OCEANS AWAY

A quick trip to Cologne

Filed under Out & About

On my way back to Maastricht after a week at home for my mom’s birthday, I had to make a quick stop in Cologne for an interview for an internship. My parents actually drove me down and we took the opportunity to walk around the city for a bit. They had never been to Cologne’s famous, ginormous and gorgeous cathedral before so that was a must. It’s one of the world’s largest churches, a World Heritage Site, took more than 600 years to build, and 20,000 other tourists make the well-worth visit each day! We also couldn’t pass up dropping by the Rhine river, of course, but this cathedral- the effect it has cannot be captured in photos.

We were glad that traffic was bearable on our way in but the weather was horrible all day: freezing cold and rainy and windy. I don’t know what happened to July but it appears to have passed the torch to November. I was overwhelmed by Cologne. I grew up in a small town and have lived in a perfectly polished Dutch city of 120,000 people for a little over two years now. Big city life is not something I have any experience in and while I’m fascinated by it and hope to one day live in one of these hubs of the world, all the noise and the crowds and the endless maze of tiny streets and big boulevards and traffic jams makes me want to hide away from life. Cologne is Germany’s fourth largest city; if Wikipedia is to be believed, it is home to a million people – three million in the entire metro area. I just can’t even-

But Cologne is also famous for art and known as Germany’s “media city” which makes it a perfect match for me. The internship would give me six months of experience in the marketing department of a large organization that’s active in tourism, intercultural exchange and cross-border business related to the Netherlands. It’s paid horribly – like, it will barely cover rent for a tiny place – and it means having to move back to Germany. But: it’s Cologne. Which could be a great city to find work or other internships in the future, and once I get over the initial shock of it all, it should be a super interesting city to live. And it’s really the only option I have right now. I’m not satisfied with how the interview went but I don’t think it went badly. They’ll let me know by next week so cross your fingers for me, alright?