Closure? (Part 2)

Well, this is it.

I know I've "ended" this blog twice before by now, but this time it's truly the final entry (third time's the charm, I suppose). As you can see by the banner image, it's time to hang up my bags once and for all.

So I've been back home for about two weeks now, and unlike when I finished my 3 month stint in Europe back in December and published the original Closure? blog post, this time it doesn't feel like a dream at all; it was real, and it all really happened. Still, the ease in which I fall back into the routine of my daily life always amazes me. I haven't really had much time to reflect on my year as a whole, which is why this entry comes a bit late.

I know that the skewed distribution of the 22 entries in this blog might make it seem like not that much has happened since my big initial Europe trip, but it's felt - and been - quite a long time since I concluded that initial leg. About 6 months, to be exact. In fact, I've had far more cumulative travel time AFTER Europe than I had during it. Sure, my blog entries became longer and less frequent, but this second half has been equally, if not more impactful than the first. In that first Closure? entry, I worked hard to describe the profound changes in myself and how I'd transformed into this worldly traveler. Looking back, I'm proud and happy with what I wrote, but I've definitely grown a lot more since then; you could say that my scope has expanded.

First of all, I feel like nothing can stand in my way. Australia and the other various solitary ruts of this year have come and gone, and there's nothing that the routine of solo traveling can throw at me now that I don't believe I can bounce back from. This confidence comes with time; you always think you've changed and grown, but then more time passes and you realize you've changed and grown even more. That's just the way of things, and I'm sure if I travel again in the future, I'll be looking back at THIS post laughing at how I thought I knew everything. Still, this final leg has really felt like a culmination of everything I've learned, in the best way possible. Everything fell together really nicely, most of the time it was incredibly social and creatively fulfilling and I felt more alive than I ever have before. 

Along with the previous travel experiences under my belt, another reason this final leg felt so incredible was because I knew it was fleeting. I only had 2 more months to live this lifestyle I'd come to love, and I had no idea when I'd get the opportunity to travel like this again. It made me appreciate each day and each moment so much more. (It also meant I didn't care as much about the amount of money I was spending going out in the evenings, and my budget loosened up. More on that later).

I'm at risk of repeating myself, but this is what I live for. Traveling like this, especially in an area as dense as Europe, is when I feel most alive. Being able to make stories and memories for myself each and every day, and also capturing moments and stories on the street; each day filled with novelty ends up feeling twice as long. On top of going out and experiencing everything, the process of organizing, editing, writing, and creating afterwards is almost just as fulfilling, and I think I've finally found my preferred creative outlet.

Speaking of art, while I was in New Zealand and Australia I wasn't as interested in street photography, but being back in Europe has brought back the passion for the medium that transfixed me in the fall. Almost every day, I was out on the streets with my camera. I didn't compile my photos this time like I did with European Fragments, but I still created many new images that I'm quite proud of. As always, if you'd like to see them they're up on my Instagram. I'm going to try and keep up my art in the future, but this type of travel street photography has set such a high bar that I'll struggle to top.

Now that my traveling is done for the time being, I can easily say that I've added more to my destination bucket list than I've checked off in the past year. Even just within the countries I actually visited, there are still tons of places I didn’t see and experiences I missed. Most of them I only learned about in the moment, and a downside to spontaneously making plans is that sometimes you miss out on other things. 

Here's a short list of some things I missed out on in the countries I visited this year (in no real order): 

• Uluru, Cairns, the Gold Coast and the Australia zoo, Tongariro Crossing, Rotorua, the fjords in New Zealand and Norway, the actual Dolomites, southern Portugal, Essaoura and Chefchaouen (the blue city), Sicily and southern Italy, the actual scenery of Provence, Germany besides Berlin, the Netherlands besides Amsterdam, Mont Saint Michel and eastern France, Seville and southern Spain, the Camino de Santiago, the Chronicle of Georgia in Tbilisi, the interior of Saint Peter’s in Rome, Livraria Lello in Porto, and many, many more.

Missing these things isn't really a regret of mine, instead I view them as new knowledge I wouldn't have otherwise, and an incentive to travel more in the future.

Speaking of lists, it wouldn't be a summary blog post without a "Things I've Learned" segment, so here are some things I learned during the past two months in Europe and Morocco:

• How to operate a window cleat 

• Rules of Mexican kings cup

• Maß is a liter of beer

• What Fado is

• Frats in Coimbra have crazy robes

• How to use a lighter to secure a nylon string bracelet 

• Stubhub.ie is sketchy and terrible. ONLY USE OFFICIAL TEAM WEBSITES

• Moroccans pour tea from high in the air to oxygenate it

• Olives to eat are picked in September, olives to press are picked in December

• Vegans don’t eat figs because of fig wasps

• How to tie a Moroccan headscarf

• The word salary comes from being paid in salt

• You get a percentage in In n' Out if you work there long enough

• What Edward 40 hands is

• ABBA was Sweden's first ever Eurovision winner

• Musk ox wool was used in space suits

Oh, and this final leg has been EXPENSIVE. A few weeks of Airbnbs instead of hostels, going out and buying drinks more often, and a couple poor financial decisions quickly drained my bank account. The past two months came together very spontaneously and thus I ended up with an unrefundable $400 plane ticket back home at the wrong time, which I booked before I realized I could stay abroad for longer. On top of that, there was also the wasted Real Madrid ticket and the Moroccan rug, and of course I chose to spend a week in Norway, one of the most expensive countries in Europe.

So, that brings me to my totals. I've included everything I bought here, including all the poor financial decisions. I spent $2049.77 on accommodation, $1293.07 on transportation (not including flights to/from Boston, which my parents graciously paid for; again, this wouldn't be possible without them), $3033.94 on daily expenses and activities, and $471.83 on other things like gifts, a raincoat, a rug, eSims, etc).

$6,848.61 total for a 48-day trip comes out to $142.67 per day, more than even my Australia leg.

Money comes back, experiences do not. The beauty of this leg was the spontaneity, and that comes with expense. I wouldn't change a thing.

Way back in August, in my first blog post A Little About Me I wrote that maybe I could turn all of these entries into a coffee table book of some sort. After who knows how many hours spent writing and editing, I still think this is a great idea, and a perfect way to memorialize the trip in a tangible way. Who knows, maybe I'll look back and totally cringe at my writing in these entries (I sort of already do), but they tell a great story and have tons of memories encoded within them. I've decided that compiling everything and self-publishing A Year in Between will be a side project for myself this summer, because I dream of being able to hold my work in my hands and flip through it all.

Anyways. So, do I feel a sense of closure?

Absolutely. Though it had its twists and turns and spontaneous changes, this gap year has been everything 14-year-old me could've hoped for, and more. I highly recommend that everyone, if they get the chance, tries solo traveling. It's truly a life changing experience, and I'm only just beginning to really notice the changes that this year has brought in who I am and how I approach life.

Closure? (Part 2)

June 30, 2026

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