Viva Colonia!

November 24, 2009

Last weekend while at the debating workshop, I fell in love with a coat.

Generally I try to save such profound feelings for animate beings rather than insentient things, but this was stronger than reason or will power, and my next door neighbor offered to take me back to Cologne in her car to go get it, as I had successfully resisted the initial impulse as both too expensive and too impractical for a bicycle-riding schoolteacher with no social life to speak of.

After a certain age, any women’s road trip of an hour and a half or more culminates in a trip to the bathroom, so as soon as we had found a parking space, we entered a coffee shop called ‘espresso perfetto.’ Especially after two years of instant Nescafe from pushcart stands in Dakar, this place was a coffee drinker’s paradise, with gorgeous retro machines of every size and description and the most delicious latte macchiato I have ever tasted before or since, accompanied by perfect tiny biscotti and cookies. Happily, I have just learned via their website http://www.espressoperfetto.com/  that in December they are opening a branch in nearby Bochum, where I am currently teaching one day a week in any case.

Happy and satisfied, we commenced our stroll through the modern part of the city, past wonderful shops and their fancifully decorated windows – we hardly seemed to be in a real, urban environment anymore! After much to-ing and fro-ing, I caved and bought the coat (even the shop was called Amore, what could I do?) We then headed to the older part of the city (or the Old Town, with its narrow cobblestone alleyways, almost entirely destroyed during WW2 but painstakingly rebuilt) all beautifully decorated for Christmas, and the striking tree and the Christmas market with the imposing gothic cathedral in the background was truly breathtaking. On our way, we passed the high-end Bavarian glove manufacturer’s called Roeckl http://www.roeckl.com/en/welcome-to-roeckl/ , and were given a brief but very thorough introduction to the different kinds of leathers available, from ostrich and eel to the soft-as-butter peccary, the rarest and most luxurious leather available. One day, I vowed, when teachers get the same bonus payments as bankers, then I will return…
Cologne, founded by the Romans over 2000 years ago and formerly called “Colonia Claudia Ara Aggrippinensium,” is located right on the banks of the Rhine river, and this particular Nov 21^st was so warm and balmy that we were able to enjoy our (Italian) meal whilst sitting outside with a view of the river. We were in such a good mood that we did not even mind the red-nosed fans of Cologne’s soccer team  who had enjoyed one Koelsch (a locally brewed beer, served in its own traditional thin and narrow glass) too many stumbling cheerfully by in their red and white fan ensembles singing “Viva Colonia,” Cologne’s local anthem. Please note that the song is sung in the impossible-for-an-outsider-to-understand dialect also known as Koelsch. This You Tube clip gives you a nice panorama of the city as well as the song’s famous refrain; given the odd dress worn by some in the clip, I imagine it was filmed during the famous Karneval celebration, the Cologne mardi gras in February:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5HmEjSyM4

The Rhenish are known for being a little bit different from everybody else (especially other Germans!), enjoying life and love and merriment as they would a full glass of Koelsch: to the last drop.

About the Author : Tamara-Diana Braunstein brings us her stories from Senegal every week. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a restless wanderer who earned an MA from the University of Freiburg and has worked in a youth hostel in the French Alps, a law firm in Montreal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in university press publishing. At the moment her home base is Dortmund, Germany after recently returning from teaching in Dakar, Senegal. You can follow learn more about Tamara’s experiences at her blog senegalschoolmarm.blogspot.com