029 - mon 29/05/2006 - bruges/cologne

breakfast in bed again. we checked out from craig's place (note: not actual name of hostel) but still had the morning to explore bruges before leaving belgium. we stored our bags in lockers at the train station, noticing that the carnival was now packing up. bruges' big weekend was coming to an end, as was our weekend in bruges.

we got into the holy blood church and had happened to stumble upon a scheduled 'relic beholding/fondling/touching/kissing' ceremony. there was a priest up the front, a lot of shiny gold things around him, and he had the relic there, and you could go and look at it or touch it our whatever, and leave a donation. mr priest was actually miked up so his murmurings could be heard from all corners of the church, but that also meant that whenever someone deposited a couple of coins in his jar (note: surely wasn't actually a jar), the resulting chinks would resound throughout the hall. it definitely stepped up the pressure to make deposits of your own, and by that i mean a donation of coins, and not the other kind of deposits.

we then went to choco-story, which turned out not be a re-enactment of the life of a phys ed teacher from my high school, but actually to be a museum whose subject was the history of chocolate. it was actually a great visit, a pretty thorough history through cocoa drinks of the mayans and aztecs, through to its european appropriation as a hot drink for the elite, through to its emancipation as a public delight by a figure as unlikely as napoleon (namely, napoleon) and then eventually concluding with someone having the bright idea of making little bars of the stuff, mass producing it and making lots of money. there was a demonstration, but i already knew how chocolate was made. nonetheless, we got a free chocolate at the end of the demonstration, therein making it a very good demonstration.

continuing the theme we went for cocoa drinks of our own at the renowned 'bar choc'. then we went to mariastraat, to one of those aforementioned touristy chocolatiers, and bought some chocolates in a pretty box. come on, it had to be done. we ate sandwiches in the park by the train station before boarding and saying goodbye to belgium... forever.*

we arrived in cologne via brussels. cologne is actually köln, for the record, and i'm pretty sure you are meant to pronounce it as in col'n carpenter from the comedy company. but then again, if you do actually say it like that to anyone, you may get kicked in the balls. immediately upon leaving the train station we were confronted with what will be my lasting memory of köln, the imposing köln dom, or cologne cathedral. it is basically amazing, with dark gothic features, and when you leave the train station you feel a bit like the whole sky has been filled with it. the interior was also wonderful. its my favourite church so far.

at a supermarket we bought cans of soup without being sure exactly what was in them. mine was serbisch, ie serbian, which sounded good. we heated them in our hostel's kitchen and ate them with hot turkish bread from a kebab place, while we chatted with a mild-mannered and thin hybrid german-american student with an understandly unplaceable accent, and a schlock of red hair neatly tied back. before sleep we watched a few more episodes of arrested development on my mp3 player.

*not positive about this part

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