By Valtteri Manninen | May 10, 2019
Another month has inexplicably passed, and so have I passed my first exams at SBE (yay!). This second half of my exchange semester seems to be going by incredibly fast; it’s hard to believe I only have eight more weeks left here in Maastricht.
I have been trying to make the most of my new-found freedom and my remaining time here. I have now finally visited Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin for the first time. I was also feeling a little homesick—a feeling many of my fellow exchange students here seem to be dealing with at this stage of our study abroad—Hang in there!—so I packed my bags and flew back to Glasgow to visit my friends for a few days. Thoroughly refreshed, it’s now back to reality and assignment writing for me. (Give or take a cheeky getaway to Malta this coming weekend, but other than that.)
In this month’s post, I thought I’d share some photos from Cologne which I have visited twice over the past months. Cologne is a major metropolitan city with a long and interesting history dating back to the Roman times, and it only takes two hours and a couple of train changes to travel to the German city from Maastricht. Sadly, I did not carry my camera with me on either trip, so iPhone 6 photo quality will have to suffice.
My first visit to Cologne took place during the Carnival (or Carneval, or Carnaval, depending on where you’re from) festivities. This was my first experience of Carnival as it is not celebrated in Finland nor in the UK, and let me just say it was quite the holiday. Me and some of my friends first took part in the celebrations in Maastricht during the first weekend of March, and then headed to Cologne on the following Monday. All the locals, from young to old, were dressed up in fancy dress. We tried to accessorize to our best abilities—and within our budgets—but it was fun to observe that many locals really had gone the extra mile and had obviously put a lot of effort into their costumes. There was music, parades, food, drink, and candy, and life was good.
On our Monday in Cologne, the weather was a little chilly and it was raining on and off, so the big parade was delayed by an hour. This mattered little as everyone was in high spirits. I didn’t take many pictures of the long parade as I was busy using my hands to safeguard myself against candy flying across the air. I am fairly sure some of my friends who were there still have some of their stash left. At some point I let my guard down for a couple of seconds, only to be hit in the head with a box of chocolates. They were pretty yummy, though.
We found Nemo.
We spent the rest of the day walking about in the city, and wrapped up our Carnival with a street party before heading back to Maastricht in the evening.
Liebe ist für alle da.
Carnival time was pretty crazy and daily life in Cologne was obviously disrupted by the festivities. When I returned in April after finishing my exams, I got to see a more peaceful, normal side of the city. I travelled to Cologne by myself to see the Swedish singer Robyn perform at Palladium. I stayed the night at a hostel in the Neumarkt area, which proved to be the perfect location for inner-city sightseeing the next day. The weather was beautiful this time around.
Robyn at Palladium.
A smiley local enjoying a warm spring day in Cologne.
The Cologne cathedral, a World Heritage Site, is unfathomably large.
It is difficult to capture its magnitude in a photograph.
There are many lively shopping streets in Cologne.
Cherry trees in bloom in front of the main city library.
Valtteri
Study abroad 