Dear Diary, It’s Hard to Come Home…
Double Rainbow in Denmark
(C) Melanie Parish, 2013
4 countries
6 currencies
38 days
4 backpacks
3 rental cars
1 car loaned by friends
2 ferries
old friends
new friends
2 amusement parks
3 medieval villages
1 mountain climb to a chateau
daily scrapbooks
fresh baked bread
old cheese, salami,
french wine, Danish snaps, Danish beer, bubbles,
4 swimming pools, 2 hot springs, 2 beaches,
and a whole lot of sunshine…
It has been a week since we returned from our 5 week trip to Iceland, France, Denmark, and Sweden. I have had a hard time reintegrating back into my life. I have had difficulty writing. Not because I don’t have anything to say but because I have been on some kind of sensory overload for several weeks now and I have had a hard time forming a thought of my own. I have been awash in varied and intense emotions.
I have had my fill of beautiful places and interesting visual stimulation. I have had my fill of re-connection and connection with people I have known, and people I have gotten to meet in the last month. I am physically spent. I can feel the physical exhaustion hanging on even though I have taken it easy this week and haven’t tried to do too much.
I am sated by the time on vacation with my family and have been enjoying some time alone this week. Being in close quarters with my family was so warm and we have shared a real sense of connection that was sweet and special. Now we are all disconnecting just a bit so we can go on with our individual lives.
People want to hear about our trip and I am not ready to talk about it much yet. It is like a new lover, something to savor that is greater than words. If I talk about it, I tie it down, I accidentally commit to giving it a meaning instead of letting my feelings exist on their own in a land without words. I want to let it sit and let my memories slowly ground themselves in their own sense of reality.
People ask me what my favorite part of the trip was. I simply haven’t applied that level of judgment to it all. It just is. We let the experiences run through us and wash over us without a lot of judgment about what was good and what was bad. For the most part we were simply taking it all in and experiencing it all for the adventure it was.
We had a couple of slightly unpleasant experiences that we didn’t like, and those were almost jarring on our trip. One was when we got up early to leave a campground and we were locked in by a chain across the gate and unable to leave. This was a surprise. Then an elderly woman blocked our way on a bicycle and demanded 50 Euros, even though we thought we had already paid. We paid her and left but weren’t happy about it. Clearly, this wasn’t neutral. Turns out we had rented sheets and thought we had settled up. We apparently hadn’t. We didn’t know how much they were going to cost and 50 Euros for rented sheets seemed pretty steep.
Recommendation: If you stay in campgrounds in Europe, bring a twin duvet cover, a twin bottom sheet, and a European pillowcase. A European pillow is square so make sure your pillowcase is large enough. We eventually bought great sheets in Denmark to avoid campground fees and came home with some great European linens.
But most of our trip had a sense of acceptance and a lack of judgment. Mel and I are both experienced travelers and have some skills of observation and travel non-attachment. As I write this, I can see how we were unusually unflappable with each other on this trip, too. We just allowed things to unfold for the most part. It was good for us and it was incredible rejuvenating. I feel like we got a complete reboot from this long and very interesting trip.
