More from London:

I was going to buy those soaps for my host mom, but they cost more than my daily food budget so i decided against it. 

16/09/15 

I met an artist in a little English Cafe dedicated to Charles Dickens. The owner of the Cafe saw this artist’s art on the street, and hired him to paint on the walls. . He and i spoke for quite a while- he had been working on copying out Charles Dickens’ illustrations onto the walls of the coffee shop for the past five weeks, and i can say from personal experience that he was succeeding in transforming the place.  He was a lively man, smiley  and very enthusiastic to share his work with me, for which i was thankful. 

I gave him the link to my blog: so, if you see this one day, Hello! I hope everything is working out for you! I really appreciated chatting with you on that Tuesday afternoon. Little do you know, you made my day. 

Visually, London is my favourite city. It’s very photogenic. 

The way the city itself is set up really impressed me. There is an overwhelming amount of new and beautiful architecture, including buildings like The Shard. These new buildings, twisted shapes made mostly of glimmering glass, towered over the buildings below. Still, the old, stone architecture, like that of the Tower Bridge and the London Tower, somehow merged perfectly with the shining forms of the newest buildings. This mixture of old and new created a surreal feeling about the city when seen from afar. I felt like i was in a magical place. It didn’t seem possible.

Although the London weather is really awful for general tourist activities, it does make some pretty nice sunsets (when the sun isn’t covered by sheets of rain, that is) 

London, England - September 14-18,  2015

pictured: my hostel window, a package of crackers, and a cool girl with some cool hair. 

The Koln Dom 

arguably the most beautiful and threatening building ive ever seen in my life. 

That is all. 

In Koln, we watched the Philharmonie orchestra. I have to say, the music brought me so deep into my own thoughts and moved me so much, i had to cover my incresingly red face with a scarf to hide the tears forming in my eyes.

I view the music as a series of waves.  The instruments, mostly strings, caused what i can only describe as swells of emotion to flow through my mind. With every rise and fall of tempo, every switch from major to minor, every crescendo and decrescendo, my thoughts raced back and forth from happy memories to sad, from the past to the future, from regret to pride. The entire range of human emotion, (i would imagine, at least) somehow roared through my brain in a small period of about 2 hours. Which, to say the least, was a little overwhelming. 

Until that night, i thought i knew the  powers of music. I realise now that i had no idea how incredibly forceful of an impact music can have on people… or more specifically, on me. 

Although i walked out of that music hall with a red face, watery eyes, and slightly more-tense shoulders than i walked into it with, i can truly and honestly say that it was one of the most beautiful experiences i’ve ever had. And i thank the Rotary Club of Holzminden for giving me that opportunity. 

:) 

I’m trying to keep everything in chronological order here, but that might not work perfectly because my memory is so chock full of wonderful things that it can’t remember everything precisely. but that’s okay. 

I WENT TO COLOGNE, or, as i know it better, Koln. And i was finally reunited with my favourite puzzle piece on the planet. Together, for one afternoon after more than a couple weeks of separation, we explored the Dom, the city, and told stories in rapid-fire Denlgish until (literally) the very last moment we had together. It had been, for both of us, the longest and shortest 11 weeks of our lives.

I am thankful for nothing more than i am thankful for this wonderful person’s existance, support, and sense of humour. my goodness, it was good to see you again, Rowan. and we’ll be reunited again soon. You’ll see. 

-Dusseldorf ft. me 

 I’ve been spending a lot of time in Dusseldorf, although I hardly every write about it. Dusseldorf, for me, is home base.

 It’s where I meet old friends and new friends, where less than friends become best of friends, where we sit down to catch up, or go up to look down*. It’s where I go to study German but learn spanish, where we dress ghetto but act fancy, where we take breaks to make bonds, where we shop without money, where we make plans to have no plans, and where we chill, and learn, and play, and work, and love, and laugh. It’s where I, or rather, where we feel at home. 

 *reference to Dusseldorf tower