Made it to Köln

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25-9-2007 : local time 1125

So Ryan and I made it to cologne. Whee. So far so good.

We took a night train, and while i slept, somehow my passport and eurail pass dissapeared. Vanished. Poof, without a trace. I didnt realiye this until i was trying to check into a hostel. However, before writing this blog, i,ve already filled out the forms and printed off what i need to, and I plan to get to frankfurt to the U.S. Colsulate so that i may get an expidited passport service. I am also going to go back to the station tonight to file an official report with the police and train service.
I,m not really that bummed. It just means I have to take a train to frankfurt (i was going to go there anyways, right?) and pick get all the paperwork finished and notarized, etc.

by the way, sorry if the spelling is bad some days, the keyboards in germany are slightly different than what i,m used to (hence the comma instead of an apostrophe... can,t find the apostrophe!!)

Life during the past few days has been aleright.... I,ve lost my jacket and cap due to angry german securty guards, somehow misplaced my passport and eurail pass (even though they are only out my moneybelt when im showing them to the conductor or buying a ticket)
On the bright side, arriving in köln at 0630 and having very little sleep makes for a wonderful time all around - let me tell you! (no,,, really!) The cool air of the train station, stepping out and being greeted by perhaps one of the most beautiful gothic churches as the sun is rising... it really doesn,t get any better than that, does it?

I,m rather exciting - we got this guys number and email adress (met him in amsterdam, when he was on a school trip) and we are going to try to touch base with him and have him show us the good sights of Köln. Tomorrow or thursday we head to Aachen, and then to Berlin for a few days. Then ryan goes east and i head south.

So let me recap oktoberfest.

day 1; security guards, lost jacket, lost cap, kind of a bad day.
day 2; Much much better. met a lot of nice people, learned some good beer drinking songs
(oh proooooosit oh proooosit....) and ate some good ribs, some very good ribs.
Walked around and met some cute german girls. Rounded out the day with a campfire back at the tent where i played my ocarina while a guy played the guitar. A good duet, especially with drunk people singing along and clapping, and stomping out a rough rythym.

day 3; Good day, again - we checked out, dropped our bags off at the train station locker and went to the oktoberfest. Learned new drinking songs, and tried a variety of beers from all over germany (still, bavarian beer is the best - PaulAnder (7 of 10) Hoffenbrau (HB TENT REPRESENT! was wonderful. 9 of 10)

We ended up meeting aussies and crazy blokes from everywhere.

Things to remeber;
SCRIBE!

Things to share;
I need a shower, badly. I smell like dead hookers, feet and whiskey.
I,m so happy i went on this trip. I,ve gotta say - it,s the best time ive had in a long time.

Can,t wait to get to italy and spain.


okay, gonna try to upload picstures.

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Photos

köln church
0600 after sleeping poorly in an overnight train.... we step outside and see this!

Girlses
Some of the girls we met in the HB tent. Their names are written down somewhere.... they were very cool, we saw them for both days.

waiting for beer
5 hour wait for beer. we arrived at 730 - got a seat around 1030 and got beer around 1230. not a bad day. this was when we were waiting for the mayor to tap the keg so we could all drink. im on the left, ryan is on the right, mike is the other guy. the rest are the girls we drank with.