Breaking it Up: Köln (Cologne)

In Köln, a town of monks and bones,

And pavement fang'd with murderous stones,

And rags and hags, and hideous wenches,

I counted two-and-seventy stenches,

All well defined, and several stinks!

Ye nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,

The River Rhine, it is well known,

Doth wash your city of Cologne;

But tell me, nymphs! what power divine

Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Cologne"

Fair warning: this break happened four months and one country ago and at the time I was caught up in the constant, ongoing internal debate I was waging with myself about the Peace Corps and my place as a volunteer with them. So some of the details of this trip may just have to be a little fuzzy. But here are the bare bones of my time with my fellow volunteers Cait and Christian in the city that Coleridge derisively (but also kind of fondly?) refers to as "the city of monks and bones".

I'm assuming one of the reasons he gives it that name is for the Church of St. Ursula which unfortunately we never got around to actually locating. We attempted it a couple times but couldn't really seem to get ourselves together, which is kind of the theme of our time in Cologne. Who knew visiting a small, predominantly Christian city on Christmas Eve/Day would leave us scrambling to find things that were open? Surprises!

We arrived!

We walked past this museum multiple times. I'm not sure if it's visible in this photo but the wings on the top of that tower are attached to a car. Also we spent a LOT of time puzzling over exactly what those numbers meant on the parking signs that we saw at various spots around town.

Our Air BnB was a really great studio apartment located behind an independent record store. This delightful decoration was set up in the courtyard between store and apartment.

I also loved this poster, in the corridor to our apartment. I want to see this movie. I need to see this movie.

I think I just photographed this because I was sad this store was closed and I wanted to buy all of these.

By the time we arrived (after staying the night in Prishtina, leaving for the airport before dawn, flying to Frankfurt then taking a bus to Cologne) and dropped our stuff at the apartment, we were ready for food. And we wanted something hard to find in Kosovo. But we also had to settle for what was open on Christmas Eve. So we ended up in the restaurant on the second floor in this picture, a Chinese food restaurant with overpriced but sufficient-if-mediocre fare. Also, I am not proud to admit we may have visited the McDonald's below this restaurant during our time in Cologne.

I'm not saying we didn't eat everything though.

One of our first disappointments: walking around to find the famous Cologne Christmas Markets

were completely closed and desolate. We found out later they re-opened for NYE, after we had already departed for our next destination.

Hiç.

Semmi.

Asgjë.

Nichts.

Nada.

The Rhine!

Seen  in an otherwise empty plaza.

Cait standing next to one of the pieces of the church for scale. The big church, as it turns out, is big.

Fun vertical panoramic photo to give you an idea of the height!

The next day, Christmas day, we headed back to the church to see if it was doing a Christmas mass or was open. Although we didn't end up attending a service we did pay to go in and look around.

Worth it. It's really a beautiful church.

I also enjoyed the crèche diorama set up at the front of the church.

Some interesting street art seen while wandering around hoping to find St. Ursula. I'm assuming it's political.

I think honestly we just spent time decompressing and relaxing in Cologne, so I don't have many photos of our doings. We visited the church, we went to a beer hall, we walked around a fair bit, we ate at several restaurants including a German Panera-type place and the Chinese place... We walked across this bridge?

Crossing the bridge.

Love locks, the scourge of modern engineering.

 Looking back at Cologne.

One more random photo: while walking around I enjoyed this storefront. Our time in Cologne was kind of a struggle because of the Christmas standstill but I still enjoyed it anyway. The city is very pretty and it was a nice, slow start to the trip.

Miracle on Ngọc Hà Street

Miller Beermas! I mean... eh, whatever. That's appropriate.

So, a few days before Christmas ILA had the company Christmas party. To their credit, it was a swanky affair. At the Hilton, with an open bar that stayed open for the whole evening, some... interesting...entertainment, with a random theme (the 60's! but also, formal?), big buffet (although it was only available for about an hour and then we all had to settle down and watch the weird entertainment which was partly talent show they bullied employees into participating in and partly, I think, paid entertainers).

Taxi ride there. Buddha on the dashboard and symbol of Hanoi, the Van Mieu arch in the distance. That Buddha did not save us from getting pulled off and our driver having to bribe the cop with his official "bribing the cop" envelope on the way there. And we were already running late, dammit!

Our CEO speaking words.

Talent show winner from down in HCMC who they flew up to Hanoi to perform for us! Get it girl1

Good spread. Better vampire getup.

No shame in my buffet game.

Reveling.

Staff members just kind of standing around on stage toasting to... themselves.

Dan making a Christmas-present-ribbon tie.

Ngoc Anh waiting patiently to see if she would win an iPod in the raffle... sadly she did not.

After the "entertainment"... the real party got started.

Conga line. So we knew it was gonna be a good night. We had a feeling.  

The night did not end there but moved to Ete bar, but my last photo of the evening is attempting to document what I deemed to be the very aesthetically appealing ceiling decor. The night did end in array of drunken, ridiculous antics for which I suffered greatly the next day. Ah well.   

And then! Christmas Eve. My friend Jen, another teacher from Hungary who I had some fun adventures with in Hungary and Croatia, came to visit! I picked her up at the airport and our first stop on our way back home was to pick her up some banh mi. This looked like a pretty good one. Lots of greens.

We exchanged Christmas presents, I got her a care package which included some Vietnamese snacks and this very, very stylish poncho (with a hood AND visor!).

She was obviously elated.

Then we took a little tour of Ba Dinh, passing the mausoleum...

...and One-Pillar Pagoda (this is the altar inside).

Then we headed to a very nice Christmas Eve dinner with some of my co-workers and friends at The KAfe which was delicious but unfortunately I did not remember to document the several courses therein. I did get some of Jen voguing with her decorative sprig of holly.

Except for the dessert, which was a delicious sticky cake thing with vanilla icing and almonds and all of it was super tasty although the watermelon/dragon fruit was a little incongruous.

Christmas day, we headed out to see some of the sights, sounds and smells of Old Quarter! First, the reliefs and Tháp Bút (Pen Tower) in front of Ngọc Sơn (Jade Mountain Temple). 

We wandered around Hoan Kiem for a bit and then ducked into a coffee shop on Ma May for some refreshment, just in the knick of time since it started raining! How rude. I will say this for Hanoi... it at least brought the cold with the rain for Christmas. I was dreaming of a white Christmas but I settled for a grey one.

I decided to try egg coffee for the first time but it was a very... deconstructed egg coffee. The top was egg white foam with just an espresso below it. Interesting. Very interesting. Next, Ca Tru Thang Long (28 Hang Buom), a traditional house/theater in Old Quarter.

Diorama of Old Quarter.

More dioramas.

All the baskets/hats.

Bach Ma Temple, another site in Old Quarter.

I love that these ancient temples are open to the public and also are still being used for their original intention. It's cool to see them being respected but also still serving their purpose.

Next, we passed by St. Joseph's Cathedral to check out the Christmas decorations.

So Christmas. Very holiday.

This woman seemed to be getting a jump on the Tet holiday of burning money for luck.

After that we headed over to Lenna's to make with the merry and enjoy some yuletide spirit. Although it was nice afternoon I couldn't make TOO much merry as I had to teach the next day, as it was a Saturday which meant I had early morning classes. Jen headed to Ha Long for a day trip and although she found herself a little underwhelmed because of the weather, she made some Korean tourist friends and checked out the night market! The next day she headed back to Seoul and I headed back to my crazy long Sunday work schedule, and truly the Christmas season felt like it was winding down (although not finished, because we still had New Year's Eve party to throw!)