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.

I know that you know I don’t believe in marriage and that I simply loathe wedding parties but this was a very important step for their relationship and it was the first time I accepted such a commitment without judging. Of course, I still think they are a bit too young for this, but I know they will be just fine In church I was so touched that I cried! They were so beautiful and in love and they knew what they wanted: to be together for the rest of their lives. How can one not shed a tear or two?

Now I can’t think of Gabi. Now there’s Gabi and Alexandra. And I am so happy for them!

*Mylène Farmer - C’est une belle journée

I didn’t have time to roam around the town because we went to the countryside where we celebrated Mum’s birthday. It’s so good to go there from time to time. There’s the place where I grew up, I know every corner of the house and of the garden. But many things have changed since my grandma died and my uncle and his wife moved there. There rooms have changed, the garden has changed and although they have definitely improved the place I wish they hadn’t thrown out so many of my grandparents’ things.

But one thing I really enjoyed there: the fresh vegetables! They have a lovely vegetable garden and they don’t use chemicals so everything was bio and delicious. I always buy my vegetables from the market, from farmers, but you never know what chemicals they use…

There were a lot of kids present yesterday and I have to admit that they were cute (not as cute as my Sofi, but cute). But still, I’m not a big fan of kids. I can stand to be around cute ones for a limited time but it would be horrible to have to take care of them. Even Sofi managed to annoy me when she repeatedly took my fisheye camera although I had told her a million times that she was not allowed to play with it.

I cut my hair very short again. The problem is that I saw a pic with a very cool haircut and I wanted to have a similar one… Well, it turned out to be a big fail and I’ll never trust cool haircuts on the net again! But I’ll survive, I’ve had worse.

I’ve realised that the city where we meet is not important. It’s just the context. The thing that matters is meeting my dear dear friends. And so I did. But it was more difficult this time. We were four and we wanted different things. In the end we did the usual stuff: walked around the city centre, bought some clothes, had something to eat and then walked some more.

It was already spring there and we walked around a very bohemian part of Köln so there were bicycles everywhere and the people were having their Frückstuck outside and were enjoying the good weather. I have to admit that I envy the people who can sit for hours in a café, ordering one drink after another and chatting happily with their friends. I always feel that I don’t have time to do that, that cleaning the apartment or working on weekends is more important than enjoying a lovely day. Hopefully I’ll snap out of this asap.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Wir sind Helden since we came back and I’m reading bits and pieces from Neon. I miss hearing German around me and I miss reading books in German. But I keep telling myself that I just have to put up with this daily 7 to 8 program for just one more month and then it will be over and I’ll have time for me, for him, for uRMa, for chatting on gtalk and for meeting my friends. Just one more month.

*Wir sind Helden – Lass uns verschwinden

Yesterday I went there with Mum to feed the chickens and take care of the house (my relatives were on holiday). What can I say? I got flee bitten, the dogs and cats followed me everywhere I went because I wore my aunt’s clothes, I had to socialize with all the neighbours who saw we were there, damn, it was tiring! I am a city girl and I’m not ashamed of admitting it.

At least I was there only with Mum and we had some quality time together. I’ve missed spending time with her. And this was one of the main reasons I came home now and not at the end of the month: to spend as much time with her as I can. She’ll start work for a different bank on the 1st of July and it would have been pointless to come here when she is too busy to hang out with me.

We’re going back this weekend to visit our family and hear stories from Turkey and, of course, to kiss and hug and annoy my little niece