Life in Germany: Bonn/Cologne Trip

Last weekend we had the weekend off from ball. I took a trip with one of my teammates, Hellen, to Bonn and Cologne. It was Karneval weekend, so there was going to be lots of fun things going on =). We first went to Bonn. I know a couple of the guys on the Bonn team, EJ and Frazier, so we were going to watch them play. We took a train up to Bonn Friday night and just chilled at Frazier’s house for the night. The next day we walked into downtown Bonn and walked around the shops there. It was nice just to walk and talk and take pictures and just hang out. Saturday night, we went to the game. A friend I met from my tryout in December, Angie, came to the game and sat with us. It was so good to see her and hang out since I hadn’t seen her since the tryout. She is playing ball in Dorsten, which is about an hour and a half north of Bonn, but she was in town for the Karneval and to visit a couple other girls we tried out with. After the game, Bonn won, all of the crowd went on to the floor and formed a massive train, spiraling around the floor. At first, we were sitting in our seats and saying, oh, that’s fun and it’s Karneval, so people were in costumes and just having a great time. Then, Angie suggested that we go into the crowd, and of course, we did J. We first started on the outskirts of the court, then I lead the way to the middle of the court where EJ and Frazier were. It was sooo much fun. When we got into the middle, all of a sudden everyone sat down and the music stopped. Then music started again and everyone got up and jumped around and man, it was so much fun. It was even funnier because we had no idea what was going on and were just going along with what everyone else was doing. Another exciting thing about the game was that I got to see EJ’s mom. I haven’t seen her in a really long time, and she happen to be there the same time I was there, it was great.

Sunday, we made our way to Cologne. We were going to stay with a friend of one of our coaches, Pauli. He was really nice and even let us know where and what we should go see on Sunday, just to look around and enjoy the town. After we put our bags at Pauli’s place, Hellen and I went back into Cologne and there was a parade going. It was a parade with the different schools and kids around. It was a lot of fun to watch them, and it was a good warm up for Monday. On Monday would be the big Karneval parade, a lot bigger. Once the parade was done, we just walked around, where ever we chose to go. Eventually, we found ourselves far away from the train station and where we had seen the parade. We were just talking about any and everything that came to mind. We even had a mini German lesson, going over colors and parts of the body, hehe, it was great. Monday, we got up and had breakfast with Pauli, then got ready to go to the parade. We didn’t bring any costumes, but Pauli had an elk costume, it was fabulous and I couldn’t help but laugh. However, on this day, since it was Karneval, it was the normal thing to be dressed up in a costume, so Hellen and I were the outcasts. Once we got into downtown, the parade was about to start and her and I watched it while Pauli met up with some of his friends. Everyone in the parade had bags and bags of candy and flowers and just a bunch of goodies. As a part of the crowd, you had to yell “KAMILLE” (that spelling is so very wrong!). Anyways, you yell this and the people in the parade throw candy and things into the crowd and it’s a free-for-all to try and get everything. Hellen and I were speaking English, clearly, and we could see people in the crowd staring at us, trying to listen to what we were saying and seeing if they could understand, it was humorous. A couple people even joined the conversation and we made some friends J. Later at night, Angie and Betty, another girl from the tryout, came out to Cologne to hang out with us. It was cool to see them and hang with them for a bit too.

We left Tuesday morning to make our way back to Heidelberg. Tuesday was Heidelberg’s day for a parade and Karneval and I wanted to be able to join in that fun as well! Overall, Hellen and my weekend was great. We got to hang out and just chill. I got to see some friends from home and I made some new friends along the way.

So, I can only post 5 pics with each post..so here are the pics from Bonn:

lol, a little shopping in Bonn anyone??