Köln

Friday started off as the first sunny day I've seen in over two weeks. So of course all the international students were getting travel fever. SUN SUN SUN!! We decided we wanted to take a jaunt to the beautiful city of Köln: firstly because our student transportation tickets make the one-hour train trip FREE, and secondly because I think everybody was a little tired of partying and wanted to get out of Aachen. Since the trip is only an hour, and we can catch the Köln train just about every hour, we decided to sleep in a little and go at 10:44.  

So I wake up, think, "yay, it's the weekend! I'm going to Köln,"  look out the window, and of COURSE it's cloudy, misty, and back to the all-around miserable Aachen weather once again. Maybe we just imagined that it was sunny on Friday. At the very least, it wasn't too cold.

Right as you step off the train in the Köln Hauptbahnhof, you walk outside and the first thing that you see is the beautiful cathedral, the Kölner Dom. Taking 632 years to actually complete, it is the most prominent form of Gothic architecture in Deutschland, and has one of the very highest Gothic vaults in the world. 

There was scaffolding all over the church, as it's basically in a never-ending battle with the elements. They are attempting to clean the entire outside surface, and even though it makes for annoying photos, it will be definitely worth it in the end. In this photo of the back of the church, you can see what's been cleaned and what hasn't. 

 

There were some friendly angels ready to greet tourists outside the church, and they even gave us a bunch of candy. You can't say no to God's candy. You just can't, I bet it's a deadly sin. This was our little group for most of the day, until we met up with the other foreign students in a pub later. From L to R: Juliette (France), Nuria (Spain), Mikael (Sweden), Kamila (Poland), and me! 

We paid €1,50 to climb 533 steps to the top of one of the two main spires and see the bell tower along the way. The whole way was a tiny spiral staircase, and there were about 18203860 people trying to navigate these little steps going up and down all at the same time. So on the way up, you have about 3 inches of step to set your foot on (the inside of the spiral) and on the way down, you just pray that you don't barf on the person in front of you because you're getting so dizzy for going in circle after circle...


Totally worth it though. Didn't I mention that? :) About 2/3 of the way to the top, we stopped in the bell tower, and got to see the giant bells. At one point, somebody paid to ring one of the smaller ones, and the whole tower vibrated. It was wicked....or should I say "holy"...


We kept asking Germans who were on the way down how many steps we had left to go. "Wie viele Stufen??" And one of them just looks at us seriously, and says, "ZU VIEL." (too many) I love Kamila's face in this photo as we started thinking about the steps. 


But the climb definitely paid off once we got to the top. 
You could walk around the perimeter of the tower and also see to the very top of the spire (below). 

From the top: 

After the Dom, we decided to walk to the Schokoladenmuseum, in order to replace all the calories we burned with some chocolate. But on the way, we found some of our other friends, and they said it wasn't worth the price. But we decided to walk anyway. On the way, a man tried to hand me a political flier, and a woman asked me directions...apparently I look like an approachable German. We also passed a friendly protest, something having to do with women (right). The way to the museum was along the Rhine, so we got a fantastic view the whole way. Bridges, barges, colored buildings, and fishy pubs. All silhouetted against beautiful old architecture. 

 We decided to spend our €5,50 on an actual dessert instead of a tour of the chocolate museum, so we left and walked to the railroad bridge (Hohenzollern Bridge) over the Rhine. The pedestrian walkway was a metal fence on the left side, where there is this tradition of a couple putting a lock on the fence in honor of their love. Apparently, the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) threatened to have the locks removed from the Hohenzollern Bridge. Deutsche Bahn is the bridge's operator, but in the end relented in the face of public opposition. This was probably one of my very favorite sights in Köln. 

  

The other side of bridge had a nice little stone balcony over the river for picture taking. 
(this is the most taken picture in all of Köln) But it's so pretty, I couldn't help it!!!

[Ignore bad hair in the next picture]

After satisfying our cameras with the pretty view, we returned to a small cafe for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). I had a white cream-mousse/lingonberry layered cake. We came to the conclusion that all German cakes look like you're going to die from the deliciousness, but when it actually comes down to it, they don't taste nearly as good as they look (with the exception of Scharzwald Kuchen). Meeting up with the rest of the internationals at a bar on the student street, we had a couple of Kölsch's (the beer made in Köln) and hit the road back to Aachen rounding out the day at nearly 12 hours. Köln was a beautiful city, and I can't wait to go back again soon. It's so close and so easy to go, I'm sure I'll spend more days there.. and hopefully when it's sunny!! 

Here are some random pictures I took during the trip. Enjoy! 

Home Sweet Aachen

** disclaimer: This is a text-based post containing mostly facts and information about Aachen, so I apologize in advance for possibly boring you. IT'S REALLY STINKIN' LONG. If at any time you feel yourself yawning, nodding off, or wondering why you're reading this,    I would be offended if you didn't immediately stop and start pursuing other more worthwhile interests. :) 


Well... I've been in Aachen for exactly two weeks now, but it feels like I've been here way longer. One could possibly attribute that to the fact that I've spent way more time (or at least as much time) walking around, getting lost, and exploring the city than I've ever done back in Missouri. My apartment is about 2 km from everything (city center, train station), and a little less to get to school. The city center (people get confused when I say "downtown"), is where you can find all the shopping (Zara, H&M, etc, etc) bus stops, the Dom (cathedral), Rathaus (town hall), Markt, and Pontstaße (bar street). The city center is awesome, because even though there are a couple roads through it, mostly it's all pedestrian walkway (cobblestone, of course). Luckily it only takes about 25 minutes to walk there, and shorter if I take the bus. On a normal day, I walk about 6 km, and on busy days, I walk about 10 or more. So my calves have increased in size! Woohoo. 


I'm sure the rest of me will increase in size too though, eating the way I do (apfel strudel, döner kebap, currywurst, schnitzel, bread, beer, chocolate, etc.)... and people say American's have large portions...ha!  But I want to try everything! And it's so good, you can't just leave any on the plate. I am going to miss German/Turkish food like crazy when I go home. And God himself taught the Germans how to cook potatoes. I could eat German potatoes forever..like on a desert island, if I was granted one wish, it would be to have a German woman cook potatoes for me every day.

I knew living in Europe would be different, but it's also kind of the same. Instead of blundering around in words trying to explain, I'm just creating a list of similarities and differences (or just unique German things).
So first off: 




(Similarities)

1. The outright obvious American/worldwide brand names (Pringles, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Fossil,Subway,etc.) 

2. If you truly mean "thank you" (or danke schön), you always get a happy "bitte schön" (you're welcome) in return. 

3. Someone is always willing to help.


4. People like to run.

5. Lots of cars.

6. They drive on the same side of the road.


(Differences)
*I will post eventually about all the really awesome things Aachen has to offer, so don't worry, I'm not dissing my city, I just want to note some of the culture differences.
1. The obvious language and country differences
-I take twice as long in the grocery store, trying to figure out what I'm buying
-University
-public transit (people take their dogs on the bus)


2. Cars: 
-BMW's, Audi's, Porsche's, Mercedes, are the most common brands I see (I'm not sure how expensive they are here, but everyone has one.) 
- Ford's don't look like Ford's...they look definitely European. 
-everyone has a small car, because they usually have to park it on the sidewalk, or in a very small garage underneath their house (tiefgarage). No minivans, trucks, SUV's, or anything. Well, Range Rover is the biggest. I have seen two of those. 
-EVEN THE AMBULANCES ARE MERCEDES, NO JOKE.

3. People (at least in Aachen) don't smile in return at you. This one is my least favorite. When you make eye contact with someone, and smile to be nice or break the weirdness or whatever, they just look at you like you're a zombie or something. Or if you smile at the waitress, or check-out lady, or bus driver, they're like WTF. So even though I still try to smile at people, it's not very pleasant. 

4. Germany is very subtly  controlling...
For example: all the slogan's sound sort of like brainwashing, telling you that something is the right way. For example, in America, an advertisement from a new power company would say, "Imagination at work" or something like that. In Aachen, the new power company's advertisements (plastered on the sides of half the buses) say (translated) "STAWAG: Good for you. Good for Aachen"
There are more examples, but I won't keep going. It's really hard to explain, but you just don't get the same free enterprise sort of atmosphere as in the States.
-Also, the German government is really strict about music licenses, so some YouTube videos don't work, Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, ANY online radio station similar to those. I occasionally get blocked websites on my internet that are perfectly harmless (such as a fishing website that was blocked for "phishing") etc.

5.Shopping:
Americans, as major consumers, buy products that make our lives easier in places (supermarkets) that make our lives easier. Ex: We can go to one store to buy everything. We eat frozen meals. We prefer to get the necessity-shopping done as quickly as possible. We like $10 jeans at Forever21. If you looked in a normal shopping bag at home it would probably have a mixture of some things like Kleenex, apples, dish soap, socks, and motor oil. Not to mention the other 20 bags that we have in the trunk of our car.
Aacheners buy things that enrich their lives. Like fresh flowers. People buy fresh flowers like they're going out of style here. THERE ARE FLOWERS EVERYWHERE. 

I don't know any Americans that would buy new fresh flowers daily just to put on their table. Or leather gloves, fresh bakery items, wine, cheese, and other really awesome things. And these things aren't too expensive either! Maybe €2-3 for a big loaf of freshly baked herb-nut bread. 


I'm not saying that Americans don't buy that sort of stuff, but here those things are common! And you have to go to different stores to get everything you need. Plastic bags for your groceries cost extra at the checkout, and since a lot of people walk or take the bus, they can only buy small quantities of things. I bought a canvas shopping bag, and when I go to the store or bakery, I only buy enough food for one or two days at a time, whereas at home, I only go shopping like once a month. 














6. Fashion:
-Scarves: EVERYBODY WEARS A SCARF, ALL THE TIME. old men, old women, young men, young women, babies, dogs....
-Ray Ban glasses. I have seen like 20 pairs of Ray Bans. Seriously, do other glasses brands exist here??

- Men's fashion is to die for. Soo cute. Some guys I know in the States dress well...but others....lets just say they would NOT wear this. So sad. So sad. 

-Women's fashion is cute in the stores, and about half the girls here dress like models, but the other half dress sort of like they're color-blind and are a mixture of haute couture and kindergarten teachers. Who wear hiking shoes.




The weird thing about it is that I already feel like Aachen is home. I can't wait to live in this city in the summer when all the fountains are working and the weather is warmer, because I already love it even in the miserable rain. I can think of many more differences, but I will leave those for another post on another day. I don't want you to die reading this lengthy beast. :)




PS. I took the pictures of Frucht Ass, and the flower vendor, but all other photos on this post are from Google. :) I had to illustrate.  

Mein erstes Wochenende!

 My friend Emily came to visit me this weekend! It was a spur of the moment decision on her part, but couldn't have turned out better! She brought some nice Australians along for the ride, and we all did a little bit of exploring, and when I say exploring, I mean going out on the town. Aachen is basically made for going out. There's an entire street that only has bars, pubs, clubs, and greasy food restaurants where you can get such things as döner kebap or fries covered in almost any sauce (I tried this weird sweet tasting curry sauce that was surprisingly good even though I don't like curry...again, idk what it was called since I just said "go for it" to the fry-chef). Pontstraße is where you find all +40,000 students on a typical weekend evening. 

 Below: (1)Gelato for dinner, (2) Emily and I eating our kebaps,(3) The mess that we made on the sidewalk due to the enormous size of those dang kebaps. 

In total for the weekend, I tried 4 different types of German beer. Dom Kölsch, Bitburger, König Ludwig Weißbier, and Beck's. The awesome part about German bars/beers is that they always serve the specific beer in it's designated glass. Sounds confusing on the part of the bartender, because some bars have at least 20 beers! 

Below: The Aussies (Andy, Trent, Ryan) and us went to a pub/restaurant but we weren't allowed to stay without ordering food. They directed us instead to a little room attached to the pub with a sliding wooden door, and we entered the tiniest bar we had ever been in, with enough room for maybe 5 people to stand up inside, or 4 people to sit down. Too many of us for the space, so we left. It turns out that in fact that tiny bar is the smallest in all of Europe! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. But because we had seen on the menu that Dom Kölsch was an option, and were so intrigued by beer that was named after a church we were very excited to drink it. So we found this place instead and drank our Church Beer. Queen's Pub. Also, the Jägermeister poster boy gets in the picture twice. And Ryan's wearing a crown. 

Also, I've got to hand it to Aachen.. the Germans really like Americans (and Australians). Or so it seems. While we were out, people kept coming up to us because they heard our accents and wanted to know where we were from. They are all really friendly, and it seems they are genuinely excited to be able to speak English us. I think they like the practice. A nice bartender made us these custom Deutschland shots. Probably the best ever, but he wouldn't give us the secret... we probably need an Enigma machine to figure it out....(oh, too soon?) 

Aachen is GORGEOUS at night. Especially in the Markt, which is where Pontstraße (the bar street) begins. The Dom and Rathaus stay lit until the wee hours, and when they go dark, you know it's time for bed. :)

Also on a last side note, I tried my first home-cooked German meal (at the cafeteria in my school). Some sort of weird noodle creation that resembles meatloaf made out of vegetables. It was delicious, about the size of my face, and jiggled sort of like jello... I didn't want to know what was in it! :) 

And thanks a million Emily for letting me steal some of your pictures...I didn't have any of us on my camera. For the record, I took all of the ones except for some of those that contain the both of us in them. :) (obviously) 

****DISCLAIMER: Just because this post is mostly about beer, doesn't mean it's cause to worry. Yeah, Mom and Dad, I'm talking to you. 

"You really are English, I thought you were joking."

Today was the first day of school. Well, not really, but the first day of intensive German class and International Orientation. We did a pre-test to see which level we placed into, and luckily I was placed in the advanced level, so I don't have to learn to count or say "my name is...." again. After a really confusing hour or so afterwards, a couple other international guys and I ran around town trying to get our health insurance and student verification stuff organized so we could get a library card to get our books. We stopped at a little copy shop to print off my actual itinerary (so I could find out what the heck I was supposed to do), and Mikael asked the man for help. After I also started talking, he was like, "You really are English! I thought you were joking!" He was a nice guy though. But, it turns out I have none of the required papers to get my student ticket, so I'm stuck until Monday.

The cool thing about German University is that you just check out your schoolbooks from the library, you don't spend $800 on them. 


(the picture below is of another tower/city gate thing above a creepy little pedestrian underpass.)

I convinced the other guys we needed to eat döner kebaps for lunch. We found a little place that advertised döner, but no kebaps. Still, I had a dönertasche at the advice of Lluis (left in the photo, from Mallorca) and Mikael (those are his feet in the photo below, and he took the picture above, from Sweden).
Dönertasche is the most magical creation I may have eaten in a long time. I think I'm going to be craving it all the time, like at breakfast and lunch and dinner and fourth meal. I think it beats out Taco Bell for sure, which is saying a lot. It's greasy mystery meat plus some onions, lettuce, other weird veggies and such, in a grilled pita shell that's lined with weird sauces. I would be able to describe it better if I had actually specified what I wanted in it, instead of saying  "Just make it good! Go for it!" to the döner-chef. I think I got some weird sort of spicy sauce, an almost sweet flavored creamy white sauce, and some weird red chopped things that looked kind of like radishes. Anyway, the three of us seemed to have dropped half our sandwiches on the ground trying to eat the monstrosities that were the dönertasche. I didn't use the fork. I definitely used the napkins. 

I had to be back at school for orientation after lunch. The bummer is that the international students are all in different colleges, in different parts of town, studying smart things like Mechanical Engineering or Product Design, etc. My orientation was for Business only, so I got meet some of the kids I'll have class with. They are ALL French, except two Chinese students and me. They supplied us with snacks, and I had the worst let-down in history. There was this thing, shaped like a pretzel, covered in chocolate. I was so excited. Dude. Like, I saved it for last so I could savor it. And I bite into it expecting crunchy chocolatey pretzel goodness. NO. Instead, it's soft, weird, almost American sandwich-bread like in texture, a cinnamon colored brown, and tasted sort of like spicy, or curry. For the record, I like almost everything. Especially in the dessert world. But this was horrifying. I actually ate about 6 bites of it, because I kept doubting that I didn't like it. No cell in my body believed that something covered in chocolate could be gross.

Today was an accomplishment of a day. Especially after I bought Nutella and german cookies to make up for the chocolate pretzel incident.