Yes, it’s true!   I’m in Europe and I’m am actually being invaded by Germans.

Well, at my hostel anyway…

Not to say this is a bad thing.   I suppose using the moniker “invading” kind of leads to that inference but nothing could be further from the truth.

First I met Ulricke – a 50+ woman on the tale end of her 2 month visit to Portugal from Eastern Germany.   We sat and chat at the breakfast table for an hour or so yesterday.   Asking about her experiences both before and after the Berlin wall came down made for quite an interesting conversation.

Then there are my two roommates for the next week.   When I checked in there were two guys from Chile staying in my room.   Their last night was yesterday and, sure enough, after being out all day exploring the city I came back to find two new roommates last night – two German girls.

Like I said, they were invading…

I didn’t get a chance to really chat with them yet as I was heading straight back out to dinner and they were busy settling in but they seemed nice and I’m sure we’ll get to know each other in the coming week.

That brings me to Johanna and Keissi.   I met them as I checked in the other night.   They were sitting in the common area, eyes glued to their laptop watching a football game between two of the top German clubs.

The next morning I joined them for breakfast and when they told me they were joining a walking tour at 11am – I was in.   We took the tour for a couple of hours exploring downtown Lisbon with a group of about 25 people (more on that coming in another blog).

After the tour we headed to lunch and then off to explore the Cristo-Rei in the nearby town of Almada and then finished the day with an amazing dinner at a packed restaurant down the street from our hostel.

It was a great day and they were great company.   We have another day planned today and were actually all leaving Lisbon on the same day next week so I’m sure we’ll be spending alot more time together.