And so we returned. There was a welcome committee at the airport, greeting us, tired after almost 24 hours of travel, stopover, timezone difference and temperature shift into coldness of autumn. It is cold and raining again! We got the keys to our apartment back and started to slowly unpack our stuff from cardboard boxes and backpacks. While travelling we were sending stuff home and now it is time to unpack everything and discover it again. Same with our belongings which were stored in the cellar for one year. When you realize you were able to pack all your life into a 2×2 meter cellar room then you start wondering a) how did it fit there b) do I really need all of this c) my longsleeve! I forgot I have it!

We should also get us t-shirts with answers to our favourite questions:

1. So which place you liked the most? There will be 4 different t-shirts because each of us is getting slightly different answers (although some places repeat).
2. When you will do a presentation with slides and stories? Or write a book?
   
3. How it feels to come back to real life?
4. And a special t-shirt for Tytus“yes, I know I changed so much”.

The presentation is fine. The book – I do not think so. I am very confident that our way of travelling is only ours. I only need to make sure not to kill my friends and family with a million stories. In our self-help culture I really do not feel like the world will be a better place with our story published (yet I keep my right for hypocrisy while writing this blog). Moreover, I think listening to tales about animals on Borneo may be interesting for 5 minutes or maximum one hour but in the end people have more important things to do here every day. I think, thay think that way.

Still if you would like to read a good travel book, Rafał wrote one.

Upon returning to Poland it struck me how much people here do not smile. We were always able to recognize people of our kin – no smile and this “I against the evil world” face, constant judging look. Always seeming stressed and anxious, sometimes completely out of place. These loudly spoken opinions, offensive gestures. We are so eager to judge (and usually the judgement is negative of course) and we get angry so quickly. I need to stregthen my bubble because I decided not to give in to this.

Yet at the same time I discovered that despite scary news from Poland of growing fascism and nationalism (we the nation now finally rise from our knees…), one can hear many foreign languages on the streets of Warsaw and the color of skin is not always white too.

Hey, this country is really ok. Tap water is potable and it comes in both the cold and the hot version to take a bath. We have electricity and all the benefits of civilization are here too (traffic jams and smog included). Our food is delicious. My Gods! After few months in the US every slice of bread and every tomato tastes heavens. I enjoy eating so much now. There is taste in everything and it is not just sweet taste. You cannot imagine how many good things are here and may feel obvious to the point of not noticing them anymore. Yet at the same time these very same things are exclusive in so many places in the world.

While unpacking I found a poster I got as a gift some time ago – “Your home is where your heart is”. It hit me, because I tealised there are so many places, I couldn’t choose one and it may be I have many homes around the world and no single one will ever feel like true home.