Today is my 100th day of traveling Europe and as I sit here looking out the now familiar train window I can’t help but be grateful to be exactly where I am.
I’m well over halfway on this 5 month Europe trip and while I’ve managed to thoroughly neglect this blog, my relationships back home, organizing photos and countless other real life choices, I’ve also managed to see a ridiculous number of places and people that I can’t imagine having gone without.
I’ve climbed mountains in Switzerland and paddled a boat in Holland, cheered at ski races in Sweden and cried at a film festival in Prague. I’ve explored lonely hilltop villages in Italy and listened to classical concerts in Brussels, seen beer collections in Copenhagen and eaten schnitzel in Austria. I’ve made new friends and reconnected with old ones, felt alone and felt completely surrounded. I’ve been tired and sick and grumpy and stressed, only to wake up the next day energized, excited, impressed, and carefree. I’ve learned to balance adventure with sleep and need with desire, taught myself to both save and spend, while also learning when to call home and not.
It seems obvious now that the best way to sum up my solo trip is the word balance, though now that I consciously think about staying balanced everyday it feels absurd that I hadn’t been doing it earlier. We balance things every day, make choices to push ourselves sometimes and be cautious the next. To find that middle ground is to find genuine happiness that isn’t temporary comfort or arduous accomplishment.
As of May 1st my solo journey has become a joint one, with my friend Erika joining me for a month in Spain and my cousin Chris joining me for both Spain and everything that comes after (two weeks in the UK and two weeks in Ireland with my friends Sam and Caitlin). In many ways it has felt like a new trip entirely, starting over learning to travel in a group and to communicate effectively. Everything is a balance and while I appreciated being able to have those few months of traveling on my own terms, I can’t deny it feels good to look up and see familiar faces as we head to Madrid to meet up with even more.
The next 6 weeks will go fast and before I know it I’ll be back in the US with no job, no plan, and no idea what time it is, but I’m not worried. Things have a way of working themselves out, especially when we trust ourselves to adapt to whatever the situation. Besides,after 100 days of traveling, what is 40 more?