back in lisbon everything feels different :)

the trip was perfect!

on the last morning in bali me and constanza from germany sat at the front seat of the bus from ubud to the airport in denpasar. we met there, almost siting on each others laps! and we had so much to talk about! same age and similar moments in life and somehow taking similar bits of ubud's energy with us. it was great to sit there and share what the last months had done to us :) and suddenly we realized we could tell the other things that you don't tell everybody :) and we couldn't care less about the fact that we had 8 other western tourists behind us listening to the whole conversation ;) anyway, i got off at denpasar airport. she went on for the last day in kuta beach with a german friend. we said goodbye with broad smiles, sharing the joy bali puts in you!

at the airport i found out that the fancy european food i had bought at bali budha the day before.... had gone bad!! oh no, i admire bali budha beyond what would be a normal level of admiration!!! mainly because they make the best spelt and walnut pancakes on Earth and they manage to top them up with dark maple syrup from canada all the way in bali!!!!! so i was sad that my last bali budha treat was spoiled! which actually ended up making me feel very determined to go back to bali one day and sit at their tables again :) or order their food at my favorite ubud rice field ;) i love that restaurant!

the flight from denpasar took me to singapore carrying a huge kite i got for my nieces and nephew :) singapore airport was so clean and quiet and organized and everything was shinning and i felt all over my body this strange feeling of having left indonesia! there was an underground now!! an underground!!!!! and i got to the clementi underground station to meet sara :) we chatted from that minute until the minute i left her apartment the next day in the evening and it was clearly not enough because i spent a lot of the time on my next flight thinking like if i was still chatting with her :) anyway, for me singapore is sara :) during these 4 months lots of travelers have raved about the city, recommended the arts museum, a few galleries and other interesting things to do in the city... but for me singapore is sara and her favorite restaurant in little india and the amazing bookshop where i spend my money with the joy to be in a place where books are so well respected!! oh, and singapore is also those amazing desserts :) like the ones you find all over south east asia, but in singapore they are served in really clean places often inside of a mall with air con and the experience is just perfect!

on the flight from singapore to dubai i got to think of all the consumerism i saw in singapore after so many months of being in places where there was nothing to buy. i love the contrasts of traveling :)

i liked the airport in dubai a bit more this time around. i missed canadian jay and somehow bumped into bits of our conversation there 4 months before.

then london!
i arrived in london right on time :) and it was cold! not too cold, just really nice cold that made me put a long sleeve t-shirt on for the first time in too long! that made me happy :)
all the time at gatwick airport i was smiling thinking to myself "i don't have to stay here!! this is NOT home anymore!" and that felt great :) london is so NOT my city! and it's good to know it!
i checked in really early for my last flight and spent many hours at gatwick reading "eat pray love" still feeling ubud all over me.
finally i sat on the easyjet airplane and i really wanted to fly asap as i knew 2 little princesses and a handsome little man were waiting for me in lisbon :) but they couldn't close the luggage door of the airplane!! so we had to change airplanes!! anyway, the new one was better :) and we got here with a 2 hour delay... but we all got here fine :) and i could hug the kids and my parents and my sister and it felt GREAT!

i have never had a trip like this one :) when i feel so happy to be here now and not there! it was the perfect amount of time, the perfect place, i was lucky all along the trip, i don't have any complaints and i still chose to be here now! maybe it was some magical power in indonesia that changed me ;) or maybe it was just me! but traveling inside me as i stepped around indonesia was exactly what i needed at this moment in life :) and i'm very, very happy i did it :)

now i miss the atlantic ocean!! going out to see him and smile at him and enjoy his freshness and his amazing sound xx

to sum it up really shortly, i'll just say i'm HaPPY :)