Nomad No More...

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So. Am back from a one month travel around Europe....and am still getting used to waking up in the same bed, having an established routine, cooking for dinner instead of eating Middle Eastern food *cheapest you can find usually, here in Europe*, hearing just French and English instead of Finnish, Swedish, German, Italian and what-have-yous, having more than just 4 shirts to choose from, and living from a roomful of stuff instead of just a backpack....

Still heady from the sense of accomplishment and adventure I got from travelling...Trying to figure out a city the moment we arrive there *and grumbling when there are no free maps available or the Tourist Office is closed for whatever reason..*, mingling with the city people in public transport - though with our Asian faces and huge backpacks we were as conspicuous as can be...took the wrong bus from Copenhagen to Berlin though still managed to arrive at the right place...brushing teeth at the side of the road, nearing midnight at Florence, cursing Italian train services for their inefficiency and non-user-friendliness *I mean, an announcement that you gotta change train, suddenly, in the wee hours of the morning, in Italian? Heck, but more about Italy on another post..*

In a sense, it's really my first big "adventure", my first time travelling as a "backpacker", and guess what, I'm sold.. Even with all the things that could go wrong, one learns so much about other cities and oher culture by figuring out the city while travelling, compared to going on a tour and being whisked by a tour bus from one touristy place to another..

About the questions I'm looking to answer in my travels... I've got the answers,all right. I've "proven" *to myself, anyway* that people really are out to help, no matter that they are "white" and I'm "Asian", no matter that they're Finns, Swedes, German, Italian or French...no matter that I'm just a stranger blind about their language and culture, and there's nothing in it for them..no matter that I'm actually very vulnerable to crime, especially when I was alone... Of course, no one actually gave their money to me, or donated blood, or did big, heroic kind of things.. I received a lot of little kindness... a help to pull my luggage, patient people trying to explain directions with limited english, hosts that opened up their houses to me, people asking if I need help when I stared for a long time at a map, a hitchhike, things like that... In and of themselves, they're trivial things that need just a little time, a litte patience, a little effort.. but try being on the receiving end, and receive those little gestures again, again, and again, and again.... Well I start feeling proud to be a part of humanity...

And about my gender...I've made a sort of funny peace with myself.... I thought I'd finally be able to wholly accept that I'm a girl, and a very independent girl, and that it's fine that I'm born a girl, if I manage to travel alone all around Europe for the whole month... Well, it turned out that people joined me from here and there, and I met hosts and couchsurfers..that I was truly really alone only in Helsinki, Venice and Milan... still, it's enough to assure myself that in modern communities, being a girl isn't really much worse than being a boy..and I met lone woman travellers from all over! There were several in Helsinki, Milan, then in Venice I met a girl from Hong Kong who did a very "intense" Eurotrip - doing one city one day and sleeping on the train each night... Wow...Now we're talking girl power....

Anyway, the peace I made with myself is in accepting that yeap, for sure a girl can't do everything a girl wants to do,but hey, a girl still can do a lot of things *especially one as stubborn as me, I guess..*

Hm...this trip also made me realise how far I've moved on from being a geeky loner...Well, I guess it's been a long time since I was someone who really craves solitude,and much *MUCH* prefer the company of books to people...but I've never really accepted it, I think..in a way, I think it's cooler *and much less troublesome* to be a "geeky loner"... The enjoyment I got from meeting lots of people on the way...the ease with which I connect to them...the sadness and high hopes of meeting again when it was parting time.... those feelings surprised even myself...who since young thought I'm independent enough not to depend on too many people or miss them too much...

Am I chasing after a new identity now? That of a seasoned traveller who love Life and people? We'll see...

On a last note, travelling made me realise how much I don't know *or how much I DID know, but forget..* ....geography, art, architecture, culture, personalities, economy, religion, beliefs....The flames of curiosity is burning harder than ever before!