Hello, California, and auf wiedersehen, Berlin!
So surreal to wake up and know my Europe chapter is over. Eleven years ago, when I was just a shy girl in New Zealand, my wise buddy Graeme told me the best thing I could do for myself was to go buy a plane ticket to somewhere faraway, because it would change my life.
Best advice ever, thanks G!!
It’s been a beautiful trip, in every sense of the word. I got to sail the pirate coves of Turkey’s Turquoise Coast, cruise Slovenia in a little old VW campervan, stalk the castles of Bavaria, road-trip through Morocco, explore rooftop forests in an abandoned soviet hospital, pick up my sister from a Polish jail, watch over my mother as she slept under newspapers in an Austrian train station, excavate fossils from Jurassic limestone, stay up all night studying oceanography in a rat-infested Munich bar, work my way into my dream career, and marry a beautiful man on a Danish island.
I’m so grateful for this whole experience, but it’s the people I met who made it all so amazing. Thanks for being the raddest, most supportive friends ever. I’ve had the time of my life with you, and you made it so damned hard to leave Europe. I’m so glad we met. LOVE LOVE LOVE.♥
