Warsaw, Poland
When ever I have reached the end of a long trip I always feel ready to go home. The only issue is once I get home everything feels so weird. What was once normality is now abnormality and living out of a suitcase and moving to a new place every few days is the new normal.
Following the week and a half in Russia the bus took us to Riga in Latvia, Vilnius in Lithuania, Warsaw in Poland and finished up back in Berlin (I very much enjoyed these places and they were nice and easy compared to Russia). It was a strange feeling ended where we started, and with quite a different group to what we began with, but it felt like the appropriate ending.
Russian Orthodox Churches are scattered throughout the Baltic’s.
Standing on the rooftop bar where the group first met 37 days previously, it was hard not to reflect what had happened. 10 countries in 37 days; Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Cycling around Copenhagen, the Fjords in Norway, the Midnight Sun, crossing the old iron curtain and going to Russia, seeing Lenin!
It was hard not to reflect on the people. The ones who we started with, the ones who we finished with; their personalities, the arguments, the controversies, the jokes, the memories.
We had done so much; we had seen so much.
Vilnius, Lithuania
Early on in the trip, in Norway, just as some people were leaving and new people were joining, we had a gathering at sunset by a lake. It was a simple night, there was punch and not much else, but we all came together, we all talked and we all got to know each other.
It’s simple moments like that which defined the trip. Yes, seeing Red Square was incredible, dancing along to hits of the ‘80’s, ‘90’s and now in an Irish Bar in Stockholm was so much fun, but it was the simple moments like by the lakeside in Norway, or all eating dinner together at each campsite throughout Scandinavia that really made the trip special.
Travelling opens your eyes to so many different ideas and concepts. Throughout this trip I learnt about hope and humanity, about the complex nature of history and perspective and most of all I learnt about myself.
War is over in Vilnius.
A successful trip is not just about having fun, it’s about what you learn, the connections you make and the memories you create. Going off that criteria, this trip has most certainly been a success.
I am now back at home, at work and at university. Although my travelling has stopped (for now), I hope to be back on a plane or in a car soon.
While I felt ready to go home on that last day in Berlin, now that I am home, I am ready to take the world by storm again and again and again.