Trading Bells and Chimes for Gongs and Bongs.

I need to get more pics up for this one... but this is a pic of Moritz, Peter and I.

This Christmas market in Graz, Austria is bigger than the one in Saarbrucken, Germany. A little more ornate… more bells chiming… the same cozy, comfy feel of bringing the people together.

That’s where I spent my third and last night in Graz with Claudia and Lisa (last night at least for awhile). We had spent the afternoon in the city… Claudia introducing me to all the sites. Graz is a rather artistic city with a floating boat sculpture in the river and an art museum that looks like futuristic bubbles. The building is made from dark blue glass and no two pieces are alike in size. The Austrian clock tower on the hill is Graz’s distinguishing landmark… and to get there we walked through the inner courtyard of a monastery. My brief tour of it all really made me curious to discover more… but, that will have to wait. Right now, I’m on a train to Munich… hoping that my reservation for a plane ticket to Bangkok will be finalized by the time I arrive in Munich. I am planning to be in the air tomorrow evening… on my way to more wild adventures… in Asia with Ben!

Remember Ben? I met him in Atlanta in October and we spent a fantastically fun couple of days together … all just before he was taking off to rough it an Asia on his own. I’ve since directed you to check out his blog about his journey. The things he’s doing and seeing are incredible. It’s fun to read Ben’s blogs… getting glimpses of his Asian adventures through his stories and pictures. But then a post came about an opportunity that I did NOT just want to read about… I had to be in on it! ; ) So, I beseeched Ben to hold off on his trek to base camp on Mt. Everest, until I came to Europe and we could rendezvous and take on the mountain together. Ben is so great… he was up for it from the start! So… it was settled. We’d go together!! But, the when part was still being worked out. Originally, Ben and I were going to meet up after he finished a two-week gig teaching English. That meant I could then keep plans to visit other friends around Christmas and New Year’s and I’d be making my way to Asia just a few days after the new year.

BUT, Ben’s teaching gig fell through because of a mixup with paperwork… and, his email suggesting we could bump up our rendezvous and get a head start on Nepal came, literally, just as Claudia was feeding me all her stories of strange and exciting adventures. Thus, I was enticed by Ben’s offer like a bee is attracted to honey. Of course, I bought the next reasonably-priced ticket to Bangkok. I’m ridiculously excited about meeting Ben and going with him on this trip. Every time I think about it I want to do a little dorky dance! ; ) The plan is to meet in Bangkok and then make our way over land to Nepal. That’s actually quite a ways. We’ll be traveling through India and China… perhaps Cambodia and Vietnam. Ahhhhhh! Really, I’m so crazy excited! I’m really looking forward to this trip… and I’m really looking forward to seeing Ben again!

First, I have one night in Munich though… and, funny enough… my host Moritz from Saarbrucken is in Munich for the weekend. So, I’ll have a familiar and friendly face to kick it with during my last night in Europe! I love cs… I love how it brings so many cool people into my life!

***update: Met up with Peter, my host in Munich, and after dropping my bag off at his place (yeah! one bag! Claudia let me leave a lot of my stuff with her...) we headed to Tollwood. It´s like a gigantic Christmas Market... but also more of a festival. You can find food from every corner of the world... but there´s tons of typical Bavarian food and beer of course! Peter was great and let me ramble on about all my adventures. We also plunged into some hefty topics of discussion within like 30 minutes. Really, couchsurfers are just amazing people! Moritz (my host from Saarbrucken) then met up with us and we all had a blast just goofing off and drinking too much Feuerzangenbowle, Gluehwein, hot Caipirinha and Almrausch (a hot rum punch)! Peter and Moritz definitely gave me a great send off for my last night in Europe! Can´t wait to come back and see more of this city though!!******