A busy busy day..
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2009
1
2
Trip End
Apr 27, 2009
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Annoyingly, it's gate 1 which is thee longest walk from where I am. So I head along - quiet as can be. Wondering if I'm late and everyone else will be sat on the plane - gulp. No - not even close!! Arrive and the flight number is on the screen but NO-ONE is around. After a while another man rocks up, and a woman wearing a fluorescent jacket (so staff then). Then 2 men - German, one with an eye patch and glasses (awesome). They put a call out for the flight and there's three more men coming along as they start boarding us. So seven people?! Titchy plane - one of those types with only 3 seats in a row. Never been on one so small before! Get to my (reserved, argh idiot) seat - one row in front of the exit so there ends up being three travellers behind me. The three other guys are at the exit at the front. Then the air hostess' close the door - actually seven passengers?! Ridiculous!!
Being the silly early hour I decide I'm just going to try sleeping on the plane. Know how annoying it is when someone puts their chair back so I move to the row in front. Musing to myself that of all the people on the flight, I'm clearly the only one (stupid enough) to have booked my seat - and I MOVE from it. D'oh!
Arrive in a deserted Dusseldorf airport and whizz through passport.. there's only a cleaner at customs so unsurprisingly she doesn't ask to check my bag and I'm out and at the train station, just in time for an earlier train to Koln! Text the friend to tell her I'll be half an hour early and get on.
Worry kicks in when I remember I didn't print what she sent me about times, but assume the timing for the station I want from what I remembered for the later one. Pull up at Koln-something before this time. Eh!! Are there multiplestations called Koln??? We passed a Dusseldorf one with letters (hbf, apparently) and seem to remember that this was the case for station I wanted.. ask a german with poor english if there's multiple 'Koln' stations. She doesn't understand but I figure there is.. and I'm right (for once!) hurrah!!!
Arrive and head out nearest exit, following some of the crowd. And it's sOoooooooooooo sunny!!! Text the friend to tell her where I am, but wonder that I haven't heard from her yet about being early - turns out her phone was broken! Argh!! After about 20mins waiting/enjoying the sun I figure I'm probably not at the main exit, maybe I should find another... and do so, in the shadow of the MASSIVE loooooming cathedral!! idiot!!!
Find the buddy and after the hugs and hellos it's off for a drink by the Rhine - ahhh nice. Despite it being half 11 in the morning (or half 10 to me on English time.. although with the early morning surely afternoon for me?!) we start on the alcohol: her on a classic lager, me on some lovely wine.
We decide to move on, but have clocked a guy in a giant frog suit and are well wondering about chancing him for a photo. Turns out he's on a stag do, and he and his english-speaking-mate that is specially called over for us explain that it's tradition for the stag to try and sell things for drinks. So we buy some Germany-flag coloured sweat bands! Ace! We fail on the photo but end up talking to one of them who's telling us to go out to some place tonight, in Cologne, but that my mate doesn't know. Hmmm.
Move on for some lunch and another drink (MASSIVE glass of wine, hmm!) also in the sun in some square.. not so good with German names!! Decide that rather than just a short weekend this properly feels like a summer holiday so I'm loving it! And it's weirdly brilliant that nobody around can actually properly understand us chatting away due to the language difference!
Potter around the shops (so like England!) and buy some nice new jewellery as I'm in need and have forgotten any for the trip, silly!! Decide that we should definitely do the Dom Tower, as it's closed on a sunday and looks coool. But I've still my hefty bag with me, which we are NOT lugging up those steps. So we ask the desk if they can look after it? No no, but try the museum they say. So we do - 50cents: bargain! Except you have to go into the museum... and pay to do so, which we don't want to! Figure it isn't worth the expense and there'd be no time for the tower after museum. So we ponder finding her friends who should be in a bar nearby and leaving the bag with them... except they aren't there!!
So we find a nearby nicer outside bar and have ANOTHER drink. Enjoy the fading sun which is still so warm and summery, ahhh. They don't turn up so we get the tram back to hers and pick up some dinner on the way.
Food is gotten ready nice and quickly, and it's open with more wine and trying on of things for the evening. Missy just can't decide on what to wear, so she's trying it all on! I feel saddened by my lack of wardrobe so set about trying on all her pretty dresses instead, dancing around to various disco anthems: particularly belting out some Pink, leave me alone. Ahh joy.
So it's off to this party of some of her work colleagues. Take along some wine and these funny teeny bottles of alcohol we found in the supermarket for the journey: actually turn out to be quite nice!! So after a while at the party manage to get to grips with the introductions of all the people - they seem lovely! Go inside to get another drink and I swear here's the beginning of the end.. persuaded into a 'baby guinness' - SHOULD be kahlua with baileys floated on top.. instead is cheap stuff that won't float. Ugh. Not good, but somehow good enough for a few more. Along with more of those teeny bottles we had one of earlier - informed that it's Fig Vodka (yum yum! surprising) and they have a special way of drinking it: Shake it, bang it on the wall, take off the lid and stick it on your nose, and drink it through your teeth!! I'm pretty sure it didn't make it tastebetter, only made you look like a nutter but hey... all good spirits, and I did win with the keeping-it-on-your-nose malarky.. or is that really a fail?! So do a nuuumber of these and have a tour of the rather impressive house - made up of all these rather cute little flats... then I think the various drinks hit me after a while (coupled, I think, with the rather long day) and I massively CRASH.. essentially end up having to go to sleep in one of the flats upstairs: OOOOOPS...
