Last Friday, our whole group woke up to early to take a train to Cologne, just about 30 km north of Bonn. I was most excited to see the Cologne Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What I didn't was that when you exited the Cologne Hauptbahnhof, the cathedral was the first building you got to see! The structure was unbelievable, one of the most magnificent buildings I've ever seen. It was funny thinking the Aachen cathedral was giant and then coming to see the Cologne cathedral and how immense it was in comparison. It was freezing when we arrived, but we quickly found our city walking guide and we started our tour of the nearby Old Town. It was interesting to hear about all the quirky things the city of Cologne is known for. My favorite story was about how Cologne people are lazy because back in the day, little trolls lived under town and took care of all the chores during the night until one time a woman caused all the trolls to break their legs.
We ate lunch at a nearby brewery, and I had polish sausage which was amazing! Hopefully, I'll get to visit Poland and taste their authentic kielbasa while I'm here. Afterwards, we got the pleasure to tour a former Nazi prison and interrogation building. It was crazy to see all the prison cells and hear stories about the former people who were imprisoned there. Finally, we got to take a tour of the Cologne cathedral itself. We took an elevator to the roof where we got to walk around the inside and outside of the main choir area. We also had to take these tiny, claustrophobic spiral staircases to get the bell tower, which was a challenge in itself. Arriving to the top of the bell tower was one of my favorite moments of the trip so far. Seeing the cathedral and the rest of the city from those heights was breathtaking. The Sun was also setting during this time which provided wonderful picture taking moments.
After the tour, we walked around the town before boarding our bus to Brussels, Belgium for the rest of the weekend. We arrived late Friday night, and quickly scrambled to get to our hostel. Based on first impressions, I was nervous to be staying at our hostel. There was a large biker gang having a party at the bar, blasting metal music. All of us were kind've weary of them, and we quickly paid our bill and made our way up to our room for the night. Thankfully, they ended their party not too late, and we were able to have a decent night's sleep. The next morning, we ate a wonderful breakfast at the hostel before beginning our day in Brussels. It was quite rainy, but that didn't stop us from touring most of the town. The group I was with decided to quickly buy some Belgium chocolates before trying an authentic Belgian Waffle at Maison Dandoy. This was hands down the best waffle I've ever had. I got a Brussels waffle with warm chocolate sauce and ice cream. It was so good that I had to go back the next day to get another one. After eating our waffles, we toured the city to find the Little Peeing Boy, Girl, and Dog statues spread out throughout Brussels. We then took a train to the Atomium, a famous structure built in the 1950s for the World Expo. I've seen the Atomium in many pictures previous, as it is probably the most iconic structure in Belgium, so it was an amazing moment for me to get to finally see it in person! Unfortunately we didn't get to go to the top, but we still got some amazing pictures!
The next day, we ate some more before boarding our bus for the long trek back to Bonn. Thankfully, everything was on time and we got back not too late. School promptly began the next day and we have all dived back in to our studies. German has become my favorite class by far, as Frau Hilde does a great job at making it fun to learn and study. My BIMS writing class has been pretty easy so far which is a relief because I am not looking forward to writing the major papers due this semester. Physiology is pretty interesting with Dr. Wasser. He's very charismatic so I never get bored listening to him lecture. Overall, all my classes are going well and I am confident heading into these next few weeks academically.
This weekend we will be going to a Bundesliga soccer match on Sunday and I'm so excited! We might also go out on the town Saturday night which I am very much looking forward to. We are also going to be heading to Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday for the week and I am PUMPED! I am not sure which excursions we will be going on while there, but I'm sure they've cooked up some great things for us to do there. I will then be finishing my week by heading to Munich and visiting the famous Neuschwanstein castle. I have much to look forward to and I can't wait!
Til next time...
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