Home sweet home!

So after 23 days of traveling, 8 countries, 10 cities, and 6 languages... I finally made it back to the states. My last day in London didn't involve too much sightseeing despite my later flight. I spent some time enjoying a cappuccino (which I'm now addicted to... thanks, Europe) while journaling in a cute cafe. Then ate my lunch in Picadilly Circus. I had flashbacks to my first day in London nearly a month ago when a swarm of pigeons came flying to me from all directions because the man sitting next to me thought it would be a good idea to start feeding them part of his sandwich. Bad idea. After awhile of people watching, it was time to get over to Heathrow. On the tube, An old man sat next to me, looked at my bag, and says, "Looks like you got your whole life with you!" I felt like quite the bag lady and was definitely ready to not have to live out of my backpack. The airport was ridiculously hot and filled with tons of people, of course. I found the last of my pounds and had enough to buy a cadbury carmel bar... it was delicious, even though it literally started melting when I ate it -- thats how warm the airport was! At last I boarded the plane and we began our 7 hour trip to Boston. I sat with this really nice couple who (small world) were from Beverly.. which for those of you who don't know is the town I went to college. We talked about the atomic cafe and the lady taught me some knitting tricks... she made a sock during our trip! I was very impressed. My legs started getting restless around hour 5 and I wanted off the plane! The time passed and when we finally were hovering over New England, the pilot came on to inform us there was bad weather south of Boston which meant we were going to be delayed at least 15 minutes. Of course! When we finally landed, we ended up having to wait another 15 minutes because all the customs gates were unavailable. Didn't they know I simply wanted to be home? At last I made it through customs  without having my bags checked and reunited with my family.

Now that I have been home for a few days and the events of the last month have begun to sink in, I feel I'm still in a bit of a surreal state. One of those, "Wait, did that REALLY just happen?" feelings. There were so many moments I honestly never thought I'd make it home and others when I genuinely didn't want to come back to the states. Overall, though, I'm so glad I had this opportunity to experience so many different cultures, meet and spend some time with awesome people, and explore some amazing sights.