Hello all!
Tyler and I are off to a great start on our European trip! To be honest, I have no sense of what time is anymore because we’ve pretty much been up and about for the past 24+ hours. The flight to London was about 7 hours long and I must say I was extremely nervous. As much as I’ve traveled in the past, it doesn’t really make sense that I’m afraid of flying – but I’m not going to lie to you. I am. For the 24 hours before my flight, I was plagued with terror, fatigue, appetite loss, and feelings of doubt. It was bad, ya’ll. But when the time came to say my “see ya laters” to my family and head into the airport with Tyler, I just kept moving forward. Yes I was scared but I kept going and just prayed for a safe flight.
Now in my experience there are 3 types of people you encounter on a flight. The person that wants to talk to the strangers around them about travel, the person that wants to read/listen to music/ watch tv in silence and be left alone, and the person that’s traveling with a group and socializes with them for the duration of the flight. Lucky for me, I was seated next to a guy that traveled everywhere, had great stories and travel tips, and most importantly, had been on a ton of flights all over the world and lived to tell the tale. He made me feel a lot better, especially since me and Tyler weren’t able to sit together (we procrastinated on checking in and had to settle with him being seated in front of me). After a few hours of chatting, he tapped on Tyler’s shoulder and offered to switch seats, giving Tyler the aisle seat next to me! People like him make me feel better about the state of humanity. He was so kind and so young at heart, never stopping doing what he loves – to see and learn and experience new things, always finding the best of whatever situations he may have been placed in. It was a very refreshing start to our journey to cross paths with that man.
So when we finally landed in London (after what I’d say was a bumpier flight than I would have preferred), we got on the tube and headed to Imperial College where I studied abroad last year to meet up with one of my GTA’s, Rocky. It was so crazy going back and seeing these parts of London that I never thought I’d return to not even a year after saying goodbye. Seeing Rocky again was so great. He’s got to be one of the happiest and kindest people I’ve ever met. He took me and Tyler on a whirlwind tour of London, seeing Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Prime Minister’s house, and the Sherlock Holmes museum among many other things. I felt like I saw more in those 5 hours than I did during my time living in London last year. It’s a great city and if the weather wasn’t so bad, I might even consider living there!
So after getting our amazing tour, me and Tyler headed to the train station where we took the chunnel (channel tunnel) to Paris, a 3 hour train ride and what must have been one of the most glorious naps of my life. After arriving we got off the train and managed to navigate our way to the apartment we’re staying in tonight. I was pretty amazed at how well utilized all the space seems to be in the city, at least from what I’ve seen. In corners where I expected to find a dark, sketchy alley, we instead found a new street just as developed as the last. There are also a decent amount of people out at night, so that was nice to see too. Paris is very diverse and the stereotype about smokers is totally true. After checking into the apartment and chatting with our host for a bit, we washed up and headed out to dinner on a lovely little street whose name I don’t remember. I’m finding myself genuinely wanting to learn the language here just because it’s so different! Letters are pronounced differently and I find myself trying to read the words as if they are Spanish or Italian.
Anyway, it’s 12:30am here now and I am pooped. Tyler and I made plans to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower, and the Louvre tomorrow. There are also a couple of little secret places that we can hopefully find and check them out.
PS in my rush to pack for this trip, I forgot my camera. Wups, LOL. So my phone will be my primary camera 🙂
