Travelog 10.2.24

Köln at Karneval!

Hello all!

Today, I’m here to talk about Köln. Or Cologne, or “Clone”, if you’re some of the people at my university. I went to Köln with a few friends a couple weeks ago, coinciding with Karneval! I had oodles of fun, doing exactly the kinds of things you’d expect someone like me to do during one of the largest festivals of the year in the ,,Haupdtadt des Karnevals”: lot of museums, lot of walking!!

Soaps and I had debated coming up to Koln Saturday morning versus Friday night, but when we learned our Airbnb was to be fairly cheap we decided to come up that night. We stayed with 4 other people, which meant a nicely sized group for going out. Our setup was an after school train to Luxembourg city, and then an hour until our 2 hour train, a 15 minute interchange, and then another 2 hours to Köln, and then the train to Neuss. Phew! It was a lot of time and I got pretty sleepy on the train, but I had luckily prepacked the two apples we had and some sandwiches so Sophie and I could have some sustenance. For our hour in Lux city, I thought maybe we should go and get masks for Karneval, so that we wouldn’t stand out too much and could be in the crowd. Boy, I was a naive child then! I got a €5 mask that I never ended up using, especially not after seeing the costumes on display.

And speaking of the costumes, when we arrived in Köln it was ~19:00 and there were people EVERYWHERE! All of them decked out in regalia or pajamas or group costumes like Halloween— a lot of bright colors and fun textures and a surprising amount of (specifically older couples) dressed as the coolest clowns I’d ever seen. It would have been super awesome if I hadn’t been dead tired and somewhat annoyed at some of our group for stopping so long to get McDonald’s. While at the station we bought the Kölnerkarten, which could let us ride for free around Köln for two days. Score! At around 21:00 we finally got on our bus to Neuss, and began to finally unwind.

Now, what we were really there for was the Kölner Dom, the majestic and resplendent sky-scraping cathedral at the heart of the city. While we were unpacking and preparing a makeshift itinerary, I offhandedly joked that we should go in for Saturday Mass. And then, upon thinking a little more about it, it stopped being a joke altogether and we soon convinced our 4 other members to be up and at ‘em at 6:30 in the morning to make it to the 7:00 train to make it to 8:30 Mass. Our original plan was to hit up the bakery a couple minutes away from our Airbnb in Neuss, but when Soaps and I went to go check, they were closed for Karneval weekend! The horror! So, instead, we headed into the train station and got a pastry from one of the shops inside there.

Let me tell you something about the food here: they must be putting some kind of not-chemical-normal-food sauce in it because I bought only a chocolate croissant and it completely satiated me for the next 5 hours!

The train ride was only about 30 minutes because it only had one interim stop, and when we arrived and left the train station I expected it to be majorly packed already, with people galore, like it had been last night. But instead, it was pleasantly sparse. A bright and slightly chilly sunny day greeted us, as did the Koln cathedral the minute we stepped out of the station. One word: Giant. It was so incredible, I felt immediately a camaraderie between me and the thousands of catholic peasants who would have seen this cathedral and instantly believed in God.

“God is real, and He lives in Köln.”

Eventually we stopped our gawking and picture taking and began heading up the stairs to try and find the entrance. While on our way, we encountered this hilarious group of people dressed as minions and one dressed as Gru, giving his steal the moon speech in German before giving a group cheer. A couple of our group members recorded it— I’ll try to add it in here in post! When we found the entrance, though, they had a security guard who began to search our purses and then one of the minions came up to our group asking if German if we had taken any videos of them. I knew who had, but she didn’t speak any German, so I translated to her and they were able to transfer the video through Instagram. Ah, the beauty of modern technology! When we finally went inside and I thought nothing could be cooler than the outside structure, the inside blew me away. For your information, the cathedral is quarter museum of the cathedral, quarter worship area, quarter crypt and quarter confession zone. It’s incredibly expansive and resplendent as all get out, and the acoustics! When we were there there was someone playing the organ, and everything was so impressive I almost cried. We walked around for about an hour, taking photos and admiring the architecture and the beauty, before we realized that the Mass was supposed to start soon and we had no idea where to be. But, Maelynn found it and led us over to a small section on the right hand side, where a priest informed us: "This is only for people who wish to go to Mass". I was so scared I was gonna be found out!

(Side note: while I was reciting our fiendish plan to my parents and Sophie's to hers, both of our Moms, in classic our Moms fashion, said the same thing about them going to check for our Catholic cards. The thought never left my mind for a minute while I was inside the cathedral... it was like I had gotten on a train without a ticket!)

Still, we went to go sit in the pews with the rest of our friends who had squished four to a three-person pew, but when we went to sit in the empty row in front of them two sisters slid in instead, and it felt like a big sin to try and go anywhere ahead or on par with the sisters. So, instead, we slumped in back and --blue prayer book on pew-- began to listen to the hour long Mass. In German.It was really cool actually! I know more German than I do Catholic, but I still enjoyed singing hymns in a language I could read :). After the Mass was over, we went exploring again in an attempt to find the pathway that would allow us to climb over 300 stairs and exit at the top of the Dom. I'm going to spoil you here: it was closed for Karneval :(. Which is a repeating theme in this expedition, but it is what it is! We had planned after to hit up a couple of nearby museums, but the first one we tried, the Roman-Germanic architecture history museum was closed... you guessed it, for Karneval. The next museum we attempted was open, however. It was the art museum of Köln, and they has some really beautiful pieces! It was separated on floors by time period, with middle ages, renaissance, and 1800s. Soon, however, we grew hungry... so we left for tastier pastures.

By the time we got back onto the streets, we decided to just pick a direction and start heading off in any direction in search of some food as it was now quickly approaching noon. Walking down some streets we passed through the main street the parade was about to be held on, spotting all manner of decorated fellows on our way. What we ended up deciding on was this doner kebab shop open as a kind of pop-up stand. I got chicken with every topping and tzatziki sauce, and it was €8 and it was incredibly delicious!!!!! For the next couple of hours we spent the day just walking around, seeing all the people and following the music as the party grew more intense and outward from the bars by the Rhein. We found a man creating ginormous bubbles, and spent a good 15 minutes feeling like little kids as we ran to pop them. One of our group wanted to go get some ice cream, so off we went and I got two scoops for €3.50 of some really really delicious tiramisu and caramel ice cream. Mmmm!

As it was nearing the afternoon, things started to get a little more wild and rowdy and we decided to cap off our time in Köln by walking across the bridge, before eventually walking back to take our train to Neuss.

Us on the other side of the river!

Us :)

Not gonna lie, our train was super delayed and then changed platforms so I was not having a particular blast, but then being on the train and coming back to our Airbnb was very pleasant. We stayed in for awhile, just resting our legs and our eyes, and when we all felt ready to conquer the rest of the day it was already 18:00 (6pm)! That's when we decided to head out into the city of Neuss to scope out some good dinner. And good dinner we found, curtesy of Amelia. It was a cute traditional German brauerei and Soaps n' I split our two deeeelissheesss (delicious dishes).

Mine (Späztle)

Soaps' (She's trying mushrooms!)

Cup holder I took

When we finally walked back to our Airbnb, I was tired!!! But I still called my parents to tell them about what a day I had had. Amelia and Maelynn wanted to go out to a bar, but I found myself falling into a nice deep slumber on a bed that felt like jelly and wiggled around me as I settled into sleep.

When I woke up, it was already 9 in the morning! But I was so sleepy and so I opted to go back to sleep for an hour until I really had to get up because I was getting hungry and we had to leave in an hour cause our Airbnb time was up. We had our sights set on the true traditional German lunch: Indian food. In order to get to the restaurant, we ended up passing through Jecken (at Karneval, festivalgoers are called Jecken) quickly appearing in droves for Neuss's very own Karneval parade! When we sat down for 11:30 lunch, the six of us sat down and each split some food. Soaps and I got the malai kofta and garlic naan, and everything was going really well until we had to pay for the food... (the food itself was gorgeous and delicious, and though it looked small it was incredibly filling.)

Well, our server came up and when we tried to pay with our cards, he said their card reader was down. Quel Horreur! And I didn't have enough cash on me and neither did Sophie! Thankfully Grace had a €50 on her and paid for us and her group, and Maelynn had enough cash to cover hers. Crisis averted, but owing a debt still feels embarrassing. Not that we could have known though!

We had to boogie in order to make it to the train station to get ourselves to Köln, and as we moved through the streets with Amelia's mapping skills, we ran right into the commotions for Karneval festival-goings! Sadly, we couldn't stay long, and we made our way to the train station, albeit begrudgingly. When we pulled in to Köln, we had some time until our train came, so we hung out in the book shop for awhile and I found this gem!!

But alas, our time in Köln has come to an end. We board the train, we arrive back in Lux City, we take the long and arduous train back to Niederkorn, drop our bags off, and nod our butts off to slumberland.