This will likely be my 2nd or 3rd to last post.  I’m working on a very long post to summarize my 10 amazing days in Chania.  I have a ways to go, followed by some fact checking, so it might be a couple days or longer before that one is posted.  My trip home was a bit strenuous, especially when factored in with the emotions that accompanied the journey.  Last Tuesday I boarded a bus from Chania to Heraklion, an amazing 3 hour bus ride along the northern shore of Crete, at sunset no less.  I had an interesting time at the passport gate in Heraklion.  As I might have mentioned, the only stamp on my passport was for departing London almost a full month before.  I was a little disappointed that my passport wasn’t filled with accounts of my entrance and departures to the 9 nations I visited.  Aside from the nostalgia, having those stamps would’ve helped with the conversation with the passport agent.  It was about a 20 minute conversation of “where were you before that?  and before that?  and before that?” to trace back through.  The problem was the Swiss were supposed to stamp my passport and didn’t.  Fortunately the agent was ok with that omission and let me go on.

I landed back in London at 1am realizing that I didn’t put much consideration into finding where I’d sleep that night.  I had so many offers at my leaving party a month before, but had so many other plans to worry about that I didn’t make concrete plans.  Given that I was there at 1am on a weeknight, I opted not to bother anyone and curled up in a corner of the terminal and fell asleep.  At about 3:15am, I got a text from James, who lives up in West Hampstead and said I’d be welcome to crash there.  Fortunately there was a 3:30 train that got me a couple blocks from his flat at about 4:30am.

I had a full day in London before departing the next morning.  I stopped by the office to have lunch with my friends, then made the trip out to Loftus Road Stadium to pick up some gifts for friends and family.  That evening I had one last evening in the Ship.  The next morning I picked up my bags from the basement of the office and jumped in a cab.  There was no way I’d be able to lug all my bags onto the train and make the changeover.  It was interesting to thing, though, that this marked the second time I took a cab in London.  The first being the day I arrived.  It’s definitely a testament to how incredible the public transport is, that I was there for 6 months, without a car, and never took a cab.  I enjoyed the car-less lifestyle so much that I’ve been contemplating trying the same here.  It certainly won’t be as easy but isn’t impossible either.

Arriving back in the States, after being away for nearly 7 months was very interesting.  My dad was waiting at the airport and we made the drive down the Kennedy to my flat in Wrigleyville.  There were plenty of differences immediately noticeable, and the concept of “reverse culture shock” existed.  There is a lot that I was very excited to come home to, but a lot that I was sad to be leaving behind in London.  Being able to see my family soon after landing was great, even though by the time I got home I was battling jet lag pretty bad and felt sick.  That evening, as I fought to stay awake until a reasonable hour, I was reminded of one of my favorite aspects of my flat, hearing the roaring Wrigley crowd while watching the game on a 5 second delay on tv.  It cuts out the element of surprise, especially when Aramis Ramirez hit an 8th inning grand slam to give the Cubs the lead, but it still makes watching the game fun.

I hijacked my folks’ dog, Billy, for my first few days back.  Since I was wide awake at 5am my first morning back, we decided to take a walk down to the lake.  It was a great reminder of how incredibly beautiful a city Chicago is.  Watching from Belmont Harbor as the sun rose over Lake Michigan and illuminated the skyline rivaled any of the amazing sights I’ve seen in the past 7 months.  I initially planned to detail the rest of my feelings on leaving London and returning to Chicago, but I’m going to take a pass on broadcasting that and save it for the personal conversations I have with friends and family in the coming days, weeks, and months.

I have a bit of work to do to push out pictures from northern Italy and Greece.  I’m also hoping to work on compiling some best of folders so that those who want a quicker recap of a city or the entire trip, can get that.