Day 13: From the Duomo to Repubblica

May 11th, 2012 ---

Anita had to run over to school for an hour this morning because it was the first class and she wanted to make sure she was able to reserve a seat, as well as check out the course. Having known this before I fell asleep last night, I decided to set my alarm for 9, so that I could get up and shower and be ready to go tackle the day when she got back around 10:30.

She ended up coming home around 9:30, explaining that her class ended up being an "Italian day", and because she is one of the English speaking students at her school, she didnt even have to go! So we ended up getting ready and decided to head back to the Duomo!

Even though I had been the day before, we wanted to browse around the area some more, as well as go up the lift in the Duomo. When we arrived, there were two military men at the door asking for tickets. Anita trying to talk to them in half English and half Italian trying to explain we didn't have any but also asking where to get them. They told us we had to head to some little store around the corner.
I swear, they have the weirdest systems of doing things in this city.
We walked over to the store that was behind the Duomo around the corner and got our €12 tickets to go up the lift to the top of the Duomo.

We go back to the entrance, hand the guards our tickets and shoot up the elevator. We walk through a narrow corridor, make a left up two or three small steps and suddenly we're on the lower level of the roof!
Incredible! The view, amazing. We went back through the corridor, up some more steps and are now on the right side. We continue to walk to wear we go up more stairs, Anita beginning to freak out (she's not too good with heights) but we end up on the very tip top of the roof!

The sun is beating down on us, its about 80 degrees and humidity has begun to set in. Being atop the roof though, it didn't even matter! You could see the entire piazza below, as well as the beautiful galleria. You could see all the spectacular architecture, the carvings and details of all the small and large statues covering this cathedral. It was gorgeous! I love how much detail Europe put into their buildings and churches. They care so much about the appearance of their cities. Its really amazing and I can appreciate every bit of it! :)

We headed back down the lift and decided it was time to grab some lunch. Anita works as an assistant to a very wealthy family. One of the many things they own and run is a wine bar a few metro stops away. Anita's boss had told her that since I was in town, that she should take me there. So she found out the address and decided it would be cool to go check it out.

About 20 minutes and metro rides later, we were lost at a large round-about with streets coming off streets and trying to find the one that the wine bar was on. After asking someone, we found the street and the exact address she was given... But was there anything there? Nope. Of course not. Bummer.
We thought maybe it was closed and it was only a night place, so we went to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed some fantastic fazzoli, mine with broccoli, hers with tuna. We ordered wine with our meals, typical in Italy of course! And I ended up with a half litre of pinot grigo! Hahaha Cheers!! Oh Italy...
Part way through my meal, I decided to go use the restroom, to which I didn't realise the bathrooms were co-ed. So when I walked in, there was a man about one of the stall doors.
"oh! I'm sorry!"
He laughed, "No, no!" and he signalled for me to use it...
Uhh.. Okay...
Then when I came out, there was a man standing at the sink, oh you know, just doing up his belt, no big deal.
I was so confused. I had no idea if I really was in a co-ed bathroom or I managed to find myself in the men's bathroom but they were just okay with it. Haha So awkward!
I went back to my table, explaining what had happened and her just cracking up at my awkward bathroom encounter.
But this restaurant got even better.
In Italy, they typically have several plates throughout their meals. They start with bread and pasta, then meat, then salad, then dessert. When our waiter came over, he stood unusually close to the right of me, looking down. I shifted to the left, to give myself a bit of personal space and he asked "Second plate?"
I just laughed because not just 20 minutes ago, he apparently hadn't been able to understand anything we said in English when we were trying to order, and now he was speaking English and standing freakishly close to my arm. Haha weird guy.
So Anita and I laughed, refusing a second plate, the first being big enough. Then we paid and headed off to a small shopping area called De Angeli where Anita wanted to grab her hairspray and look through a few shops.

De Angeli wasn't anything too special. There were a few boutiques that we checked out, the clothing very unique, some a little odd. But it was cool to see none the less. Both of us totally wiped out from the sun, the heat and being out all day, we decided it would be a good idea to head home.

After taking the metro and tram back to her neighborhood, we stopped at a little wine store around the corner, picked up a few bottles and headed back to her studio apartment for a quick cat nap.

The nap turned out to be exactly what I needed! I still have this stupid cold and haven't had the greatest stamina the last few days, though it's nice to wear summer clothes, the heat hasn't really helped much either.
About an hour later, just as I was waking up, Bogdan returned from work and we were popping open a bottle of wine and listening to some great house music while getting ready for the night.
We decided to dress up a bit tonight and head to the lounges of Porta Sempione!

Porta Sempione is beeeaaautifullll! By far my favorite area of Milan! Anita was telling me that the area is part of the fashion district of Milano. Where big designers get their fabrics and have some of the fashion week parties. The street lined with big beautiful trees and unique, round street lamps, and the side walks lined with awnings from restaurants as well as tables and chairs under umbrellas. At the end of the street, you could see a large archway lit up and in the background and big park. The whole area was precious! It reminded me a little bit of Paris even.

We walked over to a place called Ama.Mi. Its funny that I began this trip and blog with a reference to Eat Pray Love because when I walked in, of all songs they could've been playing in this fantastic, brick-walled, candle lit lounge was a song from the movie. The song from when she goes to India and she's riding her bike through the street, her future husband messing with a cassette in his car and then runs her off the road. It's the same song that plays when they meet again at the bar. And here I am, walking into the lounge and on it comes! It made me a laugh, what a funny coincidence that I referenced this movie and now the soundtrack is officially apart of my trip.

We ordered drinks at the bar before sitting at a small white round table. The happy hours in Milan have free buffets when you order drinks, so there was a fantastic assortment of pastas, cheese, salad/ veggies and bread. It was sooo good! Gosh, Italy, you know how to do happy hour! Haha Mmm!

We were there for about a good hour and a half ordering drinks, having some munchies from the buffet (my personal favorite being the cucumbers in oil & vinegar) then headed off to our next spot!

I regularly check out this website called The Cool Hunter. It's a great blog-like website that has pictures of amazing places around the world, places such as bars & restaurants, natural wonders, incredible architecture or design; as well as great fashion, music, art, advertising, etc. It's a really neat site! (www.thecoolhunter.net)

A few months ago, while I was exploring this site, they did a piece on a new trend: Designer Bakeries. They are bakeries that are designed and built in some beautiful way and make incredible breads, pastries and the like. When looking at all of the pictures of bakeries around the world, two that I really liked I had bookmarked and "pinned" on my Pinterest board. (www.pinterest.com/jpond)

Well, one of those bakeries I had recalled was named Princi and in Milan! I was dying to see it and when Anita and I looked it up earlier in the day, we found out it was open till 2am! Perfect!

We set out to find Princi!

It turned out to be a bit farther than we expected but we ended up in a really cool area called Repubblica! It was in the more modern area of Milan, where these enormous glass buildings and condos were all being built up.
In the Piazza, there were tons of bars and clubs all filled with beautiful trendy people. The atmosphere was so fun! There were lots of promoters in the streets calling out to people passing by getting them to go into their clubs. One of the clubs was called Hollywood.
People selling stuff on the streets and promoters were coming up to us here and there, becoming really annoying. So as we walked by Hollywood, one promoter comes up to me and says, in his Italian accent: "Eh! Eh! Come check out Hollywood!"
I didn't miss a beat, and said "Sweetheart, I LIVE in Hollywood!" and just kept walking, him completely stuttering on what to say and Anita & Bogdan just laughing behind me.

We were on the hunt for this bakery, which we ended up getting lost finding it. We asked a few people, some not knowing what we were talking about and others leading us in circles. It didn't help there was some construction going on that made it all the more confusing.

Finally after getting out my iPhone and making a few turns I saw the sign for the place! I was so excited!

There was big glass windows at the store front and white awnings. We walked in, the place rather empty then I had imagined. It was long with a large dark wood wall on the left side - this was where the counter with baked goods was and on the right bar stools lined a long glass wall with wooden shelf to eat, also looking into an area where a baker was cutting up and weighing dough for bread.

Anita and I decided we were going to try a bunch of things since we'd come all that way! We ordered a doughnut, slice of cherry pie, cannoli, tiramasu and water to wash it down.

We sat down on what we noticed were actually ripped bar stools, sampled everything feeling a bit disappointed that none of it was all that extraordinary at all! It was quite the bummer since we had come all that way expecting greatness.

It was now 1am, we were pretty tired from a long day and disappointing bakery adventure. We headed back to the metro station.

When we arrived it turned out to be closed.
Nooooo! Not this again!!! How do we get home now?!

We all stand arguing about what to do when suddenly we see a bus pass by. Yes!!!
We try running for it and miss it, of course, and end up waiting about 15 minutes for the next one.
When we get off the bus, we still have to take the #9 tram back. As we're walking towards the tram stop, we see it approaching and we're along the tracks but we aren't very close to the stop. We're probably going to miss it. Noooooo!!!!
Bogdan runs toward the tram signaling at the tram operated that we want on as Anita and I are trying to catch up behind him. Note: I'm wearing huge wedge heels, running across rocky grass with bumps and holes, praying I don't break an ankle on the way.
Thankfully the tram operator actually was kind enough to wait for us. We jumped on, out of breath, and journeyed back to Anita's apartment where we all passed out almost instantly.

Atop the Duomo in Milan

Atop the Duomo

In Anita's courtyard, ready for happy hour!

Porta Sempione!

Anita & I at Ama.Mi

Ama.Mi in Porta Semione for happy hour!

The bakery: Princi

Our order at Princi: Cannoli, Tiramsu, Doughnut, and Slice of Cherry Pie

Day 11- Art?

May 9th, 2012 ---

Having checked the forecast last night, I knew today was supposed to be a rainy one. I decided it would be a good day to hit the museums and some giant Imax theatre that was across the lake.

Before leaving the hostel, i had a peak around looking for information about the museums and checked if perhaps there were some coupons or discounts I could use with my Eurail pass because the admission to this huge museum, apparently was a bit pricey.
Well! After I peaked here and there, turns out that big museum i was hoping to check out was the Museum of Transportation! Boring...

Don't get me wrong, all museums are interesting in their own way, but I was hoping to look at more than just transportation stuff. I wanted to check out lots of things!

When I had first arrived in Lucerne and came out of the train station I had noticed that across the street was the KKL Lucerne Museum of Arts. So, I changed my plan and decided to head that way instead.

The building was very beautiful in a modern and architectural way. It was a large, all glass building with part of it jutting out and held up by two large pillars, between the pillars - a large round water fountain.

When inside, I found that the museum was only one level of the building on level K. I jumped in the elevator and made my way upstairs, bought a ticket and to my surprise, I had to put my purse in a locker.

I grabbed my phone and iPod, putting on some RJD2, Emancipator and Röyskopp for a mellow cruise around the museum. As I head through the glass door, I took a right into the first room where I stood looking at photography that some woman took of her covered in mud attempting to blend into a large tree.

Okay....
I keep walking...

Room 2 is full of projectors and televisions showing videos. One video, literally a surveillance tape of a restaurant kitchen, another a girl painting on the bones in her arm, on her arm (then it was start over and repeat).

By this point, I'm recalling an article I had read last night that my friend ha posted on Facebook. It was about how the author, Glen Coco, was sick of pretending, he just didn't "get" art. After attending many, many art shows in his career he thought it was hilarious that we all stand there, staring at an art piece trying to find some greater meaning to it when really your looking at a potted plant on a post.

So I'm walking through this museum, with this article in mind just asking myself "what is considered art?" and "why are these people famous and considered true professional artists when I could've taken the same picture with my iPhone?" On that note, I probably could've taken a better picture on my iPhone -- look at me, I'm an artist! Even based on the many principles of design I've learned over the years, some of this "art" was really just crap.

Please, let's do an experiment. Let's take these 'works of art' and tell these artists to pretend they are students for a day. Have them present in front of my teachers and then sit back and watch as they get torn apart for work that looks like a child got a hold of a disposable camera.

... And really, a surveillance video in a restaurant kitchen? Common. If that's all it took, security guards would be raking in the cash!

I walked around the museum for about an hour or so, until I got to the last room - tables with table cloths that had crayon drawings on them.
I'm done.
To put it bluntly and with some sort of comedy to it: this museum was wack! Hahahaha
Okay, I promise, I'll never say wack again. That felt weird coming from me. Lol

Anyways, I ended up heading out of the museum with a whole day ahead of me and suddenly blue skies! I decided it would be nice to just walk around town for a few hours, see where life would take me.

Well it took me to H&M. Dammit. Soooo many cute clothessss!!! Why was H&M America not as cool as it was here??! After about a solid 30-40mins, I ended up finding a few really, really unique finds and was absolutely thrilled about them! Bring on that cruise! This girl's got a brand new wardrobe! (okay well not a whole wardrobe.. But still!)

After browsing around a little longer I decided to grab a sandwich at a neat little place called Bachmans and then grabbing a small ice cream and walked along the lake.

It turned out to be, really, quite a beautiful day! This may sound funny, but it was like Lucerne was in high definition. The air was crystal clear, the lake so clean, the sky so, so blue, snow-covered mountains in the distance but still reflecting onto the lake and tons of swans hanging out by the shore. Everything was so saturated in natural colors. It was extraordinary.

It was around 5 when I decided to head back to the hostel. I received a message before from that ropes course instructor Kevin, who invited me out for a casual drink by the train station. I thought it would be a nice way to learn a little more about the city and a good way to end Switzerland. So we planned to meet at 8 at the large archway that sits in front of the main station.

I got back to the hostel, read a book for a while, just chilled out, then headed over to meet him.

When I arrived, he greeted me in typical European fashion with a cheek-to-cheek kiss on both sides and then we went into the station to buy two beers at the store.

With beer in hand, we walked along the lake to the park that was right by my hostel and parked it on a bench. Our conversations were pretty hilarious, most involving a lot of hand gestures to help with the German-to-English language barrier.

He had told me that the indoor skate ramp his friends built was right around the corner, to which I thought would be fun to go see! We walk about 5minutes to a garage right beside he train station and as soon as we get close I can hear the sound of skateboards zipping back and forth on a ramp.

The place was really cool! It was a small ramp from wall to wall, with pipes along the edges to grind on. There were drawings all over the walls and music blasting. I met a bunch of locals who showed off their skills while sitting on the above landing with my beer and enjoyed some conversation with one of the guys that had built the place and competes with Kevin. He had to have been like 45 and he skated so well, almost better than the rest of them that we're there! It kind of made me laugh that he was still killin it at his age! Good for him!

We hung out there for about a half hour before making our way to a nearby bar in a hotel on the other side of the train station. It's strange that they play so much American music at the bars, restaurants and shops in Europe. I've noticed it everywhere I have gone. It almost ruins the experience a little bit. It's hard to emerge yourself in a culture when an American top 40 song is playing in the background.

We had a few drinks and danced, a few of Kevin's friends also there and socialising, then he very kindly walked me back to my hostel around 1am where I immediately crashed out with my alarm set for 6am!

Tomorrow: I head to Milano!! :)

KKL Lucerne Museum of Art: Paper Rings?

KKL Lucerne Museum of Art

KKL Lucerne Museum of Art

Lucerne!

Skateboarding Mini Ramp

Day 7 & 8: Germany, you win.

May 6th & 7th, 2012 ---

... I don't even feel like writing this right now. Aghh. But it's 6:45am on Day 8 and I haven't gone to sleep yet. I'm sitting on a train on my way back to Cologne after partying in Munster till the sun came up. Literally. No point in sleeping now, might as well write.........
......
...
..

Nope...... Cant do it. I change my mind. I may, to quite a surprise, be completely and 100% sober right now, but there's a major lack of function up there. I'll give it another shot later this afternoon.
ZzZzzz....

--------------


Siiighhhh..... Okay.

Well, having already read an intro to what will come, I'll still start at the beginning.

Today was a rainy day and as rainy days usually go, they set the mood for a typically mellow day. Which it indeed was. (The day, I mean.)

We woke around 11:30, got ready and headed out with a few things to accomplish. Apropose, we go! I promised I would try on that dress and today, feeling well rested and so much better, was the day. So off we went to Apropose, with umbrellas in hand.

That morning I had straightened my hair all nice, but of course... As soon as I stepped outside, poof. Frizz. The downside of having naturally curly hair! Ugh! By the time we arrived at Apropose, even Janis was laughing at my #CurlyHairProblems.

I walked in and headed straight to the dress. Of course, being all high end and fancy, they only had one tiny size on the rack, so I found a sales associate close by who went to the back to grab my size and lead me to a fitting room. The dress was so beautiful. It was black satin on top, layers that pleated horizontally until it reached the natural waist where a black belt, encrusted with white crystals sat above the cream-colored satin skirt that had an overlay of puffed out tule. Though I felt a little wider in it, it was still so cute and classy! I did a little spin in the dressing room, opening the door to show the sales associate and Janis who wanted to see it on. After thoroughly enjoying wearing a dress worth €600, I closed the dressing room door, snapped a pic for memory purposes and then changed back to real life clothing. Twas fun!

We wandered around the store for a few more minutes... Where I found the show boutique. Dammit. I was done for. So many pretty shooooooeeeeessss!!!!! Jimmy Choo, Yves St. Laurent, Monolo and Loubtin! Sighhh.... It was shoe heaven. I found a gorgeous pair of Yves St. Laurent platform pumps in a dark beige with cognac-colored piping, heel and toe cap. Obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. With no sales associate in sight and realizing it was my size, I looked at Janis and then just went for it! I slipped it on real fast and then discovered that, as beautiful as it was, it was terribly uncomfortable. Thank goodness! My level of obsession lowered to just a high level of appreciation... So I found a way to part with the masterpiece and moved on... To where I found the latest collection from Christian Louboutin. Beige snakeskin pumps.... Classic black leather peep toe, all of which had the standard red Louboutin sole. I think I let out a small whimper when I saw the price stickers at €695 or higher. One day Louboutin... one day....

By that point, I had to leave my shoe love behind... I didn't want Janis to think I had a problem or anything... It's just a real appreciation of beautifully designed shoes and quality leather... That's all.. Sigh.. We were on our way to MAC so I could grab a few things I had forgotten. On our way, he showed me this little bakery. So adorable, it was painted a light, candy-colored pink and had bench-seating along the corridor wall and small tables adorned with lit tea lights. Walking through the doorway, I looked into the glass cases. I wasn't going to get anything, but after seeing the eclairs, I had to try one! I hadn't had an eclair in years! So I paid for a small one, sat at one of the small tables by the entry... And that's where I met a new friend! With wet, crimped, light blonde hair, beautiful structured face and dark brown eyes... I instantly fell in love. I never found out his name, but he was the most beautiful and affectionate golden retriever! Haha! And you all probably thought I meant a boy! Well, my puppy, Koda would've been jealous. I gave him an ear scratch and pet his wet fur with his head nuzzled against my leg. He was the cutest thing.. I wanted to take him home with me! But obviously when that wasn't an option, it made me miss my little fur ball back home in San Diego!

We headed onto MAC where I grabbed a few things then headed to a bar! Earlier that day, Janis had told me that the Cologne football (soccer) team would be playing a big match against Munich that would be the deciding factor on whether they would be in the first seed or not. Now I really have no idea what that means, nor am I sure I even explained that right, but I knew it was a big game and that the bars would be full of people watching! I wanted to join for the experience of watching a football game with Europeans who are known for their passion towards football! So off we went, dipping in and out of a few places looking for somewhere that wasn't super crowded.

After a few places, we settled at a place where we shared a long table with a few people and ordered some Kolsh beer, the main beer from Cologne (that's great, might I add.) I ordered a Hawaiian calzone as a late lunch and proceeded to watch the game.

Never have I ever been into soccer. I've watched it once or twice with an ex of mine that was from London and always enjoyed supporting his team, Tottenham. But I never really paid attention... I usually was doing homework or busy doing anything that didn't involve watching guys kick a ball around. But this time.... I was in the bar, beer I'm hand, not exactly yelling at the tv.. but let's just say I definitely got into it. And when Cologne lost.... It was soo sad. A few people...the opposition.. they cheered.. But everyone else was pretty quiet. You could definitely feel the disappointment in the air. None the less, it was an absolute blast just being around all the supporters of the local football team!

We went straight back to Janis' apartment following the game and quickly changed and head for the train station. We were on our way to Munster, a two hour train ride away, to party till the wee hours.... Pretty much till we could catch the first train heading back to Cologne at 6:34am.

We arrived at the Bahnhof, hopped on the train and enjoyed a nap mid-ride arriving in Munster around 8:45. When we got outside the train station, there were bicycles parked EVERYWHERE! I couldn't believe it! So many freakin bikes!!! Janis informed me that Munster is the biking city of Germany and everyone bikes here. No kidding! Geez!

Janis & I walked over to a nearby grocery store, picked up some alcohol and while we were in there I noticed a bottle with clear liquid and an apple on it! I grab it and run over to him, "Janis!!! Is this apple water??!" "Yes..." I think he was a bit puzzled why I was so stoked about finding apple water. "Its not carbonated right? Just plain apple water?" "Yes, why?" I explained to him that, Aaron, the guy from New Zealand that had introduced me to The Black Seeds, had told me about apple water once upon a time and I thought it was the neatest thing. He tried to bring me back some when he came back in March but because he couldn't bring it on the plane in his back, he never had a chance. He laughed when I told him how badly I wanted to try it and told me to just water down some apple juice because, surely, it would probably taste the same. Obviously I refused and have been waiting out for this apple water. So when I was in the grocery store i was stoked to find some!

From here, we headed over to Janis' friend Tim's apartment; a fantastically, modern and ikea decorated place. It was a cool spot! We had some drinks, listened to a bunch of amazing house music had a few laughs.... They mainly spoke German so i mainly just drank but they tried to include me the best they could. I didn't mind though, I'm in Germany, wasn't expecting everyone to speak English.

We went hopped in a cab around midnight to a place called Club Fusion. We were seeing a house dj named Oliver Koletzki. When we arrived, Janis' best friend, Jana had put us on the list, so we went straight in and dropped off our coats at coat check. Once inside, we grabbed some drinks and proceeded to hit the dance floor. About an hour(?) later, Jana and her boyfriend disappeared and Janis said he'd be right back having to go find a friend, leaving Tim and I on the dance floor. As the place began to get more and more crowded, personal space was pretty much gone. Everyone around us dancing and having a blast. About another hour had past and Tim gets a few texts from Janis saying he couldn't find us in the crowd and that they were now right beside the DJ on stage! Tim & I immediately went to find them and spent the rest of the night partying up there! It was so fun!

Club Fusion was a really cool spot, the only thing that really sucked - like most places in Germany, you're allowed to smoke in the venue. It was sooooo smokey! With all the secondhand smoke around me the whole night, by the time we left around 5, my eyes were burning and my lungs felt like I had smoked a carton. Breathing definitely felt like a chore. Though the music was amazing and i probably could've kept dancing for another few hours, I was relieved when it was time to go.

Janis and I took a short taxi ride to a small diner a block from the train station, where I had an amazing wrap called a Döner Rollo. Inside was salad, a thin sliced warm meat and tzatziki sauce. Sooooo good! I had drank two bottles of water, I think all the smokey air and dancing made me sooo thirsty, as I had stopped drinking sometime around 1am, and only had about a total of 5 or 6 drinks the whole night, mostly at Tim's. It was nice to be completely sober for the train ride back to Cologne at 630.

The train ride was the lonnnnngggeeeesssttttt train ride evvvvvveeeeerrrrrr!!!! About 20minutes into the ride back, exhaustion hit. Legs, lungs, body aching. Mental function gone. Cigarette smoke embedded into every thread of clothing I was wearing. Janis and I joked how destroyed we felt. Another wild night! Non stop dancing. I literally hadn't sat down till the cab to the diner. I danced the WHOLE night! #LikeAChamp.

Like you previously read, I attempted to blog, but i just couldn't put together an interesting sentence, nor did I want to. Stoked, was I, when we finally pulled into the Cologne Bahnhof. Janis and I got back to his apartment in record time. I immediately jumped into the shower... there was no way I would be able to sleep feeling as gross I was feeling. After a nice, long, warm shower... Feeling refreshed, I hit the pillow, emailing my parents to let them know I got in okay and checking my mail. I ended up laying in bed wide awake.

'Seriously?'

Partied all night till the sun rose, exhausted train catching for a grueling 2 hour train back to Cologne and now I can't sleep?!

Okay, Germany, you win. Now let me sleep.

I finally passed out around 10:30am waking up around 1:30.

... It is currently just after midnight, I'm still in my pajamas. Today was an epically lazy day with nothing but a little packing, writing, listening to music, face booking, picture uploading and eating some super bomb pasta Janis made.

Today was needed. Off to Lucerne, Switzerland tomorrow!
I'm staying in my very first hostel! Wish me luck!

Till next tomorrow,

Goodnight!

Alice & Olivia Dress at Apropose

Yves St. Laurent Heels

Munster: Bike Capital of Germany... no kidding!

Apple Water!

Soccer game at local bar in Cologne

At Club Fusion in the DJ booth!

So much rain!