After almost 19,000 miles, 42 days, 3 continents and 3 amazing countries, dozens of conversations and smiles shared, I'm back in Panama City.

During the past weeks, I took off for an unforgettable journey that would take me to Germany, Egypt and Turkey. Now that I'm back, it's quite hard to put in words everything I lived during this wonderful time. I'm sitting in front of my laptop with a big smile on my face ready to write about my most recent adventure.

But, where to start?

I started preparing my trip since I knew I was flying to Germany on May to celebrate my grandma's 88th birthday. With the tickets already bought, I thought about my chances to visit other places so I wouldn't stay the whole trip with my grandma in lovely Giebelstadt, a town 20 km from Würzburg. As much as I love the countryside and spending time with her, I was looking for a little more adventure.

So,where could I go? Amsterdam, Budapest, Firenze and a trip to Tuscany...I was going through every option, trying to decide what could be cheap, adventurous and not so far away from Germany.

By the end of last year, I received a friend request on Facebook from a distant relative living in Egypt, who invited me to visit him. My initial reaction was to set the dates for the trip, but I had to discuss it with my parents. Their concerned faces were a prelude to the questions they had about the safety issues in the country after the Revolution and the overthrow of President Morsi. Plus, I was travelling there during a time where egyptians were facing a new election, whose outcome we now know.

Istanbul and Central Anatolia, particularly the historic region of Cappadocia, had always been on my bucket list of places to visit, so I considered no other options. Also worried about the protests in Turkey's largest cities against Prime Minister Erdoğan's measures to censor YouTube, my parents had a word of caution telling me it would also be nice to travel to another european city and wait until the whole situation passed.

Having discussed with them for a couple of weeks, I made my decision. I bought my tickets and started preparing for an adventure that I was longing to do.

The official route of my 2014 trip to Europe, Africa and Asia

 The first stop would be, of course, Germany. We come from Giebelstadt, a small town in Lower Francony, or how I love to name it, my km 0 of every adventure. The 10 hour flight from Panama City to Amsterdam, and then 45 minutes from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, are totally worth it if your family picks you up at the airport and drives 2 hours to your hometown.
Couldn't ask for a better welcome committee!

Lovely Würzburg is always a nice place to be!

The next stop would be Cairo. On April 26th, I took a train from Würzburg to Lohr am Main, a small city about an hour away from Frankfurt, where I was going to spend the night at my uncle's house. The next morning I had to catch an early flight to Cairo, so I had to be there on time and with traffic jams on the Autobahn (highway), well you never know. In Egypt, I would stay in Cairo at my uncle's house and take a day trip to Alexandria.

A lifelong dream: Egypt!

The places I visited in Egypt

 For the last part of the trip, I went to Turkey. Istanbul was that one city I couldn't wait to visit. For I had heard so many nice things about this metropolis, a melting pot from where great empires ruled and developed such a fine and distinctive culture. I couldn't wait!!! For this part of the trip, my brother Adriano came along, and we would visit Istanbul first, then travel to the historic region of Cappadocia in Central Anatolia, where we would stay in the quaint little town Göreme. After a week in Cappadocia, we would fly back to Istanbul for one more night and then return to Germany for another week with our family.

Turkey, located in two continents, is a bridge between two different worlds

My destinations in Turkey!

When I write about preparing, what I really mean has not so much to do with establishing a budget or choosing the activities beforehand. What I meant, was to train my heart and my mind to be open to try everything and to listen to everyone without judging. A real exchange between people happens when you approach them for giving, not for taking. And this one statement would be the motto of my trip...

So, the next posts will focus on my adventures in three continents and the lessons I've learned from the situations and people I've encountered during the past weeks.
 Inshallah, until my next post!