Back to Reality. Our vacation is over; I’m happy to report everything went well and we had a good time. I have a lot to talk about but I also have a feeling it’s going to take me awhile to decompress and digest it into readable bits. My calendar is somewhat full for the next 10 days but I’m hopeful I can get stuff on here before you lose interest. In the meantime, here a few things off the top of my head.
- 19 days is a long time. It was actually long enough that I caught myself thinking a few times that living out of a backpack and moving around all the time was my normal life… like I got used to it or something. Travel/vacation never felt that way for me before and it was pretty cool. I was definitely ready to come home, but I appreciate the experience.
- The weather was somewhat crap but kinda awesome. We didn’t count, but our best estimate is that it rained for 13-14 days of the 19. I’m not talking 5 minute sprinkles surrounded by sun, but rather gray with on/off rain or just plain rain all day. Rain on vacation sucks, but it didn’t get to me as much as you might think. We were prepared for the most part and given that most places didn’t have A/C, I was okay because it rarely went above 65°. The days it was sunny were absolute perfection, so I’m not really complaining.
- I shot 791 pictures and 35 movie clips. I really thought I was going to shoot more, but the weather ran interference with that. Some days it was just so wet and gray that I didn’t feel it worthwhile to pull the camera out. Still, those counts are nothing to sneeze at and I’m sure it’ll take some time to get them online.
- I managed to cross two things off my Life List. I was thinking it would be three, but the timing and logistics just flat out didn’t work. As with several things on the trip, we felt it better to dial it back a notch and not force it.
- I ate a ridiculous amount of most everything I try to avoid on a regular basis and only gained two pounds. I truly feared the scale after all the beer, foie gras, chocolate, pork, wine, bread, bone marrow, butter, beef and ice cream I had but was pleasantly surprised. The significant amount of walking we did – averaged nine miles/day in Paris, where I stopped keeping track – must have compensated for the caloric intake. This fuels my belief about why Americans are fat; more about that in another post. The unwanted side effect of this food appears to be the resurfacing of acid reflux. It went away four years ago when I stopped eating crap, so I’m pretty sure it’s related. Bah.
That’s it for now. I apologize if the thoughts aren’t entirely coherent or ramble on – I’m still six hours ahead. I should also probably apologize for the overuse of the word but. I didn’t count but I usually end up with far too many if I don’t make a conscious habit not to. More later… and with less buts!