European Exercise X: Eau de Cologne

Neustadt-Nord, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Woke up the next morning to the smell of fried eggs and toast. Our hosts, Mike and Matthias were already awake preparing us breakfast. Mike looked like your typical buffed German with silver hair and chiseled face, while his boyfriend was much younger than him. The kid mostly kept quiet and did the cooking while the former did all the talking. Mike could speak some English but I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying as i could see the outline of his thick cock against his sweatpants. Huh. In the day, finally could see the place clearly. Typical gay house with plenty of decorations and very neat. Outside the kitchen, were crates of beer and sexy underwear left out to dry. They ushered us to the dining table and invited us to eat. In order to give us some space, they retreated into the bedroom. In addition to the cold cuts and buns, we cooked some of the wurst that Jaz had brought for us. For drinks, we had coffee and orange juice. An extremely good deal for E45 a night, don't you think? From the small talk earlier, found out that Mike basically makes a living renting out his place and designing websites. His PC was right in the kitchen area, continously flashing naked male bodies on the screensaver. Definitely works up an appetite. At around 9:00am, Jaz arrived at the door and he joined us for some breakfast. Noticed that nearly everything in the house was of the Ja! brand. Apparently, they produce a long line of products at consistently cheaper prices than the competition.





First stop in Cologne was Kölner Dom, the landmark of the city. See a rainbow sticker with a silhouette of the twin towers of the Dom on a car? The driver is a queer from Cologne! Walked out from Mike's place and took a DB train from Eberplatz to the Köln Hauptbahnhof station. On the way, we managed to stop by at St. Agnes, the second largest cathedral in the city. Easter Sunday masses all around. The Kölner Dom is a big and imposing structure. The cathedral is black due to the weathering of the stone. Some preservation work was going on on one of the spires. Inside, things were just as impressive with loads of details and decorations. And we were lucky enough to observe mass in progress. The atmosphere seem charged with the grandeur of the cathedral, the stained glass, the incense and the hymns. Halfway through the mass, heard a loud "CLUNK!" and it turned out that a kid passed out on the pew. Poor fella. Outside the Dom was a huge a plaza with street performers and the homeless. Most of them stay in the shade and some of them even turn the street into their living room, complete with carpets, rugs and vases. Also quite common to see elderly or unkempt gentlemen walking around with a plastic bag, rummaging through refuse to find recyclable items like plastic bottles. According to Jaz, the surrender value of such items can add up to quite a bit.







At around noon, we took the bus tour around the city. Days before, Jaz actually bought us another set of tickets, but we had to burn those because it was a walking tour and it was entirely in German. The bus tour was quite bad because the audio recording was horrible. The recorded voice droned on like a monotonous robot and the timing was perfect-- it would start everytime the bus went through a noisy tunnel. :S. It also didn't help that a boisterous Spanish woman sat near us. We sat at the top deck and the sun was brightly shining. The sunniest in my whole trip. Soaked up the most rays in one day! Nearly got fried! (luckliy Jaz treated us to ice cream after that) The bus went around the city bringing us along the ancient Roman wall, several of the famous Romanic churches and across the beautiful bridges that connect Cologne across the Rhein. Also passed by the HQ of Eau de Cologne! Didn't buy any of that stuff... looked vile. :P. Surprisingly, Cologne was crawling with mainland Chinese tourists. The Japanese are no longer the world's travellers. Now, the Chinese have superior buying power. Not only that, the air in Cologne was thick with pollen. We were in the midst of hay fever season and the not-so-shy sun was causing the plants to release their loads. All of the cars were covered in the powdery stuff and even my camera was not spared. Can't imagine how much I had pulled into my lungs.





Walked around Heumarkt and Neumarkt before stopping by at Era Cafe & Bar, smack dab in the middle of the Gay Triangle area. A great place to watch people but unfortunately most of the hot gay boys were in Berlin, for the long weekend (and all the retail shops were closed). It wasn't a disappointment though, still had a great view of two lesbians kissing passionately in front of us. Ordered a Flamkuchen (square, thin crust pizza with salmn) and salad topped with a big chunk of Gouda drizzled with honey. Drank the local beer-- Kolsch and also ordered a Radler, basically beer plus coke. Drinks in Germany are served with exact volume. It is stated in the menu and the scale is imprinted on the glass so that you know that you aren't shortchanged. Did more walking around and ended up at Hohenzollernbrücke, one of the many bridges in Cologne. The interesting thing about it was the love locks left by couples on the metal link fence. Also learned a bit about hoof position symbolism in equestrian statues-- if one foot is in the air, the rider was wounded in battle; both feet in the air means the rider died in battle and if all four are on the ground, the rider did not die in battle. Passed by the Archbishop's residence and was amused that someone had strung up a pair of panties on the road in front of it. Also tried a Berliner, a hole-less doughnut filled with loads of jam and dusted with castor sugar. Sugar-overload! Feeling tired, we stopped for drinks later at Stella D' Oro. Ordered a Fragolini, ice-blended fruit juice with a dash of champagne.









In the evening, we headed to IX Bar for the happy hour. All cocktails were half off!! It was interesting sitting in the gay bar watching all the flirting going on. Eyes were flashing and electricity was thick in the air. Plus, the bartender had a very cute boy next door look!!! Ordered the house special while Jaz got his favourite pina colada. Several cute kids tried their luck at the bar, but were rejected due to their age. Too much alcohol wasn't a good idea, so we left at about nine to look for food. Passed by a twinky bar called Mumu and several guys loitering outside made some comments in German. I asked Jaz what the fuss was about-- turns out they were joking that we were from Fukushima. Heh. As the host, Jaz bought dinner for us at Der Lowenbrau, at the tourist strip. Although it was white asparagus season, we decided against that, so we ordered sourbratten with red kraut (basically vinegared pork), pizza with artichoke (an expensive but tasteless ingredient) and ham. Had Erdinger beer that time round. On our way back to Mike's place, we had a curry wurst at a roadside kiosk-- the typical German snack. Since it was very late by the time we got home and we had to take the early train out the next day, Jaz crashed at Mike's place too. Just a brief stopover... had to say goodbye to Jaz and Germany already.