It's 1am

We leave for the airport in seven hours. I really should go to bed, but I don't want to say good-bye, just yet, to this beautiful place. Brian says this is our essential difference -- he doesn't like drawn out good-byes, I seem to wallow in them. It's mediterranean, says our friend Edna (she should know, she's from Israel) so I must have some drops of mediterranean blood in me.

We have shared so many good moments with friends in these last few weeks we've been here. I didn't come here looking for friends necessarily, but we ended up making some great friends and meeting some wonderful people and am leaving with my heart full with their spirit.

I am comforted by a thought that my uncle Hans told me recently -- when you leave a place, your body may go immediately, but your soul takes much longer. So I know now, that even though my body will be getting on the plane tomorrow, my soul will linger here with a view of the mountains by the lake in this beautiful place for awhile longer, quite awhile longer I hope.