I had waited for this day for so long. But when it finally came, I was not ready. My parents left only 3 days ago. In their first visit to Canada during the past month, I was so occupied that the only thing I did for my trip was pretty much booking the flight ticket, the Eurail pass, and getting the Schengen visa. I had no detailed plan, at all, even for where to 4 days later. Yes, I was nervous. But it didn’t matter, because excitement in those hours prevailed over any other emotion in my head. In the last six hours before heading to the airport, I packed my bags, dealt with miscellaneous errands, talked to my aunt for more than an hour (not as I wanted to), and made one last phone call - to my cousin in Seattle - the only family, at that time, knew I was jetting away for the next 3 months.
I still remember the conversation: “Hey, Leo. ...... You are an adult now, right?! You know, when you grow up, you have to take certain responsibilities for your families. Now, I’m telling you that you are the only family member who knows I’m in Europe in the next 3 months. So ...” It was all of a joke. But I had to do that for my own safety in case of emergencies. (All of you asked me why not telling my parents/families. The long answer could take forever to explain. The short answer would be that I felt it was easier for me to hide this adventure from them than having to face their questions with my decision if I did tell them. Our ideas were simply too different now to have a discussion about life. Unfortunately, my plan of hiding didn’t work out as well as I wanted. You’ll learn what happened later.)
Frank gave me a ride to YVR less than two hours before my continental flight. I believed I was the last one to check in. Since the flight was delayed for 20 minutes, I had the chance to make a phone call to Kelly, who was going on this trip with me but got a job. Everyone knew their priority better than I did. I felt good for her after all the effort she put in to get this job. But of course, I’m also sad to lose a travel companion. The final boarding call came, I had to hang up. The 80 days I had dreamed of officially started with two backpacks, one train pass, a guidebook, and no plan. The second the plane took off from the runway, a pleasant smile came onto my face, which would last for the next 80 days.
The 12 hours flight went easier than I expected. The girl sitting beside me was from Germany. She was going back from a road trip to Alaska by herself. We talked about the wild Last Frontier. She gave me lots of advice on what to see and what to eat/drink in different parts of Germany. It was super cool to meet a fellow traveller already in the first minute of my trip. The rest of the time on the plane, I spent mostly on reading my Lonely Planet, trying to plan as much as possible, at least for the next couple of weeks. I was also successful to take one or two naps. The flight stopped by Calgary, and then made up its delayed time in the air to be 15 minutes ahead of scheduled time landing in FRA.
17:12 June 21 2009 - HALLO EUROPA!
I cleared the customs smoothly and followed my CouchSurfing host’s instruction to get on the bus toward Frankfurt Südbahnhof. That also marked the beginning of my tourist annoying to the bus drivers of not knowing what to do on the bus (i.e. where to stand or not to stand, how to pay the fare, how to operate the doors, etc.) I was so relieved to hear back from Gabriele to have a place to stay at in my first few days in Europe. It meant a lot for me to be not panic and get the trip started with some plans. Thanks CS! It was perfect timing that we arrived at the meeting point at almost the same time. I had a bit trouble understanding Gabri’s Italian accent but that was no obstacle between CSers as we soon started chatting along. Gabri was working for the European bank as a junior economist/analyst. He temporarily lived at an apartment style hotel provided by the company. I was going to share his all-equipped hotel room for the first four nights in Europe. We walked to his place and settled down. He cooked a quick pasta for me and we went out as we planned through emails to watch the Confederation Cup football match between Italy and Brazil in a bar. I was certainly not prepared for the Frankfurt weather, as a thunderstorm downpour welcomed me minutes after we were out. It was blue sunny sky an hour ago at the airport. I was half wet, but WTH, I was in Europe! The first thing we did before heading to the bar only made me more excited. Gabri brought me up to the EuroTower - the headquarters of the European Bank. They required me to deposit my passport to get into the highly secured building. The huge Euro signs in front of the building was the symbol of the European financial market, and you could see the signs everywhere inside the building: on the floor, in the elevator, on the glass doors. Not only did I go to Gabri’s office and signed into Euro bank’s computer to check my emails, Gabri even brought me up to the top floor of the skyscraper, where all those big names have meetings and make decisions on the rates and so on. I had a panorama view of Frankfurt and “stole” an apple from the meeting floor before getting out of the building. Then we went to meet Gabri’s friends in an Australian bar to watch the game together. I like neither of the teams, so for me, it was more of enjoying the moment with my dark German stout, while learning some Italian swears and whining. Watching football game in Europe certainly felt different. Doing it with my first German beer only made the experience better. After that, most of the demoralized Italians wanted to go home, but Gabri wanted to show me more of Frankfurt. So he persuaded two of his friends to come along with us to a very unique pub in the neighbourhood. This bar was opened by a black American woman and her husband. She was a musician and toured around the world for many years. When she settled down in Frankfurt a few years ago, she opened this pub. This place had an old piano, a guitar, and some other instruments. The guests were welcomed to play whatever they wanted to while having a drink or chilling out there. The owner sometimes came out to play for the audience when they felt like to. The philosophy was awesome and the ambience was lovable. We were lucky that the lady and her husband came out a few minutes after we arrived. The lady was very friendly and asked where we were from and what we were up to. (Gabri told me she asked him who he is at least a few times already.) When I was introduced as the guest, the lady certainly started being curious of my background and of my trip. After a while of chatting and knowing each other, she picked up the guitar. It was absolutely amazing and an honour to listen to her playing. Jazz was her favourite, and she played the songs from her heart. Words could not explain the feeling I was in, sitting in this dark corner in this new place to me and savoring those soul-searching tunes. It was something special. It only got better when the lady ran out of songs, temporarily, so she started asking something from us. Caught off guard, I couldn’t come up with anything at the moment. The Italians came to my rescue, as they started singing Italian folk songs together. The beat of the songs and the happiness in the air made me so want to start dancing on the chair. We were clapping, singing and laughing together. It made the lady feeling it - she started playing more and even got her husband in. It was an amazing scene that I so wanted to show you the video I took, on my camera. The night was capped off by some amazing songs by the lady. We only had to go home because my friends had to work the next morning. But I couldn’t complain. My first few hours in Europe could not start any better!
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