Monday, February 21, 2011

21 months, 12 days and home....

I would lie if I'd say it was easy to buy my return tickets and I have kept delaying it for months. So I eventually forced myself to come back for Christmas. It was for my family as I was up for another summer in the Southern hemisphere until the early March to really get to 2 years of traveling.
I spiced up my return with a surprise to my mum and my grand-parents, arriving two days before what I had told them.

 From late drinks at terrasses with my Chilean friends....



 to -2 degrees and a white Normandy 3 days later


I flew out of South America from Santiago de Chile and it took me three days to arrive in Caen. My flight has been all but direct: Santiago - Lima - Bogota - Madrid - Paris - Caen. 3 days, little sleep and once I was in the plane all the disappointment I could have felt about finishing this trip had disappeared. It is surprising as I am not a person really into family stuff but once in the plane I was ok because I knew what I was doing I knew it would make my relatives really happy. And since I have been so lucky to do this all trip for so long it was time to do something for them.

 My Colombian friend Carolina who came to see when I was between two flights at Bogota airport. Muchas gracias Caro!!!

So I came back Saturday 18th December at 10.00. I will never forget this day, the tears I saw in the eyes of my relatives, thing that I would not have thought, their laughs that made me quite emotional. I will not forget that this day was somehow surreal, to be again with them, a bit like if I had not left because the environment has not changed.

This 18th of December will always as a really special moment in my trip!!!

My house for 2 almost years


The trip is over

One anecdote. I was told coming back through Paris would be hard because it would show me life as I am not really looking forward to. So I arrived and the suburb train was late due to suspected luggage in one station blocking all the traffic so I had to wait half an hour in the cold for the bloody train!!! Welcome back!!!

1 comment:

Clairette said...

Welcome back Benj...j'aime bcp ton article sur ton retour... bonne chance pour la suite et tiens nous au courant de tes aventures (même si c'est en Europe ça nous intéresse :))
Bisous