Recovering

Well, I made it back to Lyon in one piece (well, three if you count my luggage) last night and crawled thankfully into my bed around midnight. The trip was absolutely amazing. There were a few minor hiccups, but nothing ruinous, and my travel buddy and I managed to make it through a week and a half without starting to hate each other, and were even sad to part in the metro when we got to Lyon.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to put the experience into words without just listing everything we did, so I'm not going to try just yet. But I promise to do that over the next couple of days. In between catching up on sleep, doing laundry, buying food, and celebrating Paul and Claudia's birthdays. Oh, and going back to school...

To provide a brief overview, Edinburgh was probably my favorite of our little stops, maybe because it was first and we had the most energy, but more likely because it was just plain awesome...and much more veg-friendly than most everywhere else in Europe (meat-free haggis!!)...and everyone spoke our language, which always helps. Amsterdam was a lot of fun as well, and it was nice to be back on the euro, which I never thought I would say. We were much more into the daytime life and the culture-y stuff than most people who go to Amsterdam, and I was glad Katie was ok with that, too. Not that we didn't go out and have a good time, too. Copenhagen was a little disappointing...there wasn't a whole lot to do. I think it is a much more exciting place in the summer. We did have fun though, and it was a unanimous decision that the museums there were the most interesting of the whole trip. On a tip from a friend of mine, we spent our last day in Malmo, Sweden, which was about a 30 minute train ride from Copenhagen. It was probably the best way to spend the last day of our trip. Sweden is pretty much awesome, and I hope I can make it back there (and on to Norway, land of my ancestors) sometime.

I am still completely exhausted after all of the traveling, and kind of just want to lay in bed and read. Despite how much fun our adventures were, it's nice to be back to a place that I know well. Seriously, hearing French on the plane last night was one of the most exhilarating things ever, and seeing things that I recognized from the window of the bus made me feel so happy. If that was even just a fraction of what I'm gonna feel when I get home (in less than two weeks!), I can't wait. Not that I could wait before.

A trip like that certainly requires a bit of recovery time, though. A LOT was done, and I had a hard time getting as much sleep as I probably should have, and I'm basically beat. So I'm going to drink another cup of tea and curl up with my book for a while before I brave the real world to buy groceries...even though I kind of feel like I should fast for a week after all the amazing food we ate over the past week. Not eating isn't really conducive to getting things done and surviving the stress of back to school and hoping that my classes work out the way I hope they will. But I will happily revert back to yogurt and fresh fruits and veggies and soup. And lots of tea.

So there you have it. More detailed recaps from the trip will come soon!