The rundown :
- I traveled to Portugal to get to Germany
- We took 6 buses and 2 flights and countless tram rides

- We couchsurfed with two amazing hosts

- I partied…a lot.
- My fairly awesome costume went unrecognized because it lacked blood.

- Almost the most fun I’ve ever had in a laundry room

-I learned to count to 12 in German

            We had Halloween and the Friday after off. What’s that mean? VIAJAR! (travel!). The cheapest flight I could find was from Oporto, Portugal to Frankfurt Hahn, Germany. We had no idea what we would do, but we knew we should book the flight as soon as possible before the prices when up. We could always figure out what we would do after.

            As it turned out, Frankfurt Hahn was an airport in the middle of nowhere. Frankfurt Main was 2 hours away and Cologne was 3 hours. After a little researching we had the general plan of taking a bus to Cologne for 2 days, take a train to Frankfurt Main for another 2 days, then taking a bus back to Frankfurt Hahn. On top of that we had to take two different buses to get to and from Oporto from Ourense. I wanted to use the weekend to travel, and travel we did!
            The journey started in Ourense on Wednesday after school. There was no school on Thursday and Friday for some Spanish bank. Who knows, but I have Mondays off, thus I was able to take 5 days to travel! After class on Wednesday, my friend Gareth and I took a bus to Vigo. After we arrived in Vigo, we switched buses and took another three-hour bus to the Oporto Airport. We had planned to sleep in the airport over night. Because of this, we figured it would be better to walk around a bit before setting up for the evening; we decided to go grab some supper. Beings we were now in Portugal and we speak no Portuguese, Gareth just agreed to whatever the waiter was telling us. After a delicious meal of God knows what we were then given wine for dessert. However, because we were in Oporto, the wine was Port wine, and it was amazing!! The server left us with the bottle but didn’t tell us if it was free or how we were going to be charged for it so we just had one or two glasses (as it turned out it was free but I still don’t think he wanted us chugging the whole bottle!).

            We made our way back to the airport and found some comfy couches at a coffee shop and set up for the night. The other couches were full so I  pulled two arm chairs together and made a cozy little bed. After chatting with another traveler for a bit, we both rested.

            The next morning we got ready for our flight. Now most flights I pack a slightly oversized carry on and there are now problems. But this time we were flying with Ryanair, a cheap European airline company that is VERY strict about the ONE SMALL carry on (no purse, no duty free bags, nada!),so I had to be very particular about what I brought with me on the trip. My backpack was just over the size limit (due to my toy bow & arrow I was bringing along for Halloween), so I decided to fork over the 20 euro and check it. Another thing with Ryanair is that its first come first serve on seating, which ultimately leads to a lot of standing in line and crossing your fingers for a window seat. On the plane I slept most of the time, but I did wake up in time to buy a Ryanair scratch ticket (yea, I didn’t win).  Once we arrived the plane played some dorky music and people clapped.

We landed in Frankfurt Hahn around noon-thirty and had to catch the bus to Cologne. We wandered around quite a bit but finally found the bus stop and took another 3 hour bus trip. FINALLY, after two days, we arrived in Cologne. Our plan was to stay with a couchsurfer named Torre that I had been in contact with the week before. After a little navigating the metro system we made it to his stop, where he met us and walked us to his flat. Torre lived with four other guys but most of them were gone for the weekend. There was an empty room in the flat, so we actually got to sleep on a bed instead of a couch! We unpacked and Torre began cooking us dinner.

Because we had been traveling for so long I was feeling pretty stiff and decided to go for on a night run. I have been running quite a bit lately, and it’s become somewhat nostalgic for me. It seems wherever I am in the world, when I have my familiar music playing and the well-known full body sensation of running, I feel home. However, as comforting as this feeling is, I am constantly getting to explore new places on my run and almost never run the same route twice. I have begun to call it  “the green man run”. I run around a city and when I come to a stoplight I look at the crosswalk sign. If the crosswalk has “the green man” I cross the street, if it’s red I turn around or go in whatever direction “the green man” says I can. This has resulting in me getting lost many times, but I have also found being lost is one of the best ways to explore.

After I got back to the house and showered, we enjoyed our meal with Torre and got ready for the night. I had decided to dress as Katniss from the Hunger Games, and to be honest, it was a pretty damn good costume. However, EVERYONE else was dressed as something scary with lots of blood. Almost every other person was a zombie so my costume didn’t look like much. I just looked like a weirdo carrying around a toy bow and arrow. Torre’s friend was having a birthday/Halloween so we made our way there. After finishing a bottle of wine on the train we had arrived at our stop and walked to the party.  The party was great! They had a bunch of German snacks, minikegs of  “kolsh” (a very specific beer to Cologne), and Jagermister (winter edition, which was surprisingly delicious). We (Torre actually) taught a few people how to play the American drinking game “Fuck The Dealer”, and a good time was had by all.
            The party was wrapping up and people were either going home or going out. Torre and Gareth were both pretty tired and were ready to go home, but I think my run had energized me, and I was ready to party. Soooo I decided to go out with everyone else, and I would find my way back to Torre’s afterwards. Well “everyone else” somehow turned into one dude so he and I went to the dance club “Live Music” that everyone was meeting at.  At the club we met up with the others and partied some more. At some point during the night a few people were leaving for a house party, so I went with.  Well needless to say, I never went back to Torre’s that night. I instead partied until 10 am, playing foosballs, singing and dancing to German songs, and trying to explain American football. I then took a short nap and made my way back to Gareth and Torre the next afternoon.
            The next day Torre had another couchsurfer coming to stay, a Russian girl named Olga. After showing us a bit of the city we met Olga at the train station. She was a beautiful 19 year old traveling alone for the first time. When we met her she looked scared shitless, and I couldn’t help but grin when I saw this all too familiar face. It was only a few years ago that I began traveling on my own, and I remember the fear I felt that first time. I think, especially as a girl, starting to travel alone can be one of the scariest things in the world.  I have not always been so independent, and it’s not a trait you gain over night. Those “holy shit I am terrified” moments, the fear, the anxiety, they are all part of it. They are hurdles you overcome, and at the end of the race you realize the world is full of good, kind-hearted, helpful people. You see that not knowing where you’re going, or getting lost is part of the adventure. And most importantly, you prove to yourself that you can do it. When you reach that destination, when you are on that flight back home, when you begin to understand another language, you prove to yourself that you are capable.  It may not be pretty, you may require help, but in the end, it was YOU that made it possible. So when I saw that fear in Olga’s eyes, I smiled, knowing she was taking those first steps to a new, liberating, exhilarating world.

That night our incredibly hospitable host, Torre, made us supper again.  Also, Olga had brought Russian Gold and taught us how to take shots (of straight vodka) the “Russian way” with fruit…it was still awful. After a couple rounds of shots, Torre had another party for us to attend the second night. Torre lives in an apartment complex for students and a few of the other guys decided to turn the laundry room into a party room. Thus, we attended the apartment’s first ever “Wash Kitchen Party”. I sat around most the night talking to locals, learning to count in German, and drinking my fair share of German beer.

Up until this point, Gareth and I had planned to go to Frankfurt Main, but after two great nights in Cologne we thought we would stay a day or two more. But because Torre was having a new roommate move in, our bed was no longer available. However, at the wash kitchen party we met Torre’s neighbor, Qi, who was also a couch surfer and offered to let us stay at his place.

The next day, after the very easy move to Qi’s, we explored the city a little more. Torre was a great guide, giving us history of the city, providing fun facts, and showing us great views. That evening Olga made us a traditional Russian meal, and we played a few more rounds of Fuck the Dealer. That night Torre, Torre’s new roommate (Kati), Olga, Gareth, Qi, Qi’s roommate (Carmelo), and I went out. While traveling gives you insight on what a new country or city is like, going with couchsurfers is a totally different experience. Instead of going out with other foreigners you meet in the hostel, you really get to experience the city through the eyes of locals. At some point in the late evening/early morning, we made our way back to Torre and Qi’s apartment and crashed for the night.

            The next day we went and toured the chocolate museum, ate some Doner Kebabs and had a relaxing afternoon. That night around 12:30 Gareth and I caught the last train into the center of town to board our 2am bus. About 5 am we arrived at the airport and waited around for another 5 hours until we took off to Oporto. After a few more buses and a lot of uncomfortable naps, we finally made in back to Ourense. And thus concluded one of my best weekend travels yet. However, I will consistently challenge to beat it… with my next destination being Switzerland in December for snowboarding.