Belfast to Frankfurt (trail is world wide)

When I first decided I was going to Europe Germany was no where near in the plan at all. But as it went, and as I got entrapped by Ireland and its magic, I didn't have enough time to go over to France/Spain to hike El Camino de Santiago. That's alright though, there's always next time. But let's see, how did it all play out? There was a point in Ireland where I decided it was time to (sadly) leave the country and I thought about the people I knew in Europe to go visit. Well you can put two and two together and I landed on Germany! So I spent my last couple dazs in Belfast chillen' with the amazing Claire and her boyfriend Filly. I was meaning to get up to the Giant's Causway but the rain and numerous reports of how underwhelming it was dissuaded (is that a word? German spellcheck says no, but I think yes) me from making that attempt. And since a plane was on the line I took a cheapish bus back down to Dublin from Belfast so I could fly off to Frankfurt :)

Next thing you know I'm on Aer Lingus flying to meet Mike and Jan. Mike and Jan are two German guys I met at the beginning of the Appalachian trail nearly two years ago now. Good ol' facebook has kept us in touch since then! Now I was supposed to meet Mike and Jan at a McDonalds at terminal two. But the McDonalds was closed for the first time in history apparently. Lucky enough while I was wandering and wondering about how to approach that they wandered up and found me! We took a nice stroll through the night to get back to Mike's place and promptly made some food 'cause we were all starving. 

The next day Mike took me on a tour of the city and we did all the touristy stuff. It was really quite fun and Frankfurt is a gorgeous city. I've really enjoyed the place ye know? 

Now that all the touring was done we could start to party haha. We went and met up with some of their friends that night, inculding a German girl who had just thru-hiked the Appalachain trail this past summer! There is just something about trail people that gets you all excited. And being around Mike, Jan, and now Sophie too?!?! It was just incredible and such a good time reminiscing about the good ol' days (the z and the y are swapped on this kezboard and it's throwing me off everztime). Mike showed me some typical German foods (lots of sausage) and it's amazing I must say. 

The next day I went with Mike and we helped his friend doing some remodeling work on his home. It was really fun actually, and other than that we've just been chillen' like it's our job. It's been so much fun to just hang out with trail people again. Mike and Jan are fantastic and I'm loving staying with them too, unfortunately that's really putting some perspective on how little time I have left here in Europe :(

But I'm enjoying the hell out of the time I do have here :)

Be happz,

Beacon