Hotel Hansen Bergisch Gladbach

So...sorry I'm really really bad about updating this. It will probably only get less frequent as time goes on because I really have nothing new and exciting to report. I've basically fallen into routine here and most of the stuff that seemed interesting at first has become normal to me. I will say that this week has been pretty fun. Tanya took me shopping and bought me a new bag and a dress which was pretty freakin' awesome of ...

... 1082;то-то, прочи 90;ав это, захоч 77;т хоть раз попро 73;овать - ну, значи 90;, эта писан 80;на не совсе ...

It's been terribly long since I've last written anything, so I'm very sorry. I've found myself busy working on grad school applications, making travel plans, making dinner with my house mates and playing volleyball with my new team (a great new addition to my life I'll discuss more later.) Last Friday, however, my daily routine got shaken up as Fall Break began at my school. I have two weeks off for travel and fun! I've already completed the first half of my trip ...

Another early start for our walking tour of Cologne. We started at the ship and walked through the Old Town to the cathedral. The Old Town isn’t really old. It was completely destroyed during WWII. It was slowly rebuilt to look like the original. The cathedral was badly damaged during the bombing but the structure remained standing. The construction of the cathedral was started in 1248 but not finished until 1880. At ...

... awed. The church did have a 'sanctified' feeling, and I was asked to remove my hat inside the building.

We took a few tasty and large pretzels and apfel strudels for lunch, once again enjoying the delights of German pastry shops. Unfortunately we did not have the time to visit the German-Roman museum, but we did manage to buy a few things at their gift shop.

... ich war noch nie auf dem Oktoberfest (und auch noch nie zum Karneval in Köln...). Sei's drum.

Eine Woche Kollegen-Kontakte in Deutschland treffen heisst auf einem Betriebsgelände, dass von drei S-Bahn Stationen auf einer Linie zu erreichen ist, vor allen Dingen viel Fu ...

... my Oma's father had lived in. We got some pictures for Oma and next time I think we're going to her house. When I got back to Dusseldorf I decided to switch trains at the Hauptbanhof (main station) and got to witness a huge free concert going on in the middle of the station. This was pretty amazing and I was really regretting not having a camera, but hopefully I'll have other opportunities. I did manage to get some pictures of the castle and the bridge so I will try to post them soon.

... Loads of tourists (national and foreign).

Anyways, after about two or so hours, I hopped back on the train to Ruth's house, since I was supposed to get ready and meet up with a lady to carpool to Freiburg, in the South. In Freiburg I was to meet with my friend Sebastian, who I met last year in Perú. Unfortunately, the lady called and cancelled about 40 minutes before 12, so Ruth helped me to figure out a train route ...

... of fajitas. Steve was so ******! The evening only got worse from there when we stopped at this cozy little bar on the way back to the hotel. It was dimly lit and had candles on all of the table. I ordered a glass of wine and Steve had a Kolsh. Kolsh is the beer that everyone drinks here. It's cheap 1.20EU in some places and it's strong. Anyway, we sat and sipped on our drinks and there were hardly any people inside. I got up to go to the bathroom ...

... a bizarre Indian bloke from Bangalore. He works in Cologne as a programmer for some telecom here. Pramod was his name and he was obsessed with football to a crazy extent; knew all the player's names and numbers and who they played for (for the English premier league teams). He did have a fundamental flaw in his knowledge about soccer however: he didn't rate Australia - such blasphemy fell on my deaf ears. He gave me this ...