Our last day

August 16 

While traveling, everyday is a new day! You constantly are meeting new people here and there. You make great memories with strangers and a few days later you say goodbye and go your own way. You move on to the next city and meet a new great group of people and the cycle repeats. 

Yes, at the end of the day, you are still alone and lonely sometimes. But i must remind myself it is all worth it for these experiences and opportunities I never would have had at home. 

But then there is a night like tonight that doesn't happen too often. You meet a group of people you really connect with and share your stories with. We have grown so close over the past few days spent together at the treehouse. 

You know they aren't just a typical situation in which you meet, share great memories, and may never cross paths again. I know a few of these people I have met here in Grünau I will come across again in my life. 

The group, Kimberly, Michael, Tony, Jenny, Dan, and myself, all come from very different places in the world; Australia, UK, New York, Wisconsin, and the Philipeans. We all have come from diverse backgrounds with different  morals and values and we even speak such different english, yet we can all relate in one way or another, making us great friends. This is what traveling is all about. 

We spent the evening sipping on tea and being goofy! Kimberly gave me one more quick camera lesson, we had a photo shoot, painted our nails and made matching bracelets. 

All day I had been thinking about our campfire conversation, why people decide to travel. I learned so much from that discussion and really wanted to do something with all of the great life lessons. 

I knew I would regret if I didn't so I just talked to everyone about my idea. I asked them to write in my journal anything from a sentence to a novel about what moved them to travel and what they have learned this far from their experience. 

Everybody was more than willing to share their stories. This ended up turning into the evening activity, everyone taking my journal to a quiet place to write their experiences.  At the end of the night when we all read each others stories it brought us closer. I had the chills as I read each of the stories. 

I don't know what I want to do with these stories but I know I need to do something. I have 6 people's stories filling up 15 pages in my journal. Everyone thinks I need to write a little book and have each person I write about, submit a photo from their travels to go along with their experiences traveling. Each person wrote a very deep and eye opening story. 

We all had a great last day in Grunau! Earlier in the day we walked the 5k route into town to explore. We are a delicious lunch at a pub. I just had to have one more schnitzel before I left Austria!

Oh, so good! We went to a park and laid down because we were all in a food coma. 

After being attacked by ants and flies we decided to move on. Michael spotted a zip line and we played in the park on the balance beams, slides, and merry go rounds.   We spent the afternoon being kids.  

Micheal went for a swim and I went for a dip in this beautiful waterfall!  We just played around and enjoyed ourselves, skipping rocks and taking photos.