90 days, 8 countries, 18 cities, 15 planes and 9 trains later I'm back on my old stomping grounds. I started my 24 hour travel day at 5 am in Dublin, Ireland and ended around 12 am in Greensboro, NC. Leaving Europe was one of the hardest things I have had to do to date, and flying into the Miami ariport did not make it any easier. After a 9 hour flight nothing says "Welcome home to the USA!" quite like Miami customs. I thought I had flown to a different country, one in which I was not a natural born citizen. When I finally made it to the GSO airport and saw my mom and my brother waiting at the end of the terminal I just about lost it. Reality set in and I knew it was over. I'm pretty sure my first words were "I want to go back" not " I missed you Mom."
Traveling home was very sad. Unlike a lot of people I was not excited about coming home. I hadn't been traveling long enough to get tried of it which worked to my advantage. I am not at all embarrassed to own up to the fact that I cried in the Dublin airport, London airport, Miami airport, GSO airport and all of the flights in between. I was that girl. I'm pretty sure people thought that I was parting with some great lover like in a Hollywood movie, and truth be told, I kind of was. I love traveling, and Europe and the Italians. Especially the Italians, but would I ever date one...no, at least not the one's I met. Anyway, when I realized that I no longer had to say "Ciao!" to people I got kind of depressed. They really inspired me to become fluent in their language because they spoke with so much passion. When American's say "Hello" to each other you might as well be throwing a dead fish at the other person's face at the same time (those are wise words from an Italian shop owner that I met). When an Italian says Ciao you would think that they are going to scoop you up and hug you as if you've known each other for years.
It's hard for me to say what I learned while I was over there or what my favorite place was. Each place is so much its own and it is almost not fair to compare it to the next city.The Irish are the nicest people, the Italian's have an unparalleled passion for life, the French...ehhh they are what you would expect but they have a lovely country, the Spaniards are CrAZy, Berlin is a little dark, Amsterdam is a trip, and all of the other places in between are all just so perfect in their own way!
However, I think that the great state of North Carolina still takes the top spot on the list of my favorite places in the world. My sense of NC pride, not so much American pride, increased twofold. I am so proud of where I am from and how I was raised and because of that, it gave me the courage to go out and do what I did this past semester. I might not have been to thrilled about leaving Europe but I sure was happy to be coming home to such a great place. As the Italians say-chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire!
Now that I have rambled on and on about my European adventure for 24 blog posts I'd say it's time to wrap it up. I love being able to say, "Oh I've been there!" or look at a picture and say "I've seen that up close!" It's an amazing feeling.I know I will go back, and I like to believe that I will live and work there one day too? But, don't you think now is the time to travel while we are still young?
