Eau de Cologne

The weekend before last I had my very first semi-alone travelling experience. At first I was a bit shaky on the idea, but in time I ended up embracing it. I went to Cologne, for reasons including but not limited to the fact that the village Schaag sits comfortably nearby, and also that I had a free* river cruise on the Rhein that I wanted to collect on. For the way there (I left Friday afternoon), I tried out Mitfahrgelegenheit, or rideshare. The driver was a girl and her friend from Wolfsburg. Both were, in as few words as possible, completely and utterly boring. After many attempts at posing questions about their lives and receiving three-word answers, I decided to fall asleep. I woke up five hours later in front of the Koelner Dom.

*Apparently there’s an alternate definition of “free”: reduced rate.

Within minutes my Couchsurfing host, Hanna, arrived to pick me up and take me back to her house. She was very nice and cool and took me out with her to hang out with her friends in the park to watch the game of Ghana v. Uraguay. All of her friends, many of them actors, were delightful. After an epic fail of a (18th birthday) party visit, which we heard would be “totally sweet,” but was, as one could imagine, the opposite, we went to a bar called King George which had a sweet DJ setup behind the bar. As Cologne was hot and sticky at the time, we brought our fans to keep cool.


On Saturday I met up with two girls from Hannover also in the RISE program. We started off the day by taking a quick look inside the Dom, which is what Cologne is famous for. It’s an extreeeemely old cathedral with unbelievably intricate detail and a plethora of little statues all over the outside of the building. The inside has a lot of paintings, some on the ceiling, and really cool stained glass windows.


From there we visited the Chocolate Museum, which was so very well worth it. We got to learn about the history of chocolate, including how it’s made and when people started making it, and then we got to see it actually being made in front of our eyes! Among many other things, we also got to see some artifacts of chocolate brands…Hershey’s not included. At the end, we shopped the most amazing chocolate store I’ve ever laid eyes on. I didn’t know they could sculpt chocolate in such ways. I saw some chocolate that looked exactly like a beer can, and another shaped like a soccer player. I settled for a small piece of coffee-flavored chocolate bark. By the way, for anyone who ever wondered how hollow chocolates are made, they use a centrifuge.


Next we walked over to the Altstadt to see the Christopher Street Day festivities, which were going on all weekend. The events included the biggest gay pride parade in Germany, which I attended on Sunday. On Saturday there were many booths and vendors in the city selling all kinds of merchandise, food, and drink, as well as bands playing…one of them definitely a country band from Texas. Unfortunately, however, it started to rain. At first the drops were sparse, but so large and heavy they literally hurt when they hit my skin. Then gradually it began to fall harder, until we found ourselves in the middle of what seemed to be a small hurricane. I’m not kidding; I’ve never seen a rainstorm like this in my life. We took shelter under an awning but still the wind blew the rain too close for comfort…rain which, to our dismay, soon turned to hail. We watched in half horror, half amusement as the wind blew the umbrellas from the food vendors, leaving the poor people soaked, not to mention their food. After causing everyone in the city to crouch under the little shelter provided by the awnings for nigh an hour, the rain finally cleared and we were able to continue our journey.

The World Cup game of Germany v. Argentina was going on at the time (epic 4-0, by the way), so we went to an “American” steakhouse to watch and get some food. Still filled with memories from Hamburg, I got the potato dish, which was almost as good as the one I had there. Then, with bellies full of food and hearts full of German soccer pride, we took off for the Rhein River Cruise. It was still cloudy and the seats on the boat were wet, but the cruise was very relaxing and it was nice to hear a little about the history of the city along the way since we didn’t get a walking tour.


After the cruise and a bit more walking around, it was time for my companions to return to Hannover and I was once again on my own in Cologne. I returned to Hanna’s house and went with her to a party at her parents’ house, where some lovely and delicious vegetarian food was served. Afterwards I went back to get some sleep for my long day ahead.

In the beginning I hadn’t planned to stay in Cologne through Sunday, but once I heard the gay pride parade was going on, I felt it would be silly to go home without seeing it. I’m very glad I stayed because Sunday was my best day of the weekend. I started out the day by going to the top of the Koelner Dom, a thing I thought would be easy, based on my Hamburgian cathedral-top-going-experience, but boy oh boy was I wrong. Picture this: a staircase so steep, and so winding, that you feel like you’re rock climbing in a Tim Burton movie. By the time I got to the top (which took about 20 minutes by the way), I was both dizzy and out of breath. It was worth it though, both for the view of the city and the triumphant feeling of having done it.

After my workout I went to see the parade for a while, which was really great. There were tons of people lining the streets and I saw some of pretty much the best drag ever; some of the costumes were really out there. There was good music too and everyone was having lots of fun.


I didn’t stay for the whole parade because I wanted to get to the Ludwig Museum and have some time there before catching my train to Schaag. It was a really good quality museum. They had a Roy Lichtenstein exhibit going on so I saw a lot of his work, but I also saw a good number of works by Picasso, Dali, Beckmann , and members of Die Bruecke including Kirchner and Nolde. I also saw some very, very different modern art, including an artist who sculpts from food. Can you guess what these heads are made from?


The answer is fat. Solid fat. Covered in chocolate.

I would’ve liked to spend much more time in the museum, like a whole day, but it was time for me to visit the village of my namesake, Schaag. Yes, alone did I take this journey of self-exploration and realization. Schaag lies in the town of Nettetal, along with other villages, including Breyell which is where the train took me. My arrival in Breyell was just the beginning of my quest as I then had to trek to Schaag, and even though I thought it would be simple and easy, I of course got lost, even in pretty much the smallest town in Germany. I was walking along a road and noticed that, oddly, every street I crossed had the same name, Torbruch. But I could not for the life of me figure out the name of the street I was walking on. So I asked someone. Their reply? “Torbruch.” It felt like some kind of weird nightmare, like in Being John Malkovich except it was Being Torbruch Strasse. With the help of a map, however, I found my way, and basically followed the train tracks to Schaag, which made me feel not too unlike Johnny Cash.


The town of Nettetal is very agricultural and enjoyed my surroundings of cows, horses, and wheat. The weather was also perfect in every way.


Finally I saw the road sign, like a light shining from the heavens: Schaag, 1 km! Did I take pictures? Yes. Shamelessly. Even though people looked at me like I was an alien. Among the subjects of my photography: Schaager Grill; Schaag Chinese Express; and, of course, the inspiration for the name of this blog, Schaager Strasse. After failed attempts at taking pictures of myself with the signs, I awkwardly asked some Schaag inhabitants if they would help me, adding with a shy chuckle that my last name is Schaag. They just raised an eyebrow and guffawed a bit in response, then took the picture which they unfortunately were not entirely adept at. In the end, however, there is hard evidence that I was present in Schaag, evidence that will survive the generations as the legend of Schaag lives on throughout the ages.


I only got to spend about an hour in Schaag before it was time to go back to Cologne to catch the train back to Braunschweig. I was running a little late after getting back to Hanna’s house, so after packing my things and realizing that I had 10 minutes before the train left, I had to literally run the whole way to the station, getting to the platform with 2 minutes to spare. My ride home was my first experience with the ICE (Inter-City Express) trains, and lemme tell ya, they are sahweeeet!!! SO much better than the regional trains, where I somehow always get stuck sitting next to 15-year-old punk kids with skateboards and/or screaming children. 2nd Class on the ICE beats 1st Class on Regional times 10. There’s a restaurant inside, pillows on the seats for your head, personal rooms…oh I could go on and on. I won’t though, because this has been the longest post in the world and I really need to stop rambling and be done with it.

Until next time!
Amy