I live in Cologne since I’ve been born 27 years ago. With my parents I actually lived in a little city 15 minutes outside Cologne, but Cologne always felt like home to me. When I moved here three years ago, I fell in love with the city all over again. Sometimes Cologne really sucks, because it is kind of small. You can’t easily avoid people you don’t want to see and it can get kind of boring. But it has it good sides, too!

What you may know about Cologne is the Kölsch beer. Yes, it is very famous and I like it. What comes together with the Kölsch beer are the breweries. Yesterday my husband and me fetched dinner in a brewery just around the corner. We go there on a regular basis, because sometimes you just crave the fabulous food they are serving. When eating in a brewery you first need to try a “Metthappen”. “Mett” is a kind of raw meat, which Germans love to eat on bread or breadrolls. You eat it with onions, salt and pepper, and I absolutely love it and will miss it like hell once we live in the US. Another famous thing about the Cologne breweries are the “Köbese”. The “Köbes” is the guy behind the bar, who serves you the Kölsch beer. “Köbese” are very mean and have a very mean sense of humor. But it is fun, because those guys have to be like that!

When we had our english friend Robert over for the wedding last year, we took him to one of the biggest brewery in Cologne. Robert was kind of shocked and totally overstrained, because the “Köbese” are not only mean, they also just serve you another beer without asking when yours is empty. Robert loved the bourgeois food, but even for him as an english guy it was way too much food.

I predict for myself that at every visit I will pay Germany once we live abroad, I will have to go to a brewery and eat there. My eating habits then will change, because I will not only eat one “Metthappen”, but hundreds. But what will never change is that Kölsch Breweries kind of belong to me like my hometown Cologne does. And sometimes a mean service combined with good food can heal your soul!