It was our
last day of the 12 we were spending in Europe. At this point in the trip, my
feelings were as follows:
1. Frustration. Who knew it would be so difficult to just communicate
while in a foreign country. My 3 years of French language didn’t really help me
out as much as I hoped.
2. More Frustration. I just want to be able to drive to get
to places. The over-packed, drawn out metro rides were very overrated at this
point in the trip.
3. Sadness. I missed my bed, my dog, my own shower, wi-fi
that didn’t stop working every 3 minutes, my phone, my family and friends.
4. Poor. With the amount of money I was spending, I was
dreading coming home and seeing how empty my bank account would become. Then
thinking about going back to my mediocre job as a bagger at Kroger and how many
more bags I would have to stuff to build up the bank account again.
5. Tired. Every day in the summer I’m used to staying up
until 3am and waking up at 1pm, not staying up until 3am and waking up at 7am.
I’ve never felt more sleep-deprived and jet lagged.
6. Sick. Although eating croissants for breakfast, panini’s
for lunch, and mystery meat for dinner every day does sound lovely, it didn’t
sit well with my stomach after a while.
To
basically sum up everything that I listed up there, I would say the right word
to describe it all is depressed. I wasn’t only feeling depressed about all of that;
I was also depressed that I had to leave it all. Leave the beauty, the
stress-free, memory-filled week and a half in Europe with my family.
Our last
day was spent waking up early to visit the beautiful Versailles. We had the
opportunity to go to the Palace of Versailles and view the wonderful architecture
and artwork inside of what seemed to be all-gold castle. The gardens were even
more of a spectacular scene. Acres of green, groomed plants and flowers was the
most peaceful walk I have ever taken. Listening to the trickling of the
fountains and smelling the wonderful smells of every flower filled me with
serenity. After Versailles, we got free time shopping around art filled streets
in Paris. Vendors were selling their fine drawings and paintings of famous
landmarks within Paris, so of course I had to buy one or two. During this free
time, my friends and I got gelato, sat on top of a big hill with some other
Globies, and looked out at the city and took it all in. This is when it hit me
that it was my last day in Europe, and this is also when I became depressed for
a different reason than being home sick. If there is such thing as being “vacation
sick” or “Europe sick,” then I was definitely coming down with something.
Trying not
to think about leaving, I tried to make the most of little time I had left. We
ended our day with a lovely dinner, and a dreary metro ride back to the hotel
where we had to pack up our belongings and hundreds of dollars’ worth of
souvenirs and prepare to leave one final time. As much as I miss everything and
everyone from my trip to Europe, I will never forget the memories I made, the
bonds and friendships that were created, and the food that was eaten. All I look foward to with my future is going back and reliving every moment like it was just yesterday.
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