I'm Back!

HELLO HELLO.

I'm back from Europe, as you can probably tell in the title. It was AMAZING. AMAZINGLY AMAZING. Even though I think I caught the plague whilst in Paris as I can't stop coughing and my nose is all stuffy, which is excellent :)))))

Anyways, so I went to England first, and the flight took 6 hours, but because of the time difference I technically traveled 12 hours ahead, so the plane took off at 6:45 PM and we got to Heathrow at 6 in the morning. I didn't sleep at all on the plane, preferring to watch High School Musical, and that basically killed me bc jetlag.

Our hotel room wasn't ready, so we walked around outside a lil bit. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the city of London, which was in a more business-y district of London, so since it was Sunday the streets were basically deserted. It was right near St. Paul's Cathedral so we checked that out, and wow wow wow wow wow wow. It was honestly one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my life.

We went back to the hotel and the room still wasn't ready, so we went into the restaurant in the lobby and slept in one of the booths for a few hours until one of the staff woke us up and told us our room was ready lmao. By this time it was about 1 pm.

We went to our hotel room and slept until about 4 before waking up and showering and stuff because my cousin and her husband were also in London on vacation and it was their last night there so they wanted to meet up with us for dinner. So we went to dinner with them. I got a meat pie and it was SOOOOO GOOD. THE MASHED POTATOES WERE LIKE. DIVINE. IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Then my parents went back to the hotel, but my brother, my cousin, her husband, and I went to the pub across the street and had a few drinks and talked for a bit. Even though I wasn't allowed to buy alcohol, I was allowed to drink it, so my cousin just bought it for me.

The next day, we woke up around 9:30, got ready, and then went and took a bus tour of London. It was a hop-on-hop-off tour, where you can get on and off at any stop and explore. It was a double-decker bus, so we sat on the top bit. My mom and brother sat in the back where there was more air, but my dad and I sat in the front row so we could see everything and it was sooooo cool.

Side note. The driving was insane. Double decker buses literally defy the laws of physics with the way they squeeze around the bends and move between cars and stuff. It was like a rollercoaster. It was nuts. I loved it.

We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, and a bunch of other monuments and buildings and things. It was all so so cool.

So we got off at Piccadilly Circus and ate lunch and walked around before getting back on the bus and then getting off at the Big Ben stop. I got to hear it go off on the hour and it was just amazing. I love that dude.

We also took a river boat tour and that was quite interesting. I liked going under a lot of the bridges.

The next day, my dad and brother went to Stamford Bridge Stadium, which is the home of Chelsea F.C., even though my brother likes Manchester. So my mom and I took the Tube back to Big Ben and got in line for the London Eye.

THE FUCKING LONDON EYE. I WENT ON IT. IT WAS SO COOL. SO SO COOL. I wish I'd gone on it at night because then everything would've been all lit up but WHO CARES, IT WAS AMAZING.

Then, my mom wanted to do a tour of Westminster Abbey, so she and I did that. Lots and lots of people are buried there, it's crazy. The Queen got coronated there, and I'm pretty sure Princess Di's funeral was there, if I remember correctly? Either that or she's buried there, I forget.

But then we met up with my dad and brother, had lunch, and then went on a tour of the Warner Brothers' Studio, where they had all the props and costumes and things from the Harry Potter movies, which was very very cool.

The day after that we took a tour to Stonehenge, and that would've been fun except it was cold and rainy, so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I'd liked. It was still really cool to see though. The tour also took us to Bath, where got to see the Roman Baths. I learned about those in my Latin class at school so it was awesome to see those in person. Bath also has really good ice cream, which I did not know. The only downside was the bus ride was soooooo long.

The next day was our last day, so we spent it by doing a Beatles' tour since my dad loves them, and we went to Abbey Road. So many people were there walking across it, and all of these cars kept having to stop so they could go by. I crossed it and even signed my name outside the wall of Abbey Road Studios, which was pretty awesome. We went to dinner at a German place and I got chicken schnitzel with a HUGE bowl of mashed potatoes and they were so good.

The next day we checked out of our hotel and went to the train station to go to Paris :( Our hotel in Paris was a lot smaller than the hotel in London. We went to the Luxembourg Gardens and then went to dinner.

The next morning we did another bus tour like the one in London, and we got to see a lot of beautiful sights. We also saw the spot where Princess Di got in that car crash, which was a bit morbid. We got off at the Eiffel Tower spot and saw that, and that was very very beautiful.

We came back later in the evening to do a river cruise, and that ended up being so beautiful. It was a Saturday night, and on every side of the river there were just people sitting there, eating and drinking and just hanging out, and they'd wave to us as we passed. It was so cool. The Eiffel Tower looks amazing when it's all lit up, it's unbelievable.

I saw that bridge where people put all the locks and stuff. It was so pretty! They took a lot off because it was making the bridge collapse, but I found a lock from 1964, which was amazing.

The day after that we went to the Musee D'Orsay, which was nice. It had such a good view of Paris. We also went to the spot where the Bastille used to be, but now there's a monument standing there. Then, we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomph, and went inside of it. There's sooooo many stairs, but if you climb all the way to the top it gives you this beautiful view of the city. We went at night as well, and it just looked so pretty.

The next day we went to the Louvre. It was nice, but it was so so big, and it was really crowded. We literally spent about 2 hours in one section. So finally, we all got really tired, so we just found the Mona Lisa, looked at that, and then left. It was a cool place but it was just too big for me.

The last day, my dad, brother and I went to the Catacombs. We had to wait in line for a bit, but then we got in and it was pretty cool. There was a sign above the entrance that said "ATTENTION - YOU ARE NOW ABOUT TO ENTER THE LAND OF THE DEAD."

Bruh. There were SO MANY BONES. It wasn't very scary, but it was just crazy to look at all of the skeletons and stuff just stacked up to the ceiling. One of the skulls had an upside-down cross carved into the forehead, which I thought was pretty cool in a creepy way. It was a long walk though.

We mostly chilled out that day and went shopping and stuff. Then we went to an Italian place for dinner. For some reason the waiter there really liked me, and when my mom ordered a glass of champagne I was like "Yeah, make it 2" in a joking voice and he actually brought me one!!!! It was very good. That was a true homie. He told me I was always welcome in Paris :-)

So yeah, then yesterday we took a plane home. It was long and terrible. I guess I'm glad to be home, since 10 days is a long time to be living out of a suitcase, plus I missed my dog.

I definitely liked London the best. Paris was so so beautiful, but like . . . the people were friendlier in London and it was easier to communicate with them (for some reason, nobody else could understand their accents in London except me so I had to be the sole communicator). People in Paris spoke English, but idk. The language barrier was still there. They weren't as friendly, either.

For me, London has been a city I've wanted to visit for almost my entire life, and it was just the perfect mixture of modern and ancient architecture and it was just amazing. Plus we did more stuff in London than in Paris, and idk. I liked both cities, but I don't think I've ever been happier than I was in London.

So that's it! Sorry for this long blog lol. I did have wifi at both my hotels, so I came on here occasionally and read the stories I'm subscribed to. But yeah, now I'm home.

Bye everyone! I missed you all. Hope you're well.
August 27th, 2015 at 06:04pm