Reflecting on the past month

Hundertwasser House in Vienna

We’ve made it back to Vienna and I can’t believe that we leave in two days. As I write this I am sitting in the same room that I sat in the day we got here. I will spend the first and last night of our month long trip sleeping in the same bed, which seems crazy to me. When we got off the train yesterday it felt like we had just left Vienna, and that we hadn’t been here for years at the same time. In a strange way it felt like we were coming home. I am very sad to be leaving this home that we have created in each hostel and hotel that we have stayed in in the past few weeks. I am sad to be saying goodbye to this sense of family that we have created. Before leaving on the trip Dr. Powell warned us that at some point during the trip each and every one of us would annoy each other, and he was sure right. However, despite that we have also grown close. We’ve had to depend on each other more times that we could count in the past few weeks, simply because we had no one else to depend on or to go to when things went awry. 

Class picture in front of the John Lennon wall in Prague

When you ask each of us if we are ready to return home you’ll get an array of answers. Some blurt out yes instantly without hesitation, some say not in the slightest, and some say that they’re stuck somewhere in the middle. However, wherever each person falls there’s a few things we can all agree we are looking forward to. Things such as wearing a pair of shoes that aren’t the one or two pairs that we’ve been wearing for the past month, sleeping in our own beds, doing laundry somewhere other than in a bathtub or a sink or a creepy hotel basement, using a big fluffy towel rather than a travel towel or an itchy hostel or hotel towel, and playing our instruments. We’ve spent the past few weeks attending concert after concert and listening to world-class musicians play their instruments and make music, and we are all becoming anxious to get back to our instruments and to be back to making music ourselves. I am of course excited to get back and have more than one pair of shoes (two if you count the flip flops I brought to shower in) and more than the limited amount of clothing that I have with me, however, a part of me has also become weirdly attached to my backpack and its contents. There’s something about being able to carry everything you have on your back that I’ve come to love. I put my backpack on and it just feels like another part of me. Every time I repack it I try to find the most strategic and efficient way to fit everything in, and I don’t think I’ve situated everything the same way twice. As the trip progressed the contents of it varied. As shampoo bottles ran out I parted with them, and as the amount of cities we visited increased so did the amount of small paintings and gifts for family and friends in my pack.  

On top of a tower at the Fortress Hohensazlburg

In the past month we have visited more museums, attended more concerts, and walked more miles than I ever have in a single month before. We are all at the point where everything is starting to blur together and we have to ask each other which city a certain concert or museum was in. However, at the same time we remember every little detail and ever adventure that we’ve had. Each and every thing I have done, from seeing the Berlin philharmonic play Mahler six, to getting stuck in a tree, I will remember forever. In the past month I have made new friends and countless memories. I have fallen in love with cities that I cannot wait to return to someday, and I have had the privilege of attending so many incredible concerts. This was a trip that I will remember forever, and that I will always be grateful to have been able to go on. Each one of us will take something different away from this trip, however, I think it is safe to say that we will all be returning home with heads full of inspiration and hearts full of music.