Adventures in Deutschland

As you can see from the new pictures, Emma and I recently had some wonderful adventures in Germany. So I will briefly give you a tour of some of our highlights, (and maybe lowlights) of the four day trip.

Day 1: Brussels to Cologne.

Friday was a rough day at work, and so I was the last one out of the office, I didn’t finish all of my work, I knew I was going to have to find a computer and do some work over the trip which was a bummer, and worst of all, everyone else in the office left me alone so they could go to the pub and drink. Needless to say our trip did not start on a very high note.

So I finally get out of the office, I feel crappy and I just want to get on the train and go…unfortunately our train was delayed by about an hour. In addition it was WAY overcrowded as two trains sort of merged into one, and people were sitting in our seats. Luckily Emma and I grab two seats by a table and set up camp, and as we got closer to Deutschland, the train emptied out.

We arrive in Cologne (or Köln in German), and as we exit the train station, we are greeted by an awe inspiring Cathedral. The Dom.

The Dom is Cologne’s claim to fame, as it is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Ready for a day ahead, we hopped onto the trams, got to our hostel, appropriately named “Black Sheep Hostel”, and went to bed early.

Saturday, our day in Cologne was a whirl of museums and churches. Our greatest feat for the day was tied between our climb to the top of The Dom, it is about 150 meters (just under 500 feet) high, and finding the most delicious bratwurst EVER. (It was from a street vendor and when you bit into it, there was an explosion of delicious meat flavour in your mouth…SO GOOD).

Day 2: Cologne to Hamburg

After a great day in Cologne, we picked up our bags from The Black Sheep, and hopped onto the train to Hamburg. The train ride was about four hours long, and we arrived in Hamburg at about 1 AM.

The next day we woke up to grey clouds and chilly weather. We went down to breakfast, and the woman working at the hostel said we MUST go to the fish market, except it was already about 9:30 AM and it finished around 10. BUT WAIT…(someone from another table announced)…the clocks went back last night, it is only 8:30 AM! So Emma and I ski-doodle out of the hostel, hop on a tram and make our way to the Sunday morning Hamburg Fish Market. The vendors sell their wares at this market by shouting as loud as they can. I’m not 100% sure what they were shouting, (as it was in German), but they either sounded really scary/angry or really, really excited about their goods.

We make our way down to a big old warehouse, and inside is a sign that reads “Oldies are the goodies”. It is a great hall full of people, the average age is about 65, it is still about 10 AM, and everyone has beer, and oh yeah, there is a REALLY bad cover band of Billy Joel, playing VERY loudly. But when in Hamburg…so we buy a beer and take a seat.

From Hamburg!

Due to the awful weather, after a few hours of wondering around the city, and going up the tower at St. Nicolai’s tower, Emma and I decide to venture out of the city and go to what was described in the guidebook as a “Swamp house museum”. It was about 30-45 minutes away by metro.

WOW. We got off the metro and found ourselves in the BURBS, we could have been in Upstate New York or Connecticut by our surroundings. It was raining and we were cold, so we found a wonderful coffee shop (as you do in the suburbs) and warmed up. We then asked the girl at the counter (she was really nice) if she knew where the swamp museum was. She looked at us strangely and we knew we may be in for a surprise. “Swamp museum?” she asked, “Do you mean the Museumdorf?” …”Sure…” we reply hesitantly, and she gives us directions, and even draws us a really cute map. Warm and replenished, off we go to the Museumdorf.

We arrive, it’s still raining, and the “museum” is basically a historical society type set up with a bunch of old houses (they’re actually new, but they were recently made to look like old houses) in fields. And oh yea, the museum is closed. So we’re standing around, looking at the houses, I’m obsessively taking pictures, and Emma is trying to find something to read when an adorable old man comes up to us.

It turns out he was the volunteer who worked at the museum that afternoon, he was supposed to have a tour at three, but no one turned up. He graciously reopened the main house for us. He then talked to us about the “drive through house” where farmers would have two huge doors at the front and back of their house, once they were done in the fields they would drive their horse and buggy in through one door, unload, and drive it out the other side without having to turn around or back out. He also explained the “Aunt Emma” stores to us, which is basically the equivalent to old Mom and Pop stores in the US, but were run by old ladies or “Emmas”…haha.

After a great tour and look around, we bid our friendly guide adieu, and made our way back to the train.

Day 3: Hamburg to Lübeck

At the beginning of every Disney movie, there is a blue screen, a white entranceway with flags on it, and Walt’s signature, along with Tinkerbelle. We’ve all seen it, however, I now know where the inspiration for that entrance drawbridge came from. The entrance to Lübeck, a small town north of Hamburg.

Lübeck is beautiful. Emma and I spent the day wandering the streets in awe. We ended up in a bar around 2 PM, which proudly advertised that smokers are welcome. We walk inside and near the door are three older ladies (about 70 -80 years old) and at the table next to them two men of a similar age. They look as though they had been there all day, and every 10 to 15 minutes, another shot is poured. They smoke like chimneys and are in every way an institution. It was wonderful. To everyone’s (especially the two old men’s) delight, Emma asked the bar tender for two shots of vodka, we downed it, paid up and peaced out.

I had to take a quick work break, so we searched for an internet café. Of course the first two computers I sat at did not work, but after about an hour, my work was finished and we explored the streets for dinner (I forbid Brat, while it is delicious, we basically have had it for every meal since we arrived in Germany).

Back to Hamburg that night, up the next day, we walked along the boardwalk a little, before boarding a train back to Cologne, and then back to Brussels.

Interesting Article

Here's an interesting article up on the Eurodad website. It's an FAQ about the Bretton Woods II meeting, Bush announced yesterday.

Although it will be a bit weird to have this meeting, which is so important and timely, during a moment when the US will essentially have 2 presidents. I wonder if the president elect (if we have one by then!) will be invited to attend?

Back by popular demand: The Toilet Paper

I've been getting questions about whether or not I've resolved the toilet paper debacle with my mysterious roommate.

The answer: Yes.

We were out of toilet paper (yet again, I swear she must use like half a roll a day) and so I went to the grocery store to get some more. I usually buy toilet paper in the market around the corner from where I live because it's closer, and toilet paper (especially when bought in bulk, which I need) tends to be cumbersome. However, this day, I was at the grocery store for some delicious fresh squeezed orange juice (yum) and I decided to deal with it, and carry toilet paper home with my groceries as it would be a lot cheaper.

I rounded the corner of the "paper products" isle, one I usually miss, and saw an array of colors and scents when faced with the toilet paper choices. I instinctively reached for my normal white 2ply paper, and glanced at the price. Just under 2 euros for six rolls, not bad. I then turn and see the now familiar yellow quilted 4ply paper (note it's also vanilla scented, god only knows what kind of chemicals are pumped into that). I sigh, and glance to see the damage; 1 euro.

I know...right?

It was CHEAPER to buy the 4ply scented yellow quilted toilet paper then the white normal two ply. Apparently I was the one living the luxurious life spending more than 1 euro on toilet paper.

So, with a shrug, I toss the white paper back and grab the quilted, maybe my roommate will think I have reformed. I mean if she does think that, she will still have no way of telling me, but still.

Being sick

I've had the "sniffles" for the past few days. It's awful, I hate waking up in the morning and not looking forward to what's ahead, but when I am sick, all I can feel is the pressure in my head and sinuses and my inability to breath, and instead of wanting to get up and go to work, all I have wanted to do is go back to sleep for a few more hours. No fun.

However, last night in an effort to fight this thing off once and for all I drank an entire litre of freshly squeezed orange juice (another GREAT thing about this country is that many supermarkets have an organge juice machine, where you can literally WATCH the oranges get cut in half and squeezed into your empty bottle, it's fabulous) and went to bed early. So this morning, for the first time in a few days, I got out of bed before I've absolutely had to, jumped in the shower, blow dried my hair and even put on some makeup (not a lot, but the point is I made the effort). So I think the score right now is: Cold- 0 Phil-1. yay!

In addition to that, yesterday at the end of my French class, François, my wonderful teacher, told me that I was doing very well as I was heading out. She said that I was picking up the vocabulary nicely and I was progressing with great speed, I basically floated home (the ten feet across the street).

So it looks as though things are looking bright. Work is pretty chill this week, I have some fun weekend plans (Okey, we are GOING to the clubs up by the Atonium), I got my "Tastefully Scary" invite which took me about fifteen minutes to decipher, and even though I can't fly back to DC to attend the bash (I wish), it definitely made my day and I am feeling about 80% healthy, which is a large jump from my 75% yesterday!

Now Emma and I just have to make the final plans for our trip to Germany next weekend and I will be a very happy camper.

Funny Blog Post

I found this thoroughly entertaining.

Explaination for below post (Poll)

I'm meant to be putting a quiz up on our website, so I wanted to test this one out to see how it looked on the blog...

Thoughts?

Poll: Which is more rainy, London or Brussels?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Some things that I particularly like or dislike about Brussels

I’ll start of with the positive.

1. Brussels is very near many other GREAT European cities, so on the weekends I’m trying to see as many as I can. Thus far I have: The Hague, Amsterdam (x2) and Ghent. However, I hope to visit Hamburg, Delft and Cologne very soon as well.

2. Brussels pumps good music through speakers in their metro. Now this music isn’t very quiet background noise, it is very audible. In addition, at night, the music becomes a calming classical tune in hopes of preventing violent crimes.

3. As it rains at least once a day (for the most part), so I no longer mind wearing my hair back as it would get messy /wet if I wore it down.

4. My French school (Peter’s School) and my French teacher Francoise are so great. Peter’s School is literally across the street from my house (no excuse not to go!) and it is in this old corner town house that has scaffolding on the outside. It’s tiny (I’m one of four people in my class) and really personable, even if the class rooms are a little bit run down. Not to mention Francoise (pronounced Fran-swas, because she’s female) is the cutest teacher ever. She must be in her mid to late 60’s and literally makes my 1.5 hr class fly by. I LOVE IT.

5. Street markets are a big deal here, and there’s a great one on my street every Thursday. You can buy anything from socks to used bras, to cheese to produce. It’s kind of like a mixed bag. But the venders are very friendly, and the neighborhood is adorable.

6. Gaufres, or waffles (see I’m learning French!) that are sold on the street all over the city helped me survive the walk to work today (there was a general strike, so all public transportation shut down). They are warm and sugary and amazing. The best I’ve had yet are in the Schuman metro, the vendor takes them right out of the waffle machine and into your hands (no reheating there!).

7. Frites. Street fries here are great, even if you don’t eat them walking down the street you can’t help but smell the yummy fried potato-ness. I found out the difference between Belgian frites and French fries is the size. Frites are thick and French fries are cut as thin narrow strips.

8. La Maison du Peuple (pronounced- P-uh-pb…I think) is a great bar around the corner from my work, with a great happy hour (1/2 off cocktails) and delicious and reasonably priced food!

9. Fruit flavoured beer, such as Kriek. You either love it or you hate it, but I think they are delicious. I like them all but right now I’m on a peach kick. (I know, very girl-y).


OK so things that aren’t so great about Brussels


1. The weather! It makes London look like a tropical island (maybe not really, but it’s pretty depressing)

2. The two language thing is pretty confusing, if you happen to sit down at a Flemish restaurant (be it an Irish pub or a pizza joint) and you try to speak French, many time the server will ask you to speak in English as they “prefer” it. The confusion mainly stems from the fact that Brussels is French speaking pocket in the Flemish Brabant region of Belgium. So the two communities, who usually remain separated, are forced to live together in Brussels. Although, the word for pharmacy in Dutch is Apoteek, and I think that’s a great word. However as a down side, when you watch a movie in the theatre, there are subtitles in TWO languages at the bottom of the screen, talk about distracting.

3. It’s grey. While in Amsterdam, Emma and I noticed how pretty the city was aesthetically, we realized that the reason Brussels seems so depressing most of the time is because the buildings tend to be grey or dull. There are some really cute areas of the city where this is completely false, but as a gross generalization, Brussels is just not that pretty.

4. The Belgian Bureaucracy, mainly that everything takes FOREVER. For more on that, please see my previous entry.

5. Did you know that there was no active Belgian government for a while last year. Me neither, even after living here for a month, that’s how lame this country is.


Not to be a downer, but just thought I would share some of my knowledge of this city. There are some great things (Note: the Atonium and mini Europe are missing from this, that is because when I was supposed to go a couple weekends ago, I slept in…all day. I therefore only got some pictures of the Atonium from the outside, but I AM going to go, so more to follow on that).

I'm not sure if I'm horrified, or really entertained

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.