Europe // The Rest of It

Okay, yes. I slacked. I am a bad blogger. You might be asking why I am a terrible blogger, or you might already know. You may have noticed that I posted this post here. This post was about my first-day travel in Europe. My mom claims that London is not considered Europe, but the UK is part of the continent, Europe, correct? Okay, yes, back to my terrible-ness of being a blogger.

Here I am in a station in London’s Tube

SO I did a post about my first day, I was planning on doing all of the rest of the days, too, but look. I got really tired, really fast, and whenever I came back to my dorm room, I was either sleeping or taking advantage of that free wifi. So yes, I did not prepare blog posts for the rest of my days in Europe. I would go back and say what I did each day, but honestly, I forget what I did each day. All of the days are now all run together and I don’t know which day I was in Rome, which day I was in Paris, etc. SO, instead, I am going to give a re-cap on how much I enjoyed my trip while this information is still in my little-smart-sophomore-in-college-brain.

First, we went to London! Yay! This was my first time being in London, and let me tell you that it was so much fun! I saw Big Ben, I went on the London Eye (SO WORTH IT) and I did some other cool things. Honestly, I didn’t have the best food there just because we picked random places to eat, so that was a bummer, but oh well, who cares. We also saw the World War II bunker where Winston Churchill stayed while there were bombs going off. This, for me, was definitely worth it. It was so cool to be able to go down and see all that was down there.

Then, we went to Rome. We decided to go to Rome because it is just so historical and it’s just one of those places that you have to see at one point in your life. We saw the Colosseum, the Forum, The Holy Steps, wait. Before I go on, let me tell you about these Holy Steps.

We went to this place in Rome called the Holy Steps. I 100% recommend going to see these. So, Constantine’s mother brought them from Jerusalem to preserve them & these are the steps that Jesus supposedly walked on, on the day of his crucifixion before it & also when they were carrying him and it has been told that his blood was on the steps in the holes that are in the marble. I was able to climb the steps with my whole family by my sides and it was so awesome in wonder!! Wow. And while we were there, the clock struck 12 and it’s just so significant because Peter denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed and we deny Jesus so many times but he is always there for us and he died on the cross so that we can be forgiven for all of our sins, for all of our denials! This was such an amazing experience and I bawled the whole time, and it was awesome. These steps were worth going to Rome for, just these steps.

We also did some shopping, ate some good food, we ate at this SUPER good place called Il Falchetto. Let me tell you that although this place can be a bit pricey, it is so good. I got a special where there wad hand-pulled spaghetti (yummy) with olive oil, hot pepper flakes, and garlic. This was probably one of the best meals I had in all of Europe. It was that amazing. We also had some really good Bruschetta here.

We also went to the Vatican, where we saw the famous Sistine Chapel, the Basilica, and we climbed 639 steps to the top of the dome, which was worth it! We got a tour guide that worked for the Vatican for our tour of the Vatican, and this was so awesome. He didn’t tell us what we didn’t need to know, and he threw in some fun facts about the Sistine Chapel. The tour lasted probably 3-4 hours, but it was so worth it!

After Rome, we went to Florence for one day. We didn’t really do all that much here, besides walking around town and eating. Florence comparing to Rome, I think that I like Florence better. Rome is kind of a dirty place and I didn’t really expect all of the historical monument things to be so randomly placed. It’s like you are eating some gelato in a little gelato shop, and you look to your right and oh! There is the Pantheon! Everything is just randomly placed because all of these vendors built around these historical monuments, so it makes sense, but everywhere is just so crowded and it is so much different than Paris, if you’ve ever been.

Next, we went to Paris, my favorite. We spent the most time in France, which is amazing, and I was able to speak some of the French I learned in high school. This was my third time going to Paris, so for me, it is the most comfortable atmosphere for me. We stayed in an apartment close to the Louvre, so everywhere was really convenient as we walked everywhere!

After a few days in Paris, we took a train to Normandy. In Normandy, we saw the beaches from D-Day from WWII, and we went to a lot of museums. Normandy was really an awesome place to go to because not only is it a great place to be regardless of the history because of the cute atmosphere with the little villages, but the history! The history is the reason to go! We saw the American Cemetery, the German Cemetery, Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, and some other things, like Mont Sainte Michel. I walked on Omaha beach with my family and my dad and I waded into the water! It was so much fun doing that! I could barely stand in the water for 4 minutes though because it was so cold! Seeing Normandy brought my trip full-circle after seeing the WWII bunker in London. I really liked seeing this piece of American history in France.

We traveled back to Paris to do a few touristy things, and then I headed home!

I had such a fun trip, and I am thankful that I was able to go on a trip like this! I had such a fun time, and I bonded with my parents a lot! It is definitely a trip to remember, one for the books!