We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

I set out on my journey and left Lucerne with wonderful memories with my kind host Josh. That day I was off to a new country, Austria. The train ride from Lucerne to Innsbruck was three hours and the time flew by while I was busy enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way and making a vlog. It was cold and rainy when I finally arrived at the station in Innsbruck, and my couchsurfing host was already waiting for me in his car.

I was immediately greeted in very fluent Mandarin by Felix, a tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed young man who’s German born and had studied Mandarin for only a year. He showed me downtown Innsbruck. I was impressed to see how he insisted on using Mandarin and wanted to learn new words and phrases along the way.  Felix had his own online business selling membership to people who wanted to use the maps he created for mountain biking.

Felix and I were about the same age and we had much to talk about business, traveling, and relationships. Felix was a very outdoorsy person but that day in Innsbruck, the weather was too miserable to go out. I made dumplings and Felix made some hot wine at my request. So we were just talking and sharing food and drinks together on the sofa. We even binge-watched a whole series of Taiwanese soap operas. Felix said he had some trouble understanding Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent, though he found the storyline of the series we had just watched quite funny.

Felix was quite an open book who willingly shared a lot of his life with me and we immediately became friends after only one day. He was very kind, helping me carry my heavy luggage and waiting for the bus with me in the snow the next morning when I departed to Salzburg. We have kept in touch to this day, and Felix even moved to Taiwan during the pandemic! He visited me in my hometown Kaohsiung when he first arrived in Taiwan which was really sweet. It also shows that the friendships made through couchsurfing could be long lasting and profound. It was so lovely to see that he enjoyed life in Taiwan and made many friends here after arriving.

Stay tuned...there’s much more to come!

In the next episode I’ll be sharing a story of sharing my comfort food -- a Spanish soup which helped me through my days in Spain with my host in Salzburg.

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