The first in a series of post-travel…uh…posts.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” -Lin Yutang

 

That’s right folks: I’m home. I’m writing this from the comfort of my bed, staring out at the tops of the trees from my window, slowly watching the sky lighten up. I’ve been awake since just about 6, which is almost reasonable actually. Well…except that I went to bed at 12:30 am and I’ve got the most ridiculous cold. This always happens, you know! I travel, or I’d be at school, caught up in life, busy busy busy, and the minute I get home WHAM! sickz0rz. It’s like my body goes, “Oh good! You’re home! I’ve been saving this up for you. Let’s make your head explode and chafe your nose down to a nub with all the tissues you need!”

Awesome.

Naw, but it is nice to be home, even if it feels a little surreal. And of course, I’ve started attempting to tidy up my room which I’m fairly certain is an impossible task. I mean, I graduated from college on May 22. Went to family’s for a party and got home with all of my stuff from the mod (apartment, for you non-Hamp folk) on May 23. On May 26th I left to go on tour with The Downside Up Circus. Needless to say, 3 days to see friends wasn’t hardly enough time to figure out the post-college mess. And then I got home from tour on July 9 and left for Europe on July 12.

 

So now I’ve got piles of college stuff, piles of clothes I sent home with my parents after the wedding in Portugal, and I’ve sort of managed to almost unpack from Europe, but most of it is just everywhere. This is ridiculous. Oy.

BUT! I did get home! The airports were a wreck because of some nasty weather in London, so things were getting canceled left and right, but eventually I got on a flight to Amsterdam and then to JFK. The flights weren’t bad…the transatlantic one was actually kind of nice: the guy next to me is this Texas mathematician (apparently he’s kind of a big deal…all I know is that he’s really friendly and has a rather contagious light southern accent and his son just graduated, too) and I got to watch a bunch of movies. Like Inception! And sure, this comes a few months late, but man! That was a cool movie! Also watched Bounty Hunters (it was free, what do you expect from me?) and had Salt on, though I’ve concluded it’s like every other one of Angelina Jolie’s recent movies: guns, her mouth, and dramatic looking-out-of-the-corner-of-her-eye expressions. Bleh. Boring.

 

OH! Here’s a fun post travel thing. Travel by numbers! Here goes:

• 5 months
• 15-21 countries (15, but 21 if you count the UK & territories as all one country and count the countries I just drove through without actually visiting, like France and Belgium)
• 7 Helpx hosts
• Visited 2 friends from home (well, Australia and Hamp)
• Visited 3 families who were family friends
• 14 Couchsurfing hosts
• 1 wedding
• 2 journals (obviously I write a lot, and not just for teh interwebz)
• 6 sick days
• 1 dead camera (and one new camera)
• 11-15.5 kilos of baggage (11 when I started, 15.5 by the time I got home. Luggage included a sleeping bag.)
• 5 cents from a guy who thought I was homeless
• 2 euros and some change from a drunk guy who gave me money for “street performing” (doing a handstand) in Edinburgh
• 5 days total in a hostel (paying for, not working for: 3 were with my friend while we were traveling, one was an overnight in Hamburg, the other was desperation in Athens)
• 12 hour work days picking olives
• 4,000+ pictures
• 8 planes (including to/from Europe)
• 2 ferries
• 14 bus trips (including 1 bus-on-an-underwater-train trip)
• 9 train trips (including 1 bus-on-an-underwater-train trip)
• 1 ride share
• 1 INCREDIBLY cold bike ride
• 7 currencies
• 3 visas (1 for 6 months in UK, 1 for 1 month in Ireland, 1 for 90 days in Turkey)
• 4 (?) time zones
• 3 different plug adapters
• 4 necklace charms that found me
• 8 bracelets that found me
• 4 rings that found me (and one that left me)
• 1 haircut (impulsive decision from a host who’d taken quite a bit of liquid courage beforehand)
• 2 overnights at protest sites
• 1 funeral I couldn’t attend
• 6 nights in a treehouse
• 4 or 5 nights sleeping in train stations/airports
• 32 or so new recipe ideas
• 1 pair of worn out sneakers
• 0 problems with theft or pickpocketing
• 1 problem with a guy who was following me and getting a little aggressive
• 1 Nobel Peace Prize
• an embarrassingly few number of postcards I sent (Dear friends: I’M SORRY! I realize I’m a failure.)
• 1 amazing journey

 

“I met a lot of people in Europe.  I even encountered myself.”  -James Baldwin

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

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