Party in Cologne

I was so pumped for my day in Cologne. We were in Europe during the European World Cup and the German team was playing that night in the quarter finals, so the entire city was buzzing. When we first got to the city at about 10:00 am there were already bands playing and people cheering for the team.

Our first stop was the world famous Cologne Cathedral. It is a humongous church at the center of the city. An interesting thing that Lucas told us was that during world war 2 the entire city was demolished, except for this cathedral. This is odd because it is such a large and impressive structure that you think it’d be the first to go, but it remained unscathed. It got to the point that people began using it as a bomb shelter when air raids would happen. Theories for it not being attacked is the allies were using it as a landmark, so they could be sure they were bombing the city, and some people think it was spared simply because it was such a place of God and it was protected. I don’t know what it says about me, but I think the first theory is a little more realistic.

Then it was a girls day in the city because Caleb decided to branch off with other people. We began by trekking through the sea of people on the main strip. I can’t emphasize enough how many people there were, I felt like I was in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. So in order to keep from losing each other we linked arms and swerved around people. It became somewhat of an art form. We went in a bunch of shops and looked for things to wear that night for the soccer game. But then we stumbled along a huge LGBT festival. There were bands playing, food stands, and all kinds of political booths. They even had booths for the upcoming American election, they had very strong opinions about Donald Trump and this was before the primary even took place. I think they paid more attention to American politics than a lot of Americans.

Finally we decided it was time for lunch. We stopped at a little cafe and sat outside. It was a gorgeous day. We were absolutely starving so we each ordered our own individual pizzas with different toppings so we could share them. It was delicious, I think it was the best pizza I ever ate in my whole life and I’m not sure if it’s because I was dying of starvation or it was just that good. But it was nice to be seated outside so that we could people watch. By this time people were drinking for the game that night, so it was pretty easy to distinguish who those people were. They would be wearing their Deutschland jerseys, often have face paint on, and be walking in large groups laughing and cheering for the team. We could also differentiate a few people going to the LGBT fair because they would be dressed in flamboyant party clothes. So it was fun to see all these different people milling about the city. However there was one man who as I was trying to eat my beautiful pizza, walked by in a very short skirt. Now I have no problem with a man wearing a skirt, the only critique I have for his attire was that he could have used some underwear. And with that image, I concluded my day in the city of Cologne.