I imagine that grilling big pieces of meat outside isn't particular to any one part of the world, but they certainly don't take exception to a barbeque here. I was invited by a few people from AIESEC at the University of Cologne to go to a summer barbeque. It was in a large park, not quite in the centre of the city, but very close to the university. The night was a little windy, but it was getting closer and closer to the summer solstice and the days were so long. We had sun until about ten o'clock. Janik from my office invited me to the barbeque, and we met up with two other trainees on the way to the park, Liviu from Romania, and Kivanc from Turkey. We got along pretty well and I ended up talking with them for the better part of the night. When it came time to go home, I realized that this was a good thing, because I had no idea how to get back. I had paid attention to the trains that we had taken to make it to the park, but there was a section in-between trains where we had to walk, and this would clearly have been a sticking point for me had I been on my own. Luckily, Liviu was going back to Bonn (he and Kivanc are both trainees at Deutsche Post which has its headquarters there) which meant he had to go to the main station to catch an intercity connection. And I at least knew my way home from there. I was starting to get to know a little about the city, and I realized that I could really have a lot of fun here.
;)