Good Morning Travel Bugs!
As I am writing this it is April 20th, 2020. The day that I was supposed to be docking in Amsterdam and saying my goodbyes. Sadly I have been home for over a month. I arrived back in my hometown on March 15th.
After an extremely mentally exhausting semester, it was time to say goodbye way too early. We were told that we were ending our program early only 4 days before we arrived in South Africa and had to part our separate ways.
Leading up to this I had been so exhausted from all of the changes and disappointments throughout the semester I felt like I was ready to go home. When the news broke I no longer wanted to go home. I wanted to be with my friends and hang by the pool. I wanted to waste money on the grill and study with a view of the great blue waters. I was no longer ready to go home.
As I scurried to pack, (which let me tell you my suitcase was stuffed! I have no idea how I would have come home after 12 countries lol) I found myself filled with sadness. I no longer wanted this voyage to end. I truly wasn’t ready to go home. I felt almost incomplete. I felt empty.
The night before we left we brought our suitcases to the ship crew so they could carry them off the ship for us. Due to the Coronavirus, I think our process was a bit different than a normal voyage, but I will let y’all in on how it all went down.
We were able to leave the ship whenever we wanted since our disembarkation process was 3 days long. The only caught was when you got off the ship you couldn’t get back on. So, there was no exploring the city and leaving the last day. Two of my friends who were also headed back to Colorado all book a flight together which was really nice to be able to travel together. Our flight left the afternoon of the first day in South Africa.
There were a lot of people that decided to stay in South Africa a week or more and explore. I was really sad that I was going home but the prices of flights just went up throughout the week and I was nervous that I would get stuck in South Africa and honestly I didn’t have the funds to live in a hotel in South Africa for who knows how long. It was best to just get home with many airports and borders closing.
When we first arrived in South Africa at 8 am we had to go through customs and a health screening then we go back on the ship and ate lunch and finished packing and taking a few last pictures.
Then it was time to say goodbye around 1 pm. It was super hard and I shed lots of tears. Then we got off the ship and all of our luggage was waiting in a little parking garage looking area where we picked them up and went to the bus.
The next bus didn’t leave for 45 min so we went into the little restaurant at the terminal to get a drink but sadly they didn’t have any so we got dessert which was so amazing. As we were sitting at the table we heard “Bee Booo… May I have your attention please!” Instantly we all started crying and freaked the waiter out a little bit but when I say emotions were running high and this voyage has taught me to cry at any given moment anywhere, I was not lying!
Then we got on the free shuttle provided by Semester at Sea to the airport. I am not sure if they do this for every voyage or just ours since it ended early and the majority of people were going to the airport rather than traveling Europe.
When arriving at the airport we checked in, went through security and then started our 28-hour trek home.
We had a layover in Dubai then New York then finally arrived in Denver at 11 pm on March 15th! It was a long journey and it felt very weird to be home and see my family. This is the third time I came home after a long period of time away traveling and it was the shortest time away of the three yet it felt the most strange. I think that coming home felt so strange because I wasn’t supposed to be home for over a month and all the things I was going to do didn’t happen so it felt like I wasn’t supposed to be home.
I think regardless of if you had a traditional voyage or not disembarkation is sad and hard. No one wants to leave their second home and friends that you became so close too!
My best advice is to live everyday like its the last day on the ship. Spend as much time as you can with your friends. And never hold back at the pool bar because I could def go for some fries and a burger right now!
See You Soon!
xoxo Gina