Life is an adventure. Take risks.
After having breakfast with Yasmine, I went to the station to catch my train to Hamburg. I wanted to see my friend Bonnie, who I had met through the internet. She had been one of my podcast listeners and later joined my online travel club. She was in Germany because she had a medical exchange in Hamburg. Bonnie is from Anhui, China, and is a doctor who has a young daughter. When we first met, she had never been abroad however she was taking full advantage of the chance to see places in Europe. This experience had really broadened her mind and she credited me for inspiring her, which I felt really happy about.
She had just visited Iceland hours before she came to pick me up at the station! It was amazing to see how she had transformed into a world solo-traveler and we were happy to finally meet up in person.
What should we have for lunch in Hamburg? We decided to eat some hamburgers to celebrate our first meeting there. After a delicious hamburger session, we were thinking of having a walk-around Hamburg. It was really cold and once again the hustle and bustle of the city made me feel a bit nauseous. I felt dizzy navigating myself on the subway system and it was at that point a German lady tapped my shoulder and asked us in Mandarin if we needed any help.
We were surprised and asked her to recommend a place to visit and help us buy subway tickets. We had a chat and the young German lady had been studying Mandarin for a few years. She even had a Chinese name, Li-Shan, and since she was also off work that day, decided to join us and showed us around Hamburg.
It was really cold and rainy but it was so much fun to hang out with a knowledgeable and sweet local friend. Li-Shan took us to the pier and suggested that we get on a ferry boat, so we could see some sights without moving too much. On the boat while we were chatting with this wonderful lady, I couldn’t help but wonder how lucky we were in this strange country to meet such a lovely local who was eager to help us and who spoke our language!
Stay tuned...there’s much more to come!
In the next episode I’ll be sharing interesting Couchsurfing stories that occured in Hamburg, Germany.
**参与我为期6个月的口语训练营参加每日的直播课程/旅行英语训练营,请到我的公众微信账号IFLYCLUB,回复:训练营,报名最新一期的训练营口语课程。
****本系列会将中英的版本分开录制,想要进行更深入的英语听力学习或训练,可以听伴随在中文版本的下一集。
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