When Our Worlds Turned Upside Down

We recently told you that we got lucky enough to meet on Tinder. We were texting each other for about two weeks when we finally had our first date at Else's favorite Thai restaurant in Cologne. We didn't make a reservation because the restaurant is often quite empty during the week. But not this time. So we decided to try a Burmese restaurant that both of us didn't know. (We were relieved when we realized that both of us need to use GoogleMaps to find places nearby.) The restaurant still has nostalgic values for us.

Eight days later, we went on our second date. (We can't believe that there was a time we voluntarily spent eight days without each other!) Ilse had never been to Cologne's Sculpture Park, an open air art gallery with new exhibitions every other year, so Else planned a date exploring the park and the area around it. It was just a week before carnival so she brought Berliners (filled pastry particularly popular during carnival) filled with egg liqueur. When Ilse smeared most of her filling across her cheeks, Else knew she'd found her person. We ended this fantastic day at our now favorite bar.

It took Ilse one more date and the planning of the next to have this 'my person' moment. (But she also had to battle her dislike of bangs during that time!) She loves potato croquettes, but in contrast to our childhoods, these are not as widely available in restaurants anymore as we wish they would be. So, after Ilse had planned a sunny outing to walk the river for our third date, Else found a place still serving potato croquettes for our fourth date. When she told Ilse, Ilse could finally accept Else's bangs. ;) That Else accidentally crushed some cheese during this date helped even more.

We are so glad that we found our clumsy half!

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Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

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