Winding Down

My trip is winding down. All I've got left is today in Amsterdam, one more night on the airport floor, then a 20 hour airport hopping trip home...:( I know I should be motivating myself, getting pumped up to do well in school and setting goals and so on, but I can't. I don't want to go back to real life, routine and responsibility. Traveling has been so freeing, so satisfying.

To review:
The 5th was my last full day in Croatia. I took an overnight bus from Dubrovnik (in the south) to Rejka (in the north.) The whole ride was along the coast. Even though it was dark out, I could see the lights of the coastal villages reflecting off the water throughout the whole drive. It was hot, cramped, and windy, but the views made it beautiful and well worth it.

I flew from Rijek and was met at the Berlin airport by Sven. We drove back to charming little Ottern where I spent two very lazy days reading, relaxing, and enjoying a real bed and a real shower. On Saturday Silky and Soren took me into Weimar to get my dreads turned back into real hair. I had actually managed to brush through some of them so I had high hopes. It would have taken several very painful hours of yanking and pulling to get them out altogether so I just opted for a very short hair cut...still getting use to it.

On the 10th I took the train from Weimar to Rotterdam. This Dutch portion of my trip is very different than the rest of my trip so far. In part because it is in a very modern western country instead of Eastern Europe, also in part because I don't have a guidebook for Holland so I don't know all the details of what the tourist is meant to do. Also, and primarily, in part because I came here to visit friends, friends I met earlier in my trip. So although I've seen a few museums and famous sights most of my time here has been spent visiting and relaxing and dreading going home.

Yesterday I rented a bike to ride around Amsterdam. As I peddled over all the canals I remembered riding through Warsaw with Edwardo and Bernard. Feels like that happened so long ago. It made me realize how long seven weeks really is, how extensive my trip has been, all the places I've seen. I'm so glad I took this summer to travel around Europe and can't wait to start planning my next trip.

Thanks for traveling with me.

See you all soon!!