8.11-12.11

8.11

On the second wednesday of my trip my work started. I got an intership at Köln's pottery art cafe, which is a cafe where people can book a table and come paint pottery. 

Before my trip i was warned that i might need to hide my piercings for work, but as soon as i got to the workplace greeting me was a young woman with a lip piercings and long haired with shaved sides. I immediately felt a bit less scared and more comfortable. I was welcomed in by 2 lovely employees who told me how to do everything around the cafe. 

Every wednesday the paint bottles used to paint the pottery need to be filled up so that was the first thing i started doing. It took me 2 hours to fill up all the paints. When the customers arrived i was shown how to make the drinks and i spent the day helping around the cafe.

9.11

On Thursday i only had around 4 hours of work. I arrived at 3pm and immediately started with helping the other employees set up the tables for the customers. I was given a task of cleaning old paint off pottery which was never finished. While the customers painted i cleaned the pottery as well as helped to make drinks when needed. After the customers left i helped to clean up the cafe.

10.11

On friday i arrived earlier to the workplace to help the boss with a delivery. First i helped her carry the boxes inside. Then i dusted all the shelves in the cafe so the shelves could be stocked up with new pottery. I also made sure all the paint bottles were filled and working well. Then i unboxed the new paints and helped to stock up the paint storage with them. 

The boss was really nice and helpful and we spoke and joked around a lot. It's a really fun work enviroment and while working music was blasting and the employees were singing along and laughing.

After the customers arrived i helped to get everyone's drink orders and made all the cold drinks. Then i went to the back to again clean the old pottery. After the customers left i helped to clean and close up the cafe.

11.11

11.11 is an important date in Köln, because it's the day of the Karneval. Every year on this date people dress up in costumes and go party and drink on the streets and clubs. The party starts at 11:11 in the morning and lasts all day to night.

I was given a day off on saturday exactly for this reason, to go and see Karneval. I did my makeup to look like a clown and wore the best fitting outfit in my suitcase. We then went to the streets to see the action. We arrived downtown before 12am and the place was already filled with people. Everyone was dressed in fun costumes, music was blasting and people were already drinking like crazy. We walked trough the city and there were huge crowds of people partying everywhere. The energy was really fun and the weather was nice and sunny. There were people from all ages enjoying the Karneval from children to the elderly.

We made our way to the church and were pretty grossed out to find the entire area around the church sticky from alcohol. The party did seem very fun and exciting, but we couldn't help but notice all the trash, broken bottles and spilled drinks littering the usually really beautiful city. We only ended up staying for about three hours before heading back to our appartment. 

It was definetly a once in a lifetime experience.

(My Karneval makeup)

12.11

The sunday after Karneval

When  i was riding my train to work to get there by 12:00 i saw the leftovers of the party last night. Every street was filled with trash, something i havent seen in Köln during my time here. 

The work day was like most others, i helped set up, washed pottery and helped customers. On this day i was asked to take and make all the drink orders for the first time. I don'tknow any german, which didn't end up being and issue while talking with the customers. What did take me some time to figure out was the coffee machine that was completely in german. I did still manage to take and make all the orders for that day. After the customers left i helped to clean and close up the cafe as usual.

And for the end of this post a few photos of beautiful Köln: