Cologne, we meet again!

(View of Cologne, Germany from the Rhine River)

Our one-day stay in Cologne has come and gone, but it was beautiful!

Before I recap our group's agenda (next post), first take a look at the amazing view of the city above. Isn't it pretty?

You can see the silhouette of the Cologne Cathedral, the city's most visible landmark and the most popular attraction in Germany, from the Rhine River as the sun was setting. I took that close to the pedestrian bridge with its love locks.

There's just a certain charm to the city. It was just how I remembered it back in 2010, my first time in Germany.

It was a cold day in November when I took a train from Lille, France where I was studying abroad to Cologne to visit my friend Martin Richter (who's a big part of the reason I am on this fellowship, but more on that in a little bit). 

On that weekend, we went to carnival and dressed up in silly costumes and drank Kolsch! See below:

We also visited his TV station, Phoenix, a publicly-funded program that gets broadcasted on ARD and ZDF. They cover a wide range of topics, but they focus mainly on politics. 

Thanks to him, like I said earlier, I'm part of this European journey with 12 other journalists right now. So, I just want to say a BIG thank you to Martin for letting me know about the RIAS Berlin Commission and encouraging me to apply.

He will also get to experience this transatlantic opportunity when he travels to the U.S. next month in October and visits New York, D.C. and a one-week stay in Tulsa! He's interested in learning about Oklahoma's politics ahead of the mid-term elections, so we will have to put on a good program for him, so he gets the most out of the visit.

I will end this post by saying nothing is a coincidence in life. I first met Martin in 2008 when we covered the presidential elections between former Senator John McCain and Barack Obama. We were at McCain's viewing party, when I pitched the story idea to cover the international media that was attending the elections (it was quite a lot), and he happened to be one of my interviewees!

The story aired on Cronkite NewsWatch at Arizona State University (need to find the clip to share it later). Since that day, we became friends and have stayed in touch throughout the 10 years. 

So now that you know how I became aware of this wonderful opportunity abroad, I'll say auf wiedersehen until the next post where I will talk about what our group learned in Cologne and the places we visited.

Danke for reading! :)