I Heart Köln

Today was a day for going out and being social with real live Germans!

So once I figured out that there are pretty much no buses out of Uckendorf on Saturdays (who planned that?) I managed to get myself to Porz anyway via car and train/streetcar/that thing that's like the subway but above ground. I met Nina in Porz (I also managed to find her house all by myself from the train station, of which I am proud) and we hopped on the street train and went to Cologne, henceforth known as Köln. We visited this really really awesome modern art museum because modern art is the best and it was HUGE and we wandered for 2 or 3 hours and maybe saw half of it and I totally wanna go back with a camera and more free time. We left because we were hungry and we went to KFC (those happen to also be the initials of Köln Football Club, whose fans were wandering the streets today in their team scarves preparing for the big game that apparently happened this evening) and I noticed that all fast food is expensive here: I got a Twister Wrap and a very small fry (think McDonald's Happy Meal size) and a small soda and it cost me €5, which is a little over $6. Also European KFC french fries are the skinny kind. It was delicious in any case and we made our way to Starbucks where we waited forever for Nadine and Katrin and Verena and we sort of watched some street performers and I saw a statue of a woman tricking some dwarves into falling down the stairs and then Nadine and Katrin and Verena showed up but they hadn't eaten so we went to McDonald's where it was almost impossible to find a table and they ate and then we wandered through the Kölner Dom (as it happens, you can see the art museum in that picture, too- it's the curvy thing on the left) and then we went back to Starbucks where we comandeered a couch and talked forever and I had my very first Starbucks beverage ever (some strawberry frappacino thing) and we talked and talked and talked until we decided to leave and then we went to some music store and I bought an Arcade Fire CD and we went to the train station and it was cold but then the street train came and we went back to Nina's house, where we listened to music and hung out and played some silly board game because silly board games are fun. Katrin's dad came to pick us all up at 9 and after dropping Nadine and Verena off, we went to Katrin's house where I had dinner (chicken again but it was delicious) and then I came back here to Uckendorf.
Being social results in plans for the future! There is a dance thing tomorrow that I am going to, and (AND!) Katrin plays guitar with a mandolin orchestra (what!) and they are meeting Friday and I am probably going to play with them and I'm pretty excited about that because I miss playing, although my fingers will not be too excited now that my calluses are 100% gone.

('Mercan readers with endless time and curiousity and a wish to compare my experience to others may want to check out some of the new blogs added down in that long linky list)