Cologne or catching up on the best days of our lifes...- Part 1

G`day,

And another special welcome to my followers: Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Dan, Andrew, Scott, Bill and Jan. On my tour to the only four German cities worth having the attribute "big" I arrived at chapter three: Cologne:
Cologne picture taken while crossing the river Rhine through a dirty windshield
Like I have already explained for Berlin, Germans live in apartment buildings but the ones in Cologne are a little smaller than the ones in Berlin but also quite nice architecturewise.

I have been quite lucky as I wasn´t caught in any large traffic jams as it was the weekend when the summer holidays in Northrhine Westphalia ended and I was double lucky that the extraction of two teeth in the morning didn´t affect me too much so I arrived at 4.30pm at my former flatmate Olli. Olli and me actually enjoyed living together so much that we even shared two different flats over the years. We met in 1991 when we both started studying law in Münster. Our first conversation was on Monty Python´s Flying Circus and we even managed to get uphill from there over the years. In 1992 we (Olli, Mark, Stippel and me) moved in a flat for students which was just finished so we were the first to live there. When the last of us moved out there five years later the flat surely looked "lived in". Lots and lots of great stories from that time, stuff for us to reminiscense about whilst drinking beer...

Later that day we visited Olli´s and Mark´s outsourced living room, a pub called "Zum Denkmal"
and played billards...well...Olli won nearly all games as I always managed to sink the eight into the wrong hole..
Olli sorting his balls
Me having another try but I´m just not good enought to win games (apart from soccer) I guess I´ll add billard to the long list of games I am just not able to win...
Olli and me later that evening
Mark and Yvonne joined us later. They have a little boy, David (4 month something) and live opposite to the pub so they are able to take the babyphone with them when they go out drinking. Quite convenient located pub for young parents.
Yvonne and me

Well, we had an awesome evening, the combination of beer and stories from the good old times IS just great. Mark and me were not only flatmates, we were the core of The Holy Chao. Mark drummed, I played the guitar. Btw, before I forget: this is the link to Mark´s current band "the strobosonics" http://www.myspace.com/strobosonics

In the wake of all the brews and some french vodka we eventually reached the "You are my bestest friend"-stage and told many a great tale before we parted. Olli and me continued in his kitchen both the drinking and the drunken conversation. In his kitchen some of the artefacts from our first flat still exist:
An artistic expression of some thoughts on Roman-Catholicism
The decoration of Olli´s fridge, cover of the best German satire magazin "Titanic", translation "What´s the matter with German women? Too stupid to drink!"
The last beer of the day and then we called it a great evening and went to bed...

Part 2 will follow tomorrow as it is just too much to finish tonight and I already hear my bed calling me. Have fun, take care and cya