Bon Iver Day

So last Sunday (not yesterday but a week ago) I went to Cologne to meet my friend Mickey and to see Bon Iver in concert! I had the perfect ingredients for the making of a wonderful day. I was lucky enough to get to know Mickey during those 2 months I lived in Radolfzell. Then, great surprise, two fellow Radolfzellers were also in Cologne- Ali and Ariana. Mickey and I got into town late in the afternoon and rendezvoused with Ali and Ariana and walked around the Altstadt before picking a place for dinner and catching up. It was so very nice to see these folks again, since it had been one month since we'd all moved away to our respective German cities.

After dinner - Phad Thai that reenforced the notion that ethnic food in Germany is not the greatest - Mickey and I bid adieu to the girls and headed to see Bon Iver! I had my camera with me from sightseeing earlier, and the bouncer at the door was not about to let me into the concert. Well, too bad for him I was feeling feisty and my German was flowing like the River Rhein because I argued with him for quite a few minutes before he finally agreed to let me into the venue. That's right, dude! So, while every other person who was at the concert has pictures on their phones, cameras, professional video recording devices, etc, I am the only person who walked out of there without any pictures of proof. Other than being sad to not be able to show you, dear reader, what it was like, I really don't need pictures. The show was amazing. They are so incredibly talented. So talented, in fact, that I decided to not leave the venue in order to catch the last train that would get me back to Mainz before the trains stopped running for the night. I stayed to the very end (and the end was Skinny Love and oh my gosh it was so great). Mickey saw me off at the closest U-Bahn stopped and I made my way to the Hauptbahnhof to see what my train options where. Overnight train to Frankfurt at midnight, 2.5 hours of homelessness there and then back to Mainz by 5am. Better than sitting in Cologne until 5am.

So, I hopped aboard my first ever overnight train and snoozed for a very comfortable 2 hours. Really, if you're considering train travel in Europe and you don't care about being able to see the countryside out of the window, this would be a good way to travel. We blew straight through Mainz on that train, and regardless of how hard I tried wishing the train to safely stop and let me off there, we trucked right on to the Frankfurt airport stop. It is here that I de-trained and spent close to 3 hours in the train station in the wee morning hours. It was actually pretty delightful. One tiny pretzel stand was open (in Germany you must always be able to have a pretzel if you want one, I'm pretty sure), so I got a coffee and croissant (not pretzel, sorry to disappoint) and took my place on some seats near other overnighters, half homeless for real and half weary traveler. I opened my copy of The Economist that I had purchased for the trip to Cologne and learned about the world and kept my eye on the probably-not-so-safe-to-be-near homeless guy. Don't worry Mom; you've taught me how to be aware of my surroundings and be safe.

Once I made it back to Mainz, it was 5am and I had a 20 minute walk back to my place. It was a lovely walk and everything looked so great to me, probably because I was tired. By the time I made it back, I was considering just staying awake and enjoying more of a day in which I had already accomplished so much. But then I put my head on my pillow and slept till noon.