I don’t know why, but whenever the Christmas season comes along I always want to watch Harry Potter. And as you may have seen in my first European post, I’m kind of a Harry Potter geek. My 4th grade teacher read us the first chapter of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone book and I was immediately hooked.
I’ve gone to midnight book releases, read one of those thick books in a day, re-read every book at least 3 times. I’ve gone to midnight showings of the movie and I even wrote my first ever Fan Fiction novel (the only novel I’ve ever written beginning to end) of a love story with Harry Potter characters on to a website called Quizzilla when I was in middle school (and since then I’ve loved writing fiction stories in my spare time and hope to one day publish a fiction book).
So yes, I am a big Harry Potter Geek. Capital H-P-G.
Since England is the main location of Harry Potter, I of course fell in love with London. All I ever wanted to be was a witch on my way to Hogwarts in London.
Well I got to live out my fantasy, even if it was for a brief moment.
Our second day in Europe, we hopped on the Eurostar and made our way to the beautiful city of Paris.
Now Paris is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Our hotel came with a little view and even just that was breathtaking.
Our amazing view from our top floor window.
We were a bit tired from all the trains, metros, and walking, but we couldn’t stay inside on our first night in Paris. So we settled our stuff down, took a quick breather and were out the door to explore the city.
Alex booked this hotel called Fred Hotel. It was only about a 30-40 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower. Well to save us a few bucks for the metro, we decided to just walk.
It’s truly not a far walk to the Eiffel Tower, that is, until you get lost.
With no navigation system, we had to rely on this little city maps I had of Paris to get there. Right off the bat, we had already missed a turn and ended up walking about 10 minutes in the wrong direction. So we had to turn back, and there we missed another turn somehow.
After trying a bit more walking, we were starting to get frustrated that we had no idea where we even were. No navigation system really sucks when you’re in a foreign land.
And to the best of our luck, it started to rain. And I don’t mean a small sprinkle. It started to pour. So there we were at a corner trying to look at the maps on my phone and it starts to pour that we can’t even read the map without my phone drowning from the rain.
Luckily, my good navigation systems and map reading (Alex can back me up on this, I was usually always right when it came to directions in Europe) we were finally headed in the right direction to the Eiffel Tower.
So close, but still so much walking.
Finally after what felt like an eternity of walking, we saw the Eiffel tower and got so excited. Unfortunately, the Eiffel tower looked closer than it actually was and we still had a bit of walking to do. But even through all the rain and frustrations of being lost, we made it the beautiful Eiffel tower.
The best way for me to tell you about my first European experience is by starting from the beginning.
We touched ground at Gatwick Airport (LGW) around 13:00. And after the 10 hour red eye from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Norwegian Airlines, I was ready to get off the plane and right into the UK. I had never been more excited to get off a plane in my entire life.
After going through the long line of passport control, we had finally entered Europe! I was bouncing up and down with joy, I mean that literally too.
After a small mishap with trying to take out money from the ATM (remember your cash withdrawal allowance and the current exchange rate) we were on our way to get into town and drop our stuff off at our hotel before exploring London.
We walked to the train stations and immediately were overwhelmed. It was busy, loud and everything suddenly seemed fast paced and without any phone data or Wi-Fi, we had no idea where we were going. After gawking at timetables and truly not knowing what to do, we ended up in the line to hopefully get the right tubes and trains tickets to our hotel.
The guy that serviced us was very kind and gave us all the info we needed and set us off into our train. We had luckily screenshot our directions to our hotel while we had some Wi-Fi and we were then on our way.
Considering I’m a San Diego girl where public transportation is scarce and we drive everywhere. Taking all the trains and tubes was an experience within itself. I’ve been to New York and through the subway systems there, but for some reason having to change trains to express trains to DLRS to the underground was overwhelming.
But we finally made it the underground London Bridge. And I couldn’t have been happier.
After what felt like an eternity on the packed undergrounds and trains, we made it the Premier Inn Hotel in Docklands and were able to settle in to our rather cozy hotel.
It was our first night in London and we had a travel day pass, so we decided to get into town. We went back into the tubes and made our way to London Bridge and decided to wing it.
There was no real agenda for our first night in Europe, but I wanted to get Fish N’ Chips and see a little sights and then get back to our hotel and in bed to try and beat jet lag.
The London Bridge exit was perfect for our first night. I immediately went crazy with seeing the famous red telephone booths and just had to get inside.
It unfortunately smelled like pee and we really didn’t want to stay in there for much longer.
Hello my travelers! I am back in California and terribly missing Europe. I have left some of my heart in Europe and it hurts. But a way to fill the void (I know that was extremely cheesy) is by the next few weeks I will be posting glorious amounts of posts with stories, videos, and photos of my first European trip.
I had been dreaming of going to Europe my entire life and I am so happy to have experienced 2 whole weeks of it with my boyfriend by my side and of course all my family and friends in Europe. So with that being said, the best way for me to write about my first European experience (believe me, this is not my last) is best if I split everything up into little posts throughout the next few weeks.
So keep checking out my blog every week. I’ll for sure be posting my Europe content every Tuesday and Thursday. Come check out how I experienced this beautiful continent.
As for now, here are some photos from every city I visited. I can’t wait to relive the experiences I had with all of you.
I know I haven’t really updated since I left the States to go on my European trek, but when you have limited Wifi you can only do so much. But my Wifi has finally worked here in the hotel and I decided to update you all on my time here in the beautiful Europe!
My first day in Europe was in London and it was a short trip until we come back for two days for our flight home on our last leg of our vacation. We were able to master the tubes and trains just fine and not get so lost that it became frightening. And even though it was a short trip, we were able to see the Tower Bridge and then get some Fish N’ Chips and everything was great.
The Tower Bridge, beautiful.
Best meal in London.
After London, the next day we needed to catch a bullet train on the Eurostar to Paris at the St. Pancras International railway Stations and the station itself was just beautiful!
Every building in London were HUGE!
And since we had some time on our hands, the Harry Potter Geek in me had to check out Platform 9 3/4 at the Kings Cross Stations just across the street from St. Pancras.
Just on my way to Hogwarts as a Gryffindor.
Overall, London was amazing and I can’t wait to explore the city more next week. I’ll give you more details in later posts of my first day in London.
As for Paris, we are still here and it has already captured my heart. I am loving the city more and more and it makes me not want to leave.
Alex and I celebrated our one year anniversary today and it was an amazing way to celebrate in this beautiful city. We went to the top of the Eiffel tower and saw the Louvre and wrote our love on the Love Lock bridge (unfortunately we forgot our locks and most of the locks are now boarded up). But it was an amazing day, I wish we didn’t have to leave tomorrow. But it’s time for Amsterdam and then Italy! I am excited for what the rest of our trip has for us.
I’ll post more details on Paris and London later, but for now here’s some beautiful photos to pass you over!
I seriously Love Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Luxembourg Gardens in the Fall is wonderful to walk through.
My boyfriend makes the Louvre and all its tourists tiny 🙂
No Love Lock Bridge for us, but we made the best of it and still wrote our love in Paris
Celebrating a year of our love at the Top of the Eiffel Tower.
In the words of Joey from the show FRIENDS “London Baby!”
To all my friends and family and to all my travelers in the world, I am officially at the gate waiting to board my first European trek.
I am so excited I cannot contain it!
As I go through my 2 week European adventure with Alex, I will keep everyone updated with photos, videos and random posts of my time in a foreign land.
I hope everyone is having a lovely day as for tomorrow I will be in London enjoying the fall air.
Cheers my travelers! My next post I will finally be in London!
Happy October my fellow theme park lovers and travelers. For those not following me on Instagram or Twitter, October is quite a busy month for me. And an awesome month, if I must say so myself. (EUROPE NEXT WEEK EEKKK)
October has always been my favorite month of the year, and it’s not just because my birthday is on October 14 (oh my, that’s tomorrow!). But because Halloween and all things spooky come out this time of the year!
With that being said, I went to my second Knotts Scary Farm Halloween Haunt event. It’s in its 42nd year, for those who would like to know! Last year, my boyfriend took us on our first date to Knotts Scary Farm and as a rookie, I didn’t know what to expect and how freaky it was going to be!
So this year, being a veteran and all, I decided to give you a review of all things awesome and all things scary at Knott’s Scary Farm 2014.
Just feeling like a badass at Knotts Scary Farm.
During this Halloween haunt, Knott’s Scary Farm added three new mazes: Voodoo, the Tooth fairy and the new interactive maze, Special OPS: Infected.
And yes, we did all three. We started our night by getting tickets to Special Ops: Infected first before starting any rides or mazes. That is after we took our picture together by their photographers (we had an awkward kiss on the hair first date mishap last year). And in this year’s haunt, there are a lot more scare-actors in the front trying to freak out haunt goers as they first walk in.
Just taking a new less awkward picture together.
We got our Special Ops tickets for 11:45 pm and that’s even after we got to the park 10 minutes after 7 when the park opened. So as a side note: Get to the park at 7 and go straight to the Specials Ops to get your tickets, they will go quick. There is Special Ops: Alpha right by the front gates at the start of Camp Snoopy and Special Ops: Beta near the end of Camp Snoopy by the western gates! GO TO SPECIALS OPS FIRST IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE AWESOMENESS IT HAS TO OFFER!
These tickets were like the golden ticket, gotta keep them safe.
Since we went on a Thursday during the second week that it ran it was much less crowded and we are basically able to go through all the mazes before our 11:45 meeting with Zombies.
With Europe being such a big dream of mine, it took a long time for Alex and I to finalize our itinerary, but everything is finally official and we have all our accommodations and transportation all set up and ready to go!
Since we’re only going to be there for a 2 weeks, we decided to hit up most of the major tourist destinations and get our whole tourist-y European let loose. That way we have more reason to get up and explore Europe in another year together.
Here are our main stops in Europe:
Stop #1: London, England – Since our plane arrives in Gatwick, it only made sense to start in London. Our first night will be spent there where we will try to adjust to time and probably get some Fish N’ Chips.
Stop #2: Paris, France – We’ll be hitting all major spots: the Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, The Louvre,etc… We will also enjoy the city of lights and enjoy the French cuisine.
Stop #3: Amsterdam, The Netherlands – We’ll only be here for a night before our flight to Italy. But we’re going to make the day and the night count completely.
Stop #4: Milan, Italy – The bulk of our stay is in Milan for we are staying with family.
Stop #5: Nice, France – My best friend and fellow Krazy Kappa line sister is studying abroad near Nice and we will make a Nice pit stop in the south of France.
Stop #6: Pisa, Italy – A few hour day trip to the leaning tower before Tuscany.
Stop #7: Florence Italy – From Pisa we go to Tuscany and see the Piazzale Michaelangelo and enjoy the city of Florence at night.
Stop #8: Venice, Italy – Straight from Florence we jump on a train to Venice. We’re going to only go for a night during our week stay in Milan, but riding a Gondola is definitely on our radar.
Last Stop: London, England – Our first night in London is just going to be a time to adjust to Europe time and adjust to foreign land. The last weekend we are in Europe we will spend in London and that’s when we’ll be doing our sight-seeing and Halloween partying.
Do you have any advice, tips or cool places to eat or see for this girl and her boyfriend traveling to Europe for their first time? Comment below, send me an e-mail at lostwithyvonne@gmail.com, or tweet me @lostwithyvonne.
