Nice to be back :)

Already it's been a few days since I returned home.

And it seems like just a few minutes ago that I was sitting on Maria's couch in Dresden, typing the previous post.

And now I'm in my house. In Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

And it's not weird, really. Being back. I'd already imagined being here, while I was still in Europe, and I could already see myself sitting in this house, and it didn't seem like it was going to be strange.

Then I flew home, and it wasn't.

Getting to Frankfurt Airport went off without a hitch, without the need to take the next train or the one after that.

Then the flights were easy. Like reeeeally easy. Frankfurt to Singapore was 12 hours, half of which I killed by watching two stand-up shows and two movies, and the other half of which I slept through. Singapore to Melbourne was 7 hours, the first 2 of which I killed by watching a movie and the other 5 of which I slept through. I even took my guitar (bought in Dresden) with me on the Qantas planes, even though they wouldn't usually allow such a thing as carry-on baggage - the guy at the check-in desk told me I could give it a try and the first officer might stop me, but nobody did.

In Melbourne, I changed to a Virgin Blue flight to Hobart, where they didn't allow the guitar as carry-on but I was able to check it in and as a bonus, it wasn't broken!

I arrived in Hobart "International" Airport at 1pm on Saturday the 16th of January.

I was in Europe for 400 days exactly, so the trip took 403 in total.

After being greeted by my mother, father, brother, grandmother, aunt and cousin, I soon found myself in my house. Some things have changed, and many stayed just how they were for the entire time I was away. And still, it wasn't too weird being home. I suppose that's probably a good thing - why should one year away mess up my impressions of my house where I've lived for eighteen other years?

After arriving home that afternoon, I was expecting to be messed up sleep-wise, probably going to bed at 4pm or so. But I didn't feel tired, and Luke asked if I wanted to go out with him and others. My first time driving in over 400 days was a drive to Fran's house to pick her up, then later we headed to Luke's place, where I saw many old friends as well as a few new ones, had a few drinks, then we headed into town. I ended up staying out until around 1:30 when sleep finally attempted to kick in and I was taken home by a friendly taxi driver.

Will I keep typing anything into this blog now that I'm home?
In a way, it would be nice to continue, and a shame to stop,

but in another way, it would be nice to leave the existing 67 posts as the blog record of my trip to Europe without adding more that are written just about my life or thoughts.

What do you people think??

Anyway,

like the title says,

it sure is nice to be back.

See you later :)

Patrick