Feeling the love on Padlock Bridge, Cologne

Here's some photos from Padlock Bridge in Cologne in case you're in need of a little love tonight:

I wonder how many of the couples who chose to add their padlock to this bridge are still together? I like to think that a large percentage are still happily in love, but then I am a romantic, deep down under my hard icy exterior. HA.

And out of the couples who didn't make it, did they try hard enough to make it work? It's not easy staying in love for ever, things change, real life gets in the way and most romance fades dramatically when you live together and walk into your fella on the toilet.

But you have to TRY. You have to remember why you loved each other in the first place and work at that. It's not all dates and dinners and anything else romantic beginning with the letter D. Sometimes it's arguing about doing the washing up, going food shopping then getting angry because you forgot the bloody Bags For Life again, paying the bills and just having a shitty day at work and sitting on the sofa in your pyjamas.

But it's also knowing he is there for you. He'll hold your hand while you do the food shop, giggle over Billy Bear ham and buy a spontaneous bottle of red wine on a Tuesday.

It's kisses on the lips, it's walks in the rain, it's playing music loudly in the kitchen, it's hugging, it's laughing at a crap joke. It's love. It's finding a groove and enjoying it. It's having independence and not relying solely on each other.

I write this as The Boy is in the pub and I've enjoyed a dinner of super noodles having been at another pub and then coming home to keep up with the Kardashians (guilty pleasure).

Goodnight and lots of LOVE. 

4 Annoying types of people I meet on my commute everyday...

I think I've written about how much I hate my commute before... I really do try to laugh at it as much as possible and luckily I only have an eight minute train journey twice a day, I don't know what I'd do if it was longer...

It's like sometimes I'm surrounded by MORONS. Seriously. Here's a few types I meet everyday...

The jerk who thinks it's ok to put their bag on the seat
Yes YOU I'm looking at you. It's 8.15am, the busiest part of the day and this guy thinks it's fine to take up two seats with his bag. Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise your bag was a person and therefore entitled to a seat! I do apologise!
I change my mind daily about whether to embarrass them and call them out or just to walk on by and find an empty seat, depends on my mood. What rattles me the most is when the guilty part look up at you in surprise when you ask them to move their bag, like they thought they had the train to themselves. JERKS.

The keen bean
You know the type, they have the seat by the window, you've just got comfortable and they ask if you can move so they can get out. There's a good six minutes until we arrive into the station but they need to get up NOW so that they can get down to the serious business of STANDING BY THE DOOR and getting ready to get off the train. Never mind the fact that the train has just left the previous station. Jerks.

The door blockers
Oh hey! I'm on the train and I'd like to get off the train and get on to the platform please but I can't because YOU'RE IN THE WAY WAITING TO GET ON THE TRAIN. I don't know if this is the first time you've ever got on a train in your life, but they way it usually works is that the peeps on the train get off so that your lovely self can get on the train. Want me to run you through that again? Jerks.

The 'oh no where's my ticket, I had it a minute ago' w@nkers' 
Let me ask you something, dear commuter... why is it that you go through the ticket barriers every day, but it seems that every day they come as such a surprise to you? Why do you wait until you're right at the barrier before rummaging in your bag/pocket/wallet for your precious ticket? Jerks.

Phew! That felt therapeutic, have I missed any other types?

3 things to do in one weekend in Cologne

Cologne is an amazing city, perfect to explore in one weekend and lots to see and do without spending a lot of money.

So what should you do if you only have one weekend in Cologne?

1. Visit the Cologne Cathedral

I fell in love with the Cathedral as soon as I saw it. It's a pretty special building and quite overwhelming from the outside. Cologne was bombed during the Second World War, but the bombs somehow managed to miss the Cathedral, I'm not sure how because it's massive and the centre of Cologne, but we won't dwell on that...

What I liked most about the Cathedral is that it's free to enter and wander around inside, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was hugely expensive, so the free entry here was a great surprise. If you want to climb the spire shown here, you have to pay the princely sum of 3Euro, but you should be able to stretch to that, and you'll definitely stretch your legs with the 500 step spiral staircase to the top!

View from the top of the Cathedral

2. Eat and drink as much as you can

The food in Cologne is amazing, so whatever your budget, whatever your taste and whether you're looking to eat on the move or have a sit down meal, you'll find plenty to keep you full up.

My personal favourite was the hot roast pork rolls with friend onions that are sold through windows on the street. I had three in the space of one weekend. Oops.

We also had great breakfasts, weiners, sandwiches, schnitzels... you name a traditional food and we tried it. In one weekend. Gulp. Hic. Burp.

3. Visit the padlock bridge

Love makes the world go round (apparently, I think it might be something else) and you can feel the love around you on padlock bridge. Once upon a time someone must have been wandering over the bridge with their significant other and happened to be holding a padlock. Something must have compelled them to clamp the padlock onto the bridge railing, thus securing their love forever. 

Where this couple lead, others followed and now the bridge looks a little like this:

What to do in a weekend in Cologne

Guten tag!

I've been to Germany for the weekend and I loved it! Not only because I felt so bloody smug walking into the office on Monday morning and being able to say something interesting when asked what I'd done that weekend. It sure was a lot more interesting than saying I'd been sitting on my sofa watching old episodes of Airline and trying on old clothes I promised to donate to charity months ago but keep holding on to...

Where was I?

Oh yes. So if you're not familiar with the Skyscanner app here's one thing about it, it's bloody dangerous for your bank balance. You basically put in the airport nearest to you and ask it to find you the cheapest flights to ANYWHERE.

Turns out the cheapest flights from Leeds Bradford airport are to Dusseldorf in Germany. The Boy has never been so we booked those flights before the airline could change their mind with the prices (how annoying is it when that happens?)

Cue slight panic when we realised that there was a huge trade fair taking place in Dusseldorf which meant that we couldn't find a hotel room for less than £300 per night. Uh oh.

So we decided to take the train to Cologne and find an apartment there on Airbnb, my favourite website in the whole world. We found a great apartment right in the centre of town for around £45 per night I think. Bargain. Crisis averted.

 Hello Cologne!

More details will follow from the trip, but here's a few photos to show you around - come on!

So much fun and so much better than sitting on my sofa watching Airline all weekend...

Positivity from Pinterest

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go - to PINTEREST.
When you've got worries all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help I know PINTEREST.

The lights are much brighter there
you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
so go - PINTEREST
Where all the lights are bright PINTEREST
waiting for you tonight PINTEREST
you're gonna be alright now
PINTEREST
PINTEREST
PINTEREST

OK I stole those lyrics from Downtown but they apply! If you're feeling down, head to Pinterest!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/471118810990551739/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/302374562452692500/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/251286854181926045/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/329818372681081571/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/35606653277321905/

Sunday Photo Album... On Monday Again

Oh who am I kidding? I'm never going to remember to post a photo album on a Sunday. I'm just going to call it Photo Album and not give it a day of the week.

I was just talking to The Boy about Zanzibar, so I fancied revisiting that photo album from my trip there in 2010.

For some reason we decided not to venture from Kenya to Zanzibar while we were both in Mombasa earlier this year. I think the flights were expensive and the bus would have taken DAYS so we decided to explore more of Kenya instead and save some cash.

I want to go back to Zanzibar for many reasons but mostly for this reason:

I can't lie. I'm changing the picture size on this album from medium to large on this one.

WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT HOW BLUE THAT WATER IS???!

I only spent five days in two different parts of Zanzibar, Stone Town and Nungwi so I know there's plenty more to see but I really enjoyed it and respected the amazing amount of culture there is to see there. 

I hope you enjoy this album!

Not so keen on this fella... spider from Zanzibar

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh when's the next flight out there?