With our dinner coming to an end, we had to prepare our bags and head off to the airport. With most of us having plentiful energy, we had one last music sesh in the back of the bus, getting all of the vibes rolling before we departed from Cyprus.
Once we arrived at the airport, we waited a little bit until our line opened up so we could check in. We had a large group so this took a little, but we made the most of it. Once we headed through security a few of us needed to do something that didn’t include sitting down, so we didn’t fall asleep before the flight. This led us to go and play air hockey. We made a ton of noise as it was really early in the morning, but it was okay as not many people were in the airport.
As we departed from Cyprus for Frankfurt, our flight was a three hour thirty minute flight. This was a rough flight for me as I could not get comfortable enough to stay asleep. We made it though as we had to say some of our final goodbyes at the Frankfurt airport. This was really hard as we grew some huge bonds over this trip. I really hadn’t felt sad the whole trip until that moment.
The last flight was upon us though as we did not have plenty of time to say our goodbyes. The eight hour fifty-two minute flight had arrived. During this flight, I slept a good amount. I re-watched the same episode of Chernobyl four times. That aside, this flight was not too bad for me.
As we arrived in Chicago, we waited a long time in the customs line before we discovered that as a US citizen, you could use the mobile passport app to skip through. This was huge as we saved about thirty extra minutes to get food and relax before our final flight. With the last group splitting off before our last flight, we said goodbyes again and the sadness continued.
Our last flight was an hour and a half, but I could not wait to be done traveling, so I was up listening to music anticipating my arrival. After getting by baggage and heading home, I really sat and reflected on the trip and the people I met. This experience is something I will never live down. By far one of the greatest decisions I have ever made!