Long Overdue Account of My Eurotrip.

Sorry it’s been a while and also for the fact that I have a lot to cover in a little bit of time, so I’ve just chosen the major highlights of my trip. Anyways, I know you’ve ALL been on the edge of your seats, just waiting to hear what I have to tell you. It’s just that I’ve just been a little wrapped up in this fantasy world called “Europe”. In case you haven’t heard of it before, this is a place where you actually have musical accompaniment just about everywhere you go.  Where families walk their dogs and eat ice cream all day long. And where the only people working are the ones you are buying food and clothing from. Just kidding… but really though… Europe is kind of unreal in a lot of ways. And I was lucky enough to travel between Spain, Italy and France for a total of three weeks. That’s because of the University of Leeds and the ridiculously long four weeks that they allot for Easter holiday.

Basically, as soon as break started I was off to Spain with three of my good friends I’ve made here in Leeds. Most of you will be happy to know that I was travelling with three responsible young women who like to be prepared, just like me. Each one of us must have had two, maybe three, copies of every plane ticket, booking confirmation, and hostel information before we were off to Madrid. But nothing really prepared us for the death traps of cheap airlines.

Everything was going perfectly smooth, too. We had checked in online, made it to Manchester, and through airport security in enough time for a nice  and relaxing send-off-drink. Little did we know we would not be going to Madrid at all that day. Do you want to know how much cheap airlines suck? Well, it’s a WHOLE LOT. I’d like to complain a lot more than I’m going to and the issue we dealt with is kind of a hard one to explain… but we missed something with our ticket paperwork and couldn’t get on our first flight. Meaning we fell right into the trap that Ryanair wanted us in and we had to buy new, much more expensive tickets for the next day. So yeah, our trip was off to a rocky start, but it’s okay! Because the next day was a whole new one, chock-full of international travel.

After what seemed like forever, we made it to Madrid and navigated the subway system to our hostel, which was right in the heart of the city. We lost of day of exploring which was kind of a bummer, but we still managed to see a good portion of the city on a three-hour walking tour full of facts I wish that I could remember. The rest of our time in Madrid (which was only like half a day) was filled with shopping and a late night adventure for sangria and churros.

During our tour of Madrid

Delicious tapas after a cold three hour tour!

The next day we were off to Malaga by train. It was about a three hour train ride and I was already in good spirits by the time we got to Malaga because the temperature had gone up about twenty or thirty degrees by the time we got there. Not only was it much warmer, but sunny too! And our hostel was in a prime location. From my bedroom window I could see palm trees and the Mediterranean. As I sat on my bed writing some things down in my journal, I looked up and watched a parasail go right by my window. It was unreal.

so happy to be at the beach!

Beautiful Malaga

view from my hostel bedroom window!

Our time in Malaga was a bit of a blur though, because it was mostly consumed by the beach, relaxation, and meeting people. The hostel in Malaga was definitely my favorite of all the hostels we stayed in. It was a really good place to come back to at the end of the day, because there was a really good sense of community there. Some of the guests there had been in Malaga for a while and it was cool to share our stories, hear their stories, and then try and decide which of them were true or not.

Though we spent a lot of time at the hostel and on the beach, Malaga did have some cool sightseeing places. The city centre was really cool to walk around, and was filled with churches, beautiful buildings, cool shops and other things. And Malaga is the birth place of Picasso, so we went to the museum and saw some of his original pieces. Very cool.

A few days later we were off again and this time to Venice. Another thing that sucks about cheap airlines: you will almost always be flying at the most ungodly hours. We were tired and hungry when we got to Italy, and trying to find food ended up being a little bit harder than we thought. We had gotten by in Spain thanks to my friend Katie and her Spanish, but Italian was something that none of us had even bothered to look into, and I’m kicking myself for that. After dealing with less-than-friendly customer service we decided to buy a translation book that helped us scrape by on butchered Italian/English for the next two or three days. It was at this point that, even though I was among three other English-speaking people, I realized that I felt really lonely and yearned to be in a place where I could understand the language.

Venice was a few days of really amazing sites and really amazing pizzas and ice cream. We were about a thirty minute bus ride outside of the center of Venice which took a good long day to explore. Though we didn’t end up getting a serenaded ride in a gondola because they were outrageously priced, Venice’s canal system was an amazing thing to see. We spent the day getting ourselves lost in the maze-like backstreets, finding cool shops, and eventually finding our way to St Marks Square after a lot of trial and error. The other day or so in Venice was spent seeing sights within walking distance from our hostel, because the city centre is an exhausting place to be.

Venetian gondola driver

St Marks Square

Inside St Marks Basilica

The next and last stop on my trip with my friends was Rome. Rome is a crazy, chaotic, but wonderful place. We were right in the middle of the city and well within walking distance from the Colosseum. Our first night there we were lucky enough to be guided by my flatmate, Francesca, who grew up and still lives in Rome. She showed us Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and we had delicious pizza outside in a square in the city centre, right near the fountain. After that, she drove us back to our hostel and we got to see everything lit up at night. I felt really lucky to be able to see all the things we did that night and to see the city from her point of view.

The next day was jammed pack with sightseeing. We spent a couple hours at the Colosseum, saw the ancient Roman ruins, and saw the Trevi fountain again by day. The day after that we were able to go to the Vatican and saw the museum/Sistine Chapel. At this point it feels like so much of a blur to try and remember every detail or thing that I did and I’m sorry for lack of explanation. I just can’t really describe what it felt like to see all of those places. It was a completely overwhelming experience, especially in a chaotic city like Rome. I just know that every place I saw, and this includes all the cities in Europe, it defied my expectations every time. All of the experiences, including the buildings, the churches, and the monuments are absolutely indescribable.

At the Colosseum

Making a wish at the Trevi Fountain

Inside the Colosseum!

At the Vatican

I think my friends and I were equally exhausted by the chaos of Rome, and by the last day there we realized that we had a case of bed bugs in our hostel room. I, at least, was very ready to leave. At the airport, we said our goodbyes to each other because I was heading back to England for a week while they continued on to Paris. At security I felt a wave of homesickness, because I got into line with people heading to either the United Kingdom or the United States. Also, to add to the fact that I was secretly wishing I could sneak onto the planes heading to Logan Airport, James freaking Taylor showed up on my iPod and suddenly I was really wanting to be in the Berkshires again.

Though I was back in England it was only for a short amount of time, because a week later I was already back in Europe to see my aunt in France. My week was filled with castles, wine, delicious food, and the countryside. My first day there we spent the day poking around in some seaside towns. St Malo has a city wall you can walk along to get a good view of the sea or the shops and sights inside the city. Then we were off to Cancale, where we took a nice walk and then had a seaside dinner of mussels and fries.

A view from St Malo’s city walls

Walking in Cancale

The next day was Easter and we spent it having a meal with a friend of Michelle’s. The meal consisted of about four or five courses and took a few hours to finish everything. After dinner my aunt and I got to play the role of Easter Bunny by hiding chocolates in the garden. The French tradition is actually that the Easter Bell leaves chocolate, but since this family is half English and half French, they have decided to celebrate the Easter Bunny. Probably because a bunny leaving chocolate in a garden seems more plausible than a church bell with wings dropping chocolates from the sky.

The next day we visited Mont St Michel, one of the man-made wonders of the world, and a sanctuary built to honor the archangel Michael dating back to the 700s. It was rainy and cold but well worth it! We had an amazing tour guide who told us lots of stuff… I remember at least two things from the tour, which is much more than what I retained from others throughout my travels.

Mont St Michel!

The next couple of days were spent getting a glimpse into my aunt’s everyday life in Rennes – I met a few of her friends and got to see where she works – so that was cool! The rest of the week after that was jam-packed with driving around France, listening to Florence and the Machine, and seeing as many castles as we possibly could. First we went to Fougères castle, then we spent a couple of days in an area along the Loire River where we saw one, two, three, four, five…FIVE castles. A variety of castles, too! One was amazingly huge, one doubled as both a castle and bridge, one was built into the water, and much, much more. Actually, we may have seen six châteaux… I lost count by the end. But anyways, I’m basically a château expert now. You can direct any questions you have about them to my inbox.

Michelle in her work office!

English pub night with friends

Fougères Castle

Château de Chambord

Chateau de Chenonceau

Château d’Amboise

Chateau Azay-le-Rideau

Château de Saumur

Then back to Rennes it was! We made some stops along the way of course, at a vineyard for a quick wine-tasting and lesson on the process of wine-making. Then at “la roche aux fées” (the rock with fairies), the mysterious rock formation. The explanation is that fairies carried the large boulders in their aprons and laid them there. I believe it.

Where we had our wine tasting

La roche aux fées!

I have probably left out a bunch of stuff, but you now have a basic outline of my amazing travels to Europe. They don’t stop here though! In one month I’m off to Paris for a few days, since I haven’t seen it yet. In the meantime I’ll be busy with school work, friends, and also doing some more travelling close by – I’ll be in Ireland early next week and Scotland in a few weeks. It’s hard to believe I only have one month left over here, but I’m trying to make the most of it. And I’ll also try not to wait so long to write about it next time! Until then 🙂