I know the saying goes something like ‘third time’s the charm’, but for me it was the second time. The first time we were in Köln we stayed for a couple of hours. Now we had two full days to explore the city and fall in love with it. We arrived last Saturday at around midnight but we had no problem getting from the airport to the Haupbahnof (HBF). Again, DB (Deutsche Bahn) made things incredibly easy for us. I’m sure other countries have a good railroad/metro system but I am totally amazed at how well the DB works. Anways, our first night there was spent walking to the hotel, eating sandwiches and drinking white beer and trying to get as much sleep as possible.

The first day there was fabulous! Our hotel was close to the HBH so we walked there and met Vio and Martha. I am so grateful that they came to see me! I really can’t picture going to Germany and not meeting them. I like it better when we’re a group: more topics to discuss, more ideas, more laughing and more feeling good. So the four of us started the day with a delicious cake and a cappuccino and then we walked around for the rest of the day.

We wandered around Altstadt (the old part of the city) and we were lucky to find the shops open (usually they are closed on Sunday). Every time I go abroad I swear I won’t enter any shops and then I break my promise and end up wasting money on clothes. Well, this time it was different: I bought shoes. And so did Martha and Vio and now we have the same shoes but in different colour :))

It’s incredible how many shops there are! We walked for a couple of hours and every street we came across was full of shops and cafés. It was absolutely wonderful! Also, I was surprised to discover that although Köln is a big city (more than 1 million people live there), it’s very quiet and relaxed. Like everywhere else in Germany, there were many people on bikes and I thought there were quite a lot of young people as well. Bottom line is that Köln has become one of my favourite cities ever!

As for the Bon Iver concert from that evening… my God, it was fabulous, like nothing I had experienced before! I was expecting something calmer and more peaceful, but they totally rocked! They sounded magnificently out of tune and they made my heart beat faster and faster until I thought I was going to burst with joy and emotion.  I still can’t listen to anything else: on my playlist it’s only Bon Iver over and over again. The concert was totally worth the trip!

Th only sad part was when we had to say goodbye. It’s not fair that people who mean so much to me are so far away and that I see them so rarely. I should spend half the year in Romania and the other half in Germany, maybe then I’d feel like I found my home.