This adventure was a little bit spontaneous. My best friend reached out to me and told me that he had secured a cozy Airbnb for a mini vacation for himself, and that I was invited. I said hell yes, and got a ride down to where he was going to be.

For this trip, I actually tried something new. I’d normally take Germany’s regional trains, which are the cheapest mode of transit for me since I have the famed Deutschland ticket. But it’s exhausting, long, uncomfortable, dirty, and just a pain in the ass — with the risk of trains being canceled or needing to run across the platforms to catch another train with only seconds to spare.

So for this trip, wanting to avoid that nightmare, I tried “BlaBlaCar” on my friend’s suggestion. Basically, I just carpooled with some strangers who were already on their way to where I needed to go. It worked great, and I’m now writing this post on the car ride back with another BlaBlaCar.

Once I arrived, I met up with my best friend and we began a little hike in the woods, similar to the last time I was in this part of Germany. My friend had brought everything we would need to have a little picnic in the woods. I was starving and absolutely devoured the bread and hummus he had brought!

After eating, we hiked back and made our way over to the Airbnb. Our place was 8 floors up in an old, brutalist-style apartment complex. The entire town honestly gave me USSR block architecture vibes — though that’s definitely not the case.

The Airbnb was super cozy and had this very homey vibe to it. It was extremely comfortable, and best of all, it had a huge patio with a great view of the town down below.

We lit a cigarette, grabbed a few Radlers (sparkling lemon beer), and spent the night talking before we finally crashed and fell asleep.

großes Brot links.

We slept great, and somehow I dreamt that night that I wanted to go for a proper long hike today. My friend was down for the idea, but before we’d hike, we needed to stop for a snack!

It’s Sunday today — everything is closed, except the bakery (Germans need their bread haha). I knew exactly what I wanted, but my German still isn’t the greatest. So my friend jokingly said I should just say “großes Brot links” — which translates to “big bread, left.” We laughed about how primitive it sounded, and I said I’d do it haha.

The poor girl at the counter was asking if I wanted to have it sliced, but I just replied “mit Karte bitte” (“with card please”) — completely ignoring her actual question. My friend erupted into laughter at this haha. Cavemen… and their bread haha.

We go outside with our bread and coffee, chat for an hour or so and then continue on with our mission to hike today!

Irohs

In the forest now, enjoying this beautiful spring day, my friend and I started talking about business ideas — a passion and shared interest for both of us. We were brainstorming and sharing thoughts when a very simple idea came up.

Both of us are fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and we both agree that Uncle Iroh is the best character in the series. He’s a man of wisdom, virtue, and, of course, absolutely loves his tea. So we connected the dots — it wouldn’t be a bad idea to create a brand of tea inspired by the same values that Iroh embodies.

The lightbulb went off, and the gears started turning with ideas of how this could work, how it could look, and what steps I could take to get started! The excitement of this very much reminded me of my time in New York City when I had another idea come to mind — but that’s a Story for another day.

We got back home, and I started jotting down some notes and making some preliminary plans to act on this idea. More to follow, I hope 🙂

Movie night!

After our hike, my friend needed to leave to take care of some personal business, so I took a nice long nap.

We agreed later that tonight we would watch a movie together. Having just talked and gotten excited about a business venture, we opted for The Social Network — chronicling the story of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook… perfect.

Later that evening, after talking for hours more, we agreed that pizza sounded good. There was a place just down the street, so we phoned in the order and I walked over to grab it!

I can’t get over the fact that in Europe you’re almost always in close proximity to amazing restaurants! This place was a real Italian gem.

I ordered Pizza Vegetarisch, and my friend got Knoblauchpizza. Both were piping hot and smelled absolutely amazing!

I walked back, and then we set up for movie night!

Closing

In closing, this trip has been another legendary adventure! It was fantastic seeing and spending so much time with my friend again, and now I’m genuinely excited about the idea of starting my own little online tea store.

As I write this, I’m about two hours away from Hamburg, where I plan to reunite with Johana, grab a bite to eat at an interesting-looking café, and then head back home to fall asleep in each other’s arms.

Only a few weeks left here in Germany before our adventure down to Austria!

Gotta make the most of this time.