Life in the fast lane

First of all, being greeted with this sign should say it all! (see below).

I met three crazy Germans in a strange aligning of the stars situation. I went camping in Torquay earlier this year in January. There I was with my friends minding my own business in the camping ground kitchen, and in walk these guys – Max, Simon and Anthony. Well, we gets-a-talking and we play afew drinking games with them, next thing we know they’re on their way to Melbourne in a weeks time after the camp. We had a great time, took them out to bars and clubs round Melbourne town and really wreaked havoc. Long story short, they were from Köln in Germany, so here I am now. Visiting this beautiful city cos I met these crazy guys back in Torquay.

And they’re definitely returning the favour – showing me round the local hotspots, keeping me slightly inebriated or “socially lubricated”.

As soon as I get in the car from the airport they hand me a bottle of Kölsch, local Cologne beer (delicious stuff). We had plans to go to this party in the park at some dedicated party house. Sounds good right? Oh right, I didn’t say that I flew in at 10:45pm! We rushed home, dumped the suitcases, had another beer at home, finished a bottle of cheap but delicious vodka on the walk over to this place and needless to say by the time we got to the party, I was as “socially lubricated” as can be.. “socially drenched” if I may..

We moved around abit throughout the night – started at that party then moved on to other bars and clubs, afew more drinks and there may or may not have been tequila involved. We got home at about 6am. You know when you look up at the sky at some point in the night and realize it’s very light to still be night? Yeah that definitely happened..

So what’s the logical thing to do after such a night out? (besides doing it all again the next night) Sleep in and have a quiet day… no chance. We got up at about 12, had breakfast and pulled out the bikes and rode into the city. Keep in mind, I haven’t ridden a bike seriously since 2006. And here I was, riding on the road in another country driving on the opposite side of the road and still slightly drunk from the night before. Needless to say I wasn’t in the best state. I may have even gone up the wrong side of the road when turning at intersections.. oops.

We went for a nice bike ride along the Rhein river and into the city centre. Went to the Cologne Cathedral. Keep in mind, I’m still not feeling the best at this point, regardless we climbed the cathedral in sweltering heat and epic dehydration. Apparently the Köln Dom has the second-tallest spires and largest facade of any church in the world, so you can imagine how many spiral steps there were to get to the top.

Still, was a great sight to see, and I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a refreshing milkshake as much as I did after coming back down and sitting down at a café nearby.

Köln to be continued in the next post..