Trains, Teutonic, and Tupperware...

"Ein Mann ohne bauch ist ein Krüppel"

(A man without a stomach is a cripple)

- German Proverb

This past weekend I got to go visit my friends Niklas and Krys at their home university in Bonn, Germany. I will say that traveling by train is probably the worst form of transportation ever. I spent 12 hours, through the night, on the train. In the end it was definitely worth it. I am so glad that I was able to see them again.

Krys lives about 15 minutes outside of the city center, in Bornheim.
Niklas' eye was swollen for some reason so we took a lot of these super awkward photos of him trying to cover up his eye.

 Bonn was actually the capital city of West Germany from 1949 to 1990, and then the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999.  Today roughly half of all government jobs are still in Bonn.  Bonn is also on the Rhine River.

Also Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770 and lived their for the first 5 years of his life.  Apparently he lived in the house in the garden of the house on the left.  Also even more interesting is the fact that Germany has T.J. Maxx, except that they call in T.K. Maxx.

And then there was this weird statue on a house.  While in Bonn, I had the privilege of attending a Spanish class with Niklas.  It was very strange to attend a Spanish class taught in German.  Poor Niklas; he spoke to me in English, did the lessons in Spanish, the teacher spoke German, and his partner sometimes spoke French. The girl who Niklas was working with as partners leaned over and asked me why I was speaking English.  It was a very strange thing to be asked why you are speaking your native language, but I found that there are not exactly many tourists/Americans in Bonn.

This is the Bonn City Hall.  This building was built in 1737.  Many important people have visited this building including JFK, Jimmy Carter, and Nelson Mandela.  Then there is of course the very famous Krys, Niklas, and Erin.

After walking around Bonn, we went to a museum exhibition call, "The American Way in Germany."  I definitely thought the exhibit would be more negative than it turned out to be.  The one negative aspect of the exhibit was about the way that US went about denazification.  

 It was hilarious however to see how much Germany loved everything American with the height of American love being in the 80's and the introduction of the TV show Dallas.  On the left is Tupperware and on the right is apparently Germany's answer to Big Bird.

 Unfortunately this is the current American export to Germany, Abercrombie and Fitch and their shirtless models.

 The next morning Kate and Diana arrived at 7:00 AM.  It is amazing how long the day is when you get up that early.  We spent the morning walking around Bonn.

This box is a mini-library where people can take a book as long as they put a book in. 

The entire time we were in Bonn the weather was gorgeous and everything was GREEN! I loved seeing green again.  Copenhagen is still brown and dead, however Bonn had green grass, leaves on the trees, and flowers growing.

 The whole city was full of blooming magnolia trees, it is amazing how green can just make you feel refreshed.

 Whoever decided to plant these purple flowers underneath this magnolia tree was a genius.

 We then walked through the Bonn Botanical Gardens.

Apparently this tree is where we get brushes from.

And there was this awesome mini pineapple.

That afternoon we went to Cologne.  Cologne is Germany's fourth largest city.  Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities during WWII.  The bombing reduced the city's population by 95%.  The most famous sight in Cologne is the Cologne Cathedral.  The Cathedral is Germany's most visited landmark, on average 20,000 people visit a day.

Cologne also has a love locks bridge.  It is really cool to read some of the messages that people write on the locks.  Apparently these people had a love affair with a tractor.

 Niklas told me about the quote that I wrote at the beginning of the post.  Apparently it means that if you do not have a belly then you can't possibly be alive.  I think we were definitely alive on this trip.

We also were able to skype with the Saturday night dinner crew from last semester.  I don't know how she did it but Seonaid figured out all the time zones so that Marcos from Brazil, Triin from Estonia, Seonaid from New Zealand, and the three of us in Germany could all talk to each other.  It was just as crazy and chaotic as our dinners always were.

We had some time to kill and for some reason started doing Niklas' hair.  I don't think he could look any more pathetic.  I am actually surprised he did not start crying.  Luckily he believed me every time I said almost done, even though I was most definitely  not almost done.

 He then tried to braid Diana's hair.

 But once he got cookies he was fine again.

In the end these are the hairstyles that Niklas decided to give us.

In Cologne we went to this really cool hamburger place.  I was adventurous and got a burger with Gruyere cheese and cowberry jam.  It was actually really really good.

 On Saturday we went to a gigantic flea market.  We didn't even go through half of the market and we were there all day.

I found lederhosen!!!!! I wanted to try them on but Niklas didn't think that was a good idea.

The German gummy candy company "Haribo" is headquartered in Bonn.

I am not really sure why but there were multiple people selling dental tools at the flea market.  I do not really think I want to know what people do with these.

And then we rented a paddle boat!

 See Niklas' modeling isn't that weird, apparently real models also use this pose.

The next morning we went and toured Augustusburg Castle.  The castle was important after WWII because it was one of the only impressive buildings that was not bombed during the war, so it was used to welcome important guests.

I was so excited to get a photo when there wasn't anyone standing in front of the building, until Diana walked into my photo and wouldn't move.

 And then we ate more cake, and climbed a mountain.

We took a boat up the Rhine to the base of the mountain.  While on the boat we saw this ship.  It is used to comb through the bottom of the Rhine looking for bombs left from WWII.  I always need to remind myself how far removed I am, as an American, from WWII.  After the war, the civilian population of the U.S. moved on pretty quickly.  Here in Europe it is strange to see the war still affecting life.

There is a myth about the ruins at the top of the mountain.  Apparently Siegfried killed the dragon fafnir, who lived in a cave at the top of the mountain.  The mountain was named drachenfels, or Dragon's Rock.

There were donkeys at the bottom used to transport children up to the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately they realized that I was not a child.

This is Krys' boyfriend, Phillipe.  He made fun of us the entire time about eating cake and pastries, but as soon as he saw a crepe seller he had to buy one.

The view from the top was beautiful, even if we did need to basically crawl up the mountain it was so steep.

 I couldn't find any information on what this building actually is, but I do know that it was used as a Nazi training facility.

 And this is the house that I am going to buy and restore someday.  However I will buy a donkey to pull me up the the mountain, because there is no way that I could walk up and down the mountain every day.

I spent 1 euro to have this creepy dragon puppet tell me the legend of the dragon who got killed by Siegfried.  I made many children and Asian tourists happy with my 1 euro.  By the time the dragon was done talking the there was a huge crowd around the puppet.

Krys did not inform us of the tram that went up the mountain until we were at the top.

I tried my hardest to climb up this wall to see into the window but got scared of falling and so climbed back down.  Then Phillipe took about 2 graceful steps and was up there, effortlessly.

Ugh these two were so cute, it was actually quite disgusting.

See that tiny rock tower at the top of that mountain? Yeah, that is the ruin that we climbed to.

The last night Niklas and Krys mad us white asparagus with hollandaise sauce.  It was actually pretty good.  Then we had to look forward to another 12 hours on the train.  Our first train from Bonn to Cologne was delayed, so we barely made it on to our train, there was running involved, with suitcases.  You all know how I feel about running.

If anyone was confused by the title of this post, Teutonic is another name for the Germanic people. I was having difficulties coming up with another word that began with a "t" because I like alliteration. I asked my roommate, Morten, for help and that is what he came up with.  It was so nice to see Niklas and Krys again and I will get to see them one more time before I return home. They are coming back to Copenhagen at the end of May. It's sad to start thinking about doing things for the last time here. But before you all feel bad for me, I will tell you that tomorrow I leave for Russia! I am so excited/nervous. Going to Russia has been a lifelong dream of mine, I even took two semesters of Russian. This is however the first trip I am taking on my own. I fly to Helsinki, Finland tomorrow and then from there meet up with a tour group. From Helsinki we will take a boat overnight to St. Petersburg, where we will have 72 hours in St. Petersburg. Russia has a special agreement with cruise lines where people can enter St. Petersburg for 72 hours without a visa. So my next post will be of photos of me in Russia!