Mamma Mia, Geht Schon Wieder Los

One of the perks of being in this program is that I get a travel ticket to go anywhere I want in Northrhein Westphalia: 

So be it train, tram, or bus, I can travel all over the map above for free. This ticket became valid yesterday, so I decided to spend a few hours in Cologne. Cologne is a city of 1 million people, and it seemed like all of its residence decided to spend their Saturday with all of the tourists in the city center. There were street performances on every corner, tour groups being shuffled around, and shoppers going to the high-end stores that lay all around the city. Right when I got off of the tram, the Cologne Dom (as seen above) was the first thing I saw. This place is really a site to see. I would actually venture to say that it is more impressive than Westminster Abbey, and the thing about it is that it is a working church, with ceremonies going on all day. When I wanted to go in to climb to the top, there was a Gottesdienst going on at the time. A tour guide in Aachen actually told us that a lot of times tourist think because these churches are so old that they are more of a museum, which actually isnt true because they are still functioning as they have been for many centuries. After taking in this massive building (I would venture to say it is the equivalent of a 50 story building), I was ran into some street performers:

...And several different street artists...

 It is a completely different atmosphere in Cologne than in Bonn, it feels so much bigger, and the historical sites are bountiful. I noticed that a lot of stores, both fancy, expensive ones and then the really tourist-y ones, were selling something called "Koelsch Wasser" which directly translates to "Cologne Water" and I thought it was just a scam to sell regular water from Cologne for a high price, but then I smelled it and it smelled like perfume. After asking someone, I realized that they are selling men's cologne in Cologne, so now I am wondering if it was invented there or something. But it is all-in-all really cool to walk around the streets of Cologne and see stores from all over the world selling clothes and goods that it would be hard-pressed to find in America.

So you may be wondering, or may have even tried to look up, what the meaning of the article title for today is. Well it is lyrics to Mamma Mia, by ABBA. Why? Because I happened across this German boy band/A capella group/ ABBA cover band, so here is them singing Mamma Mia in German:

Then I met Konrad Adenauer, looking as stoic as ever (Mom you may remember his name from my research) (Brendan I know you know who he is, you too Dad, probably Alexis too):

After Cologne, me and a couple of other people went over to someone's house for a German dinner. It was very nice. We had Spaetzle with mushrooms and then red cabbage on the side. It was really good, but really filling. But I knew that it is rude in Germany if you are invited over to someone's house and you don't finish your meal, so I did. Afterwards, we all went downtown (Bonn) to see some of the concerts for Einheitstag. We saw Cascada (who is from Bonn, who knew?! Alexis- you may know the song "Everytime we touch"), a comedian, and a band called Blaeck Foeoess, whose claim to fame is to sing folk songs with a Cologne accent. I didnt record it, but I will attack a video if you want to know what that sounds like:

(^^I think people are dressed up because it is Karneval)