Day 182: Return to Seattle

My flight would leave at 7:40am. I took an Uber at 6am a mere 15 minutes away to the airport.

Waiting in line to check my bag was a bit stressful due to the erratic behavior of the line attendant. I had a mobile boarding pass, but the line attendant kept repeating over and over "You must have a printed boarding pass", followed by a passing mention of "Mobile boarding passes are okay, too", before repeating ten more times how we absolutely must have a printed boarding pass to be in line. When I was just a few people from the front of the line, the same lady starts yelling out "Do we have anyone flying to Seattle?! Everyone flying to Seattle gather here!". I couldn't understand what the hell she was on about now, seeing that it was almost exactly 70 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave -- long enough that I needn't be expedited but short enough that she couldn't possibly want us to prioritize passengers on other flights. I ignored her, and checked everything perfectly fine at the counter, glad to finally be out of earshot of her. The rest of the boarding process was uneventful and I was in the air on schedule, on my way home.

Landing in Seattle, I met up with my girlfriend at the baggage claim (Yes! We survived 182 whole days apart!) and took the light rail back to the University of Washington, near where I had leased an apartment for the year. We stopped at Cafe on the Ave (our all-time favorite Ave cafe) for lunch. Even after all those stellar European cafes, Cafe on the Ave still holds its own pretty well.

I'm pretty sure weather conditions were exactly like this when I left half a year ago.
Thankfully it is now considerably warmer.

If we count the day I left Seattle, I spent just over half year abroad. I haven't done the exact calculations yet, but because of my quick pace of travel (typically a week in each location, then bus, train, or plane to the next), I spent about 10,000 USD. Perhaps a third of that was on inter-city transportation costs. Compared to simply living in the US, $10,000 is an astoundingly low amount to spend for half a year of traveling the world. But it's unfair to make a direct comparison considering I had no income of my own during that 6-month period.

Perhaps I will write some further posts, but until then, this journal has ended. See ya.

Day 181: In Baltimore

The next morning another aunt and uncle pair, Matthew and Phyllis, picked me up at noon to take me to Ellicott City for sandwiches and coffee.

The city is beautiful and visibly historic, and the cafe we went to looked so cozy with its courtyard full of tables. There was very loud live music there, making hearing anyone sitting across the table from you difficult. Of all possible times and places, I could not think of a more inappropriate moment to host a live rock concert than Sunday morning/afternoon at a cafe with a small courtyard. The absolute perfect venue for socializing, drinking coffee, reading the paper or a book, and the cafe thought what we needed was a bloody rock concert.

The food was good, but we left rather quickly after finishing our meals.

Ellicott City is filled with all kinds of knick-knack shops, and I had a good time exploring a few of them while hearing about the history of the town from my aunt and uncle. Returning to my cousin's place in the afternoon, I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the sofa while rays of sun filtered through the front windows. The house wasn't close to anything interesting, giving me the perfect excuse to lounge around all day while packing away my things for tomorrow's flight.

Day 178-180: In Lancaster, To Baltimore

The next few days I would eat better than I ever had in my six months of traveling. Every new aunt-uncle pair that came down to Lancaster to see me would take Grandma and myself out to a fine dining establishment and I would gorge myself on delicious food and drink. When I wasn't eating, you could find me lying supine in a recliner or sleeping in my own queen-sized bed. I think so much food and rest confused my body, and I spent most of my days in a soporific state.

When it was finally time to leave for Baltimore, I was loath to go -- but it had to be done if I ever wanted to get back to the west coast of the country. My uncle, Rich, was kind enough to drive me 40 minutes to York, where I snatched one of the last remaining tickets to Baltimore.

The ride went quickly enough, and at the bus terminal in Baltimore my cousin, Kelsey, picked me up and took me back to her place, which she shared with her boyfriend.

That night we went out to Fells Point, one of Baltimore's most happening areas of town (according to my cousin).

We met up with a few of my cousin's friends and went bar hopping. I can better appreciate the bars typically closing at 2am in the US, since a night out in Europe often entails staying up until four in the morning or later.

I look unnaturally out of place and tan in this photo

Day 177: To Lancaster

I took the metro to Port Authority Bus Terminal and caught a 12:25pm bus to Reading, PA, where I transferred buses to Lancaster.

My aunt picked me up from the Lancaster bus terminal and took me over to my grandmother's home where I would be staying the next few days.

It was beginning to dawn on me that my travels were coming to a close. Suddenly I had a room and bathroom to myself, a queen size bed, car transport around town, and as much free food as I wanted to eat. In exchange I'd be giving up meeting friends from all around the world, exploring a new, major international city every week, and experiences so unique and unexpected there's no way I could summarize them in a single sentence fragment.

I had dinner with my grandma and another aunt-uncle pair as soon as I arrived.

That night, I slept like a baby.

Day 176: Fireworks on the East River

Today is the Fourth of July! And also my last day in New York City.

I still hadn't thought of anything that I really wanted to do or see, and it being a federal holiday I presumed there wasn't too much open. So off to the park with my book I went.

I hadn't been reading too long before the writing on my shirt caught the interest of a park passerby. Of all people, it was the same guy I had seen performing on the piano two days ago.

This guy

We started talking and our discussion went on for another 45 minutes before he decided to wander off. His name is George and he's a retired linguistics professor. I told him about my trip and he told me about his time abroad on a professor exchange program in China. An all-around pleasant exchange.

After stopping at a Starbucks for a cool, cozy place to sit with WiFi, I met up with Kate at an Indian restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we took the metro to a park on the East River to get a good view of Macy's 4th of July Fireworks that night.

The park was fully saturated with people, but we still managed to find a patch of grass to sit on until the show started, then found an alright spot to stand at while the fireworks went off.

Of course, photos can never do fireworks justice.

But you can expect the main, NYC Fourth of July fireworks show to be stellar.

After 30 minutes, it was over. I walked back to my hostel and Kate took the metro back to the Village area.