I can hardly believe I’m writing this, but exactly a week from now I will be boarding a plane to return to North America. I’m in Budapest right now, and next week I’ll spend some time in London. Of course, there’s no reason to make flying home a simple process when it could be complicated: I’m flying from London to Toronto because it’s cheaper by several hundred dollars than flying to Michigan, and then I’ll get a bus to Detroit, and my parents will pick me up and drive the last hour and a half to my childhood home. After 308 days on the road, I’ll be back where I started from.

I’m in Budapest with some friends right now, and we’re about to explore the basilicas and public baths, so I don’t have time for a major reflection on what nearly 11 months on the road means to me. (That’s definitely one of the things I’ve learned–how hard I have to work to make time to reflect, because there’s always something to see or do.) But there will be time for reflections and end-of-trip lists aplenty.

Don’t worry, the blog isn’t going anywhere! I’ve only taken you as far as Laos, after all. There’s still Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, the UK, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Poland, and Hungary left to visit with Stowaway. And that’s just for the first part of the trip. I’m not totally broke yet, so I’m trying to figure out how I can extend the trip and carry on come this fall or possibly after the new year. There’s still so much of the world to see and I’m surprisingly not sick of living out of a backpack yet.

Looking for home and far-off horizons

I’m incredibly fortunate to have been able to do this trip, and there have been many times that I’ve looked around me and said out loud, “What is my life? Amazing, that’s what.” It’s all the better for the wonderful people I’ve met or re-met along the way.

Thanks to everyone who’s funded parts of this trip, and thanks to everyone who’s followed along on Stowaway as I make my way around the world. I’m happy to know that the blog brings something fun or thoughtful or new to your day, or at the very least provides photos to kickstart daydreams. That’s what my favorite travel blogs do, and I hope to do the same for my readers.

So stick around; just because I’m headed back to the States doesn’t mean Stowaway is going anywhere!

And for those of you I’m about to see in the States: I am so excited to hug you all! Minimum three minutes per hug. Get ready.

I’m headed home

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