Even though there is one more day of flying, this is effectively the last day of my Europe trip with Corey Horn. I’m not sure exactly how I feel about the end being here. Understandably it’s a mixed emotion.
I love traveling like this, I love the experiences, and the excitement of doing something that not everyone gets to do. I’ve grown so much, and learned so much from these other cultures. At the same time, we have seen these countries so fast, and done so much in the short amount of time we’ve had, that I am almost ready to put an end to this trip. I feel like if I can’t look at the trip in my memory as a completed whole experience, it will start to blur together. I guess that’s when I need to look back and read all of these posts.
It’s amazing to me, thinking back on the events of the past month, how this trip has varied from place to place. It hasn’t just varied with cultures and food and language, but even in the type of traveling that we’ve been doing. Early on we had friends in these countries and it was easy to stay with them. The plans were solid and we were lucky to have great guides that we could rely on. As the trip has gone on we’ve gone from staying with friends, to staying in hotels, to not knowing where we would end up on a given night, and now staying with complete strangers in a country we did not even intend to visit in the first place. It feels like we’ve experienced everything from being pampered to roughing it (in a very soft sense of the word). The times when we’ve been on our own have been exciting, and the times when we’ve been with friends to lead us have been great too. It’s been interesting to use logic in foreign countries to figure out where to go, what to see, where to stay, and what to eat. As long as we’ve always assumed there would be a solution, we’ve always found one.
The biggest thing I can take away from this entire trip is something that I’ve always believed deep down. It seems to me that even though the countries are different, the politicks are different, the food is different, and the history is different, the human race as a whole remains the same. No matter where you are or what language you are speaking, we all have the same emotions, we all have the same fear and tragedies and the same joy and victories. It makes it somewhat less intimidating when you are asking a stranger for help, not knowing how they feel about long haired Americans.
The past 48 hours have been very interesting. We ended up in Geneva, and had no where to stay. Hotels here are extremely expensive there, and were definitely out of our price range. We ended up using Couch Surfing to get in contact with an amazing family living just over the boarder in France. They speak some english, and after talking with some difficulty on Skype while sitting in Starbucks they agreed to very graciously drive 30 minutes to pick us up. The kindness of people is so amazing to me.
This last stop of the trip has certainly not been what I expected. We thought we would be exploring a city in Switzerland, but we find ourselves spending time with a French family in the country. It’s raining steadily, so I am very grateful.
Tomorrow morning at 4:30AM we will be at the airport ready to fly back to Nashville.
I’ve enjoyed reading about your travels and the children have enjoyed hearing about them. C will be excited to hear your coming home. He’s be asking me every day, “Mommy are you sure Mr. Dave isn’t home yet?” I think he’s confused by your car still being here and you being gone. I hope you enjoy the last of your time away and I can’t wait to see you when you come back. I know it’s been a wild ride and I’m sure there are many more to come!!!