And so it goes

The autumn leaves leave their trees in golden fall and I watch it all race by through the fogged bus window.
My eyes dip as I watch. I'm tired. But that's not new. I've been tired for a while now.
When I look back at the last year of my life I can see why. Even for me, a guy who travels a lot, this has been ambitious to say the least.
If not to say almost foolish.
This bus however is taking me to my last stop. Not that there is such a thing. 

It just will be my last stop in Europe and Im actually a bit relieved, because like I said;
I'm tired.
I see it in the heavy bags that need to be lifted once again and in the bags looking back at me in the mirror. I feel it when I yet again I can't sleep at night, lying on another random bed as I dream up tomorrow. I see it in my passport that's starting to look like that guy you know who can't stop getting tattoo's.

I hear it in that little voice that's beginning to say "maybe it's time......"

Maybe...but not just yet my friend.

There's still some gas in the tank.

And I plan on riding this thing until it's dry.

For now, I would rather be tired from a hard work of seeing the world......than from a hard world of seeing work.

But enough philosophical pandering.

I wrote a whole piece detailing every adventure and journey that came with this trek. Just writing it was a journey in itself. I drove out into the middle of the woods in Northern Czech Republic, away from everything and anyone and just wrote for hours, as I listened to the leaves fall.
But once it was done and I looked back at it, I saw something interesting. So much of what stood out to me on this trip, was the meetings with the valued friends who I had connected with on a previous trip from another time. Friends who I had been missing, and when we finally sat down and talked; it was some heavy shit.
Deep, emotional conversations. The kind that make you feel alive and nowhere else but where you are. Right then and there in the moment. Talks where nothing is off limits and you bare your soul. I guess I've never been the kind of guy you talk to about the weather... and I'm pretty ok with that. When I meet with someone I value, I want to know what makes them tic and how they feel about their lives. What they think about the world. Not how work is going and if I've watched the latest season of "Suits".
I haven't by the way.

So when I would finally meet up with my different friends along the way, we had very raw, heart to heart talks. Talks which interestingly mirrored each other. It seems, we're all fighting the same battles and worrying about the same stuff.
Most of which boil down to just two things:

Love 

and 

Loss

Now I could go off on a tangent (like I usually do) about this particular topic but I'll leave that for another day and get to the point:
This trip wasn't about landmarks and history for me. Nor was it for parties, beaches, babes or beers. It was instead about those deep, soul to soul conversations where people opened up to me and I to them. Where we trusted each other with our fears, hopes and private lives. Putting it out there not to be judge but understood. For me, more than anything, it was those talks that were what this trip was about. Connecting again. 

Because that's everything to me.

It isn't where I'm going to but who I'm going with. 

Sure there are lots of other stories from this packed trip that would be worth telling,
but I'm going to keep those in my pocket for the next time I see you in person.... and likely we won't have time to get to them anyways because we will be too busy talking about something really important to you. 

Which is just the way I like it.

Because we sure as hell aren't going to talk about the weather.

So...

To the people I missed along the way (Princess Pola from Poland this means you),  I'll have to look for you in the maybe of tomorrow. 

And to the people who took the time to meet up and show me around the beautiful cities you live in: Thank you. Thank you for indulging me and letting me into your lives
Josefine, Alice and Fernanda in Paris
Victoria, Patrick, Tobias and Julia in Hamburg
Eva, Sabrina and Christian in Munich
Eva, Alex Natalie and Matt in London
Kirsten, Lauren, Curtis and Jessica in LA
Elena and Dorothy in Hungary
Martina in Prague

And to the people who opened their homes to me and gave me a place to lay my head, if only for a little while, thank you kindly. It won't soon be forgotten and one day I hope to do the same to you.
Kevin, Stephane, Anthony and Tamara in Paris
Marc, Gabi, Corina, Dave and Marina in Germany
Tom, Gemma and Natalie in England
Laura and Luiza in LA
Theo in Milano and Klaudia in Slovakia.
Thank you all for making me at home no matter where I go. 

I'll find you on the road my friends....
and I'll miss you until then.