Flying home tonight

So tonight I am getting on a flight back to Luxembourg. I cannot really believe it yet that my trip is finally over.
I never thought I would end up travelling this long, but luckily I made the money last and made it all the way to Mexico like I had hoped. Only that it took me longer than I had thought... I left Luxembourg 433 days ago and these have been the 433 best days of my life.

I have seen and done so many incredible things in that time! I have been to 16 countries and according to my travel map I have travelled about 54,000 km, including my flights here and back. I have met hundreds of people, made friends with local people from the countries I visited and with other travellers from all over the world. Some of the highlights of my trip were the Iguazu falls, Patagonia, Machu Picchu and the Galápagos islands. I visited 39 Unesco World Heritage Centres. I climbed volcanoes and mountains. I saw glaciers and beautiful beaches. I visited big cities and small villages. I travelled by bus, plane, train, boat, taxi and used some more unusual means of transportation (like on my trip to San Cipriano). Some of the buses were luxurious and comfortable buses where I got served food and even wine, others were crowded uncomfortable ones driving along bumpy roads. I have seen many exotic animals, such as penguins, sea lions, boobies, sharks (including hammerhead sharks!), giant tortoises, pink and grey dolphins, rays, caimans and crocodiles, capibaras, tucans, monkeys and sloths. I have done adventurous activities such as rafting, zip-lining, caving and paragliding. I have stayed in luxurious hostels and in the cheapest ones; I have lived with a Bolivian family for a month and spent many nights on buses. I have taken 3 long boat rides: a 4-night ferry ride, a 4-day cruise and a 5-day sailing trip. I have tried many exotic fruits and other local specialities. The latter included strange foods such as chicken hearts, cow's tongue and lung, larvae, termites and grasshoppers, guinea pig and lizard. I have trekked in the Andean mountains and dived in the Caribbean sea.

It was definitely the best time of my life! And I am sad it is over... But I'm also excited to go home, see all my friends and family again and do the things I missed on this trip. I know I will miss travelling a lot. I will miss meeting new people every day and seeing new places every day. It will be nice on the other hand not to live out of a backpack, have a bigger choice of clothes, sleep in a nice comfortable bed, have hot water all the time, have heating in buildings and cars etc.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you old friends and family again! And I hope I can meet up again with you new travelling friends, either in Europe or on future travels!

I am leaving now, I have to make my way to the airport soon...