By Louis Purba from Indonesia

On Saturday 24th July, the volunteers house had guests from Kassel, they were Berly (now South North Volunteers from Indonesia) and Sonya (South North Volunteers from Indonesia in 2018 and currently doing practicum in Kassel). At the moment there are 4 people living in the Volunteers house, Esperance (South North Volunteer from Congo), Georges (South North Volunteer from Congo), Abdoulaye (Student, currently living in Volunteers House) and myself. Sonya and Berly arrived at the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof at 10pm. We didn’t spend much time that night as they were very tired from working all day and traveled to Dortmund which took 2 hours.

The next morning at 9 am, we gathered together in living room to eat our breakfast and planned our trip. We decided to visit Cologne and Düsseldorf. I have planned two times to go to Cologne to see Kölner Dom but always failed. The first plan failed because I had to work on weekends for the Global Youth Faith Event. I changed the schedule to June 18th, but that day also had to be cancelled because the train route from Dortmund to Cologne was disrupted due to flooding. Thank God on that day there was no obstacles so we could visit Cologne.

The weather on that day was very sunny. We arrived in Cologne Hauptbahnhof at 2.30 pm. The first thing we did was to find lunch. After eating, we continued our journey. We started by walking around the Cathedral and taking lots of photos. So many people in that area. We had planned to go in and go upstairs to the cathedral but the plan changed because suddenly the sky turned so dark, we felt the view above the cathedral would not be good if the weather was not sunny.

I found Kölner Dom is very nice. The architectural style of this building is Gothic dominated by gray color. This style evolved from Romanesque architecture. Gothic architecture is often found in European cathedrals and churches. One of the characteristics of Gothic architecture is a tall, majestic building, and a tower with a pointed tip just like Kölner Dom has. Tall buildings and soaring into the sky depict high aspirations and hopes to reach heaven. Every details in Kölner Dom really amazed me.

We continued our journey around the Cathedral. Sonya had been to Cologne before, so she was our tour guide while in Cologne. Sonya showed us Heinzelmännchenbrunnenn, she told us the story behind the place. Sonya says we can toss a coin in the little pond that is there and make wishes and hope our wishes come true. What’s interesting to me is when Sonya said the hope she expressed when she first visited the place was ‚after her volunteering service she wants to return back to Germany‘. And her wish came true. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, because I don’t really believe in a myths. But I did it for fun. My hope was the same as Sonya, I want to return back to Germany after my volunteering service for some occasions or maybe continue my study.

We continued our tour to the Hohenzollern Bridge. We didn’t spend much time on the bridge as it was starting to rain. We decided to return from Cologne to Düsseldorf. In Düsseldorf we spent time at the Rheinwerft until 8 pm, enjoying the sunset beside the Rhine. After that we returned to Dortmund. Cologne and Düsseldorf are beautiful cities. My friends and I really enjoyed it. I have plan to go back there again in autumn.