Cologne (Koln) is a beautiful town. I was amazed by the history and the confidence the town projected. The Dom is the centerpiece of the town, it jumps out at you where ever you can find clean space to look for it. Two tower stands 157 meters high, its the largest cathedal in Germany... And it is just an awesome sight. The church is just massive, and i thank it began construction in the 1100s, first completed in 1880, but in the war, the city was completely destory, but the church was mainly unaffected an only experienced minor damage. You should see some of the postcards, the city was destory, but the church is the only standing building.
Anyway, Koln is much of a student town, i think Koln use to be the largest University town housing just over 80 thousand students. Kinda gives new meaning to the term student town... just think we thought waterloo was bad... :)
Anyway, its best to have a local show you around town, i had just the best experiences in Koln as the food was great.... everything from El Inca food to my mango lasi, and chai experience, it was great! And really building new a new friendship is at the core what made Koln such a fun experience. Its really great to have hospitable friends!
Oh, I had just one of the most amazing house party here in Koln, it was a buch of grad students, cooking a wild bohr with amazingly fresh ingredents.... makes me wish i had access to some of these things. Wat, you would love cooking here in Europe.
Anyway, Koln was pretty nice, comfee, and enjoyable.
BTW, i foudn out something. A friend once told me why he hates to use the urinal, something about splash black from the bowl. For over 5 years now, iºve put that as a myth as i thought he didnºt know how to use it properly. But finally being in germany, i realize what he was talking about. You see, Iºve been blessed with being above average height in North America. But her ein germany, i am average at best if not even below, and some of these washrooms have urinals up pretty high. I realize when youºre firing in a direct line against the bowl, youºre in just praying for a well design bowl or ou can just forget about it. If tiºs a poorly designed bowl, the splash back is at a maximum, and you can forget about holding it back. Pretty much, youºre screwed. Anyway, to my friend whom i will not name.... youºre right.... urinals are not friendly to all who use them.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
3 Days in Berlin
Berlin has been surprisingly different. I've heard so much about it, so much good things about it, and i can't say it didn't meet my expectations, but it didn't exceed it either. Berlin is a beautiful city, yet also a very run down city. Yes, both combined, within the span of one street, you can have some really modern, beautiful architectures blended with some famous historical strictures such as the Brandenburg Gate, yet down the same street, graffiti and half demolish building with vacant office rooms give this sense of ery and empty feeling.
Anyway, some highlights of the city for me included hanging out with some good party people on the 15th floor patio over looking Alexanderplatz, where they filmed part of Bourne Identity. It was quite neat to remember that movie scene and standing in the center of the square or on top of the roof top. Another thing, people dressed as casual as they liked, kinda a nice change from the Toronto club where youºre expected to dress to some standard..... i mean the club was handing out blankets to keep they customers warm... what a nice change.
I learned that berliner is a jelly filled donut... so in Hamburg, the people are called Hamburger, Frankfurt, the people are call Frankfurters (German sausauge), and Berlin people are call Berliners.... so when JFK said he was a Berliner, he was saying he was a jelly filled donut. You wonºt be getting speech writing like that anymore, with the power of accessubg high speed information thru the internet.
Berlin, the wall... i have two words to describe how I felt opelessness and depressed. You look at the wall, itºs actually quite intiminating, standing about 15 feet tall with a round top edge. And the wall extends as far as the eyes can see. So you start feeling itºs hopeless if you put yourself in the shoes of someone living in tthe time whent he wall was up. Guard towers positioned to prevent unwanted traspasser, round top on wall so it would be difficult to cling to it for any type of climbing, and you start to feel depressed because all ideas that you come up with to get across begins to look farfetch when you put it on paper. But I must say thereºs been some great attempts from hang gliding, ziplinging, to hot air ballons. But what a site it was, you felt like a part of history when you walk thru the city seeing remenance of the wall.
I love beautiful architectures, Berlin has a hand full from the Reschstag to the Brandenburg Gate, and you walking around town, you donºt realize how large the Berlin borders are. But the strctures are beautiful and definiteily mementos.
Finally, I would just like to talk about the Jewish Mounment. It wasnºt much of an site that you would gravite towards. Except the more you look, the more you realize it resembles a cementary, and the awe and importance behind it. When looking and reading thru the information on the site, i was in astonishment of the well describe events of the geniciding. And i loved the reverence each person showed in the exhibition for the 1 hr - 1.5 hr tour.
ps. thanks mas and pat, the foot places you guys picked are excellent
oh, and the two girls we thought were canadian, they are, i bumped into them two more times before i left monday... what are the chances eh?
Anyway, some highlights of the city for me included hanging out with some good party people on the 15th floor patio over looking Alexanderplatz, where they filmed part of Bourne Identity. It was quite neat to remember that movie scene and standing in the center of the square or on top of the roof top. Another thing, people dressed as casual as they liked, kinda a nice change from the Toronto club where youºre expected to dress to some standard..... i mean the club was handing out blankets to keep they customers warm... what a nice change.
I learned that berliner is a jelly filled donut... so in Hamburg, the people are called Hamburger, Frankfurt, the people are call Frankfurters (German sausauge), and Berlin people are call Berliners.... so when JFK said he was a Berliner, he was saying he was a jelly filled donut. You wonºt be getting speech writing like that anymore, with the power of accessubg high speed information thru the internet.
Berlin, the wall... i have two words to describe how I felt opelessness and depressed. You look at the wall, itºs actually quite intiminating, standing about 15 feet tall with a round top edge. And the wall extends as far as the eyes can see. So you start feeling itºs hopeless if you put yourself in the shoes of someone living in tthe time whent he wall was up. Guard towers positioned to prevent unwanted traspasser, round top on wall so it would be difficult to cling to it for any type of climbing, and you start to feel depressed because all ideas that you come up with to get across begins to look farfetch when you put it on paper. But I must say thereºs been some great attempts from hang gliding, ziplinging, to hot air ballons. But what a site it was, you felt like a part of history when you walk thru the city seeing remenance of the wall.
I love beautiful architectures, Berlin has a hand full from the Reschstag to the Brandenburg Gate, and you walking around town, you donºt realize how large the Berlin borders are. But the strctures are beautiful and definiteily mementos.
Finally, I would just like to talk about the Jewish Mounment. It wasnºt much of an site that you would gravite towards. Except the more you look, the more you realize it resembles a cementary, and the awe and importance behind it. When looking and reading thru the information on the site, i was in astonishment of the well describe events of the geniciding. And i loved the reverence each person showed in the exhibition for the 1 hr - 1.5 hr tour.
ps. thanks mas and pat, the foot places you guys picked are excellent
oh, and the two girls we thought were canadian, they are, i bumped into them two more times before i left monday... what are the chances eh?
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