Blog #2 Summer Experience

After tossing and turning in my seat for about eight hours, I was more than ready to get off this plane.  It was a restless night due to the uncomfortable seats and great amount of excitement.  The pilot announced to prepare for landing.  My heart automatically dropped.  I was thrilled and a little nervous to begin this journey. With my parents back in the U.S., I was under the watchful eye of two of my teachers.  To make this experience even better, my closest friends were also attending the trip.  The plane tilted downward as my ears tried to adjust to the change of pressure.  With a little bit of bumpiness, we were on the ground.  I took my first steps out of the plane and onto this new ground.  I was ready to begin this ten day journey of exploring London, Paris, Florence, and Rome.

We landed in a small but nice airport on the outskirts of London.  From there, it was about a 45 minute bus drive to our hotel.  Everything here was different.  The cars were all extremely tiny and exactly the same. There were very few bigger automobiles such as vans and trucks.  After dropping our luggage off at the hotel, it was time to explore the city of London.  Our first stop was the London Eye.  This was a magnificent sight.  We hopped on board a big ferris wheel car where we could see the whole city of London.  This included Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and many other glorious buildings.  We then took a short walking tour of the city.  The next day we took a bus tour.  This was excellent because we were able to see truly all of London.  The buildings and architecture was astonishing.  Everything was big and ancient.  It was all just so old, but in a very good way!  Even though the buildings were centuries old, they were kept clean and in pristine condition.  This was very different from the U.S.  I am not saying that the architecture here is bad, but our country is so new that we don't have any of the ancient and historic buildings like places overseas. After the bus tour, we walked to Buckingham Palace.  Lucky for us, the whole family was home and in the palace.  This was showed by the flags hanging outside.  The building was magnificent and decorated beautifully outside.  The landscaping was luxurious and fit for a queen.  With this being the last day in London, we were given some free time to shop in this big square in the city.  To wrap up London, we took a late afternoon walking tour of the city.  On this tour we saw many of the famous murder sights of Jack the Ripper.  I found this more interesting than I thought I would.  Of course, because I am a Harry Potter fanatic, I remember all of the places where Harry Potter was filmed.  These film sights include Diagon Alley, the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge, and many more famous places from the movie.  I literally felt like I was in one of the Harry Potter movies!

In order to get to Paris the next day, we had to take a train and go under the English Channel.  The train ride was mostly peaceful and quiet due to everyone sleeping because of the early wake up alarm.  Once arriving in Paris, the same rush of excitement washes through your entire body. Paris, the city of love.  Everyone dreams of coming here but few actually make the journey.  We first saw the outside and inside of Notre Dame.  The large cathedral was even more enormous than what it may look like in pictures.  The great stained glass windows were astonishing.  Basically, if someone was to describe Notre Dame in one word it would be huge.  The next and probably most famous sight to see in Paris is of course the Eiffel Tower.  The tower has been described before as not very pretty or kind of plain.  I would disagree completely with these ideas. The Eiffel Tower is the symbol that defines Paris.  It is absolutely beautiful.  However, it is not as tall as you would think.  You can't really see the tower unless you are in the heart of the city.  Yet, it is still one of the most famous structures in the world.  The architecture in Paris was somewhat similar to London.  There were a few differences such as building styles and even little things such as windows.  Paris tended to have longer and more elegant windows.  Truly, the architecture was incredible.

After a long day in Paris, it was time to take an overnight train to Italy.  The night train was a new experience that I will never forget.  Although the train cars were extremely tiny and stacked three fold out beds on each side of your room, everyone slept surprisingly well!  Arriving in Florence was amazing.  The city, yet smaller than the others, was just as beautiful.  This was where most of the shopping took place.  Stores and stands were set up all throughout the city.  After spending just one day and night in Florence, it was time to make our way to Rome.  I was probably most excited for Rome out of all the cities.  I can't even describe how neat and incredible Rome was.  Ancient ruins were all around you.  The list of famous sights and buildings we saw goes on and on.  Just a few of the places we went included the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican, and the Coliseum.  These are all historic places that could take days to see everything.  However, we covered all of these places in one day.  By the time we were on our way back to the hotel, almost everyone had passed out from exhaustion.  Unlike the convenient hotels in the U.S., none of the hotels in Italy had air conditioning.  That was something hard to get used to.  It was especially hard with Italy being the hottest place.  Another minor thing different from our country was that there was rarely any ice in the drinks.  Most drinks were either warm or room temperature.  There were many other little inconvenient factors differentiating our lifestyle from someone overseas, but it was all part of the experience of being in a different country.

While most people were happy to be returning home, I was rather sad.  I fell in love with Europe and all of its cities.  I know for a fact that I will definitely be going back someday.  Who knows, I might even end up living there!  Whatever happens, I know that Europe and I will meet again.  This journey was truly life changing and I am extremely grateful I had the opportunity to do such a thing.