In the End is the Beginning...

     Literally. I'm sitting in a hostel in Madrid, right outside of the Puerta del Sol, speaking Spanish, and just walked the same streets I did over 2 months ago for the first time. Oddly enough, I kind of feel at home. Kind of. After 3 weeks of traveling through Europe, checking in to numerous hostels, and lugging a 50 pound suitcase around we have finally came full circle. I tried to stay updated with the blog posts, but as quality internet was scarce, free time was limited, and the desire to write instead of sleep when I had the chance generally was non-existent. Needless to say, I'm going to try to fill you in on our whirlwind tour of Europe, beginning with Paris. However, I'm going to do so in separate posts, otherwise you would be reading forever and probably never make it to the end.
      But before I attempt to recap 3 of the most amazing, yet tiring and hectic weeks of my life I must say that this was a once in a lifetime experience. I never thought I would sit under the dazzling lights of the Eiffel Tower, ride the London Eye at sunset, walk through Anne Frank's hideout in Amsterdam, eat a braut in Germany, ride a gondola through the canals of Venice, pay an absurd amount to see Michelangelo's David in Florence, stand where the gladiators fought in the Roman Coliseum, and walk by the fashion icons of Milan - much less all in the same trip. I am filled with a mixture of emotions as I sit here on my last night in Europe. Most of all I feel gratitude towards my parents who made all of this possible for me. I cannot say thank you enough and I cannot wait to see them tomorrow and to see all of these things with them one day. I also feel enlightened. I just spend over 2 months of my life in a different part of the world I once only dreamed about. I learned that our culture and way of life is not always better, only different. And that history can be incredibly real and fascinating in a place with thousands of years of it. But I also learned that there are some things about the good ol' US of A that I have come to cherish. Air conditioning, free refills, and southern cooking to name only a few. Back packing, or "suitcasing" through Europe as my friend Lexi dubbed it, is most definitely a learning experience. It teaches you patience, tolerance and most of all responsibility - not to mention how to become at master a metro systems. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you, I just hope I can find the words and pictures to do them some sort of justice. So Paris is on the agenda first, but until then I'm going to spend my last night in Madrid before boarding a 10 am flight and beginning a full 12 hour day of traveling. It's been amazing Europe, but America I sure have missed you.