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  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 65

    Paris Day 2

    August 22, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    I was supposed to go to the Musée d’Orsay with Natascha this morning but she slept through her alarms LOL but it was alright! I headed out around 10 to go see the Eiffel Tower again, and embarked on a long and leisurely stroll along the Seine to meet Keerthana!! Who’s a friend from high school, and we were originally supposed to go to Europe together with our school in 2020. So, I walked for about an hour and a half, through the Jardin du Tuileries as well, and made it to the Spanish Quarter area which is near the Notre Dame. On the way, I also walked by the Petit and Grade Palais as well! When I arrived, I got to see her mom as well who was one of my teachers in high school from grade 10-12! After, I got a huge ham and cheese crêpe and we sort of just wandered around Paris, got some ice cream, caught up and chatted lots! She’ll be moving to the south of France for the next few months for an exchange semester for school which is super cool! Stopped by the Louvre again, and you could see some of the inside from the big window which was nice for me since I won’t get to see it :( after that, we headed over to the Arc De Triomphe where we got tickets to see the view from the top. After 200 something steps, we made our way to the top. The view went crazy! You could see the Eiffel Tower from here. We took some pictures from the bottom, and then headed out. We went to get some bubble tea to quench our thirst but it wasn’t very yummy. We just sat in the garden and relaxed for pretty much the rest of our time together. After, we went to the supermarket to get another sandwich for dinner, and I picked up some wine. I headed back to my hostel, where I watched the sunset go down for the very last time on this journey. Yes i did cry. But no time to be sad, it’s time to celebrate. I washed myself up and headed back out to the city to meet Irène and Catherine, who were two girls that I met in Milan- my first solo destination! We shared wine and snacks in the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. We watched it light up and sparkled at the top of every hour. It really felt like a full circle moment, getting to see them first at the beginning of this journey, and now in my final moments. It was really nice to see them again, but as always, sad to say goodbye. It feels like I didn’t have enough time in Paris. I will be back!!Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 64

    Paris Day 1

    August 21, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Another crazy day!! I met up with Natascha in the morning, who is a girl that I work with back at home at Kokoro! She’s been in Paris with family for the past month, so I trusted her as my tour guide! I met her right by the Eiffel Tower and wow, she’s beautiful!!! I kept saying that it literally looked fake to me I don’t know why, it was so crazy. But yeah, so today Natascha took me on a large tour of all of the big things essentially, so first we walked by the Arc de Triomphe. After that we were a little hungry, so we walked along the famous Champ-Elysées and stopped by in a bakery to get some sweet treats. Then, we went to a little sandwich shop that had a character of an owner who was hilarious and so kind. After that, we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries which was big and beautiful. That took up to the Louvre, which we didn’t go in. I had decided that I wanted to go the next day, but of course, the ONLY day of the week that the Louvre is closed is Tuesdays!!! So I guess I’ll just have to come back to Paris 🙄. We walked and walked and it was HOT! It was nice to have some warm weather after it had been super cold for the last little bit of my trip! We walked by the Notre Dame, which is still closed for construction after the fire from a couple of years ago. We grabbed some ice cream and sat and ate it by the Seine. We stopped and saw a cool church, and awed at the architecture that was all around Paris! We stopped by the Pantheon 🏛️ and then went to sit in the Jardin du Luxembourg and relax for a little while- we’d been walking for a long time at this point. More walking, and another church later, we went to get a crêpe. It was crazy, the street that we found a crêpe restaurant actually had 11 other crêpe restaurants on the same street! Some crazy competition. I got a simple lemon and sugar crêpe. We walked back through the Jardin du Luxembourg and went to the supermarket to grab some sandwiches for dinner. After that, we journeyed over to the Sacre Cœur, which is a church that sits alot a hill. We went for the sunset (where you mostly see the sky on the other side of the sunset) and it was stunning. You saw pretty much the whole view of Paris (minus the Eiffel Tower) and it was beautiful. We looked inside the church as well which was cool. After, we walked around that area which had a lot of caricature and portrait artists at work which was cool to see. We walked down to catch a glimpse of the outside of Moulin Rouge, and then I headed back to my hostel for the night!!Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 63

    London Day 4

    August 20, 2023 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Soo I texted Julia to hang out again today because it really broke my heart to think that I’d never see her again!! So I had planned to do a bunch of touristy London things which is funny bc she’s a local. So we went early to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards or something. But I was so confused because it was actually SOOOO busy and packed but I didn’t see the guards change anywhere. I saw the dudes in the big black fluffy hats parade and play music but that’s kind of it. We were trying to look for the ceremony but it was just so busy everywhere, that I couldn’t even tell where it was happening. So we gave up after a while, and decided to just sit and chat in the park. We talked about the cute animals that roamed the park 😇. Then we walked around and saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and then walked along the other side of South Bank for a bit. We grabbed some hoisin duck wraps from Pret-a-Manger and then took the metro to Brick Lane. Our time here was short, but I was wanting to meet up and see Benita- one of my roommates and friends from Amsterdam. We just went into the vintage market area of Brick Lane because that’s all I had time for :( the area was super cool and had like graffiti and stuff. After, me and Julia headed back to the metro, where I had to say yet another very sad and very tearful goodbye. It’s the same thing, where I really don’t know when I’ll see her again :( and that’s what makes this so difficult. But, I’m no stranger to goodbyes at this point.
    And so, on to the last chapter of my trip- PARIS!! I hopped on the Eurostar and made my way to the city of love. Slept through the whole ride, and made it at night. I went to grab some asian food for dinner and then metro’d over to my hostel. Embarrassingly, I bought only a zone 1 ticket, but I needed 2 zones because I didn’t realize that my hostel is just outside of the city of Paris. So then the gate wouldn’t open to let me exit, and I was like trying to crawl under the gate, but I was actually stuck because I had my huge backpack on. And it was just a really embarrassing picture, if you can picture it 😅😅😅 but someone helped me open the gate and get through🤣    Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 62

    London Day 3- Brighton

    August 19, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Wowowowoow what an awesome dayy!! I’d organized to meet with Amber and Nieve who were the two girls that’s I’d met in Corfu, Greece. They live a bit far out from London itself, so we decided to meet in Brighton which is about an hour’s train ride from London, and is where Amber goes to college! The train was packed and I had to stand the whole time unfortunately. But we met at the train station, and then headed out into the main town area. The lanes were littered with vintage shops, and I did a fair amount of shopping. After looking in a few stores, we were decidedly famished and decided to get some sushi for lunch! We went to a placed called Yo! and they had conveyor belt sushi (but the food that we got wasn’t even served to us on the conveyor belt 🤔). I got a little chicken katsu sandwich and little spicy salmon boats. After our munch, we went to Snoopers Paradise which is this massive antique vintage store that had probably everything and anything that you could think of. It really was an antique paradise. Two floors of the wildest garage sale u could think of. We stayed in there for a long while exploring the items and playing around. After that, we decided to get our ears pierced 😋 i was really nervous but it was over and done with super fast! I was originally wanting to get a tattoo to commemorate this trip and adventure, but I’m too indecisive so this piercing will do. After that, we went to get a little sweet treat at a bakery- warmed up banana bread with butter- yummy! We went down the lanes some more and went into more vintage stores- I was on the hunt for a midi denim skirt but couldn’t find any ;-( we then walked over to the pier which had an arcade and a lovely view of the beach. We grabbed some fish n’ chips- a British staple, for dinner, and then went down by the water to see the pretty pink sky. After, we headed back to the train station, where a random man bought me some Yum Yums which is like this donut thing that Amber and Nieve said that I should try. It was yum yummy! And then… we said a very difficult goodbye. Goodbyes really hit different when you don’t know when you’ll see them again. It was tearful and I was very sad, but of course I was endlessly grateful that I had to chance to reconnect with them here in England. I know they’re reading this (and have been waiting for this post) so I want to say, thank you so much for the time that we spent together and I know that I’ll see you both again one day 🫶🏻💗🤍🩷Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 61

    London Day 2

    August 18, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    This morning I woke up and changed over to my hostel, which was about a 20 minute walk away, also in the Hyde Park area. Soon after, I met Julia (friend that I met in Prague!!!!) at my hostel after I settled in. We went to a café where I got a matcha and she grabbed a coffee and cheese pastry thing? After we simply walked around the town, stopping in shops, I bought a skirt at a thrift store. We went into like the London equivalent of a shoppers drug mart and two ladies were fighting LOL and pulling their phones out and recording, idek the context but it was kinda funny. I got some stroopwafels from flying tiger (a Copenhagen ikea-like store). And we just went on a loooong walk to Chelsea which is the area that Julia lives. It didn’t sound like we did much but we were hanging out for like 5 hours so idk where all the time went. After Julia went home, I met up with Elena, who was a girl that I’d met back before going solo in Barcelona! We just grabbed dinner at this restaurant called Megan’s where I got a fancy schmancy kebab. After our dinner, I walked along King’s Road which had a bunch of cute stores- which were closed at this time of the night. After strolling for a long while, I went to meet Lauren, who’s from UBC that I was in a dance club with in first year! I’d seen that she was in London too and just asked if she wanted to get ice cream or something. So we did exactly that, met around the city centre of London and got some popsicles from the grocery store and walked around. It began to POURRR at some point, I swear it was the hardest rain that I’d ever experienced, it was crazyyy my shoes were soaked. And on that note, I decided that it was time to head back.Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 59

    London Day 1

    August 16, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Woke up in Londonn at around 8:30am! And i was starving, so after dropping my bags off at the hotel that I will stay at for the night, I went over to find breakfast at a little café. I opted to get some smoked salmon eggs benedict 😋 and read my book as I ate breakfast. After that, I took a peek over at Hyde Park which is the area that I was staying at. It’s huuuuge! I only walked around for about 20 minutes and I don’t even think that I saw a tenth of the park. But the section that I did see was gorgeous! It had a little fountain and everything. The whole park was quite well maintained. After a short stroll, I walked over to Camden Market which was about an hour and 15 minutes. I stumbled upon a trapeze/circus school?? Which was random, but fun to watch for a little bit. I got to the market and looked around for a loooooong time. Funny considering that I didn’t end up buying anything (which I do regret now) but it was massive! I believe that it used to be a horse market or something. But yeah there’s endless stalls, I definitely didn’t get to check all of them out. But they had everything- clothes, jewelry, food, souvenirs, and so much more than that. I’d gotten some chicken dumplings for lunch, and a pastel de nata as a little dessert. After the market, I took the bus back to the hotel to check in. Except I fell asleep on the bus and stayed on for like 15 more minutes past my stop…. Oops. So then I had to walk for about 30 minutes back to the hotel. After I got my things settled in my room, I went to go to the Borough market to meet Jenny, who’s actually someone from Richmond! We connected over instagram through a mutual friend- which we happen to have quite a few of- but we’ve never actually met ourselves. We shared some overpriced strawberries covered in chocolate (€8=$16ish CAD)- but it was so so so delicious, don’t regret that choice. We did a lot of walking around central London, which I hadn’t seen yet since I’m staying a bit further out. We grabbed some chipotle for dinner- which is kind of comical to me that I’d get that on vacation. We saw the Tower of London, and walked over the Tower Bridge a couple of times. It was a really nice time spent!! Jenny was feeling tired which is so reasonable because she just arrived today, so she headed back to her hostel. Then I decided to walk from the centre of London all the way back to my hostel (2.5 hours walk ish). So I walked along South Bank, which is kind of by the water. Saw some street performers, and walked by many of the sightseeing-y things such as the London Eye and Big Ben! My feet and legs were very very tired by the end of the day. 45,784 steps in total today folks. After, I did a solid load of “laundry” which is just me washing my socks and underwear in the sink👍🏻👍🏻Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 59

    Edinburgh Day 3

    August 16, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    The day began with free tea from the hostel lounge. After waking up a bit, me and Caimen went to grab brunch where we had some overpriced sandwiches. After that, we tried to go and watch a comedy show that was about being broke but we were so tired that we could barely stay awake. We decided that we just needed to keep moving. We walked to Dean Village which is a quaint little neighbourhood. On the way, we passed by a cool art market, and a church. After walking through the area, we headed back to the hostel where I finished off that spaghetti (that apparently lasted me forever!). Caimen headed off to the airport so we said a final goodbye. I then just decided to walk around the old town again to take a closer watch and/or listen to the many, many street performers and buskers that lined the streets. After a bit of that, I went to watch an improv musical which was hilarious to watch! So funny to think about how these people think of these things on the spot- in song as well! After, I met up with David where we watched a few more street performers together. We caught the sunset, and then I headed back to the hostel because he was going to watch the Military Tattoo (which, I still don’t know what it is). I stayed in the hostel to just chill (and catch up on writing my FindPenguin posts 😁). And then I caught the Military Tattoo coming out of the stadium, and parade around the church (which conveniently, was right outside of my hostel). After that, I went to go and catch the dreaded 8 hour bus back to London. Except this time, I had two seats!!!!!! So I felt a lot less crammed and slept a whole lot better this time around.Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 58

    Edinburgh Day 2

    August 15, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Today I went to grab breakfast with Nik and David and I just got a little cinnamon bun. You know, again, when people said the UK is expensive (deja vu from Switzerland), I didn’t think it would be true but it’s ‘spenny’ as hellll! Like everything is literally double the price as back at home, it’s kinda crazy. But I try to put my mind aside from that fact cuz I’m on vacation anyways! After the cinnamon bun, we walked over to Calton Hill which is much smaller compared to Arthur’s Seat. The view was still very nice though, and there were some monument thingies at the top! We hung around there for a while, and then took a very very lengthy walk down towards Leith which is kind of like the seaside area of Edinburgh. The streets were lined with lots of cute shops, café’s, and restaurants. We walked along the shoreline for a while until we found the beach, which was a bit of a sad beach, but was still water! Interestingly, a lot of that area was quite industrial, which was very different than the old town part of Edinburgh that I’d been used to seeing. After that, we took a bus back to the old town, and went to grab some lunch at a japanese restaurant. I got japanese curry because suddenly im obsessed with the dish. It was delicious. Then, we went back to the hostel to rest up for a bit. I went to meet Caimen and Ryan in the lounge for a little while. After, me, Caimen, and Nik went to go watch the highly acclaimed Fringe show “A Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits Rocking In A Rocking Chair For Fifty-Six Minutes And Then Leaves… 14” that we’d heard about when talking to one of the hostel workers in the kitchen. It only happens once every 2 years. This honestly was the beating heart of the Edinburgh trip, and became what I was most excited for ever since I’d heard about it. It was just so mysterious. We’d got there and the line was long, we came 15 minutes early too! But unfortunately we didn’t make the cut, only about a quarter of the line made it in. I was devastated. But I couldn’t let that bring me down. We went to an Irish pub to watch an Irish comedy show instead which was good. Then we went back to the hostel where I ate some more of my spaghetti and we had some pre’s before going out to another another comedy show with our little group. We bravely sat in the very front row this time which is so intimidating because they’ll always pick on you in the front. We went to a bar and then a club and then the night ended with nachos. What a way to end Edinburgh!Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 57

    Edinburgh Day 1

    August 14, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    So I arrived in Edinburgh at the crisp time of 8am with 7% on my phone and a sore bum from sitting in a bus seat for 8 hours. I walked to my hostel which is right across from the Edinburgh castle, and is super central. My immediate impressions of Edinburgh are…. CUTE! It’s soo Old Towny- I guess I am staying in the Old Town so that makes sense. But the buildings are all adorable- I wish I took more pictures. But anyways, the first thing I did was just sit in the lounge and charge my phone. I didn’t know that the outlets here were different. I also don’t know how my phone was charging because I stuck my European charger in the UK charger hole in a funky way and it worked. But that isn’t super important. Once I have enough charge, I go to the luggage room where I meet Ryan who invites me on an impromptu hike on Arthur’s Seat in 10 minutes, which is a hill that I was interested in seeing anyways. I mean, why not? So I met him outside and he brought along a fella named Caimen who, even though he was 32 years old gay man- which is quite the opposite of who i am- he ended up being my closest friend for the trip. Ryan is such a character… when we were walking to the hill he’s like “wait… i’m gonna put my mask on.” And i thought he meant like covid mask, but he pulls out this cat mask and it’s actually the funniest thing ever idk how else to explain it.
    So we climb the hill and it’s quite gorgeous, the photo’s won’t do it justice. We meet some people on the hill that are also actually staying at the same hostel, and we do part of the walk with them and hang out at the top with them. After heading down, we get some soft serve ice cream, and then hit the grocery store to get some food. I decide that it’s high time to cook and grab a few ingredients to make some pasta. We head back to the hostel to do exactly that, and we meet many of the workers who were super nice and chill. I go to take a nap, and then I do a bit of wandering around on my own in the town. I come back to eat more of my pasta before it’s time for the pub quiz that’s hosted by the hostel! We go to a pub called The Tron and I meet Nik and David, and some others who were on my team. We didn’t quite win, and I felt like I personally had a generational disadvantage but we had fun doing it anyways. After, there was a comedy show in the basement, because right now in Edinburgh is this month long event called The Fringe which hosts literally thousands of shows, there’s gotta be a hundred everyday across the entire city. So yeah, there was a stand up show and it was actually hilarioussss and I’ve never been to a comedy show before! After the show, Nik, David, and I leave in search of a new venue to go to since we’ve been at this same pub for a while now. We later found ourselves at a live music pub which was cute.    Read more

  • TravelerEUROPE 2023 🗺️🎒🛩️
    Day 56

    Bum Day

    August 13, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Today was a bit of a stupid day that was spent doing literally nothing. So, I woke up and checked out of my hostel and went to grab a quick breakfast with my other hostelmate, Simone who is from Switzerland (and is writing a book which is cool!). I grabbed a small raspberry waffle to tie me over, and then I went to head off to the train station! Also wait look how cute my hostel common room is in the 3rd photo! Ok, so I took the Eurostar from Brussels to London, which was a pretty smooth ride. You have to security check your bags, I guess because of Brexit. But that went by pretty fast, nothing like the airport.
    So basically I had a 10 hour layover in London, with my bags. I was at a loss for what to do and how to spend my time, so I honestly just wasted a lot of it. The first thing I did was get some food. I went to this restaurant called Wagamama which was kind of pricey, but so are all things in the UK. Also, Nieve and Amber who I’d met in Corfu recommended it to me, so I had to try it. I got a Japanese pork cutlet curry type thing and it was delicious. Suddenly I’m obsessed with Japanese curry. After that, I sat in a little grass area outside of the restaurant and read for a long, long while. Eventually, a man said that he was gonna close that area, so I needed a new game plan. I wandered for a short while and found the Westminster chapel. I walked in to check it out, backpack and everything, and they’re literally in the middle of a service LOL, i felt and probably looked so strange. I took a look, admired it, and got the heck out of there. Then, I went to go to a different park, just to find that it’s like privately owned? So I can’t even go. I just wanted to settle down somewhere because my back and shoulders were really starting to hurt. I decided to go and watch a movie, because I recalled the time in Lisbon when we did that and it was honestly perfect. I was afraid of falling asleep though, but I went anyways. This was literally the most posh movie theatre that I’ve ever seen in my life. It had like a bar and whole meals. And then the theatre was very intimate and also had like couch seats. I didn’t realize that I picked a double seat…… but the person left or moved after the first 30 minutes hahahha. I watched Oppenheimer- would’ve gone for Barbie, but Oppenheimer killed more time. Considering that I’m not someone who is particularly interested in war, politics, and history or anything like that, I found the movie to be really interesting, I didn’t fall asleep! After that, I grabbed a junior chicken (called a mayo chicken here) from McDonalds as a quick bite, and headed to the bus station for my 8 hour bus ride to Edinburgh!

    This bus ride….. was interesting. I bought melatonin so that I would pass out but I still woke up probably 6 times. My seat wouldn’t recline, and my phone was at 29% (the charging ports didn’t work…..). So it wasn’t looking good. I really never want to do this again (I have to do this again on the way back).    Read more

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