Which is the quiet Metro Station on a New Year's Day and the helpful people there. The cruise that took way too long (almost 4 weeks) and just didn't have enough stops inbetween! The storms in England and France in the beginning of the month that made us skip the Azores and head straight to Florida. And made me sick ... Heide from Germany who's company I was really grateful for during that cruise. I won't forget to come by in fall to pick up those knitted socks, my birthday present :) Our guide Bernardo from Chile who accompanied us safely through Rio de Janeiro. The Uruguayan games played at an Estancia on my birthday and my first asado. A Cafe Tour in Buenos Aires with a friend I had not seen for 12 years. The hot and humid weekend I spent in Rosario, Argentina. Thank you Adrian and Stevie (the dog) for the time, the food and the music you shared with me ;) The "magic spot" at the Estancia Rancho e Cuero that allowed you to just get a tiny signal in the middle of nowhere. Also Pedro, the Gaucho, and his wife. The Palma family (the ones I have met). And of course my own Black Beauty, Fernet. The long wait at the Chilean border (thanks again to the people who wanted to get some drugs accross ...). Another wait, this time at the only airport I was at and spent 3 hours waiting for a group that never came. Well, I eventually, after several calls - on a Sunday - to the travel agency people in Switzerland, met up with them. The swimming in Lago Todos los Santos up in Northern Patagonia with two Austrian girls. Which turned out to be a smart idea after all, as the lakes down South only got colder :) The bumpy dirt roads. The beautiful b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l nature of Patagonia that I am still longing for ... and more ... The absence of Starbucks in that part of South America and the fact that you will find it here in the US and especially here in New York just about around every corner. A Golden Cruise and the two princesses traveling on it to get from (the) South (America) to the North (America). The flower power pants we both shared. The green lizard on my head in Mexico :) The easy way into the US!! I still can't believe how fast that went this time and how little questions had been asked. Willi the walruss and Christmas songs sung by two little boys in a car in the middle of spring time. And one of these two little boys reminding me very strongly about my own little boy back home ... the opposite side of family life with two girls, one of them having grown into a teenager (constantly attached to her phone now), the other one being a fashionista and State Champion in gymnastics. The Western National Parks that gave us no break inbetween, no time to breathe and take in each of their stunningness for just a little while longer. Quad driving just outside of Arches NP with Joel the medicine student. The long roads. The heat in Tennessee, when I had thought it might be cooler there in spring than it was the last time in August. Well, you've deceived me. But I'll still come back to the "Music City" a-n-y-t-i-m-e!!! :) On contrary, the AC, a constant and unwanted companion here in the US. Especially annoying on the coldest train ride I have ever had!!! The Cafe in Juliette, Georgia, that serves the best fried green tomoatoes.
There's all of this and so much more that I am just not able to think of right now. Almost 5 months in a flash!!! There's just 2 more days left in New York. The city that never sleeps. Where you can shop till you drop. 24/7. Where you could see 10 Musicals a day for one week and would still not have seen them all. A place where you find out that maybe rowing a boat is not an ability I should pursue ;) Where you can sleep in a hotel just close enough to Times Square and Broadway that you can hear the people (or should I say, the women ;)) scream once James Franco (who is playing in "Of Mice and Men) has exited the theatre. A city where you get tired feed and blisters of walking it. Where at some point you wished the masses of poeple away. But also a city where street musicians come up to you and talk to you about their life. Where not yet famous singers have the chance to sing and show what they are capable of doing. Where you can cross the street on red and where it doesn't seem to matter if cars block the intersection. Where poeple are rememberd with white roses. And where you can imagine and dream.
My "Winter Away" is coming to an end. The Queen Mary 2 will once again bring me back to Europe. And I am glad once again - not just because I can avoid the flying part ;) - that I can take the slow return. And think again about the past months and maybe about the future plans ...
I hope you have enjoyed traveling these roads with me. And don't forget, that every end is somehow it's beginning!!!
Certainly, travel is more
than the seeing of sights.
It is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in
the ideas of living.
- Miriam Beard -
