I'm still trying to process the idea that I'm home again. The last few days of my trip were rushrushrush and then I was in New Jersey and I had family members and friends to see and that was rushrushrush and now I"m back in Charlottesville, I had wonderful friends in town and classes have started again and that was most definitely rushrushrush. I guess I'm still wait for the sense of being back to hit me.
On my last full day in Europe, I took a ferry down to Tallinn, Estonia. My roundtrip ticket on the ferry was 24 euros, so I wasn't expecting much. Imagine my surprise when this was what pulled up to the ferry terminal.
It made for a pretty swank ride, and reminded me of a certain other ship that I sailed on last summer. I spent the three hour ride to Tallinn reading, drinking tea and wondering if the bad weather was going to make me get seasick.
I spent my time in Tallinn wandering around Old Town-checking out the architecture, snooping in antique stores, accidentally eating tuna quiche (yuck) stroking my own ego by taking pictures of myself in every available surface.
Tallinn was the perfect town for strolling and winding down at the end of my trip.
My trip home involved a bus from Helsinki to the Helsinki airport, a plane to JFK airport in New York, a bus from JFK to Port Authority and finally a bus to New Jersey. By the end I was tired, cranky and not just a little bit smelly. Luckily long phone calls to some of best friends made up for the utter exhaustion (although nothing fixed the smelliness), as did hugs from my mom and a huge heaping bowl of pho.
The next few days were a madcap race to spend time with some of my favorite faces such as this little guy:
and then dinner with my grandparents (and Uncle Doc!) at my new favorite restaurant in Philadelphia:
and then my own little (or not so little) guy who promptly reminded me how ill behaved he is by stealing a lollipop from the baby & eating it before I could do anything about it.
The final whirlwind of my trip was my ride back to Charlottesville to go meet up with some Semester at Sea friends who were heading off for the Fall 2010 voyage. Lucky ducks. I got to spend the day with one of the sweetest families I know, running around Monticello and being entertained by their 4 year old son.
It was the perfect way to cap off this amazing summer. A reminder of my absolute favorite thing about traveling-all the great friends I've made.
So I'm back. I have no idea when or where my next big adventure will be, but the past few years have taught me that amazing opportunities are always just around the corner. Until then, I've got some friends to catch up with.
Hello, Charlottesville, I'm home.
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