Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Wednesday July 13, 2005
I bet you've always wondered what the Euro currency looks like. Come on... I know you have. You're probably thinking that right now. Well, you've come to the right place. Here's an expensive little picture that I snapped in Cologne (yes, all these bills are MINE! MINE!):
Anyways... in the morning I decided that I would finally go find the last CDs I was looking for. I had bought some CDs in Berlin at a couple different stores, but I was going to try one more time. I ended up going to a really big CD store, Saturn. It was a good choice... I managed to pick up a few more CDs. I used one of my two 500 Euro bills to pay for them, since I had used up all of my smaller bills already. Conveniently enough, they took it without any hassle. This made me happy... unlike something that would happen a few days later...
Continuing on, I had a few hours to kill before I would start my walking tour at 6 PM. I didn't really want to hit any sights that I figured would be on the tour, so I went to a museum that I thought would be pretty neat... the German-Roman museum. Cologne was actually founded by the Romans almost 2000 years ago. This museum contained some artifacts from the era. It was pretty cool (yeah, I'm a geek):
Soon enough, 6 PM came around and I headed on over to the tour meeting place. It was being organized by a hostel that was just down the street from my hotel. I went into the front room of the hostel. It was a common room for people to hang out in, with a reception desk at the back. I met the tour guide... he said that the tour required three people before he would lead it, and only two people showed up... me and some girl from Australia. Anyways, the tour guide told us, and some other people that were sitting around and drinking in the the common room, some cool bars and pubs to go to that night. Apparantly there was one bar that was going to be the venue for a concert that night... some Brazillian punk band: Ratos de Parao. One of the people in the hostel was Brazillian and would be going. We all decided that we would go.
The reception desk of the hostel sold beers, so we all sat around and drank for a couple hours. They were entertaining people... two guys from New Mexico, one guy from Brazil, and the girl from Australia. After a couple hours, we made our way to the bar... the Sonic Ballroom. I did not get the directions to it, and someone else was leading us there. When we got there, we learned that the show was sold out, and they would not be letting anyone else in. DOH!
We couldn't go to the Sonic Ballroom, but we saw another interesting looking bar on the way... The Underground. We decided to hang out there instead. This bar took the deposit system to new extremes. I'm not sure if this system was normal in the rest of Germany, but the people I was hanging out seemed to imply that it was not. You had to pay a deposit of up to 50 cents bottles and drinking glasses. When you brought your bottles or glasses back to the bar, then you would get your deposit back. I guess it was to discourage people from stealing the glasses or having wait staff pick them up for you. Whatever.
At The Underground we drank some beers and absinth. They had a special where you could buy Fosters beer for cheap. Neither me nor the Australian girl, Danni, would drink it... we both recognized it for the trash beer that it was.
While at The Underground someone saw a poster advertising that THE KILLERS were playing a concert the very next night in Cologne at the Live Music Hall, which we had walked past in between the Sonic Ballroom and The Underground. I let everyone know that The Killers put on an EXCELLENT live show and it was well worth going. This was supposed to be my last night in Cologne, but I would extend it if I would be able to see The Killers. The others decided that seeing The Killers would be grat and that we should go to the Live Music Hall immediately to buy tickets. Even though it was about midnight by this point, we thought it was an excellent idea at the time.
We left The Underground and walked to the Live Music Hall. When we got there we found out that, of course, the box office was closed! It was the middle of the night! Duh! Okay... we would meet up again tomorrow afternoon and try again.
Meanwhile, the night on the town was not over. The other guys mentioned another bar that they had visited the night before where beers cost only one Euro... not the hefty three Euros that they cost at The Underground. So we decided to go to this other bar, Das Ding.
Okay... I had no idea where we were supposed to be going and these guys were leading. It turns out that we got totally lost and roamed the streets and tram system of Cologne for almost three hours!
Around 2:30 AM we finally find a bar to rest and recharge in. They played the awesome God Gave Us Rock and Roll song from the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack. EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!! *air guitar*
Even that place closed at 3, so we had to keep going. Convinced that we were almost there, we kept walking. Finally at around 4, we found Das Ding... and it was CLOSED! MOST NON TRIUMPHANT!!
At this point, we were tired. We were finished. We found a taxi to take the five of us back to the hostel. I got to sit in a fold-out seat in the trunk, facing backwards! It was awesome!!!
We decided we would meet again the next afternoon at 1 PM.
Anyways... in the morning I decided that I would finally go find the last CDs I was looking for. I had bought some CDs in Berlin at a couple different stores, but I was going to try one more time. I ended up going to a really big CD store, Saturn. It was a good choice... I managed to pick up a few more CDs. I used one of my two 500 Euro bills to pay for them, since I had used up all of my smaller bills already. Conveniently enough, they took it without any hassle. This made me happy... unlike something that would happen a few days later...
Continuing on, I had a few hours to kill before I would start my walking tour at 6 PM. I didn't really want to hit any sights that I figured would be on the tour, so I went to a museum that I thought would be pretty neat... the German-Roman museum. Cologne was actually founded by the Romans almost 2000 years ago. This museum contained some artifacts from the era. It was pretty cool (yeah, I'm a geek):
Soon enough, 6 PM came around and I headed on over to the tour meeting place. It was being organized by a hostel that was just down the street from my hotel. I went into the front room of the hostel. It was a common room for people to hang out in, with a reception desk at the back. I met the tour guide... he said that the tour required three people before he would lead it, and only two people showed up... me and some girl from Australia. Anyways, the tour guide told us, and some other people that were sitting around and drinking in the the common room, some cool bars and pubs to go to that night. Apparantly there was one bar that was going to be the venue for a concert that night... some Brazillian punk band: Ratos de Parao. One of the people in the hostel was Brazillian and would be going. We all decided that we would go.
The reception desk of the hostel sold beers, so we all sat around and drank for a couple hours. They were entertaining people... two guys from New Mexico, one guy from Brazil, and the girl from Australia. After a couple hours, we made our way to the bar... the Sonic Ballroom. I did not get the directions to it, and someone else was leading us there. When we got there, we learned that the show was sold out, and they would not be letting anyone else in. DOH!
We couldn't go to the Sonic Ballroom, but we saw another interesting looking bar on the way... The Underground. We decided to hang out there instead. This bar took the deposit system to new extremes. I'm not sure if this system was normal in the rest of Germany, but the people I was hanging out seemed to imply that it was not. You had to pay a deposit of up to 50 cents bottles and drinking glasses. When you brought your bottles or glasses back to the bar, then you would get your deposit back. I guess it was to discourage people from stealing the glasses or having wait staff pick them up for you. Whatever.
At The Underground we drank some beers and absinth. They had a special where you could buy Fosters beer for cheap. Neither me nor the Australian girl, Danni, would drink it... we both recognized it for the trash beer that it was.
While at The Underground someone saw a poster advertising that THE KILLERS were playing a concert the very next night in Cologne at the Live Music Hall, which we had walked past in between the Sonic Ballroom and The Underground. I let everyone know that The Killers put on an EXCELLENT live show and it was well worth going. This was supposed to be my last night in Cologne, but I would extend it if I would be able to see The Killers. The others decided that seeing The Killers would be grat and that we should go to the Live Music Hall immediately to buy tickets. Even though it was about midnight by this point, we thought it was an excellent idea at the time.
We left The Underground and walked to the Live Music Hall. When we got there we found out that, of course, the box office was closed! It was the middle of the night! Duh! Okay... we would meet up again tomorrow afternoon and try again.
Meanwhile, the night on the town was not over. The other guys mentioned another bar that they had visited the night before where beers cost only one Euro... not the hefty three Euros that they cost at The Underground. So we decided to go to this other bar, Das Ding.
Okay... I had no idea where we were supposed to be going and these guys were leading. It turns out that we got totally lost and roamed the streets and tram system of Cologne for almost three hours!
Around 2:30 AM we finally find a bar to rest and recharge in. They played the awesome God Gave Us Rock and Roll song from the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack. EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!! *air guitar*
Even that place closed at 3, so we had to keep going. Convinced that we were almost there, we kept walking. Finally at around 4, we found Das Ding... and it was CLOSED! MOST NON TRIUMPHANT!!
At this point, we were tired. We were finished. We found a taxi to take the five of us back to the hostel. I got to sit in a fold-out seat in the trunk, facing backwards! It was awesome!!!
We decided we would meet again the next afternoon at 1 PM.
# posted by Rob Szumlakowski @ 6:00 a.m. 
