Tour of Cologne (Monday August 9)

So this morning I got up super early and Sylvia took me to the doctor. She had to go work for an old lady helping her out with home stuff, so she took me before work. It was way too early but we got up and walked to the doctor’s office. Sylvia talked to the receptionist and said everything was okay and to just wait in the waiting room for a half hour or so and the doctor would see me.

Eventually they called me in. The doctor spoke English very well so we had no trouble. He asked some questions. Then quickly checked some stuff (blood pressure, breathing, ears, etc.). He did all of this very quickly. Then he wrote out a prescription walked me to the front desk and said goodbye. Not saying what I had or what I had to pay. The front desk gave me the prescription and then proceeded to go about their work. I was confused because, ya know, you usually pay for doctors appointments. I stood there for a minute or so looking awkward (I didn’t want to walk out without paying). The receptionist brought over another receptionist that spoke English. I asked her if I could go, and she said yes and goodbye. I was very confused but not gonna argue with a free appointment.

So I headed back to Sylvia’s and stopped at the pharmacy and filled my prescriptions. They weren’t too expensive (especially by American standards). The pharmacist explained when to take them, but not what they were or how to take them (this isn’t a problem if they’re both just simple pills, but that wasn’t the case). I got back and ate some cereal and took the first pill of the antibiotics. Then came the other one which was much too big to be a pill you swallowed. The picture on the box showed it splashing into water, so I thought maybe it was a dissolving pill, but I didn’t want to try till I checked. I used google translate to attempt to translate the directions. Problem was I couldn’t find the directions (I really don’t like not knowing any of the native language). Eventually I just gave up and tried it. I was right and it worked, so I drank the fizzy water and felt accomplished.

When Sylvia got home we ate some lunch (same as the last 2 days). Then we headed into the center of the city. Sylvia gave me a grand tour! She showed me the Dome (very famous cathedral), museums nearby (the one I went to and another I might go to that is on the Roman history of the city), a cool German book store, where they are building a new museum, the hole (where a building collapsed and created this massive hole), her old high school, a famous perfume shop, and other cool stuff. We had a grand time walking around Cologne and seeing the city. It was a bit weird at times for Sylvia though because so much has changed/ is changing (like her old high school being torn down and her old train station no longer being there). At the end of the tour Sylvia and I stopped for groceries, but couldn't find everything at one place. So we bought some stuff there then went next door, they didn't have some stuff either. So we didn't buy anything there we just left and went to another grocery store only a bit out of the way from her house (since the one we went to last time was closed by this point). We got what we needed and headed back.

Sylvia made dinner and we ate. It was very tasty and nice. Nels was supposed to join us for dinner, but he was late. He ate when he arrived and then we started talking about music. Sylvia realized that there was this one German artist I didn't know (of course I don't know many German artists so I wasn't surprised). She wanted to show me the video, so I grabbed my laptop and headed into the kitchen so we could watch it. The video was from a TV show that is a European song writing competition. SO we watched the one video then continued to watch others (other countries videos, some good some painful, but all fun to watch). Then I started showing them videos of comedians. I introduced them to Flight of the Concords and Eddie Izzard. We laughed and laughed, it was a great time. Sylvia and I were having a blast anyway, Nels I think got lost at times but either way it was super fun. Then we all got sleepy and went to bed.