When traveling like we have there are many wonderful things that we get to experience and see but every once in a while we face some very lonely and hard moments. After ministering in Norway we made arrangements to meet a friend of ours in Germany. Traveling day for us are usually hard ones because it is sometimes a day full of various transits in order to travel cheaply(usually at least 3 different types, ex. discount trains, planes, buses).
During this particular travel day we were suppose to have a very light day but it end up being a nightmare. The day started by packing and walking, carrying our heavy packs to the bus station with Kelly. We said our goodbyes and got on the bus that took us 1.5 hours to the airport that we took that was 2 hours flight to Oslo, Norway. From there we were to jump on another fight with the inexpensive Ryanair company (we got a ticket for both of us for 50 bucks to Frankfurt Germany!). We gave ourselves a good amount of time to get from one airport to the other (4 hours) but there is always a risk that one of the transits will be late or delayed. Turns out the Ryanair airport was further away than we researched and the train that would take us there was at a later time then needed and we missed our flight. If you know anything about Ryanair, there is no refund. The next flight was not until the next evening. So not only did we have rebuy tickets for 200 buck we had to stay in a hotel which was another extra cost.
When you are traveling and ministering on such a low budget as we are this was very devastating. That night we were on the brink of giving up even though we knew we had four countries left to go. I felt so alone, tired, and kind of depressed. We got a good night sleep and spent the next day in the airport. While waiting on the flight I had a chance to email and ask for advice from mentors about what we should do. We had a 100% support to keep going. Many of them said…we would regret it if we did not go on even though many of them wanted us back home.
After we taking the 2 hour fight to Frankfurt we had to take a 1 hour bus to the train station where we stayed over night in a nearby hostel. The next morning we bought our train ticket and rode the train four hours to our friends home town.
We spent four days with Dortje and her family. It was a great and restful time of board games and seeing Germany. After that the three of us packed up and traveled on to our next adventures through the UK (England, Scottland, Ireland).
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