A slice of Ireland in Cologne

It came to a point where I determined that the best people to be around in Germany were not other Germans - especially when it came to meeting new people. Thus at the suggestion of the porter of the Hotel, I decided to go searching for Irish pubs. The are a few in Cologne, but the most prominent is the Jaimeson (not sure if that is spelt right, I'll fix it later after I have checked.) they also own the voodoo bar across the road. This place was pumping during the World Cup, but things have settled down a bit since then. The bar is really authenic and the staff are almost all Irish. A few were from England and I think one local. None the less all were extremely hospitable and far nicer to be around than some of the asshole bar staff and patrons I have encountered on this trip (the worst have been female! Most guys I have met haven't left me with the urge to smash their heads in with my bike chain).

Being in this place really felt like the flip side of the coin. Instead of us tourists struggling in german to order food and drink, the german locals were struggling to order alcohol in English. Usually a tourist would help the poor locals out. But most of the tourists, like myself had hardened to the Germans and by this stage of our respective trips, had developed a "screw them" attitude. Thus the Germans have been very successful in converting us tourists to their cultural norms - ignoring people in need, being rude and unhelpful and so forth.

But enough of the idiot locals. The best way to cure yourself of being germanised is to find the first foreign cultured eatery or drinking establishment and hideout there. Back to the Irish pub, the food and drink were fantastic - Irish stew, kilkenny and tons of strongbow cider... A good way to spend a night. Interestingly enough, when Canadians, Irish, New Zealanders and Aussies get together fun always ensues and we close ranks on the infidel (Asshole germans) the nice germans are more than welcome and there was a bulgarian present in the group, so it wasn't an english speaking thing, it was a non-pretentious-asshole thing.

The night wore on and it came to closing time and I was directed back to my hotel by the staff... Actually, pretty damn easy, the Koeln Dom (cathederal) it huge and very obvious as a land mark, and since my hotel was 500 metres up the road from it is made the going nice and easy... The hotel was unlocked this time and I could get some well earned rest before combating the Koeln HBF and the German train system to find my way back to Berlin.