Back home-with friends-my best friend and my god daughters.
How do I feel that the ‘true’ Odyssey has finally come to an end?
453 days.
59 international flights
230 cities
54 countries
430 blog entries and 35,000 hits
Countless friendships made
60,508 photos taken and 85% of them loaded on Facebook
And memories to last a life time………
I have had a lot of people ask me how I feel about going home. It is sad that my trip has come to an end. Who wouldn’t feel sad? Not having to go work each day. Not having to worry about bills. Seeing a new country, town or place each day. Anyone would feel a little depressed about going home. BUT NOT I. I am lucky. I get the best of both worlds, even though Bernie’s World Odyssey officially comes to an end I get to start Bernie’s Ethiopian Odyssey in it’s place. I am in a great position as I am home for 7 weeks and then I head to the UK for 3 weeks, so Bernie’s World Odyssey continues again, and THEN I go into Africa and start my Ethiopian journey. So yes I am blessed. I get to move to a new country with someone I love and see my own country before I do that massive leap of faith. I am not really sure how I would handle things if I was coming home for good, with no more travel on the books and the reality of settling back into a Western world and integrating myself back into my ‘circle’ of friends lives again and surroundings. Finding a place to live/buy, finding a new job and purchasing a car to name a few things. What a daunting task for anyone right!???? I am a changed person my priorities are different from when I left and I just hope that my friends lives haven’t changed too much that we don’t have anything in common anymore. 15 months is a long time to be out of people’s minds. It will be an interesting first few weeks.
It is so hard for me to explain to people how I just don’t think I could go back to the way that I lived before in Australia after seeing what I saw in Africa. My 4 months there changed me. Even before I had met Zeme I had plans of returning to this amazing continent and trying to help somewhere and anywhere. I was the first one to raise my hand when it came to keeping up with the Jones back home, especially with electronic gadgets, new dresses, concert tickets etc…. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy all that, will do all that when I go home for visits, but I feel there is more to life that I feel I can offer, and to people who need the care and the nurturing. If I can somehow get involved into making their lives more enriched then this is what I want to try and do.
My whole Odyssey has been a magical and life changing experience for me.
It has been a trip of a life time that only a small amount of people would ever get a chance to do-ever.
It has been an emotional ride that started on the 27th November 2008 when I got the news that my mum had passed away suddenly.
I lost my ‘family.
I reconnected with my dad and his family in 2009. I now have 2 half brother’s that I am in contact with and my little bro got married last year and has recently had a baby boy. I would never have thought being an only child that I would EVER become an Aunt.
I discovered ‘new’ family.
After 10 years of being with my ex-husband we decided that we were just 2 different people heading in different directions and separated in August 2010.
I lost ‘love’.
After travelling for only 7 months I arrived for my 16 day Ethiopian Adventure in October 2011. Never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would find my soul mate on this trip and what was to become a whirlwind romance and my understanding of love at first sight. It happens and it happened to me.
I found love.
So this is what it feels like to be smiling on the inside.
I write this last ‘official’ entry with sadness but with hope for the future.
My future in a new country, with a new culture and with the love of my life-Africa will be my new home.
I will never forget this adventure and the reason why I found myself here.
I’ve had the time of life and it was all in honor of my mum. I think about her every day and hope that she is smiling down on what I have accomplished and I miss her also every day.
My advice to anyone reading this is to live life to the fullest. It may not involve a 453 day trip around the world, I could be a weekend with a loved one. Spending the day with someone you haven’t seen for a while, a phone call or text message to someone, a trip to the beach you’ve always promised yourself or that book that you wanted to read with no interruptions. Do it. You just never know what is around the corner and what fate has in store for us.
Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.
Live your dream and share your passion.
When you eat, appreciate every last bite.
Some opportunities only come only once-seize them.
Laugh everyday
Believe in magic.
Love with all your heart.
Be true to who you are.
Smile often and be grateful.
…and finally make every moment count.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
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