Going Home
I woke up around 4:30 in order to be at the airport at least two hours before my flight. My town is only thirty minutes away from Lisbon, but I knew I’d probably take my sweet time getting ready - and I did: the fact that your loved one is in another country doesn’t change much about the rituals that precede a date.
After I was done checking my packing list for the nth time, mom and Lucky drove me to Humberto Delgado Airport. I’ll miss them, but the feeling of being hours away from seeing Querido for the first time since April was too overwhelming, so it really wasn’t the occasion for a sad goodbye. I mostly wanted to enter the plane and be able to say, “OK, this really IS happening!”.
Regarding the flights and the layover, everything went smoothly. I arrived at Landvetter around 13:55 and messaged Jonatan as soon as the plane landed. We met by one of the exits shortly after that, and hugging him (finally) killed my saudade. Phil was in the car waiting for us.
Before heading home to Lidköping, we stopped to eat gelato and check out (and laugh at) the weird, blue train station in Vara.
After taking a quick break at home and making paleo and non-paleo egg sandwiches, we went to LARS to join Zira, Makko and Phil. Meeting with friends was good, prog was good, food was good, Makko’s cherries were good, and I believe their beer was also pretty good. It may sound crazy, but it ended up being exactly what I needed after a pair of flights. I missed those guys, they’re good people and fun to be around.
It’s great to be back home.