Home Part Three: Work and Play Across Europe

Following the wedding I had less than a month and a half before my return to Kenya. If anything this was going to be the most hectic part of the trip. My return to Canterbury was a hectic mix of work and play. An intense month saw me cramming in hours of database entry, analysis, meetings and copious amounts of writing as well as discovering the joys of the Goods Shed! I had many wonderful lunches with the girls from my department, and some great nights out with them and other uni friends.

Gorgeous deserts at the Goods Shed

Artistic creation by Jordan Amirkhani - result of a productive day shopping

Kirsten's awesome birthday cake - not sure who's smile is bigger !

I also managed to spend time in London and Oxford catching up with my sister, and some of my closest friends. Although I had a truly wonderful time I was also reminded of all that I miss when I am away. Luckily though I was also reminded that even if I spend a lot of my time away I do not lose those who mean the most to me and I am left with the one of the greatest pleasures of returning – catching up with the people you care the most about when I’m back.

Oriel Guest Night Dinner with the Gorgeous Elizabeth Russel

My last few weeks back I decided to combine a little more work and pleasure, but this time through Europe. First I stopped in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. It was a surreal weekend where I got to catch up with my partners of crime from our time in Kenya, Sinead and Kim. We had a great time exploring the city, spending time together, riding bikes of death, making our own sushi, going speed dating and meeting a lot of new people.

Making Sushi!

My partner in crime!

Yummy Raw Fish

Freshly made Stropwaffels! So yummy.

After my time in The Netherlands I made my way by train to Zurich to attend the first Sacred Natural Sites Symposium. On my arrival I headed into town to work on my presentation and caught up with an old MSc buddy who was also attending the symposium. I had 3 wonderful days in Zurich. I hadn’t returned to the Zurich in nearly 10 years since my parents had lived there. So along with the work that was to be done I also got to explore and remember the city. I was staying just round the corner from where my parents used to live and my hosts kids even went to the school that my brother had been to. It was great to see everything again, and see all that remained the same, and all that had changed.

Zurich lake

The symposium was a huge success. My presentation went down well, I got great feedback and ideas for my research, made some fantastic new contacts and even found myself agreeing to be in charge of setting up a young professionals group and starting up a Sacred Sites Newsletter. Once the symposium was done I had a day to explore the city and reminisce once more before returning home. Ashley (my friend from Oxford) came with me for some of the exploring including a most indulgent trip to the Sprugli café (the only place where it feels wrong NOT to enjoy gold-leaf coated chocolate).

Awesome Sprugli Chocolates

After Ashley left I had a little time before my return home and my last night before heading back to Africa. I got myself my favourite Swiss snack (bratwurst) and sat by the lake in the sunshine. I then went wandering through the streets, past some gorgeous shops and found a great place to sit, read my book, listen to some music and look over the lake and the city. I perched atop a wall above the lake and could see the whole city – it was such a peaceful and lovely spot, I began to feel very smug! But as they say pride comes before a fall, and for me it was not so metaphorical. No, I didn’t fall into the lake (I know some of you would have loved that!), but when shifting to relieve a numb bum I didn’t keep a very good eye on all my things, and as I moved my I-pod slipped from my lap and into the waters of the Zurich lake. There was a split second where I nearly went in after it, then some rather embarrassing scrambling as I tried to work out how I could reach it, followed by what felt like hours watching it shimmer from the bed of the lake, screen shining as though proud of itself for having landed so close by. As its case slowly drifted into the middle of the lake I continued to stare at the I-pod until I realised there were increasing numbers of people staring at me. I decided now would be a very good time to make my way to the airport.

Yummy Bratwurst!

For all the Kenyan's who read my blog - A little more posh than our Bamburi!

A shop after my own heart!

My Ipod, in it's final resting place at the bottom of the Zurich lake

My return home was not my smoothest of evenings. Instead of getting the train into London, I somehow get myself onto a bus, only half way into the journey did I realise it would take me twice the time to get into town, and therefore would miss my dinner booking with Mum, Louise, one of my best friends Elizabeth and my step niece Jess. I therefore had to jump off the bus onto a tube and run through half of London with all my things to make it only one hour late for dinner. Although everyone was a little tired it was a wonderful evening and the best way to spend my last night in England. As I said goodbye to Elizabeth and made my way back to Louise’s with her Mum and Jess I couldn’t believe that my 2 months had passed, and that I had actually achieved everything I had planned in such a short space in time. I had never envisioned my trip back as being a holiday, but one thing was for sure, I’d probably need a little time to recover.