janvier 27, 2005

11 - 13 janvier :: Bonn, Germany

Arriving in Bonn around 6 p.m., our bus driver offered to bring us to a german style restaurant. Big portions, good food? I can't resist.

We had a pretty big table. About 20 of us joined Danielle, our driver, for one fantastic dinner.

Having known that the restaurant was going to give us our beers for free, we would have had more.

Anna, Jenia and I split two amazing, german sounding, dinners. Our portions were probably big enough to feed a small country, such as Croatia.

One more picture of (1/2) the group before heading back to the hotel.

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12 janvier

The next day I headed to an internet café with Vanessa, to check my E-mail, before our last quiz. 1 euro for 30 minutes... not to bad, especially when the homepage is a picture of a cat wearing a lime helmet.

Here is Anna, Jenia, Vanessa and I, drinking our Mimosa's, celebrating our last quiz. Now all we have is a 7 - 10 page paper on God knows what.

Our last group dinner was at a Turkish restaurant. Our appetizer consisted of this, unexpectedly, delicious stuff. I couldn't even tell you what it was...

While these suckers, Jon and Matt, sat at a table for four, with two of our three professors...

Jenia and I drank [too many of] these enormous beers, which somehow lead me into a drinking competition with a sophomore on our trip. Did he think he could beat a former sorority president? Please!

Leaving the restaurant, a bit tipsy, and heading to the bars.. Vanessa spotted these fabulously dressed men in a nearby McDonalds. She's spoke her little german tongue and convinced them to take a picture with us. This lead me to yelling, "one if by land, two if by sea" for the next 10 minutes.

And during this time, we ran into our professor (far left), who was aimlessly wandering around the streets. He was easily convinced to join us for some car bombs at a local bar ...

.. which obviously supported [Native Americans for] Kerry/Edwards.

Seeing a cute german in the corner of the bar, I thought i'd use my good ol' english on him. Best decisions ever..
(ps: i am wearing clothes)

.. because he brought us to one crazy hip hop dance party.

We american's love love love dancing on stage.
Brian, Vanessa, and Louisa.

Wanting to meet even more locals, I attemtped to talk to some nearby guys. Not only do they not speak English, but they don't speak German (not like that would help my situation). They do, however, speak Spanish, so I pulled over little Anna, who just spent a semester in Spain. Then... I ran away.

Aww, someone is all up in Vanessa.. holla.

Showing a little love in the hiz-ouse.

and btw.. who is this guy?
(Louisa, Vanessa, and Anna)

And good ol' Brian, on the stage until the early morning, when we pulled him off.

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13 janvier

Anna's last stuggle with zipping up the suitcase before we left for Strasbourg.

.. and Jon, at a rest stop, looking his finest, nonetheless, completes my review of the traveling seminar.

Posted by katie at 10:57 PM | Comments (4)

11 janvier :: A quick stop in Cologne, Germany

Before heading to Bonn, Germany, we made a quick stop in Cologne to have a lecture. We had an hour before the lecture so we took a quick trip to the cathedral in the center of the city..

The inside of the catherdral was beautiful. This picture is a bit dark, but you get the idea.

Stained glass windows, if you couldn't tell....

You were also able to climb to the top of the cathedral.. so the cocky veterans Jenia and I are, talked Vanessa and Anna into taking the trip up. Little did we know it was close to 900 steps.
Here we are at the start (me, Vanessa, Anna and Jenia).

Margo, Louisa, and Anna, looking out from the top...

.. onto the Rhine river and the rest of Cologne.

From the top.

It sure beats the view from the cathedral in Brugge.

At the top.. me, Anna, Jenia and Vanessa.

Jenia was the only one to find the sandwich stop during the hike up..
(no, auntie jean, there's no sandwich stop on the way up :)

The top of the cathedral was completely covered with grafitti.. to give you an idea.

And the walk down.. because I like to take pictures of the stairs.

Off to Bonn..

Posted by katie at 10:17 PM | Comments (1)