It Started with a 10-hour Flight from Brazil

Hello all! My name is Rafael, I am 24 and from Campina Grande, Brazil.

My experience abroad started with a longer than 10 hours flight from Salvador to Frankfurt which was also my first international flight. As you may have noticed, this is my first time abroadand I hadn’t lived outside my home for more than 15 days at once until I came here. That’s why I found myself incredibly nervous on that plane. I didn’t sleep well for some days before this trip and it was a bit exhausting.

After getting to Frankfurt, going to Remagen by train was a very relaxing time while I enjoyed the beautiful view of the Rhine and thought that I would be finally able to sleep well for the first time in some weeks. The reception in Remagen was very nice and the city seemed very beautiful, calm and quiet at first sight.The highest point in these months was meeting people. I usually think that is the most amazing part of any trip. Old cities, castles and medieval fairs are awesome but the friendship that lasts after the trip is what is most exciting and rewarding of all.

Without good friends, no place can be called home and it was a nice surprise in the very first week to notice so many wonderful peoplearound. I learnt so many new things with my new friends. I learnt stuff about Azerbaijan, South Korea,Portugal, Spain, Lithuania, Finland, Jordania and Germany that I would never ever learn in otherways. I learnt very much also in my visits to France, Netherlands and Bulgaria which was an amazing place with amazing people. I miss you already Sofia.

Living in Remagen is very good. I come from a city with more than 400 000 inhabitants sofinding the quietude of Remagen really changed the way I live my life and put some tranquility where there was noise. Not that I don’t like my home city, I love it and I am counting the days tosee it again but learning to live in a small city was an amazing experience. The Student ID wasa very nice factor also because with it we could visit a couple of other nice and bigger towns like Köln, Bonn and Koblenz which especially attracted my attention because of a RPG store which I used to visit almost weekly. Because of this, I’m bringing home some 6 kg of books or more to add to my personal collection.

I saw snow in loco for the first time. Where I live it never gets colder than 15c and in my country only some very rare places get colder than 0c and only for two or three days a year. It is not needed to point how happy I was enjoying snow. Now in the end of my trip, before I go back, I am going to visit one last place: Portugal. The place of my ancestors and the brave people who went to the other side of the sea to create themost amazing country: Brazil. This part of the trip is for me one of the most important since here in Remagen I found 4 new Portuguese friends who reminded me of the historical, cultural and linguistic ties we share.

For the near future, I want to see all my international friends again. Azerbaijan and South Korea are now top priorities on my list of countries to visit. This is not goodbye, it is never goodbye. It is only a “see you soon”. Thank you all for being the amazing people you are.

Adeus, Remagen. Que venham novas aventuras!

(Goodbye Remagen. Let new adventures come!)