Today the group began part one of the journey to Bosnia! Because our flight is so early in the morning on Tuesday and there were no trains that would make it to Köln on time, we had to leave a day earlier and book a night in the Youth Hostel in Köln. After a late train, a missed train, and a full train, we finally made it to Köln at around 7:15pm and were relieved to finally have the chance to get some food in our bellies!
In case I haven’t mentioned this before, out of a group of 14, there are only 4 girls – so the four of us got put in a hostel room by ourselves for the night in Köln. This was really the first time that the four of us were around each other outside of classes and we ended up grabbing dinner together at a Mexican restaurant near the Hostel. They say that dinner (and just eating with other people in general) is one of the best ways to form relationships (… I mean we all like food, so that’s something to bond over…) After a “maxi pitcher” of some second rate Margarita, we were all laughing and talking like we’d been friends forever. Each of us told stories about our lives in college or our family. We talked about guys and distance and how it can be both hard to get through it, but satisfying to know that there’s someone back home waiting for you. Finally, after we’d all had our fill of food, we ventured off to find the famous cathedral called the Dom which was not hard to find… The steeple was so large you could see it over most of the buildings and all we had to do was walk towards it and eventually we’d find the bridge, the Rhine River, and the Dom.
Once we actually got to the Dom, my breath was taken away. It was yet another reminder of how small a person can be and how big the world can get. Every step I took towards it the bigger it got and the harder it was to breathe. I can’t explain the feeling, but the cathedral was so big that walking towards the side we were on, I felt the air flood out of my lungs. It was like my body was realizing just how insignificant it was to this beautiful building that still stands after two world wars and centuries of conflict.
We took pictures and then found a nice little place to just sit and marvel at its beauty for a few minutes. We all threw around guesses as to how something this magnificent was built so long ago with none of the modern technology we use today. The amount of people it took to build it (and then decorate it with all of its adornments) must have been in the thousands.
The rest of Köln just couldn’t compare after seeing the Dom so our little group of four decided to sit by the river for a little and enjoy the sun set. It was a great ending to a wonderful evening!
Alzebeth Roman
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<div><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">My name is Alzebeth Roman and I am currently a Senior at North Carolina State University in Raleigh studying Accounting with minors in International Studies and Political Science. This summer, I will be studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany learning about the politics of the EU and its' neighbors. This is only my second time traveling out of the United States and my first time in Europe. In my spare time, I love service, reading, swimming, dancing, napping, and writing which I plan to do in my free time while abroad!</span></div>
