Trains...the devil's work

WARNING - The first paragraph may not be comprehensible and is full of malice…you can skip it if you want!

Oh *&%$…what a day. I’m tired and just ready to sleep but I still have a train ride to London and then I have to figure out how to get to Notting Hill…I’ve been traveling for about 15 hours now. That includes a train that was 70 minutes late from Cologne, a missed train in Brussels that then required a 3 hours wait for a train to a place that was half an hour away…once there I ran to catch a train to Calais and then once in Calais, I paid for a cab because I didn’t want to miss a boat that ended up being not for foot passengers anyway. Oh, and the bloody UK passport officials that took half an hour to decide to stamp my passport because of my lack of ticket out of their stupid country (I don‘t want to stay in your expensive and snotty country anyway!). An hour and a half on the boat from Calais to Dover and then I get to Dover only to find that the last bus left ten minutes before I got there…so I try to take the bus that goes to the train station…oh but I forgot to change money so I don’t have any pounds and therefore must make the 20 minute trek on foot to the train station…at least I made the train….*sigh* Next time I fly…

The past week or so has been packed full of fun things though! I must repeat, I love Germany! When we last met, I was still in Gottingen. From Gottingen I made my way to the tiny town of Salzgitter. The ride to Salzgitter was uneventful. I got lucky with a bus and ended up at the right street where my host lived. Unfortunately my phone didn’t have service in the middle of nowhere, so I sat by his door for an hour while he sat at the train station for an hour waiting for me! You may be wondering why I was in Salzgitter (and I was wondering the same thing at points). This is where my a cappella obsession comes into the picture. For my one night in Salzgitte, I sat in the front row of an a cappella concert put on by Maybebop, a German a cappella group that I’d heard of in America. It was Amazing. So was my host Nyamkhuu. He returned from his break in Berlin to host me!

From Salzgitter I headed to Hamburg. Hamburg…great people, not the most amazingly interesting city. Although I did try to see it all in one day. I spent my first night in Hamburg with the Hamburg couch surfing group. We met up at a really chill bar with couches everywhere. I’m convinced that Hamburg deserves a second chance at some point when I can spend a little more time! I saw a nice rendition of La Traviata at the Hamburg Opera house on my second night. I also spent some time envisioning the Hamburg Philharmonie building that looks amazing on paper, but may never actually be finished.

On to Cologne I went! I have to say, and I mean no offense to all of my wonderful hosts so far, but I think I had the most fun with Maria and Florian! Maria and Florian met through couch surfing and got married soon after! (Don’t worry Mom! I’m not really looking…too hard) On my first night we went out to a Brewery and had some Kolsh, which is the local beer of Cologne and played some Skat! I was worldly though and I had already had some in Leipzig with David! The next morning, Maria and I started out on my tour of Cologne. It was raining lightly, so we brought umbrellas as we made our way to the Kolner Dom. Cologne’s Cathedral is either the biggest in Germany or Europe…I forget. I have to honestly admit that I enjoyed the Berliner Dom and lot more. The Kolner Dom is just a little too Gothic and dark and cold for me. And then have a modern stain glass window which sort of ruins the mood…haha! Upon leaving the Dom, we made our way to the Lintz Chocolate Museum with some stops at a few more churches along the way. All I have to say is Yum. This is where things got interesting. While we were inside the delectable museum, someone pissed off the weather gods…we walked out into a gale of snow/slush. It was like walking into a cold, horizontal shower. Needless to say, we quickly made our way to the nearest tram and headed home to a warm and dry flat. The night was spent playing with cats, watching Underworld and eating delicious pizza. Such a great couple!

This brings us to the end of this episode of the Klilight Zone…I’m almost to London and tomorrow will be a better day!

Peace

P.S. - Oh yeah, my next stop is Dublin to see my friend Liz…that’s the only reason I even made the trek through the UK.