In the beginning of the exchange year in Germany, we were excited about the activities that we could do in the state or bundesland that we were in: Nordrhein-Westfalen. One activity that popped up was a theme park located in Brühl called Phantasialand. My family from Brück recommended that place, so why shouldn't we give it a try?
This post and many more are related to my Exchange Year in Germany from 2008 to 2009. In this country I lived with various host families and learned German too. Click in the link below to read more.
Table of Contents
Organizing a bunch of Exchange Students
My family from Brück told me about this theme park and it intrigued me. I have been previously in another theme park called Walt Disney World when I was 10 years old. Roller coasters? Yes, it was included there.
But I wasn't going there alone. The few friends that I had at the time were other exchange students like me. All I had from each other was a phone number (either from the house or the cellphone) and a tentative date to go. When organizing people, sometimes is better to just define a date that most of us could meet.
Stepping into Phantasialand
Finally, we met the September 5 of 2008 in my favorite place in Cologne: the main train station. From there, we took the tram line 18 towards the station “Brühl Mitte”.
All of us were excited to jump into the park and get to know the place. That also meant to scream loud in the roller coasters.
Various places around the world
As a theme park, you can expect multiple ‘themed' zones. To name a few, there were places oriented or decorated to Mexico, Asia, Africa and so on. Phantasialand nailed it when it comes to architecture. It felt authentic.
Beyond that, in each zone there were activities to do, such as roller coasters, shows dances, fluffy and cartoons walking around.
A Roller Coaster in Phantasialand!
Hear me scream! This was an exciting activity that I'm always scared to jump in but excited and thrilled when I get out!
One of the exchange students came from Taiwan and roller coaster was not something that she would enjoy. While she agreed to stay outside during the ride and wait, the rest of us went to the roller coaster.
Getting back home
When the day was almost over, we left all the screams and thrills that we experienced there but the memories remained with us. It was fun.
But what was funnier was that Alice and I were talking all the way in the park about music, specially the Beatles. She suggested that we should watch a movie called “Across the Universe” in her house afterwards, then have dinner with her host parents. Of course we were going to just “watch a movie”, which was great.
The next day
I was supposed to arrive home early since my host family from Brück was taking me and other exchange students to a trip to Brügge, Belgium. I had to smile and excuse me that I was not able to arrive sooner because I was busy hehe.
Soon the story about this trip will be published here. I will let you know via the newsletter or social media.
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