Last week in Köln

Hallo!

Ympyrä sulkeutuu.. One of our first posts was about first week in Cologne and now we are making a similar kind of post about the last week here. The week has been full of everything nice :) But unfortunately everything good comes to an end..

Monday

We had our last exam on Monday! It was about international procurement and the exam was shit. :D Most difficult and annoying of all our exams. But after that the feeling was awesome: we are free!! Right after the exam we went and had lunch in restaurant Marilyn, where we also celebrated our birthday couple months ago. We at first considered should we drink cocktails to celebrate the end of the exams but we skipped it because it was like 2 in the afternoon. :D We decided to go and have Kitti Chai's popular jumbo cocktails in the evening instead.

Delicious!! The whole meal cost under 10 € per person

After lunch we decided to continue celebrating the end of exams by shopping! We went to Schildergasse and of course we found something... You can see from the previous post for example those super beautiful Simpsons-shirts :'D

Then it was time to relax a bit before going out! At first we went to Kitti Chai to have those jumbo cocktails. One cocktail cost 6,95 and it was super huge.. Have to admit, we both were drunk after drinking one of those... We had a nice time there just the two of us chatting about everything, important and not so important :) Then it was time to go to Roonburg! It was Diego's birthday so we went there to celebrate it. Super funny night with all the friends!

Zweimal Sex on the beach!

For Jenna one is just not enough :'D

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to the chocolate museum in Köln! Haha we have been planning to go there the whole 4 months and now made it there.. :D The museum is located at Heumarkt. The entrance fee for students was 6,50 €. The museum was a bit disappointment... Actually we don't really know what we were expecting but it wasn't that special. And in our opinion the museum was not that well designed. You really didn't know where to go because the rooms were quite big and there was no guidance. But a good thing was that we got to taste chocolate for free! :D The smell there was something you cannot describe.. They were actually really producing there chocolate: you could see the engines and the whole manufacturing process.

Chocolate fountain <3

Free tastings!

There was of course also a shop full of different kinds of chocolates!

Old chocolate machines 

At 8.30 it was time to meet with our friends and have dinner together! We had made a reservation to a restaurant called Beef Farm-Inn (Friesenplatz) at 8.30. When we arrived there the waiters hadn't done anything so that we could fit there. There were other people eating so we just needed to wait for them to finish before we could get in... Eventually somewhere after nine we got in. The food was good and it was really nice to be together with everybody :) We just don't get why it is so hard to listen to what the customer orders? :D Maiju always orders her hamburger without cheese and like usually, it was there also this time... Luckily they changed the burger into a new one quickly :) Then we went to our traditional Tuesday's place, Das Ding! We had a good time there, of course! It is always fun when there's lot of friends :)

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning Maiju traveled to Düren to have a job interview! If everything is going well, Maiju will come back to Germany in March and do her intership and summer job here. :) Let's hope for the best!

Nothing else special really happened on Wednesday. Jenna went to the Christmas Markets to buy the last gifts and then we just hung out and relaxed at home. In the evening we were supposed to go to Flamingo, but somehow we ended up going to McDonalds....... :D:D:D

Thursday

In the morning Maiju and Rares went to Hohenzollernbrücke to put a love lock there! It was so cute :3

<3

In the evening we had a dinner with friends at the dorms! Everybody cooked something and then we tasted all kinds of different foods. The dinner was delicious and it was lovely to be together with everybody. This last week has been at the same time the best because the time spent together, but on the other hand everyone has been already really sad and every day someone has left home.. After the dinner Jenna and actually everyone else also went to Diamonds! Maiju instead spent the rest of the evening at home crying like a baby :'D Haha..

Friday

Yesterday we finally started packing. It was super weird to gather all the stuff together and start putting them to the suitcases. The feeling was something you cannot even describe... Like "what the hell am I doing, I am not going anywhere?!" We managed to pack one suitcases both. At some point it started to look quite catastrophic because we have A LOT of stuff here...

haha doesn't it look very organized??? Notice also those hair colour packages... Maiju has bought "some" to take to Finland because they are so cheap here

With these suitcases full our apartment still looked like we didn't pack anything..

After starting to pack we agreed to meet with the girls and climb the Dom! We have been living here 4 months and in the last day we are going to see the main sightseeing of Köln... Well played girls. Well, we made it to the Dom just to notice that the entrance is closed. Maybe next time when we will visit Köln! :'D

It is always as breathtaking to see it. So beautiful.

Because we couldn't go there and the weather was really horrible, we decided to go to Starbucks to have coffee and just to spend time together for the last time here in Köln. We stayed there couple of hours just talking and relaxing. Wonderful afternoon :)

Then we went home to get ready for the evening. We went to the dorms in the evening to have a last party together. The dorm was full of people! Seriously everyone came there to see each other for the last time and have fun together. The evening was super fun but also sad, eventually just everyone started crying (like a lot.....). Some of us went to Vanity afterwards and when we were all together in the tram, other people probably thought that we are crazy or something :D Must have been something worth seeing like 20 people just crying and hugging each others... Now we can smile to that but yesterday it was soooo sad and nobody could stop crying and hugging. We are going to miss everyone so much.

Hasan! He is working in the kiosk in the same building where we live. We have been talking to him always when we go to that kiosk. He is such a nice person :) We promised to go and greet him when we come back!

Saturday

Today. The last last last day here in Germany. Today we have been finishing with packing and cleaning the whole apartment. In an hour we are leaving this apartment, our home, without coming back. It feels so crazy, sad and weird at the same time. Our Petteripaikka, we will miss you <3

We had a small break and stopped by the Christmas Markets next to our place.

Maijo! XD

Now we seriously need to finish this post so that we will catch the train to the airport.
Cannot really believe this is over.... We both are making own posts telling more about current feelings and thoughts concerning leaving here and overall of the whole exchange. Those are going to be the next and lasts posts of our blog.
We really want to thank you all who have been reading this blog and following our experience here! <3

Maiju&Jenna

Night life in Köln!

Hallo!

In this post we will tell you all about the night life in Köln. From all the clubs we will tell the name, address, nearest tram stop and then our experiences about them.

Roonburg (Roonstrasse 33, near Zülpicher Platz)

Roonburg is a relatively small club where we only go on Mondays since there is a special event called Fuckin' Monday. The entrance fee is 4 € and cloakroom is 1,5 €. Here you also get the credit card for buying all your drinks and paying them when you leave the club. Unlike in many other places in Roonburg there is no minimum amount to spend. In the Fuckin' Monday -event the first 100 guests get a free shot and every group of 5 girls get a bottle of sparkling wine for free and you can play beer pong for free also.  The music played is mainstream and the atmosphere is relaxed. The club is located in the basement and the walls are made of red tiles. The place itself is not that fancy but cozy in its own way. Roonburg is actually like a combination of a bar and a club ,since there is big dance floor but you can also just sit there and talk.

Das Ding (Hohenstaufenring 30-32, at Zülpicher Platz)

Das Ding is a very good club for students since it has different offers everyday! We only go there on Tuesday because then you need to pay 5,50 € for entrance and you can drink two hours (22-24) for free. At the entrance you get a glass and when you take it to the bar they give you a glass of vodka red bull. Every time you want a new drink you can just take the glass to the bar and they will automatically  change it to a new one. The atmosphere in the club is surprisingly a bit crazy after twelve...:D but we have always had a great time there! They play mainly mainstream music and the club is pretty simple. The bouncers are very strict there. They want to see everyone's IDs and they look at them very carefully. Also each time that we have been there someone has been kicked out:D

Flamingo (Friesenwall 86, between Rudolfplatz and Friesenplatz)

Flamingo is a club where we go on Wednesdays. They have a student party each Wednesday and the place is always really crowded. That is probably why it is called Flamingo since you can literally only stand there with one foot. There is no entrance fee and also no minimum amount to spend because you pay for your drinks immediately. They have a special offer from 22 to 24, you get two drinks for one! At the entrance everyone also gets a chip and you can have a game with the bartender with it. You roll the dice and if you get a higher number you get a discount for your drink. The place is really nice and they play good music but it is always too full.

Diamonds (Hohenzollernring 90, near Friesenplatz)

The club where we have been going the most. We go there only on Thursdays since they have an event called Crazy College. There is no entrance fee and you get two shots for free and also other special offers. At the entrance everyone gets the credit card and the minimum amount to pay is 5 € when leaving the club. Diamonds is the biggest club and also it is nicely decorated. They play mainstream music like almost every club here. Special about Diamonds is that people can smoke inside. The Crazy College parties are always so much fun and the place is usually full!

Vanity (Hohenzollernring 16, near Rudolfplatz)

We have been in Vanity only a couple of times. It is a relatively big club with one huge dance floor. They arrange a lot of different kinds of events there. The last time we went there the entrance fee was 5 € and you get a credit card for your drinks. The minimum amount to spend is 10 €. The club is okay and nice but not so special. Like said we haven't been there that many times.

Heinz Gaul (Vogelsangerstrasse 197, near Venloer Strasse/Gürtel)

Heinz Gaul is a huge house music club in Ehrenfeld. The club is built into a huge storage hall so the atmosphere is rough but still the place was nice. Popular house music artists perform there and the place is full of people. That's why the entrance fee is really expensive. When we went there it was 12 €.

Reineke Fuchs (Aachener Strasse 50, near Rudolfplatz)

This is a very small house music club. The club doesn't invest that much on decorations, there is nothing inside except a dance floor. :D The music there is deep house and people who go there really go for the music and not for a party. Many people there are on drugs: at least it seems like it. The entrance fee is changing, sometimes you can get in for free and sometimes you have to pay 10 €.

Crystal (Hohenzollernring 79-83, near Friesenplatz)

We went to Crystal only once when we had a party organized by our school. The place was then totally full even though it is rather big: it has two floors. It is a club and they have a huge dance floor. The music there is also mainstream. The club itself was really nice and the atmosphere at least at our party was great! Then the entrance fee was 5 € and the minimum amount to spend was 5 € also. A special thing in the club was that if people wanted to go smoking outside they had to pay 5 € for that.

Subway (Aachener Strasse 82-84, near Moltkestrasse)

Here we also went once because we wanted to try a new place. That night they had a hip hop event so it wasn't really our kind of music. The place was quite small and it was totally full that evening. It was also located in the basement. The entrance fee was 5 €. One stupid thing was that when we went there the cloakroom was full so we needed to carry our jackets with us.

These were only the clubs we have visited but Köln is full of night clubs and bars. This was only a small part of them. It's so nice to have all different kinds of clubs and bars to choose from, we are going to be so bored and depressed back in Finland. :D

The next post will be a random photo post!
Bis später!
Jenna&Maiju

Köln Christmas Markets

Hello!

In Köln it is already feeling like Christmas, thanks to the Christmas Markets!
In Köln there are 7 Christmas Markets around the city and they all opened on 24.11., month before Christmas Eve.
Every Christmas Market has its own theme and they are open every day!
Every market has lots of stands which are selling Glühwein, Bratwurst, fried almonds and other nuts. Then according to the theme there are lots of different gifts and small items you can buy :)

In my (Maiju) opinion Christmas Markets are nice and the decorations are really beautiful, but there is really not that much to buy. Or there is, but nothing I would like to buy. My mom would say that the markets are full of krääsä :D Small decorative items, Schneekugeln= snow globe, candle holders etc. Beautiful, but nothing you would really need. So sorry guys but no gifts from the Christmas Markets! The only thing I am planning to buy are those almonds and maybe some chocolate! :)

I (Jenna) on the other hand LOVE the Christmas Markets and could spend a whole day just walking around and admiring the beautiful stuff there :) I wanna buy everything, the things are so pretty <3 I wish we had Christmas Markets in Finland too!

We have visited almost every Christmas Markets here in Köln and also one in Aachen (but we probably will make a separate post about that).

Actually, there is a Christmas Market right next to our place! We can see and hear it every evening from our window :D It is of course the gay-lesbian market! Btw Conchita Wurst was performing there yesterday! We don't even need to go out to see the show because we can see the stage from inside :D You can see from everything that it is not a "normal" Christmas Market. The decorations are quite outrageous and full of glitter and everything :D Also they sell there all kinds of stuff..... haha you can only imagine!

Rares, Stephanie, Jenna, Yvonne and Maiju having Glühwein <3 yummyy

Rudolfplatz

Dom

Dita, Alyssa, Christina and Jenna

Alter Markt

Heumarkt

Next post is about differences between Germany and Finland! Stay tuned :D
Maiju&Jenna