I decided to venture to Köln (Cologne) by myself on Friday. No one could go with me, and it was the last place in Germany that I had really been wanting to visit. It's only about a 2.5 hour bus ride from here to there, and I got my tickets for 19 euros total. I arrived in Köln around 10am. My first stop was the Dom, which was literally steps away from the Hauptbahnhof. I must have spent nearly two hours there. The Kölner Dom is absolutely huge. I didn't find it particularly pretty, but its size alone amazed me. I walked up the 500 steps to the top of the tower to see Köln from above, which was also awesome. The 500 steps to the top were almost entirely in a spiral staircase, so it was pretty tight if people were coming up and going down. After the Dom, I went to see the Heinzelmännchen, which is a statue that tells the legend of how Köln was built. According to legend, Koln was built by dwarves during the night because the residents of Köln were too lazy to do the work themselves. One night, a woman wanted to see the dwarves, so she waited up for them, turned on a light when they had arrived, and scared them, which led to them falling and hurting themselves. Because of this, the dwarves never came back again, so the residents of Köln had to get up and do the work themselves. Since I didn't have much time in Köln, I decided to go to the EL-DE Haus next. The EL-DE Haus is the NS (national socialist) Documentation Center. In the basement, there are old prison cells that were used in WW2 by the Gestapo. The Gestapo would imprison and torture people here who they accused of going against the Nazi cause. It was an interesting contrast to Dachau, where I visited just the week before. Though the crimes committed here were different than those committed at concentration camps, they were just as awful. After this, it was time for me to head back to the Hauptbahnhof. I took my time and meandered around the old city, enjoying the view and feel of a new place. I ate my lunch on the steps of the Dom just before I headed to my bus. Because of the bad weather, most public transport was delayed to some extent, and I ended up getting back to Mainz nearly two hours later than planned. Despite this, the day was fabulous and I'm glad I went.
On Saturday, I went to Wiesbaden to meet up with Joe. We walked around a bit, got some lunch, walked around some more, and then went to the American Army base. I had needed a few things, and Joe was gracious enough to help me out. It was weird being back in American culture like that. Hearing English be spoken all around me just felt wrong. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like when I get back to the US!
As most of you probably know by now, the World Cup championship game was Sunday. After a long day of homework, I met Matt at the Hbf, where we left to get some döner before the match. We made our way to Christian and Jan's place, and arrived just before the game started. Aside from Matt and I, there were 6 other Germans and 1 Argentinean there to watch the game. When the final whistle blew and the match was over, the atmosphere was electric. We all left the apartment and went into the streets, like nearly everyone else in Mainz. People just walked around screaming chants while wrapped in their Germany flags. I will truly never forget it.
The semester is coming to an end here. I've already taken one of my finals, and I've already turned in my final assignment for another class. Next week is the last week of courses/finals. I really can't believe that my time here is about to be over. I don't know where the time went. It makes me sad thinking about how I'll be going home soon, but such is life.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get my haircut. This will possibly be the biggest test of my German speaking abilities yet. I guess we'll see tomorrow if I succeeded or not!
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