So, this is it. My final, final journal entry. For the best part of the last 6 months I have brightened up your days with tales of allsorts of goings on. It is only over the coming weeks that you will realise how much you will miss my updates! At times, they have been more for my benefit than anything else - recording where I went, what I did, people I met. But I always tried to turn them into a bit of an entertaining story, I hope that at times I succeeded in doing that. For me, this is the most important entry I have made as I want to remember how I feel right now, at the end of the most incredible 6 months of my life. But first, on to my time in Riga. It basically went something like this; sleep, drink, sleep, drink, tried to do some sightseeing, sleep, drink, sleep. It was great that soon after I arrived on Wednesday afternoon I got talking to Nick (Oz), Nick (the prancer) and Kevin out of my dorm, and we all got on pretty well together - which helped make Wednesday night probably the best of this trip. I got to watch the United game in the hostel as we downed 75p pints being served up by the lovely Egra, and was the happiest guy in the hostel when Ole tucked away the third. A night that was supposed to be my quiet one was fast turning into a big one, and around 1am we left for a club where my night was just topped of by Egra becoming the Eastern beauty I had been searching for the whole trip! As I crawled into bed around 5am, I was a very content young man! Thursday afternoon basically didn't exist, and by the time the night came it was a tough decision between trying to drink through the still present hangover or accepting defeat. Having a beer in the Skyline bar 26 floors up with a great view out over illuminated Riga made the decision for me, and despite losing Egra in the club afterwards I stumbled around in complete and utter amazement at how many painfully beautiful women there were. Maybe its the Russian influence, but whatever it is, wow! A bold statement, but out of the 20 countries I have visited over the last 6 months, I think I saved the best until last in that respect - so not a bad way to end the trip! With Friday being the last full day of my trip, I felt obliged to put it to some good use, but failed miserably. I did manage a couple of hours wandering the old town, which really is quite beautiful. The architecture is amazing. But trying to take in a museum was a bad move and I had to retire to my pit. Unfortunately, a planned meeting with Egra didn't happen, and so I contented myself to a nice last meal, just me and my thoughts. Despite it being my last night, I was not in the mood (ie. too rough!) for anything big so after a beer back at the Skyline, I had an "early" night. Today has then been a slightly random afternoon, spending the day with a nice Aussie girl called Kaz, and the highlight was undoubtedly being joined for a beer by a drunken local old man, who spoke amazingly good English given his state, and had the pair of us in absolute stitches. First he said he came from the moon, then that his family were somewhere over the rainbow, and then that he had just been drinking with Stalin and John Wayne!!! Within half an hour he had me and Kaz married with him as my best man, spending our honeymoon on the moon with him when he goes back next week!!! What a legend! And so here I am, in the final hours, not wanting to leave if for no other reason than the hostel is amazing and has the best staff imaginable! But, some of my thoughts right now. South America was amazing, exciting, incredible. Eastern Europe has been a cultural experience, and more character building for myself than anything else. But I can't complain - the only reason I was able to come away for this second trip was because of how cheap South America was, and maybe a little bit because of my now infamous spreadsheet! To get almost 6 months travelling out of less than 8 months working aint bad going. I'm waffling, I know. But the places I have been, the things I have seen, and possibly more than anything else the people I have met have made it what it is. It has changed me a lot. Those of you still reading this will be the people to judge whether or not that change has been for the better, but I think so. A strange combination of more confident and yet more humble. And maybe even I have changed slightly in what I always considered to be my most frustrating trait - of being a perfectionist. Maybe now I am 98% perfectionist, 2% adaptable! And so to my best moments. Very hard to choose but there are some times that I keep coming back to. The Rio Carnaval and El Misti hostel. Buenos Aires and meeting Steff - a very special few days. The 190km/hr road trip in Argentina - 3 of the best days. Hurtling down the worlds maost dangerous road in Bolivia. Camping out all the way to Machu Picchu - unmissable. A gruelling 4 days deep inside the Amazon - the bites were somehow worth it. And finally, escaping to Tayrone National Park - paradise! Highlights from Eastern Europe are less easy to roll off. My favourite places were Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Prague, Krakow and Riga. Seeing 12 countries in just over 6 weeks has been a totally different experience. But one I'm lucky and glad to have had. From sleeping with a Bosnian family, to partying hard all over Europe, to seeing the scene of arguably the most horrific human tragedy - it has been eventful. Flying home from South America, I knew I would soon be jetting off somewhere again. Flying home now, I know, for the time being at least, that is it. So what can I make as my final line? I keep thinking of the number of times I have woken up moody as hell and knackered after an overnight bus or train. But when I'm doing that getting up on a Monday morning to go to work next month, I think I will know what I would rather do. At times I have struggled to fully convey what I have done and my feelings in my written journals, but I will always have my memories which are better than the words and pictures here combined, and those memories will last a lifetime. My adventure is over, but rather than be sad about the end, I'm trying to concentrate on the fact that I am so fortunate that it even happened in the first place. Yes I am a dreamer, but for the last 6 months I have lived that dream. So at the end of it all, maybe there is one word that will suffice. Unforgetable. To the people that are STILL reading this - thank you. If any of you can honestly say you have read every word I have wrote and looked at every picture - I will buy you a beer. This entry has been for me, but I hope you have enjoyed getting into my head a little bit along the way. Now, I need a holiday! And so, for the final time, this is an emotional me, signing off. It has been a pleasure. Jonny