Sunday, June 13th - Contiki had finally come to an end, I can't believe how fast 4 weeks flew by. The majority of the tour members were taking the coach back to London but we were leaving about 10 people behind in Amsterdam to go their separate ways. It was time for our first round of goodbyes - most significant for me was saying goodbye to Monica and Pete who were traveling to Poland and Alex who was meeting up with his parents back in France. We got on the coach and Alex came on and said one more tearful goodbye and we were en route to London via Belgium and France. I was hoping to grab my own bank of seats so I could stretch out and grab some sleep but Matty F ended up sitting with me and he wanted the window seat so I ended up in a much less comfortable aisle seat. It worked out in the end; Ben ended up sitting across the aisle and we got caught-up on each others weekends and he informed me of some events that went on after I had left the club the previous night. Matty Ray and Jas finally made out! This had been building the entire tour it was about time it happened. He had been bugging Ben and I the majority of the tour, always teasing us about hooking up and hanging out so I finally had something to tease Matt about - I only had 24 hours to do it but I made the most of it. Ben also told me that Lorraine hooked up with a random, I missed out on so much taking care of drunk Alex. This is why I always stayed out until the very end of each night - so I wouldn't miss a thing! While the rest of the coach slept Ben and I chatted for a few hours, he told me all about the events leading up to the mix-up with the wrong day sheet which was pretty funny to hear. We also discovered that both our father's ran engineering company's and as a result we have both put in time working front desk jobs for our dads. I was actually really tired but every time I almost fell asleep he would nudge me with something new to say and in the end I'm glad he did, really I'd rather talk to Benny than sleep.
We stopped for breakfast/lunch in Belgium and this rest-stop was the only part of Belgium we would see (contiki only promised we'd see Belgium in transit). It was still pretty early and I wasn't too hungry so Sandra and I shared a sandwich and then it was time to get back on the coach. This time Ben and I actually slept until we reached Dover. It was time to get back on the Ferry that had started us on our trip, I found it to be quite bittersweet. I spent most of my time duty-free shopping and taking advantage of the cheap deals. We docked and it was about 2 hours back the RN. Here we said goodbye to a few more tour members including Sian and Katia, and a much smaller group of us checked in. After 4 weeks of mostly sub-par hotels throughout Europe RN wasn't as horrible as I had originally thought. After much needed showers we all headed to London pub to watch the World Cup - Australia and Germany were playing and with the majority of our tour being Australian we all become honorary Australians that night - but they still lost to Germany 4-0. Even though they lost this ignited my obsession with the world cup and soccer that I would take home with me. Early on I picked Spain as my team and they didn't disappoint and I have now a new obsession with soccer. My house-league team starts up in a few weeks!
That night ended up being quite uneventful, it literally ended up with the Amigo's, Kristen and I standing around in the hotel lobby and chatting. Eventually Kristen and I decided it was late and headed to bed.
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