a demonstration.
And no large gathering of people in Germany would be complete without a warning from the US consulate.
Showing posts with label cologne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cologne. Show all posts
Friday, September 19, 2008
Monday, July 02, 2007
Cologne Pride 2007 is coming up this weekend
A reminder, Cologne Pride, or Christopher Street Day is upcoming in Cologne this weekend, with events having started last weekend, and the street fest over the weekend and the parade on Sunday July 8 at noon.
If you've only been to a US based Pride event, you must see a Europe one at some point. In particular I'd recommend the Germany ones if you live in Germany for a few reasons:
1. There is a dearth of those people who attempt to rain on the parade with their strict Baptist "you're all going to hell, sinners" sermons which sometimes turns into a police confrontation. The John 3:16 people are also light on the ground, but the clever few who are there put their signs into both German and English often. For some reason this makes me cackle aloud, seeing the dual-language signage. For some reasons the Germans cluck-cluck at crossing against a red light but have no problem with these folks being in town.
2. The dour-faced cranks who inhabit this country seem to lighten up for the weekend. I'm not sure if it's the presence of so much vinyl and leather or the rainbow leis, or simply that thousands of people come into Cologne for a party and bring their party mood. It reminds me of world cup, when Germany really put up a nice mood.
3. The parade is like Gay Pride in any other town, but it showcases a Germanized gay lifestyle. What do I mean? Anything that you are used to seeing Germans do--church, sports clubs, dance clubs--everything else they must do en masse and with their friends for life whom they have known since in utero, there is a gay German version. In particular, I was impressed last year with a male ballroom dancing club. It was hot as heck and they were dancing in full length formal outfits, putting on the full show. Superb.
4. In general it's a fun atmosphere. They give out trinkets to the crowd, and the drag queens will pose for photos. You can be as involved as you want. And the costumes and effort some people go to is spectacular to see.
It's worth a see if you're around Cologne. If you'd like to meet up let me know. I will be dragging D (who loathes parades in general) but will tolerate this one more than the others as no diving for candy is involved.
If you've only been to a US based Pride event, you must see a Europe one at some point. In particular I'd recommend the Germany ones if you live in Germany for a few reasons:
1. There is a dearth of those people who attempt to rain on the parade with their strict Baptist "you're all going to hell, sinners" sermons which sometimes turns into a police confrontation. The John 3:16 people are also light on the ground, but the clever few who are there put their signs into both German and English often. For some reason this makes me cackle aloud, seeing the dual-language signage. For some reasons the Germans cluck-cluck at crossing against a red light but have no problem with these folks being in town.
2. The dour-faced cranks who inhabit this country seem to lighten up for the weekend. I'm not sure if it's the presence of so much vinyl and leather or the rainbow leis, or simply that thousands of people come into Cologne for a party and bring their party mood. It reminds me of world cup, when Germany really put up a nice mood.
3. The parade is like Gay Pride in any other town, but it showcases a Germanized gay lifestyle. What do I mean? Anything that you are used to seeing Germans do--church, sports clubs, dance clubs--everything else they must do en masse and with their friends for life whom they have known since in utero, there is a gay German version. In particular, I was impressed last year with a male ballroom dancing club. It was hot as heck and they were dancing in full length formal outfits, putting on the full show. Superb.
4. In general it's a fun atmosphere. They give out trinkets to the crowd, and the drag queens will pose for photos. You can be as involved as you want. And the costumes and effort some people go to is spectacular to see.
It's worth a see if you're around Cologne. If you'd like to meet up let me know. I will be dragging D (who loathes parades in general) but will tolerate this one more than the others as no diving for candy is involved.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
class is back in session
While my German class and German teacher is great, I find that I learn the bulk of my German and my understanding of Germans outside of class. Some days it's not so useful words like 'Kartoffelkaefer', because I happened to find one of those in the kitchen at the office, other days it's a little more useful.
When D and I used to live in Deutz, a neighborhood of Cologne, we used to meet at a bar that was between our apartments, perhaps once a week. We had tried most of the bars in the immediate 10 block area, many with not so good results, including the one where they threw a man out because he heard us speaking English and became incensed and physically violent. Too bad he didn't ask us if we spoke German, then he would have really had something to complain about, the bad German that is multiplied in it's badness due to the fact that we speak it with two different accents and it's hard enough to understand mangled German when the accent is consistent.
However, at this in-between bar, something really clicked for us. It is a tiny hole in the wall, but we always have a lovely time when we go. It's almost like a German Cheers, we are recognized when we go, even though now that neither of us live in Deutz we only go once every few weeks. We are known as the foreigners there, but it's not said with that scrunched up frowny face, but instead with fascination and almost pride, as to the fact that their bar is so nice that foreigners would want to frequent it. And overall we're pretty non-invasive foreigners. We drink the local beer and speak German to the bar staff, although we chatter amongst ourselves in German.
Every time it's always an adventure and we always meet someone interesting there, and last night was no different. People often hear us speaking English and feel free to interrupt our conversation in English to test out their English skills and to ask us where we are from. We sat down near two gentlemen, who were perhaps 60-65 years old. Both spoke very fine English, and upon hearing where we were from, proceeded to tell us all of the places that they have been in our countries that we would perhaps know?
The one man was originally from East Germany and worked in a region there, Saxony Anhalt, known for producing chemicals. Because of his job he had the opportunity to travel to other countries, and he had to learn English, French, and Spanish. However, he mentioned that English is still difficult for him, because as a boy in East Germany he learned Russian as his first foreign language. Both men were very interesting, and as neighbors and friends they played off of each other, somewhat like those pseudo-cranky old men in the balcony of the Muppet show, always cracking jokes.
The most interesting part of the evening--beside the part where we got berated because we'll never learn proper German without dating a native German speaker--was when they were commenting about life in America, and route 66 and cowboys and Death Valley and all those great things that one can find in America. And the one man said, quite seriously, "you can have these things, we Germans, we don't, we cannot have dreams." Moments like this you can never find in a book on German culture.
When D and I used to live in Deutz, a neighborhood of Cologne, we used to meet at a bar that was between our apartments, perhaps once a week. We had tried most of the bars in the immediate 10 block area, many with not so good results, including the one where they threw a man out because he heard us speaking English and became incensed and physically violent. Too bad he didn't ask us if we spoke German, then he would have really had something to complain about, the bad German that is multiplied in it's badness due to the fact that we speak it with two different accents and it's hard enough to understand mangled German when the accent is consistent.
However, at this in-between bar, something really clicked for us. It is a tiny hole in the wall, but we always have a lovely time when we go. It's almost like a German Cheers, we are recognized when we go, even though now that neither of us live in Deutz we only go once every few weeks. We are known as the foreigners there, but it's not said with that scrunched up frowny face, but instead with fascination and almost pride, as to the fact that their bar is so nice that foreigners would want to frequent it. And overall we're pretty non-invasive foreigners. We drink the local beer and speak German to the bar staff, although we chatter amongst ourselves in German.
Every time it's always an adventure and we always meet someone interesting there, and last night was no different. People often hear us speaking English and feel free to interrupt our conversation in English to test out their English skills and to ask us where we are from. We sat down near two gentlemen, who were perhaps 60-65 years old. Both spoke very fine English, and upon hearing where we were from, proceeded to tell us all of the places that they have been in our countries that we would perhaps know?
The one man was originally from East Germany and worked in a region there, Saxony Anhalt, known for producing chemicals. Because of his job he had the opportunity to travel to other countries, and he had to learn English, French, and Spanish. However, he mentioned that English is still difficult for him, because as a boy in East Germany he learned Russian as his first foreign language. Both men were very interesting, and as neighbors and friends they played off of each other, somewhat like those pseudo-cranky old men in the balcony of the Muppet show, always cracking jokes.
The most interesting part of the evening--beside the part where we got berated because we'll never learn proper German without dating a native German speaker--was when they were commenting about life in America, and route 66 and cowboys and Death Valley and all those great things that one can find in America. And the one man said, quite seriously, "you can have these things, we Germans, we don't, we cannot have dreams." Moments like this you can never find in a book on German culture.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Some images from Cologne this weekend
Most of Cologne was heavily celebrating Karneval this weekend, but I wasn't in that sort of mood to be surrounded by loud, racous, drunken party-making.
Here is my favorite bridge in Cologne on Saturday evening. I especially like it after dark once they turn the lights on. At a certain late hour in the early AM, they turn the lights off so you can't see it from the distance--not sure if they're saving electricity or what. If I'm seeing it on the way home on a Friday/Saturday and the lights are out, that's a signal that I stayed out too late. ;-)
On Saturday I went to our hole in the wall corner bar in the Cologne Deutz neighborhood near where I used to live. I refer to it as the Twilight Zone bar because people there are friendly. Often in my little corner of Germany, when you walk into a bar here, people don't recognize you so they turn around and stare. When I would go into a bar with my Spanish colleague and we would be speaking Spanish, this really baffled them so it would go silent, mouths open staring. Blah.
However, at the Twilight Zone bar, it's a strange little mixture of neighborhood people and always people start to talk to us, and I always learn very interesting things about life in Germany. Last night two ladies were on one side of us, and two single gentlemen so it was a group of six generally chatting and one of the women exclaims (in German), "a-ha, such an international group!" while pointing to each of us and saying the person's nationality. We were 2 Germans and 1 each: American, Australian, Dutch, and French.
On Sunday we watched a little bit of one of the parades. It was a little too chilly to be standing around outside for hours though.
Here is my favorite bridge in Cologne on Saturday evening. I especially like it after dark once they turn the lights on. At a certain late hour in the early AM, they turn the lights off so you can't see it from the distance--not sure if they're saving electricity or what. If I'm seeing it on the way home on a Friday/Saturday and the lights are out, that's a signal that I stayed out too late. ;-)
On Saturday I went to our hole in the wall corner bar in the Cologne Deutz neighborhood near where I used to live. I refer to it as the Twilight Zone bar because people there are friendly. Often in my little corner of Germany, when you walk into a bar here, people don't recognize you so they turn around and stare. When I would go into a bar with my Spanish colleague and we would be speaking Spanish, this really baffled them so it would go silent, mouths open staring. Blah.
However, at the Twilight Zone bar, it's a strange little mixture of neighborhood people and always people start to talk to us, and I always learn very interesting things about life in Germany. Last night two ladies were on one side of us, and two single gentlemen so it was a group of six generally chatting and one of the women exclaims (in German), "a-ha, such an international group!" while pointing to each of us and saying the person's nationality. We were 2 Germans and 1 each: American, Australian, Dutch, and French.
On Sunday we watched a little bit of one of the parades. It was a little too chilly to be standing around outside for hours though.
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