On the last week-end of December, IHECS International has organized its first Erasmus trip! Target city? Cologne and its magical Christmas markets. Let’s discover the program together.

Saturday, 7:15am

The appointment was at 7:30 but there are already a big group of students waiting in the center of the South Station. They seems tired, but the week-end will worth it! The board announce a delay of 20 minutes, we hope there won’t be any other problem. Finger crossed.

Saturday, 10 am

We arrive at the youth hostel. It’s really clean and comfortable. Even at 22 years old, the allocation of the room is a big BIG deal. At the end, we all find the place that suits us the best. The trip can start! We have 3 hours of free time to visit the city, eat together and test some German traditional dishes.

Saturday, 15am

Oh my god “baby it’s (soooo) cold outside”! We check if our students from the south are still alive. In a few minutes, we’ll make a guided tour of the old city, and we’ll go through the main Christmas markets. Cologne has a really great atmosphere. We feel very safe and people are welcoming. Even more with the Christmas atmosphere. The hot wine smells in the entire city and we’re looking forwards to meeting together to taste it in the evening.

Saturday evening

We take a lot of space on the overcrowded Christmas market, but we finally manage to drink a cup of hot wine. Some of us will continue the night in the pubs or walking around the market. But, we, organizers, are really to old ;) . See you tomorrow for our city game!

Sunday morning

Fortunately, I’ve let a big time window for breakfast. We can all take our time and relax around a coffee. It’s so cold that we need strength! Students have time to visit by themselves and will come back in the afternoon for a Christmas city game.

Sunday afternoon

I explain the rules of the game:

Game story:You’re Santas Reindeers. In a few weeks, you’ll only have 1 night to deliver all the presents to childrens in the entire world. To succeed, you absolutely need to know each city by heart, to take the right way. Each year, you propose to Santa Claus to buy a GPS or you try to explain how Google maps works, but he is so old school that he refuses new technologies… That’s why, every year, you go in each city to recognize the map.

The process is :

-Follow Santa’s itinerary. Be carefull, he likes enigma…

-Take the photo in front of each building following Santa’s advices

-If you finish the mission and you’re the first team to arrive, you’ll may be chosen by Santa to work during Christmas Eve… if not, it will be time to change your curriculum and to find a new job!

Next trip at easter in Paris! We’re waiting for you!