Distraction - Cologne Carnival

Fed up with being stuck in Wixhausen, I decided to take up a friend's offer to come up to Cologne for a day to go to the carnival. It was carnival season over parts of Germany and I had never been to a carnival before and I have always wanted to go to one! So I got my ticket and went bravely all down my lonesome.

The journey itself was a real treat! My train followed the Rhine all the way up giving me some beautiful, breath taking views of the Rhine Valley and the picturesque little historical towns and its numerous ruined and old haunting castles that were passed on the way. I was travelling in the morning and the mist had not cleared yet, so it had a mythical, romantic look to it. The sun was shining and I was almost expecting to see Rhinemaidens it had such a mystery about it. The train was not a super-fast ICE train that are famous in Germany; being a broke student I took the IC which was not the speed of a snail, but still took a few hours to get there. I preferred it though as it took me above ground along the river instead of the dug out trenches of the ICE lines. I passed the lovely town on Koblenz, which I kept telling myself I would visit properly (never did).

The more north we went, the colder it became. From the sunny, misty banks of the southern Rhine it changed considerably by the time we got to Bonn as it was snowing there. Cologne was only about 10-15 minutes by train from Bonn so we had the same cold weather.

But none of that mattered! I alighted the train and arrived in a world of fancy dress, sweets, drunkards, and partying - all by a respectable 11am. I was very happy. The entire of Cologne station was filled with people completely pissed, looking stupid and fooling around. It was mental and I thought - "Now thats more like it!" Walking out of the station you are met by the amazing Gothic towers of the Cathedral. Nice!

I eventually found my friends, who were har d to find being dressed up, I was boring and had no costume sadly. We walked into the city centre to watch the parade where there were even more drunk silly looking people and cheesy German carnival music (which I have to admit I rather hate - every time I heard "Viva Colognia" since I turn into The Hulk and want to kill something.) The parade was big, lots of sweets were being thrown and it was an interesting show to see. I did have to keep ducking some points to avoid getting concussion as there were some pretty big things being thrown from the carts. I don’t know why, but getting crushed at an event like this adds to the atmosphere too. Being shoved against the store of some anonymous German store added to the flavour of the carnival. The smell of the sweaty drunk people and getting bruises from elbows next to me (and not being able to see a damn thing because Germans are too tall!)

We watched the parade for about and hour and then decided that booze was a good plan as it all got a bit samey in the end. Everywhere you went you could buy beer, so we started chugging the beer down (since coming to Germany I started to drink beer even though I used to hate it, how odd!). We danced loads as there were a group of people just drumming tribal beats and much fun was had. When we got a bit drunk we thought it would be a good idea to try to find the rest of our friends and in order to do this we joined the precession and followed it down the street to avoid the crowds until the police ushered us off. Now thats hardcore!

In the evening we went to district near the university and hell it was amazing. The whole street is lined with cocktail bars and pubs all the way up to the university and catered especially for students (why couldn't Guildford be like this?!) , and we drank more beer and ended up in a bar (really small) but full of pissed students dancing to bad German pop, but being drunk we joined in the fun. Get lots of people in a small room and add alcohol = fun fun fun!

Around 8pm I had to get my train which was sad as I was just getting in the spirit. My friend came to the station to make sure I got on the right train and not to end up in Hamburg or Berlin. Travelling in a strange country on your own pissed out of your skull (worse than that actually – I was in the time when you start to sober up and your head really really hurts but reality still doesn’t make sense), I managed it back to Wixhausen on my own fine, how is beyond me.

Frankfurt - My introduction

I had been stuck in the village where my institute was for a few weeks, working rather intensely. I needed some outside perspective of the village and institute - I was actually going crazy there. The name of the village was Wixhausen - and to the native German speakers and those who know German - yes there is a place that exists called that. To those who don't speak German it means "masterbation town" more or less. A friend of mine said "maybe it called that because its so boring thats all you can do there", hmmm good point.

Fortunately I had already organised moving into an apartment in Frankfurt at this time, it was just a matter of waiting for the people to move out. I was to meet my future house mate at that time for the first time and she would show me Frankfurt. I have to say I warmed to Frankfurt very quickly, the city centre was nice and clean with wide boulevards and pedestrian walkways, it was lined with trees and had an interesting blend between the modern and the new. Most cities I don't like the combination of new architecture with the old, but for some reason I find the Germans managed to marry it perfectly in Frankfurt. A lot of the city was bombed during the war, and most of the old buildings were destroyed and never replaced or rebuilt (in the case of the opera house and some of the buildings in Roemer square).
Roemer platz is very kitch German, its great! It is rather surreal to walk into this stereotypical German looking square after looking at the European version of Manhatten! It is the ideal tourist trap for people wanting to take beer and wurst, but fortunately its not as pricey as one might think! Its stunning though, especially at night and at Christmas - it looks like a Christmas card then!


After looking round the city and taking in the sights, we went to a very nice "Spanish" restaurant (not authentic Spanish, I feel I have to say that since I live in Madrid now and know that it wasn't your typical Spanish restaurant) for dinner before going off to see Bridget Jones' diary dubbed in German. Interesting experience, however Colin Firth and Hugh Grant should not be dubbed in German - its just not right! Unfortunately for that time the evening only gave me a taste for Frankfurt as I had to get back early for some reason I cannot remember (probably shifts I don't know), but I was content with the decision I had made to move from Wixhausen to Frankfurt. Later I also realised I had made the good decision not to live in Darmstadt despite being closer for work!

First Night in Germany

I remember the first night I arrived in Germany. My flight came in late in on a January night, and the first thing I saw of Frankfurt was its impressive and intimidating skyline. I am 100% European and have never been to America, so seeing skyscrapers was a new experience for me - and I believe Frankfurt is the only European city to have such a skyline.

I was a scared 20 year old at the time, I had never really travelled abroad alone before - especially to live. I wasn't even sure someone would come and pick me up at the airport! I couldn't speak German (well I still don't really to my shame!), and did not even really know how to get to my accommodation. I was a little bundle of nerves landing and coming out of the plane on a cold January night. All my possessions for that year crammed into two suitcases, which were delivered quickly at the airport with German efficiency. Luckily my nerves subsided when I saw two ladies waiting in the arrivals with my name on a sheet of paper. They were very kind and we went back to one of their apartment's to take some dinner. I had the opportunity to see a bit of Frankfurt that night. It reminded me a little bit of Budapest in the area we went to, with the old central European style buildings. It felt familiar to me as I grew up in Budapest so at least I did not feel like I had been transported to an alien country.

We had a nice dinner and then it was a long drive to Darmstadt in the dark late at night. My rooms were in some barrack like buildings which belonged to my institute in the middle of nowhere. I had the misfortune of living there for 2 months, but that I would rather not talk about. These are about my nice or interesting memories here and those rooms were neither (in other words, a dull, boring and grotty place to live!).

The Prologue

After starting up my Madrid blog, I decided I could record my memories from Frankfurt. A lot of people say "Frankfurt is such an ugly and depressing city", but from my experiences I know that not to be true. Ironically living in somewhere as wonderful as Madrid I do miss Frankfurt and Germany. I intend to do the same thing as for "A life in Madrid", but more like a memory jog than an on going thing. Too many blogs can be time consuming, so my Madrid one will take priority, but I have many entries archived in Livejournal, so I hope to add. I spend so much time doing "Nothing" online - might as well do something contructive eh?

I will record memories from Frankfurt and my experiences around Hessen (the region in Germany), as well as some trips outside. Hope you will enjoy it.