TRAVEL: Crying for Kagawa in Koln

I decided upon outset in my travels, never to burden possible experiences heavily with expectation.  Partly because I'm too ignorant in fairness to anticipate much in foreign destination, but also I wanted open eyes of travel, free of idiotic prejudice for chance of taint.  In slight betrayal of this, I did make it an early blood quest before Germany, to obtain a Borrusia Dortmund Football shirt with 'Kagawa 23' printed on the back, surely a reasonable request in the homeland of the club.

Kagawa being celebrated by his team-mates

Kagawa (Shinji by first name), for those that don't know, is the new Japanese version of Lionel Messi, picked up by Dortmund this season, immediately adorned by fans with cult-like status scoring 8 goals and 1 assist in 17 league matches (Dortmund are leading the Bundesliga by 10 points).  Voted the no.1 player in the Bundesliga season so far at goal.com, the fans have gone to such lengths as to take Japanese language classes to learn correct and proper pronunciations for Japanese songs they now sing at matches.  He is quite simply, a Samurai Football legend in the making, and like Celtic Nakamura 25 before, I was obliged by the red sun to have his shirt.

That's the shirt!

It started in Berlin.  Day after day, in between the Nazis and Stasis, I kept watch for sports stores.  They were actually really hard to find.  On several occasions the gang took detours for my benefit to find the garment of the man, to no avail.  It was like the Berliners had barely heard of the sport Fußball.  The day before New Years (New Years eve), we hit the jackpot, finding a store in a somethingplatz.  Up 3 flights of escalators I dashed, divine wind in my wings... and there it was.  Glowing in yellow glory like Shinji himself.... in sizes S and XXL...

A rare find... an InterSPORT... closed naturally

Biting my bottom lip, I convinced myself that Germans were big, and that an S in the Deutschland was probably a military medium fit for my suiting.  Managed to get it on which felt good, but was told it looked a bit disco, and that it would only get worse through wash shrinkage.  One of the girls (who shall remain nameless for shame's-sake) suggested my potentially exposed midriff would be sexy appealing, but in all honesty Rebecca was probably just projecting, so I let it go in hope that our future destination in Koln, (a mere 100km from Dortmund), would have plenty.

Kagawa not here either, in an alley in Koln

It was not to be.  First store we hit we were told not only that they had none left, but that the whole of Koln was completely out, and Dortmund had been ringing them for weeks in search of spares.  Rage, fear, grief all hit me, before being overwhelmed by disappointment.  What could one do?, except curse the almighty (which I did), and enjoy Koln without further distraction (which I also did).

Exploring begins!

Liked it.  City that sits on the river (like Hamilton) but feels somewhat like Auckland.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was more just the familiar size, a downscale from Berlin.  Still a big city (4th largest in Germany) but is more walker friendly, with things to see and observe on most corners and waysides.  Berlin has these vast imperialistic straights from place to place which on a -18C day, can be testing.

Bit of colour in Koln

Koln is famous in part for being the birthplace of Eu de Cologne.  We visited the museum to its dedication but couldn't go in as you needed to prearrange a tour guide to do so.  Had a look in the shop though, where I enjoyed watching the boys try on various women fragrances, not realising the men's were on the opposite side.  Went to the Chocolate Museum as well which was a little ho-hum if you've seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and think it's gonna be that reincarnate, and not like display-read-read as Museums typically are.  The city's most impressive feature was its Cathedral, a talismanic centrepiece that smacks you flush in the face, first step out from the central station.  Looks best at night when lit against low mist.  Amazing to think such a building survived the war but I guess you're asking for trouble if you're a flying a bomber and let a payload out over a church.

Koln Cathedral at night

That was it, that was Koln and Germany too, as we departed after 2 nights stayed and headed home.  Had a fun moment on our last night there where we had an impromptu game of imaginary cricket on the platform.  Did myself proud with the bat in an unbeaten innings including a huge 6 off Wilson's bowling.  A memorable way to finish the trip off.

Finishing with fun in Koln