I first met Michael when I was in Peru on the conservation project; he is British but lives in a town near Portimao in the Algarve. He met me at the station and took me back to his new house, where he lives with his Mum Elaine. The house is beautiful and has a view of the sea from the balcony. Elaine is lovely, she took us out for Chinese food in the evening, we had a bit of a walk around the town and on the beach, and we met up with Michael’s friend Micha for a drink. Michael has lived there for 11 years and went to an International school. His Mum works as a teacher at the school. Next day Michael and I went to a medieval town called Silves and went inside ... read more

Turin I ended up having 3 different couchsurfers for my 3 nights in Turin, so it was a bit manic and I ended up spending quite a bit on baggage storage at the train station! My first host was Amor, a Spanish lady with two sweet little girls called Alice and Gaia. I thought I would be staying with her the whole time but when I arrived she told me it could only be for one night! How annoying! But she was lovely, made me dinner and breakfast and gave me a pair of earrings that she had made. In the morning I walked with her towards where she works and she told me lots of things about Turin, recommended restaurants and things, and gave me a map. So off I went to explore Turin, and ... read more

Marseille Part 1! I arrived in Marseille, walked out the station, and it was love at first sight, what a fantastic city! The buildings are all run down but it is so full of character, bustling and alive. I think it is a city that is very well loved! I went to meet my host by a metro station. I was a bit early and wanted to find some food but I was too early for the restaurants to be open, so I was walking past all these lovely restaurants selling crepes and salads, but none were serving until 7, so I ended up in a fast food restaurant doh! I met Ameline and we went to the office where her friends work to pick them up. It was a very chilled office, a group of ... read more

I arrived at Munich station and met Urmila my host. She is Indian, has lived in Australia since she was 1, and now lives in Seattle with her boyfriend. She works for Microsoft as a software developer, and they transferred her to Munich for a year. So Urmila has a very interesting background and was fantastic to talk to about all the different places and cultures she knows. We went for a walk through Munich that evening, stopping at a square where Hitler staged a coup. There is a plaque on the floor commemorating the people who died fighting against him, and a church we went inside. An alley way behind the square was where people would walk who wanted to avoid the square, because every time they walked through they had to hail Hitler. We ... read more

I met my good friend Matilda at Berlin station- was great to see her! We eventually found our way to our hosts' house, and dumped our bags. Sebastian was in the house, he is from Munster orignally but lives and works in Berlin. His girlfriend Claudia is Italian and works at Check Point Charlie museum, so that is where we decided to go, to see her. We found her looking very bored on the shop desk, so think she was pleased to see us! She let us in to the museum the back way, which meant we saw all the stuff about tearing down the wall and all the escape attempts, but because the museum was so huge we never got to find out why the wall was built in the first place! So we left ... read more