Thursday, December 27, 2007

Prague Christmas

In Prague right now with my family doing some Christmas travels.. Having a blast, seeing some new places and having a great time. Good to hang out with the family as well as travel, two things of which I have not done much of in the past few months while attending cooking school in Erfurt.

We were in Berlin for a few days, my first time there. Saw most of the main sights, several museums and went to a couple Christmas markets. Erfurt is still my favorite Christmas market, and serves the best spiced wine, Gluhwein.

Off to Czesky Krumlov, a cool historic small town in the south of the Czech Republic tomorrow. Let the adventure continue.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Kwanza.

Cheers.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Leipzig

Thomaskirche and Bach statue
Reggie and I with half meter long Bratwursts

Battle of the Nations Monument


This weekend I went to Leipzig, checking another city off my list. The city is huge and feels like an Eastern German city with the huge block houses and buildings built to symbolize strength, meaning that they are ugly as hell and big concrete blobs.




Highlights of the city include the awesome Baroque Nikolaikirche where peace prayers in the late 1980s helped join the two countries together again. The Contemorary History Museum, which is free and huge, shows the history of the last century, focusing on life in East Germany. Turns out the city of Chemnitz was called Karl Marx City during this time period.



Outside of the Thomaskirche, was a huge statue of Bach, who had played numerous time as the church organist there. The best part of the statue is that his pockets were turned out as he always claimed to never have money, having 20 kids with two women.



The Battle of Nations Monument, outside of the city, remembers the 100,000 soliders who died in the decisive 1813 battle victory over Napoleon’s army. The monument is 91 meters high, and very impressive with a large lake in front of it. To compare it to the Washington Monument in DC, something similar in a huge monument with water nearby, this monemnt was much more impressive. Gigantic and with amazing carvings on the stone when you get up close.



At the Christmas market, I got to try my first mug of grog, which tasted horrible, basically just hot alcohol. I also had a half meter long bratwurst which was awesome. The Christmas Market is huge and sprawling, taking over most of the city streets, and was packed with people the entire weekend.




Another interesting thing about Leipzig is that when you rent an apartment, it is often just the walls, with no kitchen and such. People have to put in their own oven etc. as well as the counters and sometimes even the floor. The buildings would often just have concrete floors and it would be up to the people to fill them in. its changed a bit now which the flooring having been put and left in, but I was in two places where the people had to put in their own kitchens.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Nürnberg Christmas Market


After the pig slaughter on Saturday, I went to Nürnberg on Sunday through Monday morning to visit a friend from college and to see the famous Christmas Market there. The city is a lot bigger than Erfurt and was packed with people at the market. Shannon and I did all the toursity things from seeing the controversial marriage statue (first love till death do us part), the main churches, the tortue chambers under the town hall and a couple small bridges. The castle on the hill is amazing with a great view of the city and all the rooftops.


One of the best parts about the city is the city wall which is still intact and surrounding the downtown part. Lots of stands selling everything from the local sausages, to local giingerbread cookies, to everything. It was a great trip to a fun city, highly recommended, even for a short period of time.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Slaughter of a Pig


I got to participate in my first pig slaughter on Saturday. A friend of mine’s parents slaughter a pig every December after buying it 13 months earlier. They just got a baby pig weighing 20 kilograms and the one that was slaughtered was 250 kilos, which multiply by 2.2 is a lot of pounds.

I arrived at 7am via a local train, having missed the killing of the pig by a half hour. The pig was lying on a raised stretcher and was being scrubbed clean when I got there. The blood had been drained (and saved for the Bloodwurst to be made later on) so when the pig was stood up and then cut open, it wasn’t as blody as the last couple of weeks in cooking school seminars on wild game and meat.

After having the local Veteranarian come to make sure the meat was healthy, the local butcher started cutting up the pig into different parts. The bones, head and legs were boiled, making a stock, while the meat was separted into different parts, for bacon, schnitzels, cutlets, and the rest for sausages. We made Leberwurst from the liver, Blutwurst from the lungs and miscilanous meat and then bratwursts from the good meat. Used the intestines and bladder to stuff the sausages, making 115 bratwursts which was a hell of a lot.

The whole day we ate fresh meat off and on, both cooked and uncooked. Being with people from a small town who do this every year, they made sure I tried everything. To offset the amount of meat, we drank schnapps on and off the whole day, part of the slaughtering tradition. At one point when mixing the Hackfleisch (ground pork with spices that can be eaten raw) myself and Marcus, a cousin of my friend, had to take several shots of schnapps after each time of mixing the meat from one side to another. Got to love the traditions.

We finished off the day eating fresh liver, Hackfleisch and other types of meat such as wild boar and deer that they also had, along with more schnapps. Quite an adventure from very early on until late. And I got to take home some stock, sausages and ground pork, not too shabby eh?

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Hobbys

So with the days getting darker and colder, I figured it was time to start up some new hobbies. Yesterday I got the supplies for two of them. The first, a melodica, the classic kids toy. Basically a small piano flute, quite entertaining to me, and perhaps a little annoying to others. The second is a paint set, which I got a the Euro shop. A canvas, 6 acrylic paints and brushes all for 3 Euros.
I bought the melodica at a large flea market where they were selling everything from bier steins to DVDs to old Nazi paraphernalia. For 35 Euros I could’ve bought an ashtray with a swastika and Hitler’s face on it. The swastika had a sticker over it as it’s not a very popular symbol these days. There was also old clothes and weapons from WWII, such as a machine gun, things that normally wouldn’t be at a flea market in America.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Exploding Pumpkins


So this is what I found when I entered my kitchen after hearing a bang in there. I'd been trying to bake a squash that I'd bought, and it had a really hard shell so I was baking it for quite a while. It wasn't getting any softer so I gave it another couple minutes after already an hour and a half, and then boom, it exploded, bursting open the oven door and sending seeds and crap all over the floor. Quite exciting.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wild Boar and Deer Tuesday

So yesterday, we had the lovely pleasure of having the opportunity to skin a whole wild boar and two small deer. Part of our Game Seminar. Interesting to hang up a dead animal without its inside organs, but everything else there. Our chef showed us how to cut the skin off and then we all got to try it. I wont go into details, but it wasnt the prettiest or nicest thing that Ive done, but it was good to see and learn how to do it, in case it comes up again in my cooking career.

Today, Wednesday, we will skin wild rabbits. The Germans dont waste too much with these animals, composting the hide, using the bones for stock and the meat to be for goulasch and other dishes.

On a happier note, I get to go to Leipzig tomorrow to meat with the American Generalconsolate, and talk about our expieriences in Germany. Should be good to get away from all the meat.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Christmas Market, Snow and Dead Animals

Three new things happened in Erfurt yesterday the 126th of November. One: the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market, with tons of stands selling everything from crafts, to spiced wine, to candy) opened. Two: I started a seminar on game (rabbits, pheasants, wild pigs etc) and got to watch a lovely video about how to cut up a recently shot animal. Three: it started to snow (had happened on and off most days) and actually stayed on the ground. The photo above shows two of the things, snow and the Weihnachtsmarkt, and if there was a dead animals carcass on the street, then I would be able to show all 3 things.

So the Weihnachtsmarkt, which is something typical of most German cities is awesome. Big festival, that goes on up until a few days before Christmas. Well known markets include, Erfurt, Nuremburg, Dresden and Berlin. This is the 157th annual market in Erfurt, and it has taken over the whole city. There are stands all over the city, giving the place a Christmas atmosphere. People come out of the woodwork for the market. The city expects almost 2 million people to attend this years market.

“Wednesday will not be pretty and it’s going to be bloody, but so is having a baby” said our head chef today describing how on Wednesday during the Game Seminar, we will get nice and bloody cutting up rabbits. Nice warning. He also said that if heard a cell phone go off, he would be happy to put it under water so it wouldn’t be so loud and disturbing. Quite a character.

Cobblestones get mighty slippery with snow. Something I figured out last night as the snow stuck. The snow is awesome, and it fit great with the start of our Christmas season. Lots of people out and about, drinking Gluhwein (spiced wine) and browsing the many shops. A great atmosphere, although a little on the cold side.




Thursday, November 22, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This is what my Thanksgiving meal is going to look like. Me cutting the fillets off the fish body after scraping off the scales. Then I'll cut off the skin and make an awesome meal out of fish. No Turkey for me this Thanksgiving.
Yesterday at the fish seminar we make a salmon puree and used that as the stuffing for our Scholle fish fillets. Rolled the fillets around the puree and then poached the fish, serving it on a bed of leek and tomatoes surrounded by pasta covered in a sauce made from cooking off the bones, heads and other parts of the fish that aren't useable. Quite a tasty meal and I look forward to eating something similar today on Thanksgiving.

To everyone in America, eat a turkey for a me.

Monday, November 19, 2007

From baking to fishing

Last week, the baking seminar was awesome. Making pies, strudels, cookies, cakes, eclairs and souffles, and then getting to eat them and take some home. Very tasty throughout the week.
This week is another fish seminar, not quite as enticing, but interesting nonetheless. Im looking forward to skinning more fish, cutting up fillets and then steaming, sauteeing, frying, poaching and baking fish. Cant wait.

Another soccer filled weekend with Germany winning 4-0 over Cyprus, attending the loss of our local team Rot Weiss Erfurt (Red and White Erfurt), and then playing soccer with several friends in a pickup game against some young teenagers who we whooped.

No snow flurries for the past few days, although still just as cold. The Christmas market opens next week so everyone is getting excited, with the streets decorated and Christmas trees popping up all over.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Snow and baking


So this morning I woke up to snow flurries out my window. It went on for an hour and then was sunny for several hours. And it is now snowing again while I type this. Not sticking to the ground yet, but should soon I think. Pretty awesome.


This week I'm having a baking seminar. Yesterday we worked on yeast dough, making an awesome Apple Strudel and a fancy, twisted loaf of bread (half of it shown above, after being mostly eaten). The loaf was simple, simply roll out 3 rolls of dough, and then braid them together, pinch the ends so it doesn't come apart, brush with egg wash so it shines and then bake for a half hour at 160 degrees celsius.
On a side note, it is my sister's Birthday today, so a big Happy Birthday und Viel Glück zum Geburtstag to her!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

I'm famous

What sort of face do you make when they decide to name a street after you, and then mis-spell your last name?

Weather

Cold. The weather is cold here. On Saturday for Martini is was in the negative degrees, celsius of course. The average high is about 5 degrees here, not including the wind chill effect. And for the past several days we have had some lovely rain in Erfurt. Friends in Dresden and Berlin have seen snow flurries.

On Sunday I explored a castle amidst a rainstorm and wind. Quite entertaining until the feet got wet. And later at a festive music concert (direct translation) in a nearby church, it was freezing. I could see heaters, but they definitely were not on. Everyone was still in their coats and if you breathed hard enough, you could see your breath.

On a side note, after over 3 months in Germany, I just found an extra sock. Looks like one of mine, but does not have a match and Im not missing any pairs. Strange. With the next 9 months, I hope to somehow find another one to match it.

Monday, November 12, 2007

St. Martins Day aka Martini




November 10 is St. Martin's day, and Erfurt holds an annual festival in celebration of St. Martin, their patron saint, as well as their beloved Protestant "saint" and namesake, Martin Luther. Everyone goes down to the Domplatz (Cathedral Square) carrying lanterns, drinking warm spiced wine (Glühwein) and eating the special pastries, Martinshörchen, which were awesome. Very festive event at the market on the square, with a band playing German music.

Then on the steps to the cathedral began a play in which Martin Luther and St Martin came down from the cathedral and spoke to everyone. Gotta love actors. Gave some good messages to take away, most of which I didnt fully understand. And then St. Maria came down as well and started talking, asking the people to raise their lanterns, which was pretty cool to see all of the lights together. Apparently later on, the kids can go door to door with their lanterns and get candy, just like Halloween, but in a more religious way.
After the ceremony, we went to a traditional restaurant to eat Martins Ganz, a specially cooked goose. A special meal on St. Martins day every year, but not available at the market with the pastries and other goodies. Quite delicious, although a big on the fatty side. Lots of people were at the restaurant coming from the celebration so it was a lively time.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Dresden part 2

On my last day in Dresden I went to the German Hygiene Museum. Quite an interesting experience. It may seem like it would be all about hygiene, but it was more about health, the body and life. The special exhibit for the next few months is all about death, with hundreds of artists portraying death with real bodies, pictures, videos and stories. Varying opinions and beliefs on death, many provoking discussion between tour groups.

Upstairs in the permanent section is Germany's first transparent man, allowing everyone to see inside the body, to the organs and such. Lots of info on how the body works. Pretty cool stuff. Covered eating, drinking, touching, aka, the senses. Another room was all about sex, another about the brain. For only 3 Euros, it was a steal for a couple hours on a cold, rainy day in Dresden.


The Hygiene Museum is located in the central park of Dresden, which houses the soccer team's stadium, a botanical garden, a VW plant, tons of walking paths as well as an awesome palace.

Dresden Park Palace

Germans and garlic

Germans use barely any garlic over here. I keep telling my chefs to use more garlic but then out comes the lecture about how people at work don't want to smell garlic on other people's breathe. So we can't use that much for the lunches we serve.
I countered with if everyone ate the same, with lots of garlic, then there would be no problem as everyone would be in the same boat. Herr Keitel said that it's like going to the dentist and having the dentist reek of garlic. I said that it would be just another reason to hate going to the dentist.
My friend Eliza had her neighbor in her apartment building knock on her door to tell her that she was using too much garlic. Seems to be a touchy issue over here, so I'll keep using as much garlic as I like to balance out the system.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Dresden

Dresden Semper Opera House


I'm in Dresden now, visiting a couple of friends in my program. 75 of us all over German and I can pretty much just crash on the couch in most of the large cities in Germany which is great.

Dresden is much bigger than Erfurt. Got a lot more sites to see, from the famous Frauenkirche, to a huge palace full of musuems, to the Semp Opera House. Lot's of cool touristy things to see, but also some smaller off the normal path places as well.
Eliza and I in front of the Frauenkirche. We're small because all Germans back up to take photos.



I got away from the touristy side of Dresden and went exploring with my friends in the older part of town, finding a shop full of every type of mustard possible, from strawberry to fig to rosemary. Got to try a bunch, and most were quite good. Garlic was my favorite. Next door was a shop selling intricate German carvings that were selling for over 600 Euros. And the next shop dubs itself as the most beautiful milkery in the world. Praising the cow would be an understatement. For a lactose intolerant person, it was even interesting, but I passed on buying any cheese or homemade milk.





Dresden at night is amazing, with all of the lights reflecting off the Elbe River. The streets are well lit and already have a lot of Christmas lights up preparing for the large Christmas Market that will open soon.

I took the train here, but will be going back with my old roomates from my first apartment in Erfurt. Both of them live in the area and were home for the weekend, and one of them is driving back and offered to pick us up. Looking forward to my first trip on the Autobahn, zipping along towards Erfurt.

German fall festivities


In the Botanical Gardens in Erfurt, they dressed up pumpkins as fairy tale characters. Ingenious and something that should happen in the states. Ideas for next year.
Rumpelstilzchen

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves


Hansel and Gretel






Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Happy Halloween

The Red Sox won the World Series, Germany's clocks turned back an hour and I played soccer with a group of Lithuanian friends since I last wrote.
Always something goingn on here in town which is nice. Harry Potter came out in German on Friday and there were several parties for it. Only a few months late. The translators need to sspeed things up. Next week is teh TV premier of the movie Hitch, which I saw in Spring 2005, in Australia. Little bit behind on things. For the past few Sundays Ive been watching the night movie with my old roomate, Franzi. Good to watch American movies, hear German and have more opportunities to speak German, especially with someone who speaks some English.
Tomorrow is a German holiday, Reformations Day. Not sure what is is all about, but there is no work, most shops are closed like Sundays, and people get to sleep in and then party with family and friends.
Hope someone reading this goes Trick or Treating tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

More cooking school: Seafood seminars

This week, my third at my cooking school, I again started with a new class, but this time not in the kitchen.
Everyday Im in a seminar with a class of older students, learning this week about fish and seafood. Yesterday we learned about a lot of types of fish, both salt and fresh water (which they call sweet water} fish. Then we went to the learning kitchen, where at every cooking station there are 2 people. We got to cut up fillets of salmon and make a sauce using the leftover body parts, including the head. Good practice for a cheaper way to buy fish.

Today was awesome. We had a demonstation on crustaceans: lobsters, crayfish, prawns. All live and squirming in their boxes while we examined them, before tossing them into boiling hot water, with several students saying Im sorry, in German. After they were cooked (12 minutes for a 500 gram lobster] the head chef showed us how to cut them up and different ways to serve them.

After crustaceans came some more fish, this time to be used for sushi. The sushi seminar was sweet as we got to use lots of veggies and types of fish, before then tasting our creations. Mine looked damn good, and the chef said that it was the best, as it showed exactly what was in it, when cut open.

So Ill be in a new class for this week, learning more about fish. No clue what next week brings, perhaps another class, or more seminars.

And I should say Im sorry for not stopping 3 lobsters and many other creatures from dying in boiling hot, spiced water, but it was in the name of education.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Monday, October 15, 2007

Cooking School week 2

Things are going well in class and I know my way around the kitchen pretty well already. But of course there are going to be things that I mess up on due to the language. For instance today, when the Chef Marquadt told me to put the egg white aside and the yolk in the batter, I put the egg whites in the batter and set the yolks aside. Luckily, the chickens in Germany produce a lot of eggs, so no harm done.
I try to practice saying words that I have learned. Today for instance after hearing the word for brush, I repeated it, and was then given the brush by the student. I guess that means I was correct.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Weimar Zwiebelmarkt



Weimar, home of so many important figures in Germany, from Goethe to Schilling, is also the home of a very large onion festival held every Oktober. I went with my German roommate Franzi, and some other international students from the Uni.



It was like a lot of German festivals, with beer tents, lots of food vendors (with lots of onion products), booths selling random things from onion puppets to cookware. Tons of people. It was packed and was hard to move around with the crowd. The fact that they had a 10k race as well going through the city closing off streets, made it even harder.




The best onion food is definitely the Zweibelkuchen: onion cake. There are several variations and we had two of them. One, a cake bread base with spiced onions on top. The other was more of an onion quiche and more filling. The customary drink with Zweibelkuchen is Federweisser, a sweet white wine that is still fermenting in the bottle. It is only available for a couple months out of the year, from August to Okotber normally. It tastes like an alcoholic lemonade, and is very popular in Germany. I don’t think that is available in the States, but it may be with a different name. The grapes used are leftover grapes that aren’t good enough for their high quality wines, but are perfect for a product that still ferments while sitting in the bottles with a loose cap. A cork would cause the bottle to explode with the fermentation in it.





Myself with Franzi my German roomate and Paige, a fellow American, eating Zweibelkuchen with Federweisser




In Weimar, my friend Paige, a person in my program living in Hamburg, met up with us. She had studied in Weimar for 2 summers and knew a lot of the city and was our tour guide. Saw Goethe’s garden house in the amazing Ulm Park. Lots of cool buildings including the amazing Elephant House, the best hotel in town where Hitler came to and spoke on the front balcony.





Weimar was a great city. I like it more that Erfurt. Lots of history, a great park, interesting buildings all over and although smaller, it seemed like there were more areas to go to. I plan on making several trips there as it is less that 5 Euros by train round trip. Perhaps I’ll look for an internship in a restaurant there.





And back to onion and vegetables, lot’s of onion garnishes and decorations at all the stands. But the best thing I saw was actually a garlic schnapps. Surprisingly quite tasty, although the girls said my breathe was horrible afterwards. Definitely something unique to the onion festival.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Cooking school day 1

I just had my first day of class today at the cooking school. My day is from 7:30 until about 3pm, quite long compared to the other people in my program who have one or two classes a day. It was longer than expected, but for most of today I was cooking or preparing food. After getting suited up in the typical chef outfit, consisting from the hat, to the jacket to the checkered pants, I got a tour of the kitchen, with lots of appliances and things I have not worked with before so it will be good to learn to use those.
There are about 15 other people in my class right now, who were in the main kitchen doing the cooking. I think I am going into a different class next week as this one as a two week fall break starting next week. It would be nice to have the break right at the start, but I should be in a class that fits me better.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Erfurt


On Tuesday, Oktober 2nd, 2007, I moved to Erfurt, my new home for the next ten months. I'll be going to the Erfurt Gastro Berufsbildungswerk, in other words a well respected cooking school. The people from my program have said it is a great cooking school and is hard to get into. I must thank the German government for that.

The countryside changed a lot leaving Köln. From the big city with a huge river, to lots of open fields, grass, trees, some hills and not a heck of a lot. They call Thüringen, my state, the green heart of Deutschland. Great for hiking and relaxing and it is a popular spot for German tourists to come. A little bit of a change for me from the city of Köln, but it looks to be a great place.

Erfurt is dominated by its huge cathedral and church, sitting together on top of a hill looking over the city. I go from one amazing cathedral in Köln to two amazing relgious buildings at the heart of the city. There are lots of cool buildings throughout Erfurt, and the facades on most buildings are picture worthy. They have the longest bridge in Europe with houses on both sides so it doesnt seem like you are on a bridge. It is called the Merchants Bridge as it used to have only shops along it.

My apartment is near the train station and is on the small and dirty side. But that should soon be changed as next week Ill be moving upstairs to a new, bigger room. Im hoping it will be a little bit cleaner. Its a good location and close to everything in the city. There is a bar/cafe downstairs and a kebab place next door. So far I havent seen a roomate yet, but he is rumored to exist. And I might be getting another one today.

I have a meeting with my cooking school today. Ill find out when my classes will start, perhaps tomorrow, and what subjects Ill be taking. I should be placed with a tutor, someone to show me around the school and help me get started there. The program helps out a lot and makes it easier for people to move to new cities without being too alone.

Ill get pictures up soon. I have to figure it out as Im on a different computer now, a German keyboard with lots of things out of place, so my punctuation might not be as good as normal.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Lille, France

As I only had a few days left in the western part of Germany, I traveled to France because it is close and I hadn't been there yet on this trip. I went with my friend Paige to Lille, France where we stayed with some friends we know through couch surfing. It was an amazing time with some great people who quickly became good friends. Speaking English, German and me butchering French, we got along great. My French, in which I have no experience, got a little better, since with nothing to start with other than wee, as I now know several words.

It was raining most of the time we were there, but we got a good tour by Antoine and Fred, from Paris came along as well. Pretty cool place with awesome buildings, lots of people shopping and a hilarious fitness demonstation put on by one man on a stage in the rain. Just working out and doing aerobics by himself with everyone laughing at him. Quite entertaining.

Back at the apartment after a stop at a great microbrewery, Fred, the master chef, chef number one as he called himself, cooked up a tasty omlette and pasta. It took quite a while, but was well worth it as we watched the Simpsons in French before going out to the student area where the bars were. The French in this area love their French and Belgish beers. A nice change from the great German beer which can only have wheat, water, hops and barley due to a purity law.
It was a late, fun night, ending with Beatles songs back at the aparment.

The next mornign after a great French breakfast with lots of pastries, we got a ride back to the train station to go back after just a short trip. The GPS navigator in Fred's car used Yoda's voice: Bear right, you must after 300 meters. Hilarious and the best way to travel.
I have just another day left in Cologne, leaving Tuesday morning. Time's almost up. But I'll be going to Aachen tomorrow to see even more of the local area.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Deutsche Polizei Cars

Yesterday, outside the Cathedral, there was a car show for old German police cars. While many of them were amazing, the highlight was definitely a remote control kid car that a real dog was riding. I've attached a video in which you can see the dog in uniform move at the end. He was just going around through the crowd beeping his siren and cruising. You have to love the Germans.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Language School


So as I come to the end of my time in Cologne, I'd like to say that my language school was awesome. Highly recommended. Carl Duisberg Centre. We've been hanging out with the staff all the time and yesterday played soccer and threw the frisbee around for several hours in the park at a grill party (that is actual German : Grill party, as grillen is a word).

My class has been sweet. From the start where I went to the wrong class to now, I've had a great class. Fredrick from Kenya, Misbaudeen from Nigeria, Anisa from Albania, Dagnachew from Ethiopia, Professor Yutaka from Japan and even Nathan in a different program from the US are some of the people from class who are quite memorable.

The whole class jokes around, loves to argue and has several inside sayings. Whenever someone comes late, we all tell the person to come punctually (Kommen Sie bitte Punktlich!). I'll miss the class.

Veran from India, Fredrick from Kenya and Anisa from Albania



And now I have just one week left in Cologne. Kinda of sad to leave as it's been a fun place to live and has become another home for me. But I'm off to Erfurt early next week to start cooking school. Still haven't chosen the exact date of departure as I hope to do some traveling in between.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Rhein in Flames


On Saturday in the small town of St. Goar there was a wine festival and fireworks over the Rhein. Nothing like tasting some amazing wines from the region and then watching an hour long firework spectacle over the largest river in Germany. The best part about the fireworks is that they had three locations, a castle in St. Goar, a barge and then in the town across the river, St. Goarhausen, there was another castle that set off fireworks.

One of my favorite wines so far has been the Federweisser, which in english means White Feather. This is a wine that is not fully done fermenting. The wineries use grapes that can't be used for their top quality wines, and then make this wine, selling it while it is still fermenting with yeast floating around, hence the white feather. It's really tasty, tasting like lemonade on the first day you drink it and getting stronger every day after it has been opened.



In this video you can see the outline of the castle in St. Goarhausen on the hill above the Rhein.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Germany vs. Romania : Fussball!




So on the 12th, I got to see my first international soccer game. The German national team played Romania in Cologne in front of 44,500 people. It was amazing. So much energy in the air as German won 3-1.



It didn't start off too good, with Romania scoring in the 3rd minute and looking better, but as the fans were saying, the game is a full 90 minutes.



Everyone was chanting and singing throughout the game as well as waving flags. Lots of German pride all around. More than expected from what we had been told.



Lukas Podalski, the 22 year old superstar used to play for Cologe a few years ago, so the crowd loved him and keep shouting his name whenever he touched the ball and especially when he scored the 3rd goal.



I'm now all set with a German scarf, a little German soccer vocab and some awesome German soccer songs.

Mosel Valley



Last Saturday, the 8th, I went with 4 people from my group in Cologne to meet up with 5 people from our program who are studying in Saarbrucken, the capital of the German state Saarland.

We met up in the town of Cochem, a centrally located city on the Mosel River, an amazing, slow paced river filled with wineries and small towns. The way people describe the Mosel is as everything the Rhine wants to be, but cannot. Smaller, slower paced, and the ablity to relax and enjoy yourself. Another difference is a lot more bridges compared to the ferries on the Rhine.


Our group of now 10, after realizing we didn't have time to rent bikes to ride along the river, set out on an amazing hike up to Burg Eltz, a 700 year old castle that has never been destroyed. Hiking through the woods, past the stream, it felt like being in Portland, with lots of green everywhere.


The castle, Burg Eltz, is amazing. Very picturesque and sits on a natural bend in the river which acts as a moat. Inside, on the tour, we saw everything from the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the kitchen, the armory, the meeting room with the symbol of a joker allowing anything to be spoken in the room, and the symbol of a rose to keep what was said in the room in the room.

Lots of pictures, and then on back to the city for some wine tasting and some Doner Kebaps, one of the best and most common meals in Germany.



Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Luxembourg (small and empty)

So far, I have been to 25 countries and like all of them and would travel back to all of them. Luxembourg, my 26th country, was the first that I actually would not go back to. Perhaps it was that we were there too long ( 26 hours to be precise) or that there was hardly anyone there on the weekend. But I have had my fill of the little land known as Luxembourg, where there is a beautiful valley with nothing too spectacular on top of them. Some cool bridges, but no church, castle or other building that has come to define so many towns. Not to be mean, but nothing stood out.

Two good things about Luxembourg to compliment the negative: 1. a huge, steep, grassy hill that I ran to the top of, and rolled down. Got rolling pretty quick and out of control so I tried to stop, but couldn't, ended up doing a sommersault and landing on my feet, running crookedly and dizzily falling down and rolling even more. Grass stains all over my pants, shoes and jacket, along with a scrapped up elbow, but well worth it. 2. a huge playground. Gigantic pirate ship to play in with full netting, huge slide (30 feet tall) and water pumps and water sluces to play with. The kids in Luxembourg are spoiled.

If you are in the area of Luxembourg in the future, I highly recommend a day trip of only a few hours, the Natural History/Modern Art Museum is free for students and touring the Casements (20km of tunnels throughout the hills) are interesting. But a night is not necessary there.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Love Parade 2007




The Love Parade, the world's largest street party took place Saturday in Essen, a city an hour away from Cologne. This year, around 1.2 million people came to Essen, dancing, partying and having a blast. Love was everywhere.





We got there right before the parade started and we able to get up close to one of the many floats. At 2pm the electronic music started pumping out of the float and everyone started dancing and jumping up and down. Everyone was dressed up in a festive manner. We danced, paraded and had a blast going along with the floats seeing thousands of people. Everyone was happy to be dancing and there were not any problems and not that many police around. Quite different from the US where there would be security all over and people checking the bags that were being brought in.





The parade ended at about 7pm and we left at about 8, before all of the night parties started. We were the last people to be allowed into the train station before it was closed off due to too many people. It was absolutley packed in there and it took us over two hours to get home, but it was well worth it.










Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Mussels in Brussles and the Manneken Pis Miracle












This past weekend, we headed to Brussels at 7am Saturday, getting an early start and not paying for a room Friday night. After getting lost for the first hour, we stumbled upon the Royal Palace, only open for one month a year, with some of the most gold filled rooms this side of Versailles, and a room covered with 1.4 million beetle shells, shining a bright greenish blue.





After lunch of Belgium waffles, we went to see the Manneken Pis, a fountain of a little boy pissing, a statue that has been around since the 1600s and is a landmark. What happened next, started with a parade led by the Brotherhood of the Pink Elephant (logo of Delirum Brewery), then the 10th annual ceremony about the statue, and inductions into the Pink Elephants, and then the miracle, the fountain was hooked up to a keg of beer, and soon it was pissing beer into cups whic were handed out to the public. Behold the Maneken Pis Miracle; the crowd rejoiced and drank some good beer from a statue older than the US.



The Grand Place, is quite grand as the name says. Amazing buildings completely surrounding a cobblestone square and hosting a concert later than night. I stopped by the impressive cathedral on the way to the Belgium Museum of Comic Arts to check out a large exhibition on Tintin, one of my favorite European comics from the 1940s-70s.





Later that night, after a very tasty dinner of mussels with pommes frites, a local specialty, there were free concerts all over town for the Brussels Summerfest 2007.





The next day, after going to the largest and randomest flea market I've ever seen, we took the train to Antwerp to go diamond shopping, see the Cathedral which was meant to have two towers and only got one, looked at some famous art by Rubens, dangled our feet over the river like the locals do, saw the park where graffiti is legal and quite colourful, and watched a street performer throw an apple 25 feet into the air and catch it in his mouth.










We took the train back to Brussels, to see some more sights, buy a Manneken Pis statue, watch a French gypsy band play their style of world music, grab some pommes frites and get on the train back to Cologne.

Monday, August 13, 2007

The Romantic Rhein



This past weekend, a group of 6 of us, took the train two hours south along the Rhein to the small town of Bacharach (home of Burt) where we spent the night in a castle, turned youth hostel.



With the castle above us, we had a German lunch from vegetable soup to Sauerbraten. Then it was time for wine tasting, as this is one of the best areas to grow wine in Germany. Vineyards all over the hills. They brought out a large lazy susan tray with 15 glasses of wine for us. We tasted, spun, tried another and kept moving until we tried all 15, then ordered a glass of our favorite. We tried 13 different white wines and 2 reds.

The highlight of the hike up to the castle, other than the great views along the way, were of Brooke and her roll-on suitcase. She rolled up the hill in style.





At the castle, we checked in, explored, had dinner and then hung out with a large group traveling through Europe.




On Sunday, we went by boat from Bacharach, back to Cologne, just over 8 hours. A long time, but with lots to see and plenty of time to relax, enjoy the scenery and hang out with friends. We passed over 20 castles, including Mouse Castle and Cat Castle, one of the best preserved castles on the Rhein and a lot of churches in the small towns along the way. Quite an impressive view, whereever you looked. Tons of vineyards along the way. Got a nice tan sitting out in the front of the boat, where the best view was.



So we watched the sun rise over the Rhein through the mist, and later watched the sun go down as we came into Cologne. Capping off a darn good day. Got back to my apartment around 9pm after a quick dinner, just in time to do my homework and be off to bed.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Köln Dom (Cathedral)

Picture from a plaza outside the Museum Ludwig, the modern art museum with cool architecture.




Picture from the top of the south tower






One of the entrances to the Dom which is no longer in use.