Cologne for a Concert

  Well this has been an incredible weekend, and a slightly surreal one at that. I returned a few hours ago from  Köln, Germany, where I spent the weekend with three of my friends- Taylor, Jen, and Clinton. We had decided in September, despite not knowing each other very well, to take this weekend trip for the sole purpose of seeing Shakira in concert. Shakira is in the middle of her European tour following the release of her Sale el Sol album, and my friend Taylor is absolutely obsessed with her. She's been in love with Shakira for years, and has always wanted to go to one of her concerts. And what better way to do that then to fly to Cologne for a weekend? 
  The four of us left Copenhagen on Friday afternoon, arriving an hour later in the Cologne airport. We got into the city around dinnertime, and quickly found our hostel located in the heart of the city. After dropping off our bags, we headed out to find dinner, walking by Cologne's famous Dom (an enormous church that is the seat of the archbishop of Cologne, a world heritage site, and was under construction from 1248-1880). We found a nearby "italian-mexican" restaurant and couldn't resist- it wound up being delicious! Clinton and I split tortellini and a burrito, which may be a strange combination but it definitely satisfied some of our cravings for food that you just can't find easily in Denmark. The rest of the evening was spent wandering around the area surrounding the Dom and our hostel and enjoying the balmy 6 degrees celsius weather.

The Cologne Cathedral at night!

  Saturday morning we woke up around 9 and spent the morning walking around Cologne. We found about 7 different christmas markets to wander through, admiring german crafts and food (gotta love those pretzels). We also got to go inside the Dom which was stunning. It's absolutely enormous! We wandered down by the Rhein River, stopping at some stores and a chocolate museum (before deciding to actually save our euros on the admission price). By 3:30, we were ready to go back to the hostel and get ready for the concert. We walked across the Rhein to the Lanxess Arena where her concert was, arriving there at 5 pm (the concert began at 8). At 6, they let everyone into the arena and we took the opportunity to buy Shakira shirts, check our coats, and stake out a position on the floor by the stage. After waiting there another 2 1/2 hours, Shakira finally appeared (an hour late, but we're willing to forgive her because the concert was phenomenal). 
  To say we enjoyed the concert is an understatement- we screamed, danced, belted the lyrics at the top of our lungs, and even howled at her request (for the song She-Wolf). Of course, I have absolutely no voice today, but it was more than worth it. Shakira is a fantastic performer, with a voice that sounds just as good (if not better) live as it does on music videos/cds. She is also an incredible dancer, stunningly attractive and yet adorable and approachable seeming at the same time. The concert lasted two hours and we loved every song, every second. We were even 5 feet away from her a few times!! 

at the entrance to one of the many Christmas markets!

Taylor, Jen and I at another christmas market!

the Dom

Inside the Dom

a cute square we stumbled upon

SHAKIRA!!!!

  After the concert we were pretty exhausted, so we went back to the hostel and hung out there for a while before falling asleep. Today mainly consisted of breakfast and more wandering before we had to check out and go to the airport for our flight back to Copenhagen! When I got home, I found my host family waiting with a surprise- two traditional Danish dishes they had decided to prepare for me so I will have tried everything Danish by the time I leave! We had risengrød for dinner- a rice pudding that you add cinnamon and butter to (fantastic), with a very sweet christmas beer my family said I had to try. For dessert, we had the infamous rødgrød med flude- red pudding with cream, directly translated, it is notoriously the hardest thing for a non-Dane to pronounce in Danish. The number of times I have been forced to say it is well into the double digits by now, and my efforts apparently never cease to be a source of amusement. My 17 year old host sister Maja had actually never had it before, so it's a traditional dish that nobody eats. It basically consists of lots of red fruits (rhubarb, raspberry, strawberry, cherry) mashed together with something to make it *slightly* more puddinglike. Cream is added on top and that's it! It's pretty delicious, and I definitely enjoyed tasting more traditional Danish food! It was a really fast weekend but so so great! A wonderful way to kick off the last week... 

Risengrod with christmas beer!

Rodgrod med flude!