In the morning I added the feeling of hungover to jetlag. Since I’m not a red wine drinker, it was a new type of hangover for me, thanks to the Gluhwein. A hot shower made it a bit better, the oatmeal Sabrina made with almonds, banana and honey got me most of the way there, then buttered toast had me happy. I was still feeling drowsy when we walked out the door. It was a severely overcast day, typical of Cologne apparently, but about 10^oC without wind so pleasantly cool.

We drove to Sabrina’s university to park where she paid for two days’ worth of parking by accident. We’d had a late start so we were looking for lunch pretty much straight after leaving the university. On the way we stopped at the book exchange, a common thing in the neighbourhood where you take a book and return it, or do a swap. Very cool that something like this exists without being vandalised.

As we walked, Sabrina pointed small plaques in the ground that represent jews that were prosecuted, murdered and deported during the war. They were placed outside the buildings they had once lived in. It is alarming how many there were.

We walked past a restaurant that didn’t open until 12noon and continued on to a nearby Aldi where we bought a sim card for my phone. I had planned to get around without one, but on S&A’s recommendation and the cheap price, I went ahead. Only EUR12 for the month!

Back at the restaurant, “Die fette Kuh” (The Fat Cow), we sat at an outside table while we waited for the staff inside to finish their early lunch and open. Ten minutes later at opening time, we were second in a queue of about twenty people, a very popular place. Sabrina quickly translated the menu for me and after ordering we took one of only a few tables in the small room. The place was thriving within minutes.

The burgers were delicious in every way and came in American portion sizes. After that and some fries I was stuffed, but Sabrina still had room for dessert. We left the restaurant where our seats were taken immediately by a father and young son, the boy was a little scared of me speaking a foreign language and clung to dad. Walking north towards the city, we found another set of Christmas markets at the pier of the river, near one of the main bridges and Sabrina got her dessert of a nutella and marsapone crepe, which she regretted shortly after finishing she was so full.

We walked to the east side of the river across one bridge, then along the eastern waterfront and over the next bridge back to the center of the city. Along the pedestrian fencing of the bridge were thousands and thousands of love locks, locks put in place by couples to pronounce their love to the world. There wasn’t a single space left for Sabrina and I to confess our passion for each other so we’ll have to keep it a secret from the world for now. As we meandered over towards the tall peaks of the Cathedral, we marvelled at particular locks for their size or shape, I even saw an aluminium cut-out of Australia, there really was everything you could imagine there.

Once back in the city, Sabrina accompanied me to a Maccas for the bathroom where she explained that the lady at the door asking for money was the cleaner requesting tips so I could ignore her request and go straight through, which I did. After a quick visit to the visitors centre where I had to pay 50c for a city map (lame), Sabrina left me since she had to get to university and without a working phone yet, we planned to meet back there at 6:30pm. Alone, scary! Sabrina seemed a little worried when she left me, but I was determined not to get myself in trouble.

First stop was inside the cathedral to see if I could climb up the steep spiral steps to the top of the tower. At the reception of the museum, I was able to ask for a ticket to enter the museum with the trip up to the tower but the lady told me using sign language and limited English she that the tower had just closed at 3pm. She apologised because of her poor English and wrote down the opening times for me. I left disappointed but was sure I’d be able to fit it in later in the trip.

Outside the cathedral, I saw photos of post-war Cologne in which everything around the Cathedral had been demolished (I mean everything, the street was covered in the remnants of buildings) but the Cathedral only suffered minor damage, the spires remained standing high above the wreckage. I was astounded that it survived the carnage.

The rest of my time alone was spent walking. I targeted as many churches as possible. I won’t name them because I feel like I shouldn’t write down words that I can’t spell or pronounce. They were all beautiful in architecture and serene in their atmosphere. I lit candles in a few just to leave my mark. I ended up circling back to the same Maccas in the city when it was just getting dark and I bought a  1 sundae to tide me over until dinner. More walking, this time I went south of the cathedral following the pedestrian streets, all cobblestones with no cars or bikes allowed. This was the downtown shopping district and it reminded me a little of Japan with the people mingling everywhere with bags in hand and lights along the entire strip. The centrepiece of the district was a large Christmas tree with a family of gypsies singing a “Hallelujah” song on repeat.

After turning east I came upon Neumarkt (you guessed it, translates to New Market) where there were more Christmas markets. These ones had pretty stars hung from the trees. With similar merchandise, the theme was slightly different than last night’s markets.

It was thoroughly dark now and I had to start making my way back to university. I went past a few churches on my way back, just to look at their exterior. At one church that had a courtyard, there was an absolute parking catastrophe. At least two cars were trying to get out of the square when there was no parking and so coordinating 100-point turns with kerb jumping. Meanwhile, more cars kept driving into the square. I would have loved to stay and watch the chaos unfold, but I carried on.

I walked down a few dark streets but felt safe, I’m sure I didn’t see a single free carpark during the last half hour, it is absolutely crazy. If I lived here I would survive riding my bike and not own a car.

I made it back to the university right on time (very proud of myself), even had time to go in and use the bathroom before I came out and met Sabrina. She wanted to take me to the gay Christmas markets (there’s something for everyone). We hopped a train (my first public transport experience) and travelled the few stations to a western district. We exited the station into the markets, but not the gay ones, just another set of historic-themed ones. Despite it being a Monday, there were plenty of people out to enjoy warm alcoholic drinks and traditional German food. Sabrina and I had Bratwurst cooked over a charcoal grille for dinner which was EUR4 (festival prices) but delicious.

We wandered over to the gay markets which were in sight of the ones above the train station, were smaller and had coloured cellophane coloured stalls. Inside them, they were selling the usual German treats along with dick-shaped candy and other querks. It didn’t take us long to explore here. Sabrina’s next idea was that we go to a gay bar. In our search for one we stumbled across “Wonder Waffel” where we had dessert. After much perusing and translating of the menu, Sabrina ordered for us and our mountain of food came out with my name written in chocolate on the plate. I feel special! It was rich and delicious.

Back on the train, we made it back to the car with minimal walking to my great pleasure (my legs were sore from all the miles I’d covered) and drove on home. I was happy that I hadn’t been hit with a wall of tiredness but I got a bout of it on the way home, but I got over it enough to get up the stairs.

At home, I put some more air in the air mattress, Sabrina translated the Aldi webpage so I could activate my sim card and we made a plan for tomorrow. Following that, we ended up talking until midnight (on a school night, I know!) before finally going to bed.

German fact #2: Restaurant and bars do not offer free tap water, you must buy bottled.