Copper mines but not mine

Humour has never been my forte. But puns, that’s my speciality (casually said by my taco loving friend at knife point). Alright, listen here kids, the following tale is for the treasure seekers, tomb raiders and mineral scavengers. If you are not one of them, read it anyways to answer some of the questions at the end of the story. The answers to which will help you assess if you are one of the above or not. Without further adieu for unnecessary introductions expressing my non-existent humour which I seem to flaunt, let us get to my next story.

**Where it all started.** Prelude to the trek.

This was my first trek with a humongous group. How magnanimous you ask me? Enough number of people to call it magnanimous (partly because I do not recall the number of people who accompanied me). This trek consisted of two nationalities, namely Indians and a Nepali. 95 percentage were Indians of a group of roughly 20 people, a right mix of different nationalities so that we do not break from our social bubble. Am I guilty of not breaking out of my comfort zone, and stepping outside of it?

Not really, since this isn’t my last trek and I enjoyed my conversations with most of them. Though I lost contact with half of them after this trek, time was well spent during this trek. I remember this quote by some famous person “It is the journey that counts and not the destination“. This quote worked like charm for this particular story. You know why? It is a circular trek, the destination is the source as well. But unlike the circle of life which is filled with ups and downs, our trek was on a plain topology.

**Such a beautiful stretch halfway through the trek.**

We started our journey by taking a regional train from Aachen main station to Stolberg station. We took another cute looking regional train which was heading towards Aachen, when I thought to myself, maybe our trek ended even before we knew it. After all time is an exhaustive quantity in every one of our hands, and it waits for no one. But alas we got down in the very next stop. The station if I am not wrong was Stolberg ____ (feel free to fill it) .

That’s right, I have strong retention memory. Never mind, I will add a link to the route details for the interested at the end of this post (if I remember to do it). We exited the station, and realised that we perhaps landed in a ghost town. Back in my mind, I was like, spiritual intervention only makes the trek even more interesting. But alas, it was just early sunday morning in Germany (9 a.m. could be early in the morning based on your lifestyle ).

**Checkpoint with ease of access for the vehicle bound trekkers.**

**Which one would you have taken? Birkenhof sounds too promising right?!**

For someone from a heavily populated city, wherein even at 5 a.m., there would be someone having a cup of tea, and senior citizens discussing recent politics on park benches, this was unexpected. This is something which annoys me the most, early in the morning if I manage to go on a walk, I see folks discussing unnecessary gossips loud in the most productive time of the day. Getting back to our story, we strolled through the town to get to the starting point of the trek. Since we all were in our first semester, we had our innocence and sense of enthusiasm intact.

We continued to pose to photos until our tour coordinator (another student who took the initiative to download the map and led us eventually) had enough of it. Most of the participants of this trek were first time trekkers, and did not have much experience with long walks. This trek spanned for close to 16 kilometres, which could be tiresome for some. We took more breaks than the previous trek to keep a steady momentum and travel as a group together. Since my roommates chose to trek along with us, we prepared the meal together for this trek. And boy, did we overcook for this occasion! We ended up marketing our food to the rest of the group. All in all, our food supply got completely depleted which was relief to our backs which mercifully supported our bags before.

**One doesn’t have to look at the calendar to know the season.**

The weather was perfect on this particular day, both digitally and naturally. It was a pleasure to walk with mild facing sun and occasional breeze along our backs. In no time, we reached halfway across the trek wherein we stopped for lunch. There was an air of pleasantness and desire to socially connect with people during this lunch break. I slowly gained confidence to discuss various topics of my interest with fellow trekkers.

Before this, my conversation with strangers were mostly one sided. I used to ask a question and listen to their responses. After which we look at our watches or mobile phones and walk away with relative ease, a fixated smile on our faces. This trek was probably one of my first experience in Germany wherein I was thoroughly invested in conversing with the other person. Social conversations involving academics is relatively easier for me deal with throughout my life.

Topics pertaining to anything outside the academic bubble make me nervous. But after much introspection, I understood that the other person may go through a similar process in her/his mind. This greatly relaxed me to speak my heart out. Though about the end of the trek, there were some exhausted faces, we were able to complete this trek as a group successfully.

**My favourite snap from this particular trek.**

I am content to know that you have stuck until the end of this blog, and as a reward I give you a treasure, yourself. You are a gift for yourself! As for the copper mines, we never came across them, partly because this was just copper mine trail and not a copper mine. Referencing to the very beginning of this blog, you are a treasure hunter no matter what, since you always seek a better version of yourself. Keep hunting!

https://www.nrw-tourism.com/a-coppertrail