So after making sure I had everything packed mum and I headed out for one last English fry-up breakfast. All too soon we were heaving my suitcases to the waiting taxi - (Did I forget to mention how much stuff I collected along the way? So much for not buying anything!)
We got to the airport in plenty of time, had a final coffee, and checked in my two suitcases. Then it was time for mum and I to part ways as I went through passport control. Mum was meeting up with Rob (my step-dad) and they were going to do some more exploring. Colour me green with envy! All I know is that I had the best traveling partner a girl could ask for. I am eternally grateful to mum for accompanying me on a phenomenal trip. My one regret? I only have one photo of the two of us! That's what you get for always being behind the camera.
After a lengthy wait I was about to board the plane to Dubai (the first stop) when I looked at the nearby TV screen to discover a bomb had been found in a courier aeroplane at Dubai. Lovely! The flight was delayed but we managed to get to Dubai airport without any incident. It was on this leg of the journey I got the ride on the airbus!! I think it is a fantastic aeroplane - so roomy, so comfortable, so lovely. If I had have been given the option I would have ridden it all the way to Brisbane. Alas I had to change planes at Dubai.
Now as I said the flight was delayed so in order to make my connecting flight I had to push my way past security and run at full speed to the complete other end of the airport. I'm sure it must have look hilarious on the security monitors - this short, white, young lady running/limping/I'm-not-sure-what-the-heck-she's-doing all over the airport. All of this in 30 or so degree heat (at some strange hour of the night/morning).
But I managed to catch the connecting flight and all went well. Well, except for the fact that I couldn't eat anything because I felt sick (I still had a cold) and I couldn't sleep and the leg from Singapore to Brisbane had the worst turbulence I have ever endured (and that's saying something). Needless to say I watched more movies back to back than I ever had.
I made it back to Australia in the wee hours of the morning. Basically falling into the arms of my waiting brother. I was ever so grateful!
Yes part of me was grateful to be back home. I missed my bed. I missed my stuff. I missed my brothers. I missed my space. I missed the ease of a familiar world. I missed freshly laundered clothes.
But for the most part I am keen to get 'on the road again'. Before I left on this adventure I was suffering the worst case of itchy feet. Now the plan was that this adventure would get that out of my system for a while so I could settle down a bit. The complete opposite has happened. I am more keen than ever to get out there and see the world! I've even started planning my next two adventures.
My European adventure was beautiful, wonderful, and amazing. It was everything I expected it to be and yet it was so much more. I simply can't wrap it up into a few neat sentences. All I can say it was worth everything - worth the scrimping and saving, worth the physical aches and pains, worth the tiredness, and completely worth the effort! (Okay so it is impossible to pick one photo that totally sums up my adventure. So I chose this one. This one is as good as any. Go through earlier posts to get a complete photographic overview)
I am now suffering from what a friend of mine calls 'post travel depression'. And oh boy I have PTD bad! I feel like I've lost my place. Like while I was away the whole world shifted on it's axis and everything I knew has changed.
This adventure has changed me in ways I cannot begin to understand (yet!). All I know is that I'm desperate to see the world. I want to record the world as I see it - both through words and photographs. There is so much of the world out there for me to discover and I want, no I need, to see it all up close.
I simply have to see it for myself!
Image found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment