TravelinGirl

Ok, maybe I'lll have a bit more time to post today. Everyone has either gone home already, or are out and about today, so I don't have anyone breathing down my neck to get to the internet.

Last night was our last night as a group. We had a big going away dinner at a heurigen (kind of a winery, but like for new wines? there is some subtlety there that I don't understand.) Anyway, it was lots of fun (free wine for the group), but also sort of sad. I'm sad to have said goodbye to people that I've spend lots of time with over the last 2 weeks or so. Everyone was really cool and nice and interesting in different ways. I loved meeting each and every one, and each person really added something special and unique to the tour (smartass comments, sincere concern for my welfare, different perspectives on the world, interesting questions and viewpoints, and overall just lots of fun, outgoing, loving personalities). I now have friends from all over the country (and am praying for Bonnie and Jim and their house in Galveston).

I think my favorite person was Christoph. How do you not love someone that you have a common link with (his fiance was my guide on the Italy tour - Taunya), someone that I got lost in Berlin with, someone that has snarky commentary to make me laugh, took me to the Czech hospital, and always had a smile or a wink for me? Propbably next on the list was Kathy - as my roommate we got to bond, and she's a really sweet lady. I also really liked our guide Ben - he's a white guy with no rhythm, a very dry but quick-witted sense of humor and a heroin problem (inside joke). How do you not like someone who makes jokes about the state of your bowels in front of the whole group on the last night?? Everyone else was great too, and I'll be able to tell you all more about them when I get my pictures uploaded and a better version of this blog finished.

Some of my favorite moments: doing the luge runs (even if I was sick as a dog), walking across the Charles bridge at dusk with the group, any group meal, walking through Cesky Krumlov with Warren, any time after Berlin that I wasn't thinking about my intestines, listening to Richard's jokes and generally funny patter about anything, dozing on the bus when I should have been listening to Ben's history lectures, looking at the bus windows to see the dancing girls and then back at the expressions on Bonnie and Jim's faces, looking at the beautiful Czech countryside from the bus windows, being in the museums when it was rainy and miserable out.

I have had so much fun and so many great memories, that I don't know how to capture it all and share with you guys how awesome it was. By the time I get back, I'll have had some of it worn off by being in a new place (Amsterdam) with an old friend (Meta), but I wanted to try. Every single person on the trip has touched me in some way, and I hope that I've touched them and made an impression too. If travel does nothing else for you than let you know it's really quite a small world and there are really no differences between people anywhere, and if it gives you the hunger to learn more, to put yourself in the shoes of other people, then it's so helpful. I come away from the trip feeling stuffed to the gills with new knowledge, information - full of art and music and new sensual experiences and feel so very happy and lucky to have been able to experience this. Can't wait to get home and share this with you guys and maybe make this website come alive a bit more with my experiences.

posted by Unknown @ 7:03 AM