To the North

It's been sixteen days since I wrote anything at all, and I feel horrible for that. So here's a little note on my excursion to Cologne, or Koeln (in German), Germany.

We wanted to make a trip somewhere... anywhere... for the weekend. We looked into Ireland, Ibiza, Greece... all those ended up being GREAT deals to get there, but awful ones to get back. So in the end, we chose to use the "Beautiful Weekend" train pass for five to travel to the big city of Cologne. It's about three hours north-ish of here, and ends up being about 8 Euros each way with the pass. There were nine of us total, Jamie, Anna, Corrina, Margarita (from Latvia), Paz, and Paul (English boys), Augusto (Italy), and William (Belgium). We looked for hostels, but ended up finding the best deal to be three separate rooms in a small hotel. It was a very nice hotel, and was quite cheap with a group rate.

The city was beautiful. I wish there was more time. There were many museums, and all we really saw was the Dom (Cathedral) and the Altstadt (Old City Center type place). For the most part, it was basically just an old German city, but this is the place that first interested me in visiting Germany in the first place, six years ago. So I made the most of it.

The Dom is the tallest in Germany, I believe. It is very pretty. I think it's either Baroque or Gothic, but I'm not totally sure. It's very tall though, that I know. We paid a Euro or two and climbed 30 minutes to the top in the smallest, windiest staircase I've ever seen. It was still cool, although my legs were burning big time. Plus we got to fight the crowd going the opposite direction the whole time, too. :) It was quite the trek, but the views were spectacular. You could see the whole city, in a 360 degree panorama. Then you got to walk back down! I'm glad I got to see the Dom. I've wanted to since I was young, but really, it was just a church, and I actually found myself a bit disappointed. The cathedral here in Trier is much nicer on the inside. I don't know... it was all a bit crowded and one couldn't really reflect on the history or meaning of all that was there. Maybe it was just too overwhelming. But it was still nice and I liked it and it was beautiful.

After the Dom, we found some dinner and I had some weird spiced liquor drink. I didn't like it. It was called a Zoco. Very strange, and I think a coke sounded a lot better.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel (in a suburb of Cologne) to get ready for the evening. Cologne is world-renowned for being one of the best party cities in the world. So we had to check that out.


We found a bar in the suburb, and had a drink before heading back into town. We went to the city and found a nice club. The music was good and it wasn't so big that it was crazy. It was just nice, with a coat check and a cheap cover. We stayed out til 2 or so, and headed back. I was in a double room with my English friend, Paul. We stayed up and watched German TV til 4 in the morning. They have a German version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?!" but the theme song is the same as the English title. We didn't do very well on this version... too much German. :)

We came back the next day, just a quick trip! Lots of fun and not too much money.







This is the Dom. I am quite far away from it. It's very big, very old, and very pretty.



































This is an old church in the Altstadt, where we had dinner. I don't know what it is really called. But it's cool.














This is a picture of something besides a church. It appears to be some buildings across the river from me. The river is the famous Rhein.





This is Augusto and me in front of the Dom. Basically this proves that I am here and I did go. :-)

No more long hair anymore! I got it cut off today!
















From Dylon With Love