Counting down the hours

All I can think right now is wow, I’ve made it.
It doesn’t feel like I’m going home tomorrow at all. I was walking through the streets of Naples today and it didn’t feel like goodbye.
I had my last gelato today, lemon and zuppa inglese (a flavour that I’ve been curious but scared to taste ever since I arrived…it was just as odd tasting as I thought) and I’m off to have my last vera pizza napoletana with my friends later.
It’s funny to think that 10 months have passed since I was sat all alone in the Ibis am Dom hotel in Cologne, crying my eyes out and hyperventilating. I remember in the end my boyfriend had to phone the hotel phone using skype (my mobile couldn’t receive any signal in my room) and spoke to me for 3 or 4 hours to keep me company. I feel so detached from that girl. I admit I still get afraid and lonely but that 20 year old girl who had never travelled alone, let alone live alone, she was at breaking point. Even the next day when I arrived in Marburg, I still felt so dead inside.
Go back even further. Go back to August when I started this blog. One of my first posts is all about how much I don’t want to go. How much I was dreading this year. But do you know what, it has ended up as being the best year of my life so far. I know everyone says that, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I have never had so much fun.  
When I got on the plane on the 31st August 2010 I cried during take off. It wouldn’t surprise me if I do the same tomorrow. But this time the tears will be a mixture of emotions. Happiness for going home after 10 months away with just a 2 week break for Christmas, pride at how much I’ve accomplished this year, and also sadness, sadness for my year abroad that literally passed in a flash.
I will make the most of my last few hours here in Naples and I will go back to the UK and tell everyone the wonderful things and people that I have seen during my journey.
I’m not going to shut this blog down just yet. There is still some stuff that I can add to it.
I’m so thankful to have been “forced” to go abroad. :)