My first trip overseas was 10 years ago. It was a school trip to Japan. I remember a lot about that trip, but I don't remember being excited. Of course I must have been, but not as much as my next trip, this time to China, four years later. See by then I knew what to expect. I knew the thrill of landing in a new country. Of exploring a new culture, different languages and, of course, the food.
Somewhere between then and waiting in an airport early Monday morning, I lost that feeling.
Usually looking at the departure board makes me giddy. All those flights headed all around the world. I look at the destinations and picture what it will be like to go there one day. I imagined walking up to the ticket counter and booking a seat on the next fight to anywhere. But after a bus and a train to Manchester the night before, tossing and turning in a 12-bed dorm until my alarm beeped at 3.50am and a slow march through security at Manchester airport, this time, I couldn't have cared less.
I finished my last shift at YHA Keswick on Sunday night and had five days before starting at my new hostel. The cheapest suitable flight had me travelling to Germany. A country not really on my "to-go" list, but meh...for £60 return I wasn't too fussy.
I also wasn't too fussy when the flight landed in Berlin and I got another stamp in my passport. On the train into the city I focused on staying awake rather than taking in the scenes outside the window. My CouchSurfing host Annika took me to Brandenburg Gate, one of Berlin's landmarks, and I still wasn't that excited.
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