"What do you love?"
"What do I love?"
"Say everything."
I love the smell of Ireland. Clean, masculine, natural...I smelled it everywhere and no one could tell me what it was.
I love the look of laundry drying on a line. The first thing I noticed about Portugal was all the clothes drying on balconies. The shapes, the colors, the work of washing finishing naturally, the energy saved, the memory of my mom, the summer, and my backyard.
I love the sound of a running shower. In Croatia, I could always hear a shower somewhere. There is something about the sound of water falling around the moving object. A big splash of water, nothing, big splash. I was tempted to sit outside and just listen.
I love the random everyday chatter that occurs constantly. It wasn't until I was really in countries where I don't know the language that I realized how special it is that in the States, I'm constantly talking to someone. At the bus stop, in the produce isle at the market, on the patio of a coffee shop. Constantly, people relating to one another. Maybe this used to bother me. Why can't I go anywhere and just be anonymous, I'm sure I wondered. I won't take this for granted again. Conversation, relating, observing surroundings together...these things are special. I can't describe how lonely a busy city can seem when you can't talk to anybody.
I love the sound of acoustic guitar. Mixed with harmonica, I think there is no prettier music. Right now, like RIGHT NOW, I have the pleasure of my host, Vasilis, playing his favourite Bob Dylan songs on his guitar. Many times on this trip, people have played guitar for us. The sound now reminds me of Galway, Barcelona, Dubrovnik...not to mention it brings up all the memories of my own music that I miss so much. Ryan Adams "Come Pick Me Up" is a gorgeous mood-enhancing song.
I love the moment when I realize how everything fits together. Everything prepares me for something. Someone tells me something, and the next day somebody asks me for exactly that piece of information. I feel like, generally, this entire trip has been an interesting way of using every skill I have, talking about everything I've ever learned with new points of view, using management skills to make it all logistically work. When I have something to offer, that is when I'm happiest.
I love home. I love laying in my mom's bed, under the covers (I wouldn't have it any other way), with the constant Colorado sun shining through the window. I thought I only liked doing that when I'm sick, but when I think of comfort, that is what I picture.
Two weeks from today, I am going home. It will be nearly five months that I've been traveling at that point and it has been amazing. I won't be able to express it, when it's really over. I think I will do what I did when I got back from living in Seattle and just emotionally fall apart for a couple days. How do you express what happened to you in so much time? All the people you've met that you will miss until you see again? The places you've seen that you know will slowly fade from your memories. I'll forget the smell of Ireland. I'll be too busy to love chatting with strangers. I'll have a stressful day at work and do everything I can to remember how there were moments on a beach in Greek where I realized how valuable it is to do something productive during the day. I don't think there is any place I like better than home, but this was a unique experience.
I think that's all I have to say about that.
