All good adventures must come to an end, and this one is almost done. I packed my bags and disembarked from the Norwegian Getaway this morning. 

It was nice to be back with Norwegian after my disappointing experience with MSC back in December. I enjoy Norwegian’s specialty restaurants, the included beverage package and their ship excursions. I’m not a big one for the shows and performances, but I’m sure they were good as well. 

I was concerned about getting back to the Metro after my two-mile walk to board a week ago, but luckily I found the Athens X80 bus right outside the terminal which was an express to Syntagma Square for €4.

After a brief stop at the Starbucks in Syntagma, I took the metro out to the airport and was able to check-in early at my hotel. 

This has been a dream trip. From the start in Belgium, through my time in Paris, on to French Switzerland, Athens and then the cruise, everything went really well and every day was a joy. F1, my first Olympics, my first time in Turkey and a return to Asia all were a part of this vacation. I’ve averaged over 15,000 steps a day (7.5 miles) since late July, so I hope I can keep this trend going once I’m home. 

Travel means so much to me and I’m glad I was able to bring you all along on this adventure. Until the next one…

Epilogue

Saturday, August 24th

So, after I posted the above, I felt a cold coming on. By the next morning at 4:30am when I woke up to begin the journey home, it was a fully-involved chest and head infection. It was a long 22 hours of alternately feeling ok and feeling like death incarnate (I may be a little dramatic lol). At one point the flight attendant asked if I needed anything and I realized I’d lost my voice. She asked “uh, are you ok?” ‘Oh no, they’re going to divert to Newfoundland to drop off patient zero’ my anxious mind thought. (Again, dramatic 🤣)

After a mad dash through the Miami Airport to catch the Tri-Rail train to Palm Beach County, I finally arrived home. And the first thing I did was take a Covid test which was shockingly negative

With the intensity of this “not Covid”, I’m glad it occurred at the very end of the trip. Been convalescing all week, and hopefully finally returning to normal this weekend.

It’s great to go away, but it’s always good to come home.