Thursday, December 11
I arrived at Cologne Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) in Germany around 3 PM. The journey took about six hours, and I had two transfers along the way: Bern Hauptbahnhof and Basel SBB. Until Bern, there were not many passengers, but the train from Bern to Basel SBB was packed.
I spent most of the time writing a journal about Lausanne for my blog. At the second transfer station, Basel SBB, I had only twelve minutes to catch my final train, so I decided to buy a small lunch. I found a small shop and bought a pretzel-shaped sandwich with salami. I had never seen this kind of sandwich in France or Switzerland, so I was excited to try it. The sandwich and a bottle of water cost me 14 dollars. Traveling in Europe is expensive—I should have refilled my water bottle in Lausanne.
I ate the sandwich on the train. The taste was not as good as I had expected, but it was still decent. I’m not sure if it was worth the price. This train had far fewer passengers, so I sat in a four-seat area with two seats facing each other and a small table. Taking advantage of the space, I started writing a journal in French in my notebook. I believe writing is a good way to learn languages.
It usually takes me about 40–50 minutes to finish a journal entry in French, while writing in English only takes about 10–15 minutes, because I have to translate words I don’t know. Still, it’s a good exercise for learning French. I stayed on the final train for over three hours, stopping at several stations. As more passengers boarded, I eventually moved to a two-seat area.
On each train, the cabin crew checked passengers’ tickets, which never happened on my trips to Cluses in France or Lausanne in Switzerland. I was actually glad they checked them.
After arriving at Cologne Hbf, I headed to a flat I had reserved that morning through Airbnb for one night. I bought a local train ticket from a machine at the station. Using a train and a bus, it took about 10–15 minutes to reach the apartment. Since there is a university nearby, there were many large buildings that I assume are student housing.
The flat was in one of those buildings. The host and I greeted each other briefly, and he explained the house rules and instructions clearly—much better than the previous host in Annemasse. He told me that he had graduated from the university and currently works from home. The room was comfortable enough, although the bathroom and kitchen were a bit dirty.
I rested in the room until judo training, which started at 7 PM. I planned to go by bus, which was supposed to take 30 minutes, so I left around 6 PM. However, although the bus initially went in the correct direction, it suddenly turned around halfway and began heading back toward its starting point. I noticed this quickly and got off.
At the nearest bus stop, I asked a young woman wearing headphones how to get to the training center, and she kindly explained. According to her, some buses don’t go all the way to the final stop. Because the bus was running late, I waited more than 15 minutes, and other passengers also seemed annoyed. When the bus finally arrived, it was packed, and I could barely find space to stand.
When I reached the correct stop, I pressed the button to request the stop. I waited for the doors to open, but only the front door opened, and I missed my chance to get off. As a result, I got off at the next stop. Eventually, I arrived at the training center around 7:20 PM.
I quickly changed into my judo uniform and joined the practice. The judokas were extremely passionate and kept asking me to spar one after another. My body was still sore from training in Lausanne, but I enjoyed practicing with strong judokas. I also saw some judokas with Japanese roots.
After practice, the Japanese national coach took me to a supermarket to buy dinner and then drove me back to the Airbnb. I ate dinner and went straight to bed.
One thing that surprised me the most was that pedestrians strictly stopped when the traffic light was red. I rarely saw that in France. I found it interesting how people’s behavior can differ so much between neighboring countries.