End of the road

I'm back, if you can call it that as I'm not sure what to or where.... but I'm in the UK, or to be more precise, at my Dad's house in Montrose. What a journey. Ten hours late into Edinburgh after my first plane's left engine failed on take off and my second plane pottered around in Atlanta for a little while, causing me to miss the next onward connection north. It took around 30 hours which I think is longer than the flight to New Zealand! But it did mean I went into Paris yesterday morning; I headed to the river and to Notre Dame on what was a beautiful spring day. Here are the pics.

The first thing that hit me was how busy the streets were, there were people everywhere. After five months in the land of the motor car, it was a real joy to see all the street life. I've missed it so much. Just walking around the streets of the Ile de France, you can sense all the history and culture. And there's so much style. Instead of an enormous cookie-dough blizzard ice-cream in a plastic cup from Dairy Queen, you get real glace, one small scoop in a waffle cone, served from a small cafe on a street corner where you can stop and watch the world go by.

I love Europe. I got used to Salt Lake, but it's not a city, it's a 30 mile long suburban sprawl with a few malls dotted here and there. Here are a few biased pictures to illustrate my point, including drive-through ATMs. They should be banned! Truly, you never really have to leave your car in Salt Lake.

There's a saying, I think attributed to George Bernard Shaw: "we are two nations, divided by a common language." I reckon there's way more that divides us than just the language. It's been interesting to live in the most individualistic country in the world - and I say that having lived in predominantly Mormon Utah. I'd love to see more of the USA. It's just so vast. I can understand why less than 30% of Americans hold passports: just seeing and knowing their own country would take a long time. I found some interesting comments on this when trying to find the exact stat for US passport holders, have a read if you're interested. I agree with Johnathan.

And so, there ends the adventures for now, although I do feel there will be more to come in the not too distant future. It's been so interesting. Life-changing, no; perspective-altering, most definitely. I guess that shift in perspective has the potential to be life-changing though. We shall see!

So, time for a new blog; it's going to be about the attempted rehabilitation into 30 something life. I'm going to need something to occupy my time whilst unemployed in Montrose, so just indulge me..... this is where the fun really begins! http://hannahgsrehab.blogspot.com/