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Chapter 10 – Germany 2

EPOV

We began the next day early with a big breakfast. The table was filled with rolls straight out of a small, nearby bakery, soft-boiled eggs, more varieties of sausages than anyone could need – they really made Emmett's day – and a large selection of yogurts to mix with müsli. It looked extremely weird, with seeds and grains and nuts meshed up together. Rose was the first one of us to give it a shot, since it looked healthy and it turned out to be quite good. The oddest thing was how all the other breakfast eaters put marmalade on their rolls, and often even combined it with cheese. After a careful examination of their expressions when they munched it down, it tried it as well, and it wasn't too bad. One of those things you had to experience, if not necessarily repeat.

Having stuffed our stomachs full, we headed out. Our sight seeing before had been pretty loose, so we had decided to make this an extremely busy day, the kind that would have us zigzagging through Cologne until the brink of physical exhaustion.

After a short trip on a packed light rail we were standing in front of one of the world heritage sights – the Cologne Cathedral. The sight of the two pointed, elaborate-above-imagination towers was breathtaking. The entire façade with live-sized jamb figures carved on it and the way it seemed to go on and on. Even when I craned my neck back as far as it would go, I still couldn't see the entire thing with one look. All the details were too much to take in. We must have looked a bit odd, just standing in a line, staring for what seemed like ages. The sound of Bella's camera snapping finally broke us from our position. The snapping continued in a staggering pace, non stop.

I turned to look at Bella, who was just trying to get as much of the two towers into a picture. She seemed distracted by my stare.

"What? I don't want Alice to miss this, so I'm recording Cologne for her and Jasper."

I smiled. Alice and Jasper were lucky to have someone like Bella as their friend. "By all means, take all the pictures you want."

She winked playfully. "As I intend to." She positioned her camera for another shot, then groaned, irritated. "If only all those tourists would move from the entrance. I thought the reason we came early was to prevent this from happening!"

And truly, the was a continuous dribble of people going through the double doors, which seemed tiny in their frames, compared to their impressive surroundings, when they were really large in real life. Rosalie seemed to have noticed them as well.

"Guys, I think they're not tourists. I think it's time for the morning mass or something of the sorts."

Bella's next comment surprised me. "I think we should go there."

Emmett's face was a bit uneasy. "A mass? On a holiday? Why?"

"Well, I for one have never done anything like that, visited a Catholic mass", Bella reasoned.

"And we really have nothing else to do, since sight seeing is forbidden during mass." Rosalie was obviously on Bella's side. Both of their eyes went on full pleading mode, as they waited for our decision.

I looked at them and then turned to Emmett. His expression was already one of resignation. If Rosalie wanted to go, then he didn't have much of a say. When I looked at Bella's deep, chocolaty eyes yet again, I couldn't help but feel that I was somehow close to Emmett's predicament.

"I guess we'll go, then." I agreed. Bella and Rose squealed happily and started towards the entrance. When I opened the door, a sudden snap had me glancing around for the source. I found it quickly when Bella with her camera came into my vision. She was giggling and took another picture of my annoyed expression without warning. I hated pictures taken from me.

"Is that absolutely necessary?" I didn't want to be annoyed with Bella, but I couldn't quite conceal my irritation about the photos.

"I just wanted to document a martyr face. Come on Edward, an hour of your life for catholic religion is not likely to kill you." Her light, teasing tone seemed to melt my irritation away.

"Not likely…We'll see about that, won't we? But I'd rather you stick with photographing sights."

She smirked. "I really can't see the harm, besides I know Alice wants to see more from this trip than old buildings. And as it happens, I think you are quite a sight." With a wink she passed me, a radiant pink colouring her cheeks.

I was frozen to my place. Was it just me or did she just…?

I shook my head and followed the others inside for the mass that was about to start. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

An hour or so later we could finally rise out of the uncomfortable wooden benches and start to explore the cathedral from the inside.

"Phew, that was one long our. And with long I mean biology-lecture long!" Emmett let out as soon as we were out of the pew. "I mean, even if I had understood a single thing…" He let his voice trail out after noticing a pair of elderly ladies looking at him with a frown. Their glares made even my humorous brother slightly uncomfortable, and wanting to get out of their vicinity, we moved to the side of the cathedral.

"Emmett, churches are places to keep your thoughts to your self." I reminded him with a hushed tone.

He rolled his eyes at me. "I know, brother dearest. Trust me, I'm beyond suave in situations like these. Ooh, is that a confessionary?" Emmett's assuring manner crumbled as he rapidly moved towards the nearby confessionary.

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. If Emmett would be the first to be banned from a church, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

A small hand rubbed my back comfortingly. "Why don't we go look at something else?" Bella asked, trying to make me feel better. "I still have an awful lot of this memory card left."

I smiled at her waving the camera and walked with her in the exact opposite direction from where Rosalie was trying to rein Emmett in.

Bella certainly had 'an awful lot' of memory card, considering the way she took pictures non stop. From the famous confessionary, the high arched ceiling above the long row of pews, the golden sarcophagus of the three kings, the detailed wooden carvings, the exquisite rose windows with colourful pictures of religious characters.

I mainly followed Bella around, content to look at anything she showed an interest to. Of course I enjoyed the treasure chamber, the tombs and epitaphs and all the old, memorable things as well, but I honestly liked her reactions to them even better.

After another hour we started to climb up the stairs to the tower with Rose and Emmett, who had a much meeker quality to him, thanks to Rosalie. If Bella's photography had been non stop before, it was frantic by the time we reached the top of the stairway and was our first glimpse over Cologne.

In the middle of Bella's capturing everything on tape and Emmett and Rose's cuddling next to the railing, I took a long moment to look at the vision-like scenery below me. For me, the best way to really appreciate a city seemed to be seeing it from high above. London Eye, the Eiffel Tower and now this. It gives an overwhelming idea of what the town was like in the most realistic way.

Once again, Bella had found her way next to me.

"I notice you have stopped your new hobby", I commented as I saw her camera-free hands.

She chuckled, still watching the view. "Yeah, but only for the cathedral. I'm bringing it out again, once we head out. Which should happen soon, by the way. Rose and I thought it'd be for the best if we cleared out before midday prayer time."

"Sounds like a plan."

I turned away from the view overlooking the arched bridge over Rhine, and headed towards the stairs again. When we stepped out, another swarm of people was heading for the noon prayers.

Emmett spoke up. "I think we ought to have something to eat, being religious really makes me hungry."

And with that hysteric note we left to find lunch. Since we didn't really know much about restaurants in Cologne, anything worked for us. The only thing we wanted to avoid were 'faceless multinational corporations' as Rose liked to put it. It did seem a bit irrational to eat in a McDonald's when you just got away from the US.

A reasonably short time later we found a pretty modern Italian restaurant, and settled down at a table right in the middle of the dining area.

"Oh, perfect, I am starving!" Emmett said as our waitress brought up a basket of garlic bread before taking our orders. It was a really stereotypical place, with chequered tablecloths and Il Divo as back round music.

But the food was beyond expectations. The pizzas were so large that their sides were hanging off the plates. All of us were completely stuffed, except for Emmett, who managed to eat his super-size pizza as well as what was left from Bella and Rosalie's pasta and chicken Alfredo.

Even the check surprised me, it was about half of what I would have thought. Emmett and I intended to split the bill between ourselves, but our gentlemanly idea was quickly shot down by the girls. They vehemently refused us, claiming that we were all in the same situation with a traveling budget and we should act like it.

When we stepped outside, the loud gang of boys that had been sitting next to out table followed us out. One of them – probably considered the bravest one, judging by all the back-pushing his friends were doing – approached us as soon as we were in the sunny outside air again.

"Umm…Hi there! I'm Michael. Are you on holiday here?" He seemed slightly nervous to me, but he was trying to mask it with a macho posture and a bit too curious expression.

"Yeah, you could say so. We're interrailing through Europe for this month." I decided to answer, keeping it polite. No need to be unpleasant, right?

"That sounds great…" He looked back at his friends for nonexistent backup. "Do you need a guide? We're locals so we really know our way around the city."

"Oh, please, I'd be shocked if they didn't know where to go in the city they live in…" Rosalie's sarcastic comment floated to my ears, but I doubt they heard it. I hid my chuckle.

"Well, we're just going to the chocolate museum today, and I think we can find our way, thanks." Emmett replied, grinning widely as if to show the friendliness that often didn't come off. I mean, just look at him.

"Oh? What about tonight then? What are you doing?"

The four of us looked at each other. "What do you guys think?" Bella asked.

"Well, we don't have anything planned for tonight…" Rose said her opinion.

"Yeah, and even if they were planning something, I think we'll manage. I mean", Emmett said, looking at our German acquaintances with a snide expression "look at them!"

That settled it. We exchanged numbers with Michael and then left them slapping each other's backs for their achievement.

Emmett rolled his eyes. "I seriously hope there are some other dudes in wherever they're planning on taking us."

It was around nine pm when we arrived on a pretty crowded park area right by the river. Michael, or 'Mike' as he had asked us to call him, had picked us up from our hostel with his same group of friends and then walked us to the riverside for a 'gathering'. Apparently it was their group of friends, but Emmett at least looked relieved to see some athletic looking guys playing volley ball nearby. "Thank God there are un-geeky people in Germany…" I heard him mutter to himself.

There were blankets laid out onto the grass and some guys were barbequing right next to them, an appetizing smell of meat floating in the air. Coolers filled with beer, wine and soda bottles were placed near the barbeque area.

"This looks like a big party", Bella commented to Rose and me. Mike heard her and turned to her, smiling.

"Oh no, this is pretty casual. We just hang around and eat. Speaking of which, the food should be ready soon." He shouted something in German to the barbeque-guy who replied with a boisterous laugh. Mike turned to us again.

"Yeah, food is ready soon. You can help yourselves, really. And same goes for the drinks. Oh, and you can also play football or volleyball if you like."

I bet we looked a bit lost at the moment, with too much information at once. At last, we settled on one of the blankets and grabbed some meat and potato salad on disposable plates.

Everyone seemed really friendly and came to talk to us, switching to English as soon as they noticed we had no idea what they were saying. They asked us what we thought about Cologne and Germany in general, and told us at least a dozen places we shouldn't miss. When we were done with eating, some of the guys asked us to play football. Only Emmett and I went, though. Rosalie seemed to dislike the thought of running around, kicking a muddy ball, and Bella comment really said it all: "Oh really, I can't even walk up stairs with dignity and you want me to play soccer?"

We teamed up and had fun playing around, having a good round of exercise on the side. Germans really take their soccer seriously, I mean, they were really good. Emmett and I were keeping up though. Every once and a while we would glance at the girls, and for the looks of it they were having fun. When we had been playing for about an hour, Emmett suddenly nudged me and then nodded towards the Bella and Rose. Their blanket had been invaded by Mike and a bunch of other guys. Oddly enough, the girls didn't seem to mind.

"We'd better check it out", Emmett said. I nodded in agreement. It's not that we had anything in particular against Mike and his friends – in fact, most of them were pretty nice – but still I somehow didn't like the idea of having them so close to Bella without me there.

We thanked for the game and then quickly made our way to the blanket. Rose noticed us first. "Emmett!" She cried out and ran to him, launching herself in his arms. Emmett looked at me confusedly. I was as puzzled as he was – Rose hadn't really come across as a really emotional person.

I quickly looked at Bella, who was still sitting with her new acquaintances. Suddenly she glanced my way and then turned her head back at once, giggling madly. Not really knowing what was going on, I made my way over to Bella and sat down next to her, and then noticed why they were acting out of ordinary.

"Ooh, Edward, you have to try this one. It's coke and beer. Isn't that funny?" Bella told me in an enthusiastic way, and seemed to find it simply hilarious herself, and giggled again with her cheeks flushed pink.

I looked at her, amused now that I knew nothing was wrong with them. "Yeah, really funny…Listen Bella, how many of those have you had?"

Bella bit down on her lip, thinking really hard. "I don't know. Maybe three. You should too, it's really good." She finished her statement with a small hiccup.

I was hiding my chuckle now. I knew for a fact that this was her first time to drink this much, and it was fun to watch. She was much less reserved and she also not as shy.

Emmett and Rose came to sit next to us on the blanket. My brother also seemed to have grasped at what was going on. He didn't seem to mind too terribly. "Sweet! They're both drunk. We could make them make out with each other!"

I glared at him. "Emmett!"

He chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe you should get to kiss Bella before Rosie."

I smacked my brother and then just decided to ignore his remarks for a while. I moved myself so that I was sitting behind Bella, with my legs on either side of hers. She leaned her head on my chest as we continued to talk to the group sitting with us. The conversation had now moved from Germany to all of Europe. Some of them had done a lot of traveling in continental Europe during holidays and they gave us great pointers.

We just sat there talking until it was way past midnight. I noticed it was getting chilly, Bella was snuggling closer to me and I could feel her shivering occasionally. I turned to look at Emmett.

"I think we should get the girls inside, it's getting cold."

Emmett nodded in agreement and gingerly unwrapped himself from Rosalie, standing up. "Come on Rosie, let's get you up."

I also stood up, and gave my hand to Bella to help her up. We thanked Mike and his friends again for the invitation and then started to make our way back to the hostel. The walk wasn't too long, but just after a few hundred meters it became clear it would take a while. Emmett and I had only drunk a few beers, but we were also a bit bigger than Bella and Rosalie. They had definitely out-played us on the drinking section tonight. Rose seemed like she could handle herself with some grace, but Bella's clumsiness had increased by a thousand with alcohol in her blood. After I had caught her by the waist for what seemed like the fiftieth time, I realised we weren't going anywhere with this speed.

"Okay, here's what we'll do", I said, pulling Bella up by her waist after yet another fall. "I'll just carry her, it's much easier."

Emmett helped Bella to my back. "You're really going to the right direction, Eddie", he said in a hushed whisper.

I just growled at him and turned my attention to Bella. "Bella?"

"Hmm?"

"Hold on tight, okay? I don't want you to fall off."

"Hmm…"

We moved much faster after that. I actually preferred this to her walking next to me. Bella really held on tight, her hands wrapped around me. We went straight to our room when we arrived. I made my way to Bella's bed and gently pried her hands away from my neck. She looked half asleep already.

I was feeling tired as well. We all were, really, considering the full day we had. We just changed quickly and got ready to sleep, having showered before we left earlier. Rose had to help Bella a bit, while Emmett and I were facing the opposite wall. Then we just turned off the lights and went to bed.

I had barely fallen asleep, when I heard light tapping of feet in the room. I opened one eye and saw Bella out of bed.

"Bella, what are you doing?" I mumbled tiredly.

She gasped, startled by my voice. "Oh, I woke you up." She sounded a more sober than a while ago.

"Nah, it's okay. Is something wrong?"

"Umm…No. I'm just looking for a sweater. I'm really cold."

Right at that moment I didn't know what went into me. Maybe it was all the hints Emmett had rammed to my subconscious mind, or the few beers that I'd had.

"I think it might be a reaction to the alcohol, if your muscles are cramping. Come here next to me. We can talk until it passes."

Bella hesitated for a while, but then walked next to my bed and climbed under covers. She was really freezing. "Thanks." She breathed quietly.

"No problem. We should try to get some sleep, if we ever want to get up."

Bella nodded tiredly and closed her eyes. I hesitantly wrapped my other arm around her waist, not sure if it was okay. Bella scooted a bit closer after that and rested her head against my shoulder, her breath tickling my collar bone. If I hadn't been this tired, I doubt I would have gotten any sleep at all, with Bella resting next to me. But since I was exhausted, it didn't take too long for my eyes to shut and my mind drift away from the sweet, beautiful girl in my arms.

Review, please. I need to know what you thought, just that I know I'm going to the right direction. And If you have any wishes, go ahead and let me know.

Sorry about the somewhat large gap between updates. I've just had a ton to do, and when I didn't, I was just plain lazy…But I'll try and be more active.

So, you know what to do! :D

Isabella Juliet