I guess you could say that I have been bitten by the travel bug.

It started back in November of 2017 when Brooke and I decided to go to Boston (on a complete whim).  Note: Boston is awesome and I had the most wonderful time, but do not go in January.  It’s wicked cold and we were slightly crazy for such a notion.

While in Boston, Brooke mentioned that she had some points to spare (hotel chain) and what did I think about Australia?

Yeah – that was my basic reaction.  However, after contemplating air fare, and then further travels (we were planning to be there around 10 days), we thought we may get more bang for our buck by going to Europe.

At that point, all I could think was:

 

Europe?! EUROPE!  Visiting Europe has been a dream of mine since I was about 22 years old and started teaching World History.  It didn’t matter where we went in Europe because HISTORY IS ALL OVER THE DANG PLACE.  So, thanks to Brooke’s amazing planning and fine use of Google Sheets, we decided on Dublin, London, and Paris.

This trip was a dream come true. I was nervous about going overseas, but I think I was more nervous about the packing.  I’m a classic over-packer and everyone who’d given me advice said to “travel lightly” — which was basically like speaking Greek to me.  I had no notion of what that meant.  However, I was able to plan (thank you weather.com) and get 8 total outfits together in one backpack (also many thank-yous to this product for keeping my jeans a little fresher than they would’ve been).  I bet I packed and repacked that backpack about 6 times because I was FREAKING OUT that it’d be too bulky and end up being checked, which would have just totally aggravated me since I clearly had to DOWNSIZE.

The Trip:

I fell madly in love with Dublin.  Being an Irish girl, I was super excited to go anyway, but the people are so nice and the landscape is so gorgeously green.  Dublin is a city, but still small enough to be quaint and easy going.  You can walk basically anywhere and we had some pretty amazing food.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Dublin

 

I truly do not have enough great things to say about Dublin.  The people were extremely nice, the city was clean, and I enjoyed learning how to make cocktails featuring Jameson whiskey.

On our last day in Dublin, Brooke wanted to go out to Howth, a small fishing village about 15 miles, in order to see the coast.  We took the train about 40 minutes east to check it out. For those that need the visual:

While it was a sweet little community with a few neat shops and restaurants, it smelled super dank.  There was a narrow passageway that we had walk in order to get to the beach, and I seriously thought I was going to throw up a time or twelve due to the stench.  It was like dead fish and garbage.

Once we got past the terrible stench, we got to the beach and put our feet in the Irish Sea and that was super cool.  Here are a few snapshots from our trip to Howth:

 

After Howth, we went back to Dublin and got ready to check out and make it to the airport to catch our plane to London!

We got to London pretty late on a Friday and ended up staying at a hotel near Heathrow, which is not exactly the cool, thriving side of London.  Our hotel had a “hostel” type vibe in that there was a cafe/game room/media room down stairs when you check in (oh, we checked in at the bar because that’s where you checked in at this hotel).  The room itself was TINY, but it was clean and comfortable, so it was a welcome treat after a long day!

The next day, we took a cab from that hotel to our actual hotel in the middle of Westminster.  Brooke really wanted to go see a castle in Stafford that day, so we took a train and went! There is a really funny story about that train ride, but I’ll save it for some other time.

Once we got to Stafford, we made our way to Stafford Castle and saw the following coolness:

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We originally took a cab from the Stafford Train station to the castle, but had to walk the mile back to the train station.  Guys – walking a mile is really not that big of a deal.  Heck – I jogged 3 miles this morning, on a treadmill, with no problem.  BUT – this mile sucked.  It was mostly uphill, in the sun, in the middle of the day, in about 90 degree heat.  Not cool.

Once we got back to the train station, we went back to London and hit up Carnaby Street.  This is a really cool little neighborhood with awesome shops and restaurants.  We got to see MANY sights because it was Pride Parade day in London on this particular Saturday.  There were tons of people and lots of glitter/confetti litter all around!

 

We ended our day eating some Chinese food and then walking back to our hotel.  I will say, I never once felt unsafe at any point on our trip.  I had read that London had several stabbings (because what else am I supposed to do when I have a smartphone and jet lag in a hotel room?) and that it wasn’t the safest or nicest place, but I always felt comfortable and not like I was about to get mugged.  However, it’s important to note that I always act like I’m about to get mugged and keep a hella-firm hand on my cross body bag, all while looking to my left, right, and back JUST IN CASE.  (I have issues. We won’t really unpack that right now.)

For our second day in London, we started with a great breakfast and then busted our booties to make it to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.

Then we decided to see if we could find a few items from Atlas Obscura and we found MY personal favorite:

More sightseeing…

 

We ended our day in a neighborhood known for it’s shops (didn’t really buy anything, but had fun exploring) and we saw a female beat boxer (look her up on Instagram — her handle is kimmybeatbox) and oh-muh-goodness, she was AMAZING.  Seriously, look her up on Instagram RIGHT NOW and prepared to be impressed.

After moseying around some neighborhoods, we decided to end our second official day with the London Eye.

The next day, we took the train from London to Paris.  In case you are thinking, “um, how? England is an island?”  Um, how dare you forget about the chunnel!  We spent our first official day figuring out how to get out of the train station (it was a ridiculous labyrinth) and then getting to the hotel, eating, and making plans for our second day.  We ended day 1 with a walk down the street to the beautiful Eiffel Tower!

The next day, Brooke and I split ways and enjoyed our own slices of Paris.  I went to the Palace of Versailles and she spent her day with a local artisan making jewelry.  For those of you who know her, this is the Brooke-est thing ever.  I am not going to lie, I was nervous about us splitting up.  Brooke is the best navigator ever and I have difficulty finding my way out of, oh, say a four walled square room.  Not only was I going to have to navigate a) getting to the train station, but also b) switching trains to c) finally end up on the train that goes about 12 miles outside Paris to Versailles.  This felt like the most monumental of tasks, but regardless of my nerves, I HAD to go.

I taught AP World History (as well as just plain old World History) for a decade.  There is no way that I could have passed up the opportunity to the see the palace that Louis XIV built.  The palace that signified the power and wealth of France, which at that time, was THE power of the western world. Not only that, but to know that I would walk the same halls and gardens that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette walked?! Or even Napoleon after the (first) French Revolution?! I had to go! I HAD to go.

Y’all, I legit took over 700 pictures at Versailles.  I wanted to capture EVERY.SINGLE.DETAIL and I have a beautiful album on my phone that takes me back (as best as it possibly can), but there is no way I can share it all on this little page.  Instead, I’ll share 5-7 pictures that show what a beautiful palace this is!

I openly wept at Versailles.  It was so big, breathtaking, and beautiful. And because I am a huge history nerd, who happens to have a soft spot for arrogant, absolute monarchs, I just cried at the magnificence of it all.  It was the cherry on the sundae of my mini-Euro tour.  I know I looked like such a silly American, randomly crying at crown molding or windows or gardens, but I’m not embarrassed or ashamed one bit.  It was a dream come true to see it and I’m so incredibly thankful for the opportunity!

After I got back into Paris from Versailles, Brooke and I met back up at our hotel and we took off for our next excursion: wine tasting in caves! Yay!

We learned a lot about wine and how the geography of the area affects the taste of the grape/wine.  Our guide, Pierre, was a sweetheart (and a cutie) and I swear, I totally would’ve sat down with him and developed a geography curriculum based on wine if he would’ve been down for it.

Here are some shots of the fun wine tour…

 

After the wine tasting, we had dinner at Clover Grille and let me tell you, we went ALL out.  It was our last night, we had been pretty economical up to this point, but we went out with a bang!

• Wine? Yep!
• Fois gras? Yep!
• Whipped hummus and awesome bread? Yep!
• Calamari? Yep!
• French fries? Yep!
• Whipped potatoes? Yep!
• Steak? ONLY THE BEST EVER!

We seriously had the lion’s share of food on our last night and it was all seriously some of the best food I have ever had.

I’m seriously hungry just looking at it. It was so good! On our walk back to the hotel after food-pocalypse, we witnessed the French soccer team beat Belgium and the city exploded with pride.  Seriously, cars were honking nonstop and people were running up and down through the city’s streets with French flags on their backs.  It was so awesome to see it!

The French police were stationed around Arc de Triomphe and we soon understood why! So many cars just looping round and round, honking their horn, with people stretched out of the windows screaming at the top of their lungs with pride! It was so cool.

 

It was the perfect end to an amazing trip.  There’s a whole story on how we got home and all the delays of that involved, but it’s really not that interesting.  I enjoyed EVERY minute of my trip to Europe and I can’t wait to plan my next adventure.

If you can scrimp and save up some money, I’m here to tell you that travel is where it’s at! I still want to see so much of the United States, but Europe has captured my heart.  People were friendly, helpful, and like I said earlier, I felt safe everywhere I went.  Now, I want to be clear that I also am super paranoid and clutch my belongings like it’s all I can save from a fire, but I truly enjoyed myself and can’t sing enough praises for Dublin and Paris.  London was cool, but so hot and way too many people.

Also, I want to give a shout out to my sweet friend, Brooke.  I’m so thankful for our friendship and the fun adventures we’ve had and will probably continue to have.  She ended up with atomic blisters pretty early in our trip, and man, she was a trooper.  I love her dearly and she is basically the most baller travel buddy a girl could have! Thank you, Brooke!

Ciao for now!

(Dude, this is the LONGEST POST EVER.)