Why Not Germany?!?!

When we were planning our trip, a few of our friends discussed the possibility of meeting up with us in May, but when we told them our routing would put us in Germany in May, they all responded with the same “well, Germany was not on the top of my list of places to go to…” and they all decided not to meet up with us in May.  I can’t say I blame them, since Germany wasn’t on the top of my list of countries to visit either, but as we finish up our time in Germany, I have to say I’ve changed my mind and I think Germany should be on the top of more people’s lists!  The sights and history have been interesting, the people are serious looking but friendly, almost everyone speaks English so there’s hardly any communication barrier, and the food has been consistently good.  Germany has surprisingly become one of my favourite countries visited so far!

Our fifth and final German city (for this leg of the trip) is Cologne (German: Köln), a name which most people associate with the perfum Eau du Cologne (it did in fact originate in the city of Cologne).  Because our hostel, the Station Hostel for Backpackers, has a weird check-in policy that requires you to check in by noon to confirm your reservation, we took an early train from Düsseldorf this morning.  Already tired and grumpy from having to wake up early, I was totally unimpressed by the fact that we were sitting near a group of loud and rowdy German guys who were drinking beer on the train at 10 am!   I have no idea how German people aren’t grossly obese when they eat such heavy foods (like brats and schnitzel) and drink all day starting at 10 am!

My mood didn’t improve when we arrived at the hostel and found out that, although you must check in by noon, your room won’t be ready until 2 pm.  We put our bags in storage lockers in the basement of the hostel and headed out to get some lunch, where, thankfully, things started to get better once we started drinking Kölsch, the local beer of Köln.  Kölsch is a style distinctive to Köln because, by law, only beers brewed in and around Köln can be called Kölsch.  There are several different brands of Kölsch (each restaurant carries one specific brand) and they each taste different from one another, but generally speaking it’s a pale, straw-coloured clear beer which tastes light and sort of fruity, and comes served in little 0.2 litre glasses (called Kölsch-Stange).  Personally I think the small glasses are wonderful because, unlike with regular pint-size glasses, I can actually finish my beer before it gets warm and then order another cold glass!  Next to the brew we drank at Hofbräuhaus, Kölsch is probably my favourite kind of beer now

After lunch we wandered around a bit and stumbled upon the Kölner Philharmonie, Köln’s main concert hall.  I saw a bunch of kids coming out with cute balloons which were red with white polka dots so we decided to go in and see if I could get a balloon too.  Inside there were a variety of activities, kids and balloons everywhere (I guess there was some kind of kid’s concert today) so we did a quick loop, grabbed a balloon and left.  Sadly my balloon didn’t last long, as soon as we sat down at a nearby park Paul decided to play with it and knocked off the piece holding the air in, causing my pretty balloon to sputter away and deflate!

When it was close to 2 we headed back to the hostel and got our room, which turned out to be a decent looking private twin room with two separate beds instead of a bunk bed.  While it seems like they put some money into refinishing the bedrooms, the bathrooms in this hostel are in need of some repair –  they’re worst we’ve seen in any hostel so far, even worse that the hostel in Madrid!  I think this building used to be an office building which they converted into a hostel and it looks like they took a toilet stall and turned it into a shower, but didn’t adjust the lighting so it’s all dark and cramped in the one shower stall in the bathroom.  There’s an extra shower down the hall but it smells really really funky, like rotten sewage, so I won’t be using that shower either.  Thankfully we’re only here for 2 nights so I might just go without a shower period….