of the train station is the Cologne Cathedral, or "The Dome". It was incredible, definitely the biggest cathedral I'd ever seen. You are often allowed inside of it. As we were leaving, we tried to get in as people were exiting from a mass service but the priest wouldn't let anyone else in.
We walked around in downtown Cologne, which seemed like a giant shopping mall on an endless street. Still pretty cool though. I ended up buying an iPod Touch there because my old one officially wouldn't make sound anymore.
We walked around in downtown Cologne, which seemed like a giant shopping mall on an endless street. Still pretty cool though. I ended up buying an iPod Touch there because my old one officially wouldn't make sound anymore.
On Saturday the 29th, Jonas, Emily, and I woke up early to take the train to Wuppertal, Germany where Jonas' dad lives. His dad picked us up at the train station and took us to a bakery at a German grocery store. He was nice enough to buy us pastries for breakfast. After that, went to Jonas' dad's house to have eggs and orange juice with the pastries he bought us. Jonas' dad and step-mom were extremely friendly, even if his step-mom made a wise crack at me for not having a "clean, British accent".
Once again exhausted from traveling and lack of sleep, I went upstairs to take a two hour nap before Jonas' dad drove us to downtown Wuppertal. Wuppertal is well-known for having a unique hanging train for public transportation. It's several kilometers long and we got to ride it nearly all the way down the city and back, getting off once to see the Christmas festivals and to explore the city a little better.
While we were downtown, Jonas' step-mom was making a cake for us. We were welcomed back with a cherry cheesecake served with coffee. They were awfully generous. Finally Jonas' dad drove us back to his mom's house where we got to enjoy some homemade pizzas.
The following day, exhausted, we slept in until 2 PM. We got ready, ate breakfast, jumped in the car, and headed for Bonn, the capital of West Germany until Germany's unification in 1990.
Beethoven's birth home
After four long months, I finally got Starbucks
I woke up around 10:30 the next morning, had breakfast, and Jonas' mom drove us to the train station in Cologne where we said our goodbyes. Germany was definitely one of my highlights of the year.
I got home from Germany on New Years Eve. As soon as I got home, I slept for a few hours and then headed off to Brussels. I met up with my friends Cameron and Callie on the way. When we first got to Brussels, we started off by going to a couple of different bars, but everything was pretty full and there wasn't much room to sit, so we left the bar, got fries, walked around for a long time, and ended up at Subway (four months without Subway was just as bad as four without Starbucks).
We were still inside at about 11:55 when we realized we were about to spend midnight inside of a Subway, so we hurried out. I saw some Rotary students that I knew so I ran ahead with them. It was absolutely packed downtown, so we couldn't get as close to the center as we were hoping, but we were still able to enjoy the fireworks from where we were standing.
After running around for a while with Rotary students, I ran into some friends from AFS and we went to a Latin bar. When you first walked it, it was very lively with salsa dancing all over the first floor. Unfortunately none of us knew how to salsa dance, so we went upstairs with the younger crowd where the mainstream music played.
After about an hour at the Latin bar, Callie and Cameron called me saying they were unable to find it, so I ran out to find them and bring them back. We stayed there for about another hour or two until people began to clear out. It was probably around 4 AM at that point and it was freezing outside, so we ran around looking for places to go until we came across a McDonald's. McDonald's was busy and I waited in line for a good half hour at least. When I finally got my food, they were forcing everyone to leave so we had to eat quickly.
After McDonald's, we left back to the train station. There was almost no one outside anymore, and the central station was packed with people waiting to catch their morning train. We got there around 5:30 AM and my train home left at 6:37, but an hour goes by quickly when you're with the right people:)
For the full, uncensored story of my New Years Eve, please email safark@gmail.com and send me $5 via Paypal.
I didn't bring my camera to Brussels so all I had was a crappy photo of Callie, Cameron and I waiting for the morning train taken by my new iPod.
The train ride home was the worse. I was so fatigued, all I could think about was climbing into a warm bed. I managed to fall asleep once, and thankfully some Rotary students woke me up to make sure I didn't miss my stop. I got home at about 8:30 AM and slept until 5:30 in the evening.
Well I'm pretty sure I start school again on Monday, so I should another four days of freedom.
Bonne année !
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