The Beginning

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Dear friends, the time has finally come. After days of preparation selling our cars, our furniture, our decor, our books, and everything that isn't essential, we leave Bielefeld and start the trip of our lives, a round-the-world journey for the next 12 months.

Our first destination is still in Europe. We join Elisa's family in east France as they take part in one of the world's biggest hot-air-balloon meetings. For that we take a bus to Saarbrücken, the closest German city to the border. There we meet Tony, our Couchsurfing Host for the night. Tony's house is a really cool students flat. We meet all the people crowding the kitchen, speaking up to 4 different languages and finally go out all together to the street festival in the old quarter of the city.

The next morning, we walk through Saarbrücken making time and enjoying the old architecture. For some reason, many historical buildings had survived the war.

Thinking about that morning, we must tell you about two things:

- First, we ordered our last german cheese roll with butter for the next 12 months.

- Second, asking a nice couple on the street for some help to find the main bridge, we happen to end up drinking a coffee with them. Although they are in their sixties, Fokka and Helga appear to be 15 years younger. We chat about our plans and they share their experiences with hiking in California. They are an amazing couple I hope to keep in touch with, and I don't say this only because they paid for the coffee :').

Finally, we cross the border to France and meet the M's and A's, Elisas's family in Hageville.

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