Else & Ilse | LGBTIQ+ adventurers

2020 has been difficult. We lost many people to the pandemic or to police brutality. Many of us lost friends and relatives, jobs, homes, livelihoods. And in a year like this one, it can be so difficult to see the good moments of life. Here are our favorite 2020 memories: In January, we spent a long weekend in Belgium . We saw dinosaurs in Brussels, took many walks in Bruges, and had fantastic food and drinks. In February, we went ice-skating—our first time as a couple, but both of us haven't done this often in general. We celebrated our first anniversary and ended the month with one of our favorite holidays: carnival! This was the last time we spent time in a crowd: we already knew that COVID-19 was a threat, but weren't aware of its severity yet. At the beginning of March, we attended an ArtNight and painted abstract vulvas with a colorful bunch of people. This also started our acrylic painting journey which would help us through the following months because in March and April...

Most of us are having a hard time with the second round of lockdowns in many parts of the world. So we started to collect ideas for lockdown activities (thanks to everyone who answered our call on Instagram!) and share them with you. Here they are (and please feel free to add ideas in the comments): Go Outdoors! It's getting cold outside (at least in the northern hemisphere), but when the sun is shining (or you have proper clothes), outdoor activities are the best! We (re)discovered  our love for being outdoors during our first lockdown and try to maintain it. You might not feel like leaving your warm living room, you might be exhausted afterwards, but we always feel so satisfied after a good hike or bike tour. If you live somewhere warm (or aren't like Else who is always freezing), we recommend canoeing! Get Creative! If you can't get yourself to go outside, start crafting something. We love painting and knitting, but you could also draw, crochet, sew, cross-stitch, or ma...

Today is a very special day because it is Else's birthday! For me (Ilse) this is my favorite day of the year because I love surprising Else. I wish her birthday celebration could go on for days and weeks. Just make it an Else-year. I never thought that I would meet my soulmate on tinder when I started using the app about 2 years ago. Flash forward to November 9th 2020. Else is sitting next to me while I am writing this blog text. I never thought that I would be so happy in 2020. She makes me incredibly happy. She is the most caring and most funny person in the universe and she always manages to make me smile or laugh even when I'm in a really bad mood or even when the world seems to be going down. 2020 is a very challenging year for everyone. The pandemic is affecting the mood. It sometimes depresses me a lot and I start to worry or miss things so much. And then there is Else who never fails to cheer me up and to put me in a good mood. And now, more than ever, it is so importan...

Our city's Pride parade is one of our favorite festivals each year. We can celebrate our love, be proud of our sexuality, (re)connect with old friends, get to know new people. So when all pride parades had to be canceled due to COVID-19, we understood the decision, but it also made us incredibly sad. Yet, our parade wasn't canceled, but modified and postponed to October 11 and thereby coincided with the National Coming Out Day that was originally celebrated in the US, but nowadays around the world. We assume the organizers hoped for an end of the pandemic—as so many of us did. The second wave of the pandemic currently intensifies and we weren't sure if our Pride would really happen this year. But it did. We didn't have parade floats and masses of local, national, and international participants. Instead, we had a physically distanced bicycle parade in which everyone of us participated. Starting from four different locations, hundreds of queer people demonstrated LGBTQ+ v...

Like last year, Else planned a short trip for Ilse as a birthday gift. While we went canoe camping near Berlin last year, this year’s trip brought us to Paris. Paris! Both of us had been to Paris before, but we never visited the city of love and romance together. While planning the trip, Else thought a lot about traveling in times of COVID-19 , but cases of new infections were dropping, Paris is just a three hour train ride from Cologne, France seems to be very responsible when it comes to prevention measures. Then, about a week before we were bound to leave, numbers in Europe started to rise again. What was supposed to be a surprise destination, had to be revealed and discussed. We finally decided to go, be super careful, and monitor the numbers. It was a rather stressful trip, but fun nonetheless! Probably because of the pandemic, hotel rates in the center of Paris were very low and we had a wonderful hotel with a view on the Hôtel des Invalides from our room. We could walk to the Ei...

We are addicted to traveling. So when COVID-19 put so many travel restrictions on us, we certainly agreed with the measures, but we also knew that we would miss traveling a lot.  When the numbers of new infections started to drop and travel restrictions were slackened, we carefully went on a three-day hike not too far from Cologne . A month later, we joined Else’s family on a family vacation in central Germany . And when Ilse’s birthday approached and travel in Europe seemed okayish again, Else planned a birthday present that would bring us to Paris. Yet, during summer time when everyone goes on vacations (and apparently many don’t care to wear their face masks), infections were bound to rise again.  Not surprisingly, a couple of days before our journey to Paris, Else had to reveal the destination of our surprise vacation so that we could discuss together whether we should go or stay at home: infections in France, particularly in Paris, reached critical numbers. We finally dec...

About a week ago, we went on another adventure exploring Germany and stayed in a tiny village in Hesse (central Germany). Else's mom had planned this trip as a family vacation for Else's siblings, their partners, and Else's nephews. Not far from our vacation home was the 'Lochbachklamm,' a small valley with fourteen wooden bridges. The valley was part of a shortish hiking trail of about 8.5 kilometers and our host strongly recommended it. The next day after breakfast, we started out to find the bridges. It wasn't easy to combine the interests and abilities of eight adults and three children. One of Else's sisters and her partner were taking selfies (or asked others to take pictures) all the time. Her brother wanted to get on and was annoyed about all the breaks. Her other sister and her husband are not accustomed to physical exercise and insisted that we shouldn't walk the entire trail and should just go to see the bridges. As soon as we left our vacatio...

Ever since we’ve met, we’ve spent a continually increasing amount of time with each other. At the beginning of this year, we finally decided to move in together! Then: COVID-19, lockdown. And ever since, we haven’t spent a single night apart from each other, but didn’t officially move in together.  Finding a place was surprisingly easy, despite the pandemic, despite living in a city with a difficult housing market. But we got super lucky: the house where Else lived the past two years has an empty apartment, which is currently overhauled. It’s going to be available in September. Three rooms, a big balcony, perfect location.  Else had terminated her lease to end in June, but COVID-19 has taught us that we can share Ilse’s smallish apartment. So we didn’t mind to wait a little longer for an almost perfect apartment. And now, we finally got our official rental agreement! We can’t wait to move in together (although we practically already did). We are mentally painting the walls, we...

When COVID-19 restrictions slowly eased, we decided to let a new adventure begin: the Eifelleiter ('Eifel ladder'). We were excited to get away, we might have been a bit naive, but we were prepared to do this: hiking 54.2 kilometers in three days —our first hike lasting several days. The first two days were supposed to be moderate hiking trails, the last day a hard one. We were optimistic (or, in case of Ilse, just forgot immediately). And the backpacks were not too heavy. In the beginning. After a shortish train ride, we began our adventure in Bad Breisig. We had to find the symbol marking our route: a green hill, parted by a white path, a blue tower on top and a blue creek below. Or: a sail boat, as Ilse understood it. Made far more sense than Else's interpretation! It wasn't easy, at times confusing. But alas! We ran into a local hiking group of experienced women, one of them even did this hike when the route was opened! With powerful, confident steps, she too...

We were and are so excited for Pride Month! Although most Pride festivities are canceled this year (Cologne Pride is, for now, postponed, so we still have some hope ...), we couldn't wait for this month of visibility, of pride (not just Pride), of rainbow flags, of support, of loving each other. Then, George Floyd was brutally killed. And although we cannot imagine how it must feel to be Black or a person of color, we can't stand this injustice. We will do everything we can to stand with you. To fight with you. Pride started as a riot. And although we do not support violence, it doesn't seem likely that this injustice will end without another riot. We stand with you. We won't have queer equality if we don't have racial equality. Black lives matter. The lives of people of color matter. Remember those who died from police violence. Say their names and never forget.

We love Cologne and we love living in Cologne. And we recently realized that it might be worthwhile for some of you to get to know our favorite spots. So this is part one of our favorite destinations in Cologne: Zündorf. A few weeks ago, when COVID-19 prevented us from doing anything that isn't outside, we decided to take one of our 'surprise trips' (we don't check what we'll find before going) to the end of one of our trolley lines —in this case line 7 to Zündorf. Crossing through several different parts of the city, the trip itself can be an adventure. When we took this trip on a sunny day in April, one person on our trolley rapped (yes!) about their current experience on being on the trolley. Another one had to finish their cigarette and then did a few chin-ups (and again: yes!). When we arrived, the place didn't seem too impressive. But as we know from a previous surprise trip: we had to be patient. About ten minutes from the trolley stop, we wer...

Traveling is an essential part of our lives —for both of us. For Ilse, traveling always was a leisurely activity. She explored Europe, mainly the southern and western parts like Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and Great Britain. Her last trips without Else brought her to London, where she has friends and went to concerts —the Spice Girls and Madonna! Since she is scared of flying, she often tried (and still tries) to choose destinations that are not too far away: with short flight times or reachable by train—a very environmentally friendly way to travel! Nevertheless, she doesn't let her fear of flying stop her: she wants to explore the entire world! Our trip to  Portugal last year  was her farthest travel destination yet; our unfortunately canceled trip to Tel Aviv this March would have been her first intercontinental flight. Else loves to travel—as a vacation or for work. Like Ilse, she wants to travel the world, but got lucky enough to already explore a few co...

We love traveling, we love exploring, we love outdoor activities. But we barely have (or: had) the time for them! So, here's an upside to the COVID-19 restrictions of not seeing anyone, of not going to bars, restaurants, and clubs, of not traveling: we have more time for each other and more time for outdoor activities! (We  do not  want to downplay the pain, loss, and death this pandemic is causing — we just got lucky enough to enjoy some extra time.) These last few weeks, we have been hiking and exploring the nearby woods. It's incredible how beautiful they are in spring! Lush, green, the sun shining through the green treetops, rustling from last fall's brown leaves with every step. And most of the time, the woods are surprisingly quiet, with only a few people taking walks or hiking. The only thing missing these days, particularly for Ilse: ending the trip with a cool beer (or two) and maybe a snack at a beer garden. She wants her reward! Also, after years without ev...