A&O Koln Neumarkt Cologne

Just a quick note to have a little pin in my last (which was also my first) city of my excellent European trip :)

I had a really nice evening with Alwin and Stephanie (my original hosts in Europe), walking through the old town, having some nice hot red wine, and then some beers at a local brewery. Nice night, and then slept really well to go take my train to the airport in the morning...

I had a nice 10 hour flight from Dusseldorf to Fort Myers, Florida...

Вот уж не думал, что в Дюссе 83;ьдорф& #1077; - самый крупн 99;й рынок! Даже не так: один рыно ...

Things have been pretty fun since I got back from Luxembourg. The Christmas market is now open and all of Dusseldorf is covered in lights and little shops selling food and trinkets. The food smells so great everywhere you go that you have to stop and buy some. Teri came to stay with me for awhile so we went and toured the market a bit. We tried waffles, potato pancakes (they tasted almost exactly like Oma's!), and a candied apple. They also have this stuff called gluewein that they serve a ...

... Last Sunday, my housemates, Evi's friend, Anja, Kirsten's boyfriend, Colm, my friend, Tara, and I all gathered at our apartment. It took Kirsten, Colm, and I five and a half hours of cooking, but I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin pie (made from real pumpkins)! Everything went perfectly and tasted delicious. It was an ...

... According to Tanya, the kids were complaining that they missed me while I was gone...pretty cute. She said it's the first time the kids have really gotten this attached to an Au Pair so that made me feel pretty loved. Yoni won the award though because he was smart enough to not come wake me up but as soon as he saw me his lips puckered up for kisses. I have to admit, as much as they drive me crazy, these kids are pretty freakin' cute.

... argh idiot) seat - one row in front of the exit so there ends up being three travellers behind me. The three other guys are at the exit at the front. Then the air hostess' close the door - actually seven passengers?! Ridiculous!! Being the silly early hour I decide I'm just going to try sleeping on the plane. Know how annoying it is when someone puts their chair back so I move to the row in front. Musing to myself that of all the people on the flight, I'm ...

... only labeled with a D and a H. At this point, we were so exhausted that we found this just hillarious and had to wait until someone who we could decide was definately a man or a woman to walk into one of the rooms and pick the appropriate one afterwards. Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of museums anymore...haha! All this adventure needed to be followed by a good German bier in a good German pub, so we walked some more and with the help of one of our teachers, we found one and ...

... don't tell you anything unless you ask and even when you do ask, you won't get an answer because the question ends up getting lost in translation. Just one more thing I will have to adapt to with German culture. One thing I know for sure is how well we have it back home as far as medical care is concerned. Just being able to communicate with a doctor is a luxury we don't have here and what a difference it would make if we did. If only every doctor was like Dr. Andrea...

We evntually contacted him and met him at his office which was a beautiful old stone building, resembelig a lords manor. We also met a guy from Dublin called Finbarr who came wakeboarding with us. The kind people at the waterpark like us camp for free for two days whilst we indulged in some extreme sports. Some of the guys , and girls mind you were unbelieveable. One in particular was a Granny who was make a show of us.

... is served in 200 ml glasses and the waiter (who are famous for being a little rude) automatically serve you new glasses until you tell them to stop (or put a coaster on top of your beer). The people are quite friendly and it is self described as a liberal and diverse town (at least relative to the rest of Germany).