After a couple months of planning, a day of packing, a stressful trek through the airport, and a 9 hour flight, we were finally in Europe!

I have always wanted to travel to Europe, and this past summer it happened!

This is my first blog post, and I chose to share about my amazing trip to Europe. Our family tried to go to Mexico in the winter, but our flight got cancelled TWICE. That was very disappointing, but after some thought, my parents came to a conclusion: “We’re going to Europe this summer, think of things you want to do!” My whole family was so excited, and we couldn’t wait. After a few months, the day finally came. We had a night flight, and I was very tired. I could barely sleep, because I was so excited. We were going to visit London England, Denmark, Finland, Amsterdam, and Paris. How could I not be excited?

 LONDON

When we arrived, we opened the window cover, and bright sunlight streamed in. Because of the time change, it was early in the morning at home, but the afternoon in London! The jet lag wasn’t too bad, luckily. Definition of jet lag

We tried to get as much done, and see as much as we could in this trip, but that means one thing: LOTS of walking. We definitely covered a lot of ground. On the first night, we took a walk to Trafalgar Square, where we looked at the lions.

Then, we walked to the London eye. By this point it was dark, so it was lit up purple, and pink. Sadly, it was closed so we didn’t go on, but it was cool to look. We also saw the Big Ben! The next morning, we woke up bright and early to walk around the city some more. We went to Buckingham palace, the queen’s gardens, some cool shops, and landmarks. Oh, and we saw the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London! On the final night in London, we went to see Les Misérables the musical. It was really cool. Overall, I really enjoyed London.

COPENHAGEN

After London, we flew to Copenhagen, to visit friends. We only went for 2 nights and one day, but it was definitely worth it! It was a very different city from London, and this is how: The architecture is way more modern, and advanced, there are way less cars and way more bikes, and I noticed it is more eco-friendly. Those are only some of the observations I made.

Our friends took us on a walking tour of the city, and showed us the different buildings, art, landmarks, and what’s significant about them. There was even an artificial ski hill called the copenhill:

I thought that that was very interesting, but sadly we didn’t bring our ski stuff ☹️. We finished off the day with a canal tour and gelato.

Even though we only spent a short time in this city, I am very glad we went!

FINLAND

The main idea of this trip was for us to have a big family reunion in Finland. My Dad’s family is from there, and he hadn’t even met all his relatives from there, so it was important.

The first place we stayed was right in the capital city, Helsinki. We only stayed in Helsinki for one night, which was just enough time to explore a little bit. The next day we had some Finnish food down by the ocean  (It was a bit strange: Dried little fish, and reindeer sausage. I didn’t really want to eat the reindeer 😐) We then hopped onto a little ferry that took us to Suomenlinna, an old fortress. After that, we took a road trip to a little cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was really beautiful, and it was right on a lake. We swam, fished, went on the rowboat, and spent time in the sauna. We stayed for a few days, then we went to our big family home on a different lake. I had fun meeting all my cousins and relatives.

 Finland was definitely a highlight, and it was quite relaxing!

 

 

AMSTERDAM

We then flew to the Netherlands, where we stayed in a very cute little boutique hotel just outside of Amsterdam. We were right in the countryside, and there were goats outside the window. We walked around the town, which was called Abcoude.

The next day our parents surprised us with a private boat/canal tour around Amsterdam with our friends from home. The guide talked us through all the cool hidden details, and the history of the city.

We finished off the tour with some delicious pizza. When we got back to the hotel, we were told that there was a big festival celebrating the anniversary of the town, so we went to the festival, and it was PACKED! We had waffles, played games, and did bumper cars. It was a great end to our Netherlands experience!

PARIS

The final country of our trip was France. We were staying in a very traditional Parisian apartment, on the sixth floor of the building (It had no elevator, but it was a good workout!) We only had 3 days to see everything, and I mean, We did ended up seeing basically everything.

We climbed the Eiffel Tower,we walked under the  Arc de Triomphe, 

We went to the Louvre museum, which was incredible! I saw so much art, and it was very tiring, but SO worth it. We even saw the Mona Lisa! I didn’t really get a good look, because of the crowds, and it was far away, but I managed to get to the front for a bit. It is hard to remember all the things we did, because we did so much, but those were just the highlights! We finished this trip with a freshly baked baguette 🇫🇷.

 

 

THANK YOU FOR READING!

This trip was definitely one that I wont be forgetting anytime soon, and I learned so much from it! I learned about culture, art, architecture, sports, history, war, delicious food, and so much more! I hoped you liked my first blog, and make sure to stay tuned for more posts.