Phantasialand

Well, this was another busy day at work with lots of plans during the week as well. Monday night, I met Kathy and her friend Diane for dinner. We went to a fondue restuarant in the center. It was a little on the pricey side, but the food was fantastic. We got one order of cheese fondue as an appetizer. It was a tomato basil type fondue, really good. Then we each got an order of meat fondue for dinner. The cuts of meat were very lean and everything was tasty. Way too much for me to eat in one sitting! On Wednesday, I met Justyna for dinner. Justyna is one of my newer friends. She works at the Tube, one of the bars that I go to. It is a small English bar. She is Polish, originally from Warsaw, she speaks 4 languages (Polish, French, English, and German). We went to Namaste, one of the Indian restuarants on my street. We stayed for a long time just talking about our lives and life in general, it was a lot of fun. Thursday was my day to lay low (because I think I went out on Tuesday too but I really can't remember what I did! I am forgetting things already...not good!) Friday, I hung out with some of the guys from my group on Le Place de Paris, one of the blocks that has several outdoor restuarants, I kept it early though because Saturday was Phantasialand! Phantasialand is an amusement park in Germany close to Cologne. It seems like I am doing the amusement park tour of Europe...that's a new one. It was so much fun. I was a little nervous about going because the group from BBH I was going with were people I only know a little, we don't really see eachother more than just to say hello to. They invited me to go with them when I was still in the States and they thought I was going to be a part of their group. The way my exchange worked it was not the case though. I should not have worried though, everyone was so nice and we all went around together. There was 11 of us that went. The bus picked us up at the train station near my house at about 8:30 in the morning. It is a 2 hour ride to Cologne. Jenni, you would be so proud of me, I rode almost all the roller coasters, the only one I would not go on was one that even some of the guys would not go on. The one that I would not go on was called the Talocan, it was a giant spinning wheel with two long rows of spinning seats the spun aroun on an axle while you were plummeting toward the ground. Also I skipped the free fall, but I did go on the Black Mamba, which is supposed to be the biggest attraction there (from the website): A rush like no other! The Black Mamba hurtles through ravines, plunges down chasms and shoots past waterfalls. You won't even have time to scream as loop-the-loops, corkscrews, hairpin bends and stomach-churning drops follow in quick succession, while the tunnels obscure your peripheral vision and alter your perception of speed. All in all it was a fantastic day. We got back to Luxembourg around 8:30 and we were all exhausted, I was too tired to make myself something to eat right away, I went right to sleep and got up around 10pm to eat and then went back to bed. Tonight, I am going to Kathy's house for dinner, she is making a raclette. A raclette is a melting block of cheese that is served with meat potatos and veggies. It is one of the things that they serve at the fondue restuarant as well. Now I am off to get ready for the day.