If there's one thing Cologne (or Koln as it's written here in Deutschland) has taught me, it is to be humble with your map reading abilities.
If you'll recall, in my previous post on Berlin I had claimed with a confident fine that I had basically mastered the Berlin transport system.
Well today I came back down to earth and dined on three servings of humble pie.
Cologne is one of the biggest cities in Germany - fourth in fact. It boasts just over a million people and plays hosts to some beautiful buildings, but none more spectacular than the Cologne Cathedral, which is right next to the central station.
I arrived on time and made my merry way to the bus stop as per the train station info centre's directions. But when I got off at Mauritiusplatz I couldn't figure out how to get to my flippen hostel. Twenty minutes passed before I finally got some information our of a shopkeeper whose English was enough to help me find the place.
Then the second incident. I wanted to explore, given my short period of time in this aesthetically pleasing city. The customer service woman recommended I try checking out the Cologne Cathedral and the Love Lock bridge. Beautiful pictures, she said, before pointing out where on the map the best place would be to take a wee snap.
Armed with a newfound confidence stemming from a good chat with hostel roommate Florian, I strode out onto the Koln streets for a second time aiming to make good time. After fifteen minutes of holding out a map hoping for a miracle, it arrived. A German man looked at my map and told me it would be a simple 20min walk should I follow his instructions and just keep going straight.
Ten minutes passed. I was pretty confident.
Twenty minutes pass. No sign of the cathedral.
Forty minutes. Still nothing.
It was at the 2.5-hour mark that I finally waved the white flag and decided to catch a train home, though I wouldn't have had a clue on how to get home had it not been for a stranger who pointed me to the station.
As it turned out, instead of going East, I was going at a nice South South East, meaning I was almost at the end of the train line at the southern end of Koln.
I got off the bus relieved and started to plot my way home. It was at most a five minute walk back to the hostel. Well, it should've been. Twenty five minutes after getting out of a train station no more than 600m away from the station, I finally arrived at the flat.
From now on, I'm turning on google maps before I head out.
I'm off to Belgium tomorrow, and hopefully my friends are ready for another big adventure - if I make it there.
Matiu.
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