Cologne - Touristy things part 2

After leaving the cathedral, we walked smack-bang into something very colourful that involved lots of people holding helium balloons.

Being the only one who understood German, I figured out it was a protest against homophobia

People had written messages in support of gay rights, which were then attached to the balloons

And then released.

A very peaceful and visually hypnotic protest

  

Seriously, I think we watched the balloons float away for at least 15 minutes.

We then decided to cross the other main tourist attraction of Cologne, the Hohenzollern Bruecke, to go view the city from the other side of the Rhine.

Our way past took us by the Philharmonic which was guarded to stop people from getting too close to the building and disrupt the rehearsal/performance. I call that shoddy planning if outside paedestrian traffic affects internal acoustics!

The Hohenzollern Bruecke. It famously withstood many allied bomb attacks until the German military blew it up while in retreat.

Rebuilt in1948, it too is covered in those lovelocks.

The view of the city from the Koelntriangle. As Fabi said to me when he recommended we climb this tower, "The view from the Dom doesn't include the Dom!"

I think this is the view south towards Bonn. 

Unlike Munich, Cologne was built over a Roman city and there are often archaeological finds!

The view of the Dom and Hohenzollern Bruecke from the Deutzer Bruecke. 

The next day we took some more leisurely strolls around the city as we headed towards the Farina Fragrance Museum.

When I saw this sculpture hanging off a building, all I could think of was *great mark*!!!!

Also, this building has wings!!!

Farina gegenueber - world's oldest Eau de Cologne and perfume maker.

Or should we say ONLY maker of Eau de Cologne! According to the museum, although eau de Cologne is now considered a concentration type, actual Eau de Cologne perfume is a registered trademark and Farina spent a lot of the 19th century suing people. 

Photography is actually not allowed in the museum, but the top floor had a few cabinets that we were allowed to photograph, such as this collection of different bottles through the ages

And this antique Chinese-style travelling (!) cabinet. I actually highly recommend the museum. It's quite informative and interesting, filled with historical tidbits and allows you to test different scents. Perfect for nerds like myself!

Cologne - Touristy things part 1

People always seemed a little surprised whenever I've told them that I'd never been to Cologne (Koeln). And then they would tell me that stopping through at the Hauptbahnhof on the way to somewhere else didn't count :D. But these days are over! I took a short weekend trip up there and can now say that I've seen most of the sights!

Fabi lived in Cologne during his studies and gave me a list of different things I should do while up there. First on the list was to visit Cologne Cathedral, aka Koelner Dom. Started in 1248, the Dom was finished 632 years later to the original plans. Sagrada Familia, you've still got plenty of time! 

Impressive

It's got flying buttresses aplenty

Just for some scale, that's a dog having it's portrait taken in front of the Dom

I think every tourist to Cologne takes this photo :D

The finishing touches from the 19th century are easily distinguishable from the other parts

Wah, so high

These stained glass windows were a donation from Ludwig I of Bavaria, the very Ludwig whose wedding we celebrate during Wiesn!

The Achskapelle. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close to the main treasure of Cologne Cathedral, the Shrine of the Three Kings. 

And then like real tourists, we climbed the Cathedral.

With over 500 steps to the top and no elevator, it's not for the faint-hearted. That didn't seem to stop many people who were not in fit condition from trying though >.<

St Peter's bell, also known as 'Fat Peter'

Mmmmm, looking up the interior of one of the spires.

Looking over the Rhine River to the Hohenzollernbruecke towards the Deutz

and over the Great St Martin Church.

More Cologne tourism after the break!

Oh my god.

At Isle of Summer, I ate Burger King for lunch and then currywurst and pommes for dinner and supper. Following this wonderfully nutritious day, I decided that I would start summer diet this week.

It started relatively well - I had chicken soup and noodles for lunch and then bought things to make dip to be eaten with carrot and celery sticks. Satisfied, I headed off to the gym. Around 11pm, I started to feel not so well. By midnight I was regurgitating quite forcefully. A couple of messages later, Spuey remote diagnosed gastro, and suggested I start oral rehydration therapy as quickly as possible even if it meant I'd be throwing it up. I found a recipe that the WHO gives to people who are suffering from Cholera (heh, 30ml sugar and 2.5ml salt in 1L of water for the curious), and started to down it.

But throw it up I did. I think I was averaging a chunder every 2 hours during the night. Needless to say I've spent the last couple of days at home. I've also lost 3kg in two days, so I don't need to diet anymore. 

Mission accomplished, I suppose?

Isle of Summer

Summer time is music festival time and the first one to take place in Munich is Isle of Summer, and EDM minifest. It took place on the Praterinsel for the last few years, but it's now gotten too large and is being held near Kultfabrik this year. It's also characterised by the fact that it's supposed to start at 11am and end at 8am the following day, but Susi, Nicki, Moni, Laura, Haucke, myself, and some others met up at the more reasonable time of 1pm. It was going to be interesting to see how we would do as Susi regaled the others with the story of how she watched me dance for 3 hours straight at Balaton, followed by being the only one to stay awake in the following epic taxi ride.  

I was a bit surprised as to our early start but it turns out we had to get there early because Klingande were playing at a ridiculously early time. 

Just in case you wanted to know what I was talking about

The outdoor part of the party continued on as the sun set. It got a bit cold, but as you can see, the crush of people kept us all toasty!

There's a noise curfew in Munich and this is the carnage at the main stage after everyone went to one of the indoor sections. 

After dancing for a few more hours, Susi and I were the last of our party crew, but we eventually had to give up 12 hours after we arrived - quite frankly, our legs were sore and wanted to catch the u-bahn before it stopped for the night. The next day, I could really tell that I had spent about 9 hours dancing the day before :D

Whoopsie doodle

My glasses were scratched beyond repair at work today. I was using a dissecting microscope when the arm jammed and I was unable to adjust it to an appropriate height in order to focus on a particular plane. A colleague gave me a hand and ended up forcefully moving it before I was able to move myself away from the oculars. On the plus side, at least I was actually wearing glasses because if that hit me in my un-guarded eyes, the force could have detached my retinae.

Good thing Pooey will be arriving in Rundon with my replacement pair next month!

Kaiserschmarrn

On a day with crappy weather, Caro and I were having a crappy day at work. When the crap day came to an end, we decided to brighten it up by going somewhere decidedly uncrappy, Kaisergarten. And what better to eat in Kaisergarten than Kaiserschmarrn?

Since it's in her hood, Caro had been here many times before and guaranteed me that this is the best Kaiserschmarrn in all of Munich. It's certainly up there, I'll concede that!

The sun was shining by the time I finished this portion (for two people), so I can only say that awesomeness was achieved!

Duolingo

In addition to restarting German classes, I've decided to refresh my French and Spanish by checking out the Duolingo app. The app apparently will teach you vocabulary and grammar through repetition, with each level broken up by theme once you pass the absolute basics (e.g. animals, food), and consists of exercises in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Except the speaking can't seem to pick up my whispered words so well - I'm mostly doing the exercises at night or in the u-bahn.

So does it work? Well, as someone who used to be quite fluent in french, I probably should have skipped the basics section but the repetitions are reminding me of some of the genders. On the other hand, given my very basic spanish, I think the app is quite useful in forcing me to remember how to conjugate verbs. I've also used it to see how difficult it would be for me to learn Portuguese - my conclusion is that I can read it quite easily :D :D :D

In summary, I think if you want to get started in the offered languages (so far it has English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German), the Duolingo app is a pretty good (and free) way to start. At the very least, it will teach you how to say you drink beer or wine within the basic stages. Nós bebemos cerveja!

SCIENCE!!!

I think this is pretty cool. 

I kinda wish they actually taught it to dance though...

I think I need a life?

First of May, first of May...it was a relatively nice day and no work...so I decided to do my laundry and go to the gym.

Yep. Need a life.

Champions League :/

Well, the joyous celebrations from last year will not be repeated.

I actually had German class on Tuesday and I didn't make it to a biergarten to watch the match until 30 minutes into the match...and when I got there I think my first words were, "Well, this match is over." I hung around because you never know when they might score five goals, but alas, it was not meant to be.

So in conclusion, I would like to say, "Atleti for the win!"

A jump into the grey...

Many, many months after wanting to do it at Balaton and many, many months after receiving a voucher to do this for my birthday, I finally went bungee jumping! It was an absolutely filthy and cold day which basically stopped me from doing more than one jump (I really didn't want to stand in the drizzle or force my audience to hang around longer than necessary), but it didn't dampen my enthusiasm one iota!

Check out the massive smile on my face! It was noted that while I was bouncing around in excitement, many others were standing around in terror.

My tiny harness. A minimum allowed weight was specified which I just scraped into. This scraping meant that I had to wear the smallest harness they had :D

Still smiling on my way up! Funny moment - the wind blew during the ascent and I was shifting a bit so one of the two guys in the cherry picker had to hold onto my harness so that I didn't prematurely fall out.

50m in the sky...HERE WE GO!!!!

YEAH!!!!

You'll note I was cheering as I bounced back up - that was actually the best part because of the weightless feeling. It was also noted that my cheers sounded as though I was having fun instead of crapping myself like others. 

I was later told that the operators said to each other, "Okay, we should probably let her down now," as though they let me bounce around longer than usual since I was enjoying myself so much. HAHAHAHAH

Hehehehe.

And at the end, I was handed a certificate and a card stating 50% for the next two times I jump...AND THE FOURTH JUMP IS FREE!!! WHO'S IN WITH ME?!?!

Tummy ache :/

This post-Easter week has been quite busy and I haven't been able to do my usual 'Cook at home/ eat leftover at work' schtick, and so I've had to eat at our notoriously bad mensa for the past few days. Maybe that's why I ended up with a tummy ache today. I decided to go home early rather than risk having to eat mensa food again for the third day running and risk dying.

And that's how I ended up at home making some childhood comfort food - macaroni in chicken broth with carrots and spring onions.

Exactly not what my granny would have made for me - she would have made me congee. 

Oh, hurro!

This Easter is being filled with a variety of brunches which has required me to bake assorted cakes which I then transport around the city to be eaten. Yesterday I was doing exactly this when I felt someone nudging me on the u-bahn. I looked down and what did I behold? A fluffy critter trying to unobtrusively snuffle my cake bag! His (her?) owner noticed and apologised and Snuffles (as I shall now call him) went away.

Except not really because we ended up standing next to each other on the escalator out of the u-bahn! I took the opportunity at the traffic lights to take some photos of Snuffles.

Pointy ears! Fluffy butt!

Snuffles knows how to safely cross the road!

Dinner with the girls

To get the Easter long weekend kicking, I had Turkish dinner with some of my gals.

I was apparently too hungry to photograph my food?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GUESS WHO'S GOING TO SCREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM IN JUNE?!?!?!

On another note, I saw this posted on the way to the gym and seriously considered buying a ticket hehehe. 

"...allll my liiiiiife (babeh, babeh)..."

Wein-plus convention 2014

A couple of weeks ago, we had another wine night at Emi's place and being the last of the hardcore drinkers, he gave us a bunch of entry discount vouchers to a wine expo that was being held. Entry was supposed to be €20 but with his vouchers, that was being slashed down to €5. HOLY MOLY!!! I mean, I was thinking I needed a weekend without booze but with that kind of value...

And that decision was totally worth it. Rooms and rooms full of stalls and stalls of people with different wines. Upon entering, we were allowed to hire a wine glass and then wander from stall to stall and ask for samples. 

Here we are (me, Annina, Stephanie, and Kate) pictured in a room completely devoted to champagne. 

For €20, I would have been pretty happy. For €5, I was ecstatic! Although most stalls had bottles of water and pieces of bread to stop everyone from getting tanked, that didn't stop us from getting tanked. There was also food to go along with the wine and I ended up purchasing a plate of cheese, a dried sausage, and some pesto to go along with the bottle of tuscan red wine. If this convention comes back in a year (or two), count me in again!