This is the end…..my only friend….the end………..or is it?

Alas, my European tour has ended, I have finally arrived back in Toronto after an 8 hour flight back across the Atlantic. Its been a surreal experience, I still cannot believe that I have arrived home.I felt the need to write one last blog to finalize my thoughts on this trip, then I will wait for Luke and Megs updates and watch their travels with interest as they are still out in the abyss.

Ive decided to write this last time almost more for myself than anyone else, since Im probably one of the only people that reads this thing lol. But that's the beauty of travelling. You learn things about yourself that maybe you knew before but couldn't quite put your finger on. Ive realized that I enjoy writing. Not that I didn't before, my entire university career was spent writing. But Ive realized how much I enjoy it when it becomes about more than just an essay on a topic. Its become sort of therapy for me, a way to put my thoughts on paper and to reflect not only on my experiences, but life as well.

Reflection has been quite a theme of the last month or so for me, Ive done quite a bit of that lately. It was quite funny actually when I arrived at the airport and we all sat down, drank a beer and started talking. "Didn't you get lonely by yourself?" Justin asked." What did you do when you weren't meeting people?"I thought about the question for a split second and the answer was easy. I didn't get lonely because loneliness wasn't an option. Most of the time I was meeting people and when I wasn't meeting people I was thinking. About what, I don't know half the time, but mostly reflecting on the trip, my future, my friends and family, life, philosophy, politics, etc, etc, etc.

I don't think you can ever get bored travelling, especially when you are on your own. Because when you meet someone they have an impact on you, good or bad. And you reflect on that. When you miss a bus or a train, you are mad. But later you learn from it. And you think about that. When you look out from your ferry across the sea and notice blue skies, water, and magnificent coastline, you marvel at the beauty of the world. You wonder what the rest of it looks like, and you think about that. Finally, you leave on a plane to come home and remember all the amazing people you met, the things you've seen and the stories you have to tell. And you think about that.

I think at the end of the day, after all the thinking, you realize a few important things about life. Not that you didn't realize it before, but it becomes clearer to you. Life is short, so make the best of it because the only things you regret in life are the things you DON'T do. The world is a small place. And people are really just the same.

Not the same in a bad way at all. We are all unique and different in many ways. No two people look or think exactly the same way. But when all is said and done we are all the same. We all need to eat and drink. We all are born and die. We all have to pay taxes lol (well, most of us honest people anyway). We all love and want to be loved. We all raise families and hope for the best for them. We all celebrate the good times and get upset at the bad times.Maybe we go about those things a little bit differently, but regardless of where we come from those are all common parts of life for us all.

On my return trip home I stumbled across a Lonely Planet book that summed up the experience of travelling better than Ive seen in awhile. It mentioned most of the points about different cultures than I did in the previous paragraph but also added something about our interest in others. It noted that "above all, we share a curiosity about other people that inspires us to travel and to seek them out. And it is travel that facilitates this understanding, connection and humanity in all of us, and illuminates the shared paths and crossroads in our many journeys."

We are all on the same journey, but maybe we go about that journey differently. We are all on a journey from within ourselves. Ultimately, it is the journey within that makes travelling so beneficial. To just walk away from a travel experience with some nice pictures and funny memories is one thing. But to have that experience help you to grow as a person is something that you cannot put a price on. And that is what you hope for, no matter how many thousands are spent.

So I can honestly say that the past six months of my life were likely some of the best times Ive ever had. Not because it was one giant party or anything. On the contrary, there were times that we went through hardship. The first two weeks in Scotland we had a taste of what it is like to struggle financially, to be unemployed with few options. We were quite depressed. But we battled on and worked through the tough times. In retrospect, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to us. We felt a sense of achievement after, much more so than if we had shown up, immediately found a great paying job and had everything handed to us.

It was those times that I am most proud of, not when I showed up in Rome and walked into the colisseum, or when we partied in a place like Barcelona or Athens. In fact, the more I think about this trip the less I think about the specific places I went to and the more I think about the people I met in them.

Sure, we all went to Athens, or to Edinburgh, and I am sure that there were things about each city that drew the people I met into them. So in a way you could thank the city for bringing us all together. However, ultimately it is the people who make the place. Athens wouldn't have the history it has today without the people populating its buildings, working in its markets, serving their citizenry duties in the Agora, etc.

Just like that, places like Edinburgh wouldn't have been the same without people like Jeremy working at the Shovel and going down to drink with him, people like my super Ash being a dousche at work and giving me something to talk about, or David Irish keeping us up all night drinking with his other Irish buddies.

There were many ups and downs on the trip, mostly ups though. Either way I regret none of it. The experience was incredible and I only hope that reading this will inspire other people to travel. Maybe not, but you never know.

So now that Im back its time to find a job and work towards the next challenge, whatever that may be. But lets hope that it includes visiting a new culture, trying new food and not knowing a single word of the local language. Sounds pretty good to me. And that's why this journey wasn't the end of my travels, hopefully its just the beginning…