Prost to Germany!! - Cologne

I have been back from Germany for 2 weeks and have neglected to update my blog. So I will start with my adventures in Cologne, a very beautiful city!! We flew into Frankfurt to discover that our rental car had been upgraded to a Mercedes.... which was awesome! I'm not old enough to drive it, but I looked pretty cool riding in the backseat on the Autoban. The Autoban is pretty much the best invention ever because there is no speed limit, so we had fun testing just how fast our Mercedes can go.

Our first stop was Cologne, which we drove to right away. And the most exciting part? It was raining!! I haven't experienced rain or cold in 3 1/2 months, so I was pretty stoked. I was even wearing a winter coat, and had to go to H&M the next day to buy boots, a scart, a hat, and gloves. It was awesome. Germany is.... EXTREMELY diferent from Egypt. There are rules, there is no trash everywhere, it's green, and it's much more liberal. Meaning that no one stared at me for showing my hair or elbows, and you don't have to search hard to find a bar. That's pretty much the first thing we did in Cologne, go to the nearest pub. We ordered sausage and potato salad which was to die for. And German beer? Well, it puts the Stella that I'm forced to drink in Egypt to shame. It's so good. Better than anything I've had before. We ended up meeting cool people and staying out until almost 1 AM, which is pretty early. But we were all tired from traveling all day. So we headed back to our hostel.

The hostel in Cologne was very nice. We ended up staying in mixed rooms everywhere with men, but luckily these men didn't snore thoughout the night!! The next day, we got up early to go exploring. We took the trolley and the subway to the center of the city. Germany also has amazing public transportation, very clean and efficient. We went to the largest cathedral in Europe, and walked up 509, yes 509, steps to the top of the building to see views of the city. I'm not good with heights, and and one point I almost backed out because it was raining, the steps were slippery, and I could see below me and how high I was. But, I conquered my fear and kept wealking to the top. I couldn't turn back after how far I had come, and I hate letting my fears win. The trip back down the steps was also interesting because it was a spiral staircase structure, and I kept having to stop because I was getting dizzy and disoriented. But overall, it was an amazing workout and we had awesome views from the top. (I think my two new favorite words are "amazing" and "awesome.")

It was raining the whole time we were in Cologne, so we decided to take a bus trip around the city because walking was miserable. So we got some Dunkin' Donuts Coffee (something else that is not in Egypt) to warm up, and sat in a bus for an hour and half to see the rest of the sights of Cologne before driving to Berlin.

I decided right away that I love Germany. In some areas, it looks similar to driving in parts of Wisconsin with the tall trees and the beautiful green grass. I miss things that are green. The air was also clean along with everything else. Cologne was an amazing city and somewhere I'd like to live or spend a longer period of time one day. The people were nice, and I was overall in a state of bliss and happiness the whole time. I love Cairo, but it has a way of consuming you and becoming very... what's the word... irritating? Arab and Egyptian thinking is sometimes very backwards to me as a Westerner. I have learned not to question why things are the way they are here anymore because it just makes me more frustrated at times. But in Germany, things made sense to me. So my point is that it was nice to get away from Cairo for a while and experience a part of Europe for the first time.

On a side note, it is Election Day in Cairo and I have a day off of school for it! It's not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. Mubarak's policemen are on the street with their guns and protection and whatnot, but other than that nothing is out of the ordinary. I can't read the election signs anyway, so I honestly don't know a lot about it. And what I do know probably shouldn't be published on my blog.

So that is what I did in Cologne. I also went to Berlin, Munich, and the Black Forest in Baden-Baden along with seeing the Alps and a beautiful castle. But I will write about that later as my laptop is dying and no one wants to read a blog entry that is 20 pages long. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone as well! I hope you all had extra mashed potatoes, turkey and lefse for me as there is no Thanksgiving in Egypt. It was probably the most depressing 2 days I've had here, but my friends made it better. My Thanksgiving meal consisted of chicken shawerma and pashed potatoes. And me bitching about how I wish I was home! (Excuse my language). More on Germany later! Prost! (Which means cheers in German, always a good word in know).