Great day in our home [city] town :)

After a week of tough-on-the-feet standing all day at work wasn't really prepared to do a lot of walking, but Ingo and I were determined to check out some other corners of the city so after a morning of (Ingo mostly) searching and hunting the internets for things in Cologne of interest to us that wouldn't involve to much foot work, we finally had a plan for the day :)

First we set off to Friesenplatz where we had a look at the Fahrradmarkt there to get an idea on bike prices for a bike for me. Right beside the Fahrradmarkt was an Oxfam shop that we wandered into not expecting anything and I came out with 2 books, a woolen top and a woolen skirt–the startings of a winter wardrobe!–all for under 20EUR!!! not bad!

We then headed further into the inner city in search of a bookstore we'd found on the internets called 'English books and Tea'. Once we found it–which wasn't hard, thank you iphone!–we had a great time in there talking to the owner and listening to him play the ukelele and a banjo tenor guitar thingee which was pretty cool! Great little store! Chris, the owner, is super friendly and had us in there chatting about where we've come from, played us some "Classic Cologne" songs that he said we have to know :) We also found out that he's been here in Cologne now for 11 years (phew!) The store is a cute wee store with just enough room for 3 comfy seats where you can sit and have a cuppa tea :) We have promised to take along my ukelele when we go back and will hopefully pick up some playing tips!

We had a home-packed lunch down at the river Rhein, a really nice stretch where everyone comes out to find a spot to sit while the sun is shining! Not quite Wellington harbour, but the large trees and big patches of grass filled with people make it something special on its own :)

Later that evening we got all geared up to head out again to the night fleamarket Ingo had found (happens 4 times a year) which happily was only a short walk from our home! Very cool atmosphere, very cool people (wanna be friends anyone?!?) first wandered the few stalls with their array of mixed goods then we realised that there was an indoor part, it was huge!!! So many stalls indoor, you could buy drinks and they had various–what I'm guessing are–local bands playing live and managed to pick up a few goodies including an awesome new winter coat! Which I will need, as I put it on straight away and was super cozy! It's only October and it's friggen freeeeeeeezing already! makes me nervous for winter! earmuffs gloves and 3 pairs of socks here I come!

Anyways we're now home with still a few hours of the evening left to us so I'm gonna get my crochet on ;) Just thought it would be nice to share our awesome day with you all :)

xx

Love it or Hate it...

Ikea.

I'm caught somewhere in between, now that I'm a bit of an expert (3 times and counting haha) love it in the beginning while we're gearing up to go there, love it while I'm eating my delicious Swedish meatballs with dessert to follow, love it upon first entrance while the excitement of ALL the POSSIBILITIES is still there... half an hour later, starting to feel a little less love as the maze starts to become a little trapping and the trolley's got a few more things in it than originally anticipated and we haven't even gotten out of the bedroom section yet... 2 and a half hours later hate it and wanna get out. Now. please walk faster people in front of me, and please would someone take their screaming child out of the store, and please get all this industrialised cheap materialistic crap away from me... 10 minutes from that, back to loving it as we get into the very awesomely organised you'll find this item at 'Regal 22, Fach 19' seriously. this is like heaven after the chaos of stuff you've just walked into it. Directly back to hating when get to the counter and realise this is going to A. cost a fortune, B. you have to somehow pack it all into really awful shaped canvas bags that you have to pay for (even if you take in your ones from a previous visit, cause they can't tell the difference between new ones and the ones you've brought from home) and C. when you realise you have to carry all this crap home again!

Finally back to loving when you get home and unpack everything and are feeling pretty good about your selection of not-too-Ikea looking items and useful kitchen things that everybody needs at ridiculously awesome prices.

So all in all the Ikea experience as I have learned is quite time consuming! Frustrating, satisfying and ingeniously money grabbing! We will now be limiting our Ikea trips to "we really need these 2 items and they'll be really cheap at Ikea" and will save our "we would like this, but don't really need it" for flea markets and buy-it-when-you-spy-it moments :)