I’M IN NYC BABY!! Wooo! Ahem. No need to lose my head just because it’s THE LAST BLOG I WILL EVER WRITE!!! Oh no, I never over-use exclamation marks.

So here I am, at the end of my 10 month trip around the world. Isn’t that surreal? Maybe not for you but it damn well is for me. In case you’ve not been following my enthralling adventures from the beginning, I’ll summarise for you;
4 continents, 17 countries, 13 capital cities, 21,298 km by land (13,234 miles), 56,098 km by air (34,857 miles), total distance covered; 77,396 km (48,091 miles). 86 plus beds, not including buses and camping, 15 plus pairs of flipflops, 397 hours spent on buses in South American alone, 18 flights, 312 days... and most of my sanity. I could regale you with countless other facts, but I think you get the picture. All the distances are as-the-crow-flies transport, so they are a little below on accuracy. Have I impressed you all with my stats? Mmmexcellent. I’ll finish my story then…

I left Bogota on another typically chilly morning at 6am and caught a flight to Orlando for my connection to JFK. I was nervous for a number of reasons; firstly, some guy in my dorm had convinced me I was going to get drugs stuffed un-knowingly into my bag and arrested the minute I landed in the States. Secondly, it was my last day as a backpacker and I was heading back to normality at 433 mph (according to the mappy thing on the plane). Thirdly, I don’t really know, I was just edgy. Got very little sleep that night, pacing about like a caged llama. Everything went horrifically… smoothly. How refreshing! Checked in on-time, flight on-time, customs didn’t think I was a drug smuggler; I wasn’t an unwitting drug smuggler, and the immigration guy was even nice! Slight delay to NYC due to storms, a mad subway journey to my aunt’s place in Manhattan and Bob’s-your-uncle! Well actually he’s called Ted.

I was shocked to find myself suddenly and easily in the U. S. of A. It still hasn’t really sunk in. Seeing familiar faces for the first time in months and months was an unbelievably good feeling, not to mention a day later my Dad arrived too. Happy reunions, ah the joy! The familiarity of my surroundings was so new to me (that’s an oxymoron right? Moron), I didn’t really know what to do. It feels a bit like I’ve completely dreamt-up the last 10 months as some kind of exotic fantasy. To be honest, I’ve quickly settled down into a sort of limbo-holiday-mode before I have to head home for real and face the music of normality. What kind of music would that be? Probably a remix of the Eastenders theme and Tiny-Tempah or something.

Since then my activities have been thus; my aunt and uncle have feed us huge amounts of delicious food, I have wandered about downtown in the pouring rain, eaten all the M&Ms of my dreams in M&M World on Time Square, bored everyone to death with photos and travel stories, enjoyed such luxuries as having a room to myself, clean washing and home-cooking.
On Friday we drove up-state for a weekend in the country. NY State is really beautiful, all the trees are coming out, the air is fresh and little red barns and old fashioned-looking farms speckle the route. It’s a deep contrast to NYC; still so typically American, but in a different way. It’s uber-peaceful up there, I felt like I was on some sort of retreat. My body had decided; since I had stopped travelling now, it was going to sleep 18 hours a day. The other 6 hours I felt like I had taken sedatives or something. That lasted about 3 days when all of a sudden the green-light came on and I was apparently fully recharged. Now I just sleep about 9 hours a day. Sleep is goooood. My cousin and her family drove over from Massachusetts too, it was like a big family reunion. My cousin’s son Ben is possibly the most adorable and likeable 11 year-old on the planet. I loved him way back when he was just 8 months-old and I was an awkward 15 year-old-pop-punk-kid and it was so great to see him all growing up. His little sister is also sweeter than a whole boxful of jelly beans. The weekend passed far too quickly and I had to say bye to them all for another few years on Sunday night. That was sad, and I miss them already. But many more loved-ones to say “Hi!” to over the next weeks. We drove back to the City on Monday morning...

NY, NY!
I love this city. In case you didn’t quite catch that... I LOVE THIS CITY! It has a pulse, a life of its own. It breathes. Albeit a smoggy and fast-food-stenched breath, but here in the Big Apple even the fast-food is good. I have eaten better food in the last week than I have for months... and then some. Italian, French, Japanese... No, I haven’t had McDonalds! New Yorker’s fascinate me. They have created their own race – made up of every nationality from around the world. It has one of the strongest identities for a city I think I have ever experienced. Having spent time here previously I’m not getting involved in any major tourist activities. I just like wandering the bustling streets, riding the subway, soaking it all up; pretending just for a millisecond that I fit in and could be mistaken for one of them... a New Yorker. Then I go and get the damn B train instead of the C and end up about 30 blocks downtown of where I’m supposed to be and have to pull of the subway map and look very, very un-cool. Oh well, we can all dream! I can blend in a hell of a lot easier than I did in South America that’s for sure. I’m enjoying the non-hassle factor immensely. I’m sure at some point I’ll start mourning the loss of being gawped at, whistled at, called at and feeling about as conspicuous as a purple painted elephant in Alaska... Nah. It’s been a good stop-off to buffer the craziness of backpacking with the craziness of going home to my Mum’s wedding. Maybe one day I’ll get to live here in the city that never sleeps...

ANYONE FOR A DRINK?
My feelings about returning home are somewhat ambiguous. I have a cocktail of emotions swirling around inside me; a hefty shot of excitement (make that a double), tempered by another good measure of apprehension, add a slosh of joy and a big of twist of nervousness. Garnish with a paper umbrella of happiness. Adjustment is going to be the issue, how do I go back to my plain-old life in Sheffield after so many adventures? I know I have so many great friends and family to support me back home, and I can’t WAIT to see them all. Of course I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, eating Marmite, Shreddies and not living out of a bag ... but, and yeah, it’s kinda a big but... would I be going home now if I didn’t have A) my mum’s wedding to attend and B) run of out money ? Probably not. You see travelling has made me a very happy person; I like my life as a travelling gypsy lady. The last 10 months have been a dream come true (cheeeeese!) and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Without doubt the single best decision I ever made was to do this, for myself, by myself. I read this quote about travelling the other day, I quite like it and it seems quite fitting. Don’t ask where it’s from because it’s embarrassingly girly...

“Travelling is the great love of my life. To travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel as I have not been in my other loves. I feel about travel how a happy mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby – I just don’t CARE what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because its mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to – I just don’t care.”

So there it is. Backpacking is not always glamorous, sometimes it stinks and sometimes it hurts. But it’s worth it, every second, every penny and every mozzie bite.

TRAVEL. That’s an imperative. Do it now, stop putting it off, stop making excuses. You won’t regret it. It’s changed my life irrecoverably for the better, or at least I think so. Sometimes paradoxically it has both hardened and yet softened me. For example, I have not cried once during the last 10 months, but the emotions I feel towards my loved ones now seem stronger than ever. It has made me realise the importance of Home, but also that it’s okay not to be there. It’s made me realise how much I need people, and also that I am self-sufficient. I feel a lot older, at the same time as feeling younger and more vital than before. Travel has taught me to live without fear or regret; that having lots of ‘things’ is not as good as having lots of memories; to never take anything for granted. I’m getting really philosophical aren’t I? But it’s my last chance to rant on at you about this stuff! Okay, I’ll stop proselytising about travelling and get to the point... I think (hope) I’m returning to the UK a better person, fatter and happier than ever. I’ve seen and done some incredible things and I’m one of the luckiest people in the world... Which brings me neatly to this...

THANK YOU!
Thanks for reading this mad and - at times – rambling blog. For those of you who have been with me from the start; it’s always meant a lot to know that you’re reading these and following my adventures. You may have noticed how this has become less and less a ‘travel’ blog and more about my emotional journey... thanks for putting up with that, although I’m not sure how pleased STA Travel are with me. (You know they put those little stars up when I type the odd swear word don’t you? I’m being CENSORED! Haha!).

A huge, massive, colossal “Thank you” to all my friends and family (especially you Mum and Dad) for supporting me in this fantastic quest. You’ve all done nothing but encourage me and I couldn’t have done it without you. People at home, people I’ve met, all of you have picked me up and kept me going when it got rough. Spending this long alone makes you realise how important the people in your life are. Oh gad, as if the philosophising wasn’t enough, here I go getting all soppy! You know who you are, you know what I mean.
Thanks or enduring this one last rant (and all my teribble jokes), take it for the team.

The journey is over, just one more flight – via Dublin – to Manchester; where hopefully the volcano will not disrupt my return (it’s a SIGN I tell you!) and my sister awaits in arrivals to take me home. I have this odd sensation that I have aged 10 years, not 10 months, and that everyone at home will be exactly the same... like Flight of the Navigator but in reverse. Probably true. Or maybe the opposite and everything will be different and seem foreign and odd. Foreign and odd is fine by me! It’s the new ‘normal’ you know...

I am searching for some definitive end to this saga, but I think it’s enough just to say it’s been fun... and see you soon!

I'M COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Over and out.
Ellie