I didn't want to end this year on a bad note, because it really doesn't deserve that, which is literally the only reason why I post another blog entry now. So it is also much shorter than usual ;)

So, as fate would have it, the very day I posted my last blog entry I sent a few more applications on workaway and literally within an hour I received a positive reply from a lovely lady with two boys who are not allowed to have iPads and who want someone to play football with. The truth is, I think they are the perfect family for me and the only reason why I hadn't written to them earlier was their location. But I guess it will be fine. I have good memories from Milan, so why not go back there again? I am really looking forward to it now.

Going to Milan will also take me back almost exactly the way I came, which means I also get to cross Greece again, which I am also looking forward to very much. Of course, this time it will be colder and there will be no sleeping outside under the stars but at least I hope I can bike some part of the way again.

While I am really looking forward to Italy now, I still find it a little bit sad that I am leaving here. Not the family here, there is not much to miss, because basically everybody is busy watching TV and playing with their iPads most of the time, so more often than not you get the feeling you might as well not be there. But I will miss living by the sea, I will miss the sunsets and sunrise, I will miss all the birds, of course, and, probably most of all, I will miss the football training and the girls. It is strange that at first I didn't know what to do with them also because I understood literally nothing of what they were talking but by now, I really like most of them, we became good friends and we communicate with bits of Turkish and English and hands and feet. They are also my only friends around here, which makes them even more important. I am really sad to leave them. But then, as I mentioned before, I have learned that life will always give you something beautiful back for everything beautiful it takes from you.

Also, I think it is not necessary to write this here, if you have followed my blog even just a little bit, you know that I have achieved the greatest thing a human can achieve, which is, to live the life they want to live. But more than that, maybe, in the past few months I also learned to appreciate the downsides of leading a life that is not just taking the easy way. I don't think, that my life has changed all that much in the last few years, but the way I look at it has, and so I dare say that this year has probably been the best of my life so far - although it has tough competition because the truth is, that my life is just a long string of fantastic years. But, yes, I do believe that I have come to a point where nothing in life can defeat me. I have developed such a positive outlook on life that whatever obstacles fate puts in my way, I will maybe fall but I will never give up because I know that every bad phase is literally just that: a bad phase, and the good things are everywhere and you just need to learn to draw strength from them. So, when I look back at this year, this is basically what I see: a learning process which made me a better and a happier person. There were so many fantastic things this year, I wouldn't start to try and list them, but this is the summary.

I really hope I can inspire some people with my blog, because I feel so blessed to have come this far in life that I wish that other people may also experience the same. With this I wish you a wonderful day and many more wonderful days to come.