The End of an Era

You know it's time to leave Europe when...

You've used up all of the travel days on your eurail pass.
You're sick of bread.
You've gained 10 pounds. Or at least feel like it.
You've finally figured out how to flush all the toilets.
You remember to weigh your own veggies at the grocery store.
Impressive gothic architecture bores you.
You've tried eating nutella with every other food ever.
You've mastered military time.
You know how to say "road" and "thank you" in a dozen languages.
You own at using a gas stove. And you can survive without a microwave.
You remember to use dd/mm format.
You've forgotten the taste of peanut butter. And good Chinese food...and a whole bunch of other items you've started a list of.

But mostly, it's time to leave Europe when you have plane tickets to India.

I still cannot believe the places I've found myself this semester: swinging over Berlin, wandering the streets of Venice, swimming in Icelandic thermal baths in the dead of night. It's difficult to wrap my head around this whole gap year experience even now. Liz and I were discussing this over a plate of ravioli the other night at dinner. "It's like...walking into a candy shop," she said. "And there's all these candies of every color all over the place. And you buy a few, and you leave the store with your little bag. You're happy about the candy you bought. But what you really wish you had was the excitement you felt when you walked into the store and saw it all right there in front of you."

It must be a necessary human flaw, this inability to capture a heap of experiences and emotions in one neat package at any given time. It would flood the senses, overload the brain, pull the heart in a million directions at once. As our three and a half month segment of travel comes to a close, I am endlessly grateful to face this threat of overwhelm. There are moments of clarity, when I look at my life on trains, with strangers, and in a backpack, and the overwhelm is nothing but sweet near-disbelief.

Liz and I leave for India tomorrow. We are ready to leave Europe, it has grown familiar and similar. (Though now that our last day here is coming to a close, we're getting rather nostalgic. Its like our own little finals period.) Still, we crave new and unknown. We are ready to be shocked with color and spice and chaos. What I really just want to say is ADSKLJDBAKEJBSKBFKJ OMG WE'RE GOING TO INDIA!!!

To wrap up some of our loose ends:
..Thank you to whoever has been reading our blog. We don't always know who you are but it means a lot to know that there are people interested in our journey.
..wifi in India is not going to be as ubiquitous or as reliable as it has been in Europe. We will continue to update, but it may not be as frequent or prompt.
..we have plane tickets home now! Yay!

Now that business and philosophizing is out of the way, please enjoy the following pictures of our last day in Europe. It was lovingly spent along the canals of Venice. What a magical city, with its ability to transport you to a different time period, and a maze of streets that confused even Liz.