You'd Think The Locals Would Smell Better

Tuesday, May 17^th I got up early and showered. Then, I went downstairs and ate breakfast. Went back upstairs to make sure everything was packed and sent out my final updates/ emails to loved ones letting them know what the situation was; where I was going, that I was still safe, etc.  When I went downstairs with all my stuff (my backpack, my black duffel, and my purse, I was leaving my rolling suitcase with the Piette’s), they were all tears. Being the food pusher that she is, Madame Piette made me 4 sandwiches so I wouldn’t go hungry on the train. Then, we said our farewells. Despite the fact that I will be back in their house in June, they will be doing some jet setting of their own in the Canary Islands, so unless they come visit the US or I return to Beligium this would be the last time that I saw them for a while. They were so cute. They kept asking me if I had everything. Monsieur Piette kept reminding me to keep my passport and money in my front pocket, and Madame Piette kept trying to find more food to leave me with. Just as they were telling me to keep safe, I clumsily fell out the door landing on the pavement outside their house, giving them a lot of faith in my solo travels. Once I got back up, we all just laughed, hugged, and parted ways. I will never forget the Piette’s and their crazy, odd habits.

I then took the metro, where my MOBIB had finally run out so I had to buy a ticket, to Arts Loi/ Kunst Wet (and giggled like a 13 year old boy like I always do), and transferred, arriving at Gare de Midi. There I hopped on a train to Cologne. The train ride was fine. I met a girl from Taiwan who was also using a eurail train pass, so we chatted for a while about where to visit, where we’ve visited, and where we were going to visit. Before I knew it, it was 12:25pm and I was in Cologne, so I said best of luck to the girl, and went off in search of my hostel called the Black Sheep hostel.

It was a nice enough hostel, I was in an 8 bed female room, but I lucked out and only had 2 other girls in the room, not 7. I dropped off my bags, and decided to go exploring, first stop was the Dom Cathedral. Apparently, Cologne is known for two things among Europeans: this great Dom Cathedral and a great gay scene. I only noted the Dom.

Apparently, it took 600 years to complete the Dom. It was originally established to be the home of the relics of the Three Magi. Once I finished admiring both the inside and outside of the church, I went to the tourist office to ask what they suggest I should see. The office was quite unhelpful, so I just sat there for while looking at the map trying to decide what looked like fun. I walked around the Dom and ended up outside the Ludwig Museum and the Roman/ German Museum. Then decided to follow some elderly people in a pack who looked like they knew where they were going, and ended up at St. Martin’s. From there, I followed another couple of old people and ended up following the Rhine River. I followed it back to the Dom. Silly me, getting lost in Cologne. Well, from there I went to St. Angnes church, St. Ursula church, and I’m pretty sure another church. I also ended up at City Hall. Since I neither speak nor read German, I got thoroughly confused at times. I do know that I ended up at the Cologne City Museum, where I learned a little about Cologne’s history.

After the museum, I sat on a bench and called my parents just to let them know I was ok and all was well. When I got off the phone, I went back to the tourist information and inquired what shows were playing that night. The man at the desk tried to help me, but since he wasn’t a big theatre goer himself, it posed as a problem. I decided I would just walk to the opera house and see what was up. Good thing I did because students can purchase any ticket they want an hour before the show for only 6 euros. So, I bought a ticket to see the opera “Mamma Mafia” in the 5^th row back, dead center.

“Mamma Mafia” was a weird show. It was about the history of the mafia, but for part of the opera it was mostly silent with the men acting out and teaching the audience all the secreat movements and hand gestures that the mafia gives to one another to kill someone, and the second act was full of the men wearing Nixon masks and dancing in their boxers around the “Mamma” figure who was dressed in a black leotard with a tutu in the colors of the Italian flag. Very odd! To be fair, it probably would have made more sense if I spoke German, but since I don’t, I was, for the most part, confused.

Once the opera had finished I walked back to the Dom, passed by the 1477 Cologne Perfume store, and took the underground back to my hostel. There I met the two girls who were staying in my room. One was from Austraila and was spending 2 months just exploring Germany, and the other was from Indonesia and was traveling Europe for 2 weeks. The girl from Australia was much more outgoing and told me all sorts of cool places to visit and we just chatted. She was so nice! Eventually, I was so tired from having traveled from Brussels and walking all day, I just conked out and fell asleep.