The first thing I did in London was get on the wrong train. It wasn’t too bad. Everything is in English and I’ve used public transportation before. I figured it out too late though and that added an hour to the time it would’ve taken me to get to the hostel. I realized when I got back to the airport that the ticket master at the station told me the wrong platform number, so it wasn’t completely my fault.
Anyway, I’ve been in Europe for over a week. It still doesn’t feel real. I’m waiting for it all to hit me because it hasn’t yet. I’m taking a Topdeck tour through 12 countries, and it’s been really great so far. Totally worth the money. Today, I’m only going to talk about the first three countries I’ve been to, which are the UK, France, and Switzerland. I’m currently in Italy, so I’ll write about that later.
Update – At this point, I thought that I would have time to type out long-winded blog posts for you guys, but I was enjoying the trip too much and pretty much passed out in the hostels every night when I got back. I’m back home now, but I did keep a physical travel diary and wrote things down, so I’m sharing them with you now. I hope you enjoy.
//London
I flew into Gatwick Airport instead of Heathrow because it was cheaper, so I had to take a long train ride to the center of the city. I’ve already mentioned that I got on the wrong train, but it was a really nice train. It was above ground with really nice windows to look out on the countryside. My flight landed at 7:00 AM, so I had to stay awake the whole day to avoid jetlag. I thankfully managed to avoid it. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I got off at Kings Cross Station and walked to the hostel, backpack and carry-on in tow.
In order to take the earliest Topdeck tour available and get cheaper plane tickets, I took my final exams early. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish all of the many final papers I had, so I had one left to do. It wasn’t due for another five days, so my plan was to get it done at the airport and plane before the tour started. I didn’t. I finished the majority of it at the hostel before having to check in at 2:00 (I hung out at the restaurant bar area for those few hours between arriving and check in time.), but I needed a shower.
The shower head at this hostel was actually shorter than I was, so I had to crouch down to use it. This was the only time this was needed for the rest of the trip. I even stayed at the same hostel when I went back to London at the beginning of June, and the bathroom on the bottom floor didn’t have that issue.
Anyway, my first day in London was super chill. I wasn’t in a huge hurry to do everything since I was going to explore London after my Topdeck tour was over. I mostly just wanted to stay awake until nightfall to avoid jetlag. I ate fish & chips (which were not good by the way), went to the British Library, and walked around London. I went back to Kings Cross Station and saw Platform 9 3/4 and the Harry Potter themed store. I didn’t take the picture walking through the wall because the line was super long, but I’ll do it next time.
That night, I wrote a bit more of my paper before falling asleep by 10:30.
//Making Friends
Here’s the thing. I didn’t think I would make such good friends so quickly. I’m not good at making friends. All of my amazing friends kind of just fell into my lap. And that’s exactly what happened this time.
Check-in for the tour was at 6:00 AM downstairs in the lobby. Multiple Topdeck tours were starting their trip that day, so it was very crowded. After signing in, I found a place to sit and finish my paper (I was adamant about finishing my paper that day). Before I could even take out my laptop, a girl sat next to me and started talking.
You see…I’m kind of an introvert (more 60/40 with extrovert) and my first thought was, “Noooooooooooo, I need to write my paper!” but started talking with her because “You have to be social, Triasha.” I’ll call her “K” in all the blog posts. K is from New Zealand and she had been traveling for a few months now on a six month trip through Europe, Egypt, and Jordan. She had spent a month and a half in Egypt and Jordan before joining the Topdeck tour. She ended up being my tent mate for the rest of the trip. While we were talking, another girl, who I’ll call “M,” approached our table because we seemed nice. She’s British. She moved to New Zealand when she was 13 and hadn’t been back to Europe since, so she was seeing her family again after thirteen years.
The three of us hit it off pretty quickly and had a laugh when M accidentally almost walked into the wrong tour bus. On the ferry ride from the UK to France, we met our two other companions for the first leg of the trip. I’ll call them “R” and “C” (C’s name actually starts with a “K”). They were a couple sitting near us on the boat. I wasn’t sure if they were on the tour with us or not, so I asked them where they were headed.
Like I said, they were on the tour with us. After the tour, they’re going to spend a year living in the Netherlands working and traveling. They are both from New Zealand, so I was the only American in this group of Kiwis (I didn’t know people from New Zealand called themselves that. I thought they were referred to as “New Zealanders”), and it became a running joke later on that my accent was changing.
They’ve been together for seven years and are basically the cutest couple I’ve ever met. R asked the three of us how we knew each other, wondering how three girls with distinctly different accents had gotten together. We laughed, “We only met a few hours ago!”
The five of us clicked from the very start. During the first week of travel, we’d keep telling each other “I can’t believe we’ve only known each other for three days!”, “…five days!”, etc. It had felt like we’ve known each other forever. I was so lucky to have met them.
We added two other girls to our group later on, but I’ll talk about them in the next travel diary.
//France
Paris was a crazy day but one I remember fondly. It was the day my travel companions and I got to know each other. The night before, we ate a gourmet picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower on the bus because it was pouring rain. Everyone on the tour was disappointed, but the circumstances were actually quite funny.
I finished my paper that night in the hostel, so I didn’t have to worry about that anymore. I’m going to write a full Paris recap, so I don’t want to reveal too much here. I remember that day very fondly simply because it was the day my friends and I got to know each other. We waited in line for things like the Louvre and the catacombs, but it wasn’t that bad because we were learning about each other the whole time.
We were also very lucky with the rain that day. It would start raining every time we were about to go indoors and stop right before we went outside. That was really nice. It was surprisingly cold for May, but I think that’s just Europe in general. We walked so much that my foot pain would rival Disney World, but it was worth it. I went to bed at 2 AM that night, completely satisfied with my time in Paris.
//Funny Story
Okay, so before the gourmet picnic, we stopped at the hostel to drop off our stuff. When heading out the door, I realized that I left my keycard inside but didn’t bother getting it since we were all going to come back together anyway.
When we got back that night, I walked up the stairs and headed to the hostel room. A girl was heading out the door to go to the bar downstairs (which many people in the tour group were doing) and was having trouble closing the door. I helped her with it after going inside and walked over to my bed.
On top of the bed was a bag of stuff. Before leaving, I had locked all of my things inside the lockbox under the bed, so I was very confused. I stared at the bed for a solid fifteen seconds, before walking straight out the door.
You see, my hostel room that morning in London was on the fifth floor. My hostel room in Paris was on the fourth floor. I had walked straight into another room without any hesitation. There were two other girls in the room and I bet they were very confused when I power walked out the door.
Anyway, since M had almost gotten on another tour bus and I had walked into the wrong hostel room, I told K that she would probably do something next because “anything that happens once will never happen again, but anything that happens twice will certainly happen a third time.” Ten minutes later, R came in and told us that she’d accidentally walked into the boys’ restroom, so K was relieved to be off the hook. I quoted that Alchemist quote multiple times on this trip because the “third-time” thing happened to us on multiple occasions.
//Switzerland
Switzerland was definitely the most scenic drive we had. The tour bus had panoramic windows, so we had an amazing view of the mountains. Switzerland was the first place we camped on the trip, which made all the future camping nights like a dream because IT WAS FREEZING. Literally, no joke, K and I practically slept on top of each other the second night of camping. I slept with leggings under my jeans and both my jackets on. I learned my lesson after the first night, where I woke up multiple times from shivering. After that night, K and I decided that we were going to snuggle for warmth and had absolutely no regrets.
The daytime in Switzerland, on the other hand, was great. The temperature was much more comfortable. We spend the first half of the day hiking and ran into other people from the tour group to hike with. Afterward, we ate brownies and hot chocolate at a cafe. It was the only place that had wifi, so I was able to call my parents. When we got back to the campsite in the late afternoon, K & I just chilled in our tent. I had just started a movie on my tablet when M came in because her tentmate was taking a nap.
The three of just laid in a row on the mattresses in the tent, clumping up my sleeping bag as a long pillow and using K’s as a blanket. We all just laid there talking staring at the ceiling, laughing because it felt like one of those moments you see in chick flicks.
//Food
I didn’t actually go to many restaurants the first few days because all of the meals in Switzerland and half of the ones in Paris were provided by the tour. I’m not complaining because all the provided food was authentic and absolutely delicious.
Chocolate croissants – I had multiple chocolate croissants during the first few days, but the best one by far was from the food court on the ferry from the UK. It was fresh, hot, and the bread was so flakey. I have quite literally craved that croissant since coming back to America.
Just the whole gourmet meal in Paris – Even though we had to eat it on a bus, the food was quite delicious. I’ll insert a picture of the dessert platter below. I never felt the need to spend extra money on authentic food in Paris because I had eaten everything on my food bucket list my first night. There were macarons, eclairs, tarts, baguettes, cheese, and even things like frog legs and snails. Needless to say, I tried both. The frog legs tasted like chicken, but I didn’t like the texture of them. I’m not sure how I felt about the snails. They tasted alright, but I don’t think I’ll ever eat them again.
Crepes – After a cabaret show, M, K, and I walked to a crepe place at 1 AM for “dinner.” We didn’t have time to eat a proper dinner before the show but weren’t bothered with getting anything healthy for dinner. Strawberry and Nutella crepes it is!
Fondue – Our chef, Nyssa, made cheese fondue for us the first night for us in Switzerland. Apparently, Swiss fondue has so much white wine in it that you can accidentally get drunk from it. Sometimes I could taste the alcohol and sometimes I couldn’t. It was great on that cold night.
Swiss Hot Chocolate – This was by far the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted. They basically put a block of dark chocolate at the bottom of the cup and pour hot milk over it.
Swiss Mac & Cheese – The chef cooked this for us on the last night and macaroni and cheese is delicious no matter where it comes from. She had also made us this potato hashbrown dish for breakfast that morning, but I forgot what it was called.
Well, that’s my first travel diary. I really hope you enjoyed. My next travel diary will be all about Italy, so stay tuned.
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