Well, we got back in to Leuven from our weekend in Germany last night. It was an interesting time to say the least. We had master plans of going to Berlin on Friday and Frankfurt on Saturday and coming home today. None of these things, except for being in Frankfurt yesterday, happened. Apparently we picked the worst weekend in the history of Europe to go to Germany. On Thursday night, Germany was hit with a storm that covered roughly the entire country. Winds were around 200 kph, whatever that means in non-metric terms. (See, I’m already starting to think like a European.) We’ll just say they were going really fast. The train station in Berlin had massive damage and no train was going there.
On Thursday night, we went to Brussels to get a train to Berlin. We got there and the train was still on time, but the track it was supposed to leave from was occupied by another train not leaving until the morning. This was a little suspicious, but we thought it was just a mistake by the train station. We went out into Brussels to find a bar to drink at for a while, but had no luck. I’ll just say that the Brussels train station is not in the best part of the city. After hopelessly walking around for an hour, we gave up and went back to the train station. At 11:39, two minutes before the train was supposed to leave, we found out it was canceled. We went to the ticket office to get our reservation changed to Friday morning and waited in line for 20 minutes. Just a side note, European people don’t respect the concept of a line. They’ll just cut in front of you if you leave them the opportunity. However, if you stare them down with a really mean face, they’ll usually back down.
After we changed our reservation, we had 30 seconds to catch the last train back to Leuven. We ran up the escalator to find the train pulling out of the station as we got to the top. It was really something out of a movie. So, instead of spending the night at the train station, we decided to find a hotel. We walked around and finally found a place for 45 euros. A drunken guy gave us the key and we took the lift to the fourth floor. We opened the door only to have it slam into the wall behind it because the entrance area wasn’t wide enough. The bed was able to sleep two people comfortably, but the sheets appeared not to have been washed since the place was opened. Also, the shower was two feet square, which means you have to pay extra. Just check out the pictures to get a better feel.
After getting about a half hour of sleep the entire night, we woke up and went back to the train station. I found a bathroom to change in, but I had to pay 50 cents to use it. We got on the right train and were off to Cologne. When we arrived, we didn’t see our train to Berlin, but we thought nothing of it at the time. I got myself a bratwurst because I was in Germany. It was delicious. We then looked for a train to Berlin, but couldn’t find one. After searching for a train official who spoke English, we found out that no trains were going to Berlin because the train station there had been badly damaged from the storm. I think you can find pictures of it somewhere on line.
Since no trains were going to Berlin, we decided to get a hostel and spend the night in Cologne. The hostel was 15 euros a night, which is pretty good. The bed was comfortable enough, better than the hotel in Brussels. We had a weird Irish roommate who only ate Snickers bars and drank Coke. We had another roommate from South Korea who was about our age. He was traveling Europe by himself for a month. He kept asking us questions about America. He asked, “Do you like burgers?” We told him that we do. He then asked, “Do you eat these three days per day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?” We said that we don’t, but you can. He was amazed by this type of freedom we have in America. After talking some more with them, we decided to explore the city. The cathedral there is the best one I’ve seen since coming to Europe. The pictures I took don’t even begin to do justice to the place. It took the people of Cologne 600 years to finish it. Inside, there is a large gold box that holds relics of the three Magi. It was just really interesting to see.
We walked around the rest of Cologne and determined that it was a very consumer friendly city. You can find a McDonald’s or Starbucks on every corner. This was disappointing, so we found a beer garden to go to instead. I think the people who ran it were shocked when we got there because no one else was there. We ordered Kolsch, which is a very strong German beer. It is top fermented, which means it is done so very quickly at a very high temperature. Also, there is hardly any carbon dioxide in it, which makes it taste good. We decided that we were hungry, and found an American sports bar to eat dinner. They were playing a Germany-Brazil handball game, so a lot of people were there rooting for Germany. I got the Buffalo Bills Chicken.
We went back to the hostel to rest before going out. Once out, we found this place called the Brauhauskeller, which served beer in wooden barrels that hold 12 liters. Needless to say, we didn’t get one of these wooden barrels. We just ordered a few drinks and called it a night. In the morning, we woke up to find a train to Frankfurt.
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