On a weekend in Cologne
Moi by Shernoh
First off, this is going to be an extremely picture-heavy post. Sorry to those of you out there with slow connection. Secondly, it'll be in English only...coz I couldn't be bothered with multiple languages at the moment. :-p
So, let's kick off!
I went to teach (snotty with cold and all) last Thursday morning with my luggage trailing behind me. After the lesson I went straight to Munich's main train station and got on the train without any further ado. As soon as I got on the train, I pulled out my Wollmeise yarn cake in "Amazonas" and started swatching for my next sock...(real knitting content and pictures will be interspersed in the post). I sat in my seat and knit for four and half hours solid...all the way to Cologne. I could feel the eyes on me...but nobody was brave enough to struck up a conversation with me or ask me about my knitting. *tsk*
I don't know what I was really expecting from this trip....I just wanted to get out of Munich and move on with my life (in the aspect of my relationship and all). I chatted with Frank the evening before to see when he and his friends are leaving for Cologne, since I didn't really want to bump into them on the train....well, they were leaving towards the evening so I was safe. :-p The thing that I was looking forward to in Cologne was to see the city and meet up with Belinda and J. True, I was going to meet up with Shernoh for the first time - I was staying at his place....and I looked forward to meeting him...however I really didn't know what to expect....but we'll get to that.
As we were approaching Cologne I sent a text to tell Shernoh that I was almost there. The train arrived on time (*gasp!*) in Cologne....I got out and there he was! Talking about precision! *LOL* I didn't tell him which carriage I was in, but it seemed he got it right anyway.
Still, no real impression of the guy, apart from "hi, you're nice, thanks for having me."
I took a quick look at the Cathedral of Cologne and we went down to catch the tube/tram to go drop my stuff off at Shernoh's place. That's where the fun started....
...I had to get a ticket for the public transportation in Cologne. Shernoh had no idea....so I ended up going to the counter. Anyway, I went up to the lady at the counter and greeted her with "Grüß Gott!" and I thanked her later with "Merci!"...both of which was such a give-away about being Bavarian. Shernoh remarked afterwards that the lady was beaming and unusually and exceptionally nice to me....and we just put it down at the fact that I was using Bavarian words whereas I wasn't even in Bavaria...and not that I look like a German, or a Bavarian at all. *LOL* (I knew it, I should've just worn my Janker there!).
The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful, since I was tired from the trip and also from having a cold. In the evening however, we met up with two of Shernoh's friends at a small café/bar. We all ended up having 2 Caipirinhas each....and golly! The cocktails there were cheap-o! I mean, the caipi cost EUR 4.50! That's the normal price!!! For Munich, that would've been the Happy Hour price...so, yeah, I ended up having actually two and a half glass of caipis, since Shernoh was well on his way after the first glass already! *LOL* So after that, we just went home to bed.
On Friday morning, we woke up to what seemed like a promising sunny day....which turned grey and wet in the afternoon.
I however woke up to what felt like someone had dropped a building on my whole body while I was sleeping. No, it wasn't the alcohol, but the cold. So, I spent most of the morning trying to revive myself and ransacking Shernoh's medical supply. I had to be tip-top on that day since I was going to meet up with J. and Belinda in the afternoon. Anyway, I felt better after having a shower....Marc, another friend from Cologne, rang me up to see whether I want to meet up for lunch...and there I went. Meeting up with Marc for the first time and had a quick lunch with him and some chit-chat.
After lunch, I asked Marc to take me over to Christophstrasse. I had a definite place in mind that I wanted to go to...and that was Maschenkunst, a knitting shop. I was all giddy, because the owner of Maschenkunst is Daniela Johannsenova, who also does the podcast Secret Knitting!
So I walked into the shop with Marc. There were only two ladies there, a younger one and an older one. The younger one greeted me and I, again, "Grüß Gott!" back. Without further ado, I just blurted out and asked whether she was Daniela...she said yes. I was sure I noticed some kind of recognition in her eyes. So, I went up to shake her hand and introduced myself saying that I listen to her podcast and came from Munich. She countered back with "Do you blog, too?" and I said "Yes!". Daniela went on, a bit more excited now: "I know your blog!!...Do you guys want some coffee?"...of course, both I and Marc took up the offer.
Poor Marc, he doesn't even knit and he got dragged into an LYS by me, sitting there having coffee and listen to knitting chit-chat. He actually was pulled into the conversation by the older lady there....That was such a display of the easy-going Klösch mentality. People just get into chit-chat with each other really easily.
Trekking pro natura & Colinette's Jitterbug
Anyway, I stayed there for about an hour or so fondling yarn and keeping myself from making such a splurge there....Daniela sure has yummy stuff in her shop! During the course of the conversation she actually mentioned that a lot of the people who come into her shop actually know my blog. Who are you guys??? Please, do de-lurk!!! Anyhow, by the end I couldn't hold out any longer and had to take something with me....it was a hard exercise already not to jump around the shop fondling all those yarn...so I guess I had to take something home with me.....
...I ended up buying myself a hank of Colinette's Jitterbug sock yarn in "Copperbeach" (#67). Then Daniela asked me whether I've ever knit with Bamboo-yarn. I said no...and what do you know? She offered me a skein of Zitron's "Trekking pro natura" to test-knit for her!!! How could I turn down such an offer? So, now that skein will be the next one to go on the needles as soon as I get one of my socks off the needles! *LOL* Tausend Dank noch mal, Daniela!!!!
Here are the details of both yarn on the right...aren't they just yummy?
J., moi & Belinda
After the visit to Maschenkunst, Marc took me to the Cologne's main station for me to meet up with Shernoh again and to meet up with J. and Belinda.
I was really anticipating this meeting since it was the first Expat-Blogger meeting I'd been to. I didn't know what to expect....heck, I didn't even know what J. looks like. Thank goodness I knew what Belinda looks like, so I was trying to spot her. As for my part, I decided to deck myself out with as much hand-knit items as possible. I was sure that Belinda would be able to spot me easily enough as a knitter. :-p
Moi and Shernoh
Anyway, I was actually able to spot both Belinda and J. before they spotted me. It was such a pleasure to have met them finally. I introduced them both to Shernoh and we made our way out of the station. It turned out that it was Belinda's very first time in Cologne, too! So, we popped into the Cathedral and had a look around before making our way to a café nearby.
I don't know how long we stayed...but then Belinda had to leave to catch her train home...and shortly afterwards, J. also had to leave.
We had such a great time talking about all sorts of things...although I kept steering my conversation back to knitting-related topics as soon as I turn to Belinda, much to the chagrin of both Shernoh and J. *LOL* But for that, Belinda got to fondle my new yarn from Maschenkunst. :-p
My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
Belinda also brought me a belated birthday gift. It was the German (translated) version of My Horizontal Life: A collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler. I'm halfway through the book now and find it absolutely hilarious. Thanks, Belinda!!!
On Saturday, the weather was nice and the forecast was saying that it was going to stay so. Thus, sightseeing it was to be.
Shernoh took me down to the Rhein-Promenade to have stroll along the Rhine. We then made a detour into the old part of Cologne around Martinsviertel and went to see the Church Groß St. Martin.
On the right is one of the statue in the church. The very first picture of this post of myself was taken by Shernoh in the church.
Afterwards, we headed over to the Cathedral where I was determined to climb the 509 steps up the 157.31 m tall spire of the south tower.
We got to the top and took a look around taking photos. There was quite a bit of people up there with us...I didn't expect anything else with the kind of weather we were having.
Afterwards, we took a walk through Cologne to Café Wahlen to meet up with the two friends of Shernoh that I've already met on my first night Cologne. The café was this old place full of either retired people or gays. It was a pretty funny mixture actually. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my knitting stuff with me that morning...I sure would've been such an eye-opener to sit there and knit in that café! *LOL*
We went to the shopping mile of Cologne (sorry, can't remember the name) and walked around looking at this and that. It was really fun going around with these three. :-)
On Sunday, we went to the Chocolate Museum. The place was pretty interesting actually, I particularly liked the part where you see how they produce all these chocolate bars/dolls.
Damien Rice Concert Ticket
Originally I was planning to come back to Munich on Sunday evening...but seeing as how things were developing, I just didn't want to come home at all. I was having such a good time in Cologne - not to mention in great company -, that I decided to stay on until Monday and to come back on Monday evening instead.
Now, Shernoh had been telling me that he was going to a concert on Sunday evening with his friends. We weren't sure about what I should do because I didn't have a ticket...apart from that I didn't really know the music of the musician. Sure, Shernoh played some for me already and I found it okay. The concert was that of Damien Rice. His friends tried to get me a ticket, but it was too late to book over the internet. We found out however that there were still tickets available at the concert itself. I was a bit worried about the fact that those tickets might have been sold-out by the time we got there, but I decided not to be a bad-sports and just went along anyway under the motto of: "I have my knitting with me, if it must be, I'll just go off somewhere and knit." *LOL*
We got there and there was this huge line of people quadruple-stretching around the building already. I was thinking "Oh, great" to myself. We all started walking down along the line when suddenly the others stopped and I backtracked them. They were talking to this one girl who was selling off her ticket at the normal price! So, I grabbed it. *heh* Yeah, so I went to a Damien Rice concert! *woohoo!*
I didn't know how popular the guy actually was until afterwards....and I have to say that the music really grew on me and last night I ended up buying both of his albums from iTunes.
Then suddenly Monday was again there....I knew that I had to leave in the evening...which made me feel pretty weird, because I just didn't want to leave. The day was glorious and sunny. A perfect Spring day.
Shernoh and I went out for a walk and took photos....the results of which are these last few photos. There are some really great shots of both myself and Shernoh as well as other stuff.
Anyway, we went to get some ice-cream after that. My first ice-cream in 2007! They have some really interesting flavours there. I had my usual fruity one, which was mango as well as two other unusual flavours: Rose and Chili-Chocolate. Both tasted wonderfully...but the chili-chocolate was hot!
Then the time for me to leave came and we made our ways to Cologne's main station. I always hate saying good-bye....especially this one. The five days I spent in Cologne was so wonderful that I can't really put it into words. It took me my whole concentration to keep some sort of smile on my face. Shernoh turned kind of quiet already on the way to the station...
Shernoh
...I held off long enough until the train actually moved off and I opened Shernoh's little gift to me that I ended up crying. The poor guy sitting next to me looked pretty concerned that I was bawling my eyes out....
The train was again on time (*gasp!*) and I got home without any hiccups. This thus concludes my first ever trip to Cologne....
@ Shernoh: Ich weiß echt nicht, wie ich Dir für das absolut wunderschöne Wochenende danken soll...aber ich glaube, Du weißt's ja selber. Es bleibt nichts anderes übrig als Dir noch mal so viel "Danke" zu sagen!!! Eine "zauberhafte Begegenung" halt, gel? Den Rest wissen wir ja schon.....*Meerschweinchen* ;-)
And now to the knitting content:
Wollmeise yarn cake: knitted up
Started: 08th March 2007
Finished: WIP
Yarn: Rohrspatz & Wollmeise superwash sock yarn, 100% wool; colourway "Amazonas" (Amazon)
Needle: 2.5 mm/ US #1-2 Addi Turbos (using MagicLoop method)
Pattern: Universal Toe-up Sock using Magic Cast-On
Yeah, that's all I got around to knit during my whole WE in Cologne....but hey, I had other things to do! I'm loving the colour and how it's knitting up...even with the pooling. I think that the pooling really makes the whole thing look like the Amazon itself! ;-)
Then there're the other two yarn cakes that I raced over to Bockstark Knits for on Wednesday to wind up before leaving for Cologne.
While I was typing this gargantuan entry in, my doorbell rang....and there came the postman with a package for me from Amazon.de in tow. I was thinking: "I didn't order anything from Amazon....did I?" The package was addressed to me though....so I opened it to find a green present.
A glimpse into the card revealed that it was a belated birthday present from a blog-friend of mine, Juneau. Opening up the package, and I got a book!
*Yay!!!!!!* Vielen Dank, Juneau!!!!
Well, guys, that's all I have to post now....it took me almost solid four hours to compose this whole entry up....so I seriouly need a break. Hope you had fun reading...and kudos to all those who actually made it to here. ;-) Have a great week!
Current Mood: Absolutely marvelously fantabulously great!!!
Food for the ears:
The Animals Were Gone
Damien Rice
Originally posted on elellanyar.vox.com