After weeks of anticipation, too many hours spent agonizing over what clothes to pack, and emails sent to every friend of mine who has ever studied abroad asking for restaurant recommendations (which I then compiled in a google doc), it was finally the day of departure for my much-awaited 10-day Contiki trip to London, Paris, and Amsterdam with Annie and Chelsea. Amazingly I had managed to leave ample room in my checked bag for potential new shopping acquisitions I might make on the trip, and I had packed a carry-on bag full of all the magazines I subscribe to but hadn’t yet had a chance to read to fill up my flight time. We flew out of Boston on a Friday night after saying au revoir to Windsor, Taylor and Brittany at the office, with London as our first destination but a layover in Dublin.
For traveling, I wore black skinny jeans that are so thin and stretchy they are almost like jeggings, with my flat black knee-high boots (too bulky to pack), a thin long-sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt if I needed it. The flight to London, with Aer Lingus, was smooth, and most notable for the actually good-tasting hot meal that was served. I didn’t make much of a dent in my magazines but did manage to listen to some music and get some sleep.
Arrived in Dublin for our layover, we were pretty psyched. The airport was gorgeous and super clean and had all sorts of shops (which Annie took advantage of) and restaurants to occupy us. While Annie took to the shops, Chelsea and I sat down to peruse my issues of Glamour magazine for the hour or so we had to kill. Our peaceful reading was interrupted when we heard someone shout “Is there a doctor? We need a doctor!” and looked up to see that an elderly woman had passed out and was laying on the floor. Luckily a traveler who was a doctor happened to be nearby and rushed over to help, and airport police and medics arrived soon after. The woman woke up, was taken out on a wheelchair, and seemed to be doing ok. Luckily this was the only medical emergency of the trip! #AnnieWasShopping
Next we took a short flight from Dublin to London, arriving Saturday morning London time, so we were exhausted since we had been up since Friday morning Boston time (London is 5 hours ahead)! The plan per Contiki was to take the tube (subway) from the airport to our London hotel. Never a big fan of public transportation, especially when lugging a huge suitcase and multiple heavy purses (still had not made much of a dent in my magazines), I was less than thrilled with this plan. But it ended up working out flawlessly. Contiki had provided us with passes for the tube so we could ride for free, and it was just a straight shot from the airport to our hotel, albeit a long-ish one. Once seated on the tube, our exhaustion set in and we could barely keep our eyes open. A glance in the mirror confirmed we were all looking a bit tired and in need of some makeup reapplication by this point.
Upon arriving in London, we weren’t camera-ready, but the HC banner was!
We got off the tube and quickly navigated our way to our hotel, which was only a block away, and got the keys to our rooms. Annie and Chelsea were staying together in one room and I was assigned to a room with a girl named Natalia from Brazil, who had not yet arrived when we got there.
Our first order of business was to EAT. We dropped our bags in our rooms and ventured out to find some sort of diner or breakfast place. Luckily we found one just a couple blocks away that served breakfast all day, and even better… it had free wifi! We immediately whipped out our phones for our first internet access since leaving Boston, and promptly posted the necessary Facebook status updates and tweets! I think Annie and Chelsea might have checked in on Foursquare too. The restaurant was cash-only, so we stopped at a nearby ATM to withdraw money since we hadn’t changed our money before the trip. Good to know: if you are a Bank of America customer, Barclay’s bank in Europe doesn’t charge you any fees to withdraw money!
Breakfast was delicious–I got scrambled eggs, toast, and a chocolate croissant. We headed back to our hotel to shower and nap for a few hours before it would be time to meet up with the rest of our Contiki group. One interesting thing about the rooms in our hotel in London was that the toilet was in one room within your room, and the sink and shower were in another. Took a bit of getting used to! While back in my room, my roommate Natalia from Brazil arrived. She is an architecture student in Brazil currently on school vacation, and had spent the past couple weeks traveling by herself in Barcelona. I studied abroad for a summer in Barcelona so we traded stories about that!
At 6pm that night, it was time to meet our entire Contiki group and Contiki Tour Manager and bus driver in the hotel lobby to go over logistics. Our trip had 21 people on it- mostly Australians, plus 2 Brazilians, 1 Canadian, a Malaysian couple on their honeymoon, and 1 other American besides us. It was mostly girls, with 5 guys. Most of the people on our trip were actually traveling solo, looking to make new friends on the trip.
We met our incredible Tour Manager Petula, who we would come to realize throughout the week was pretty much the best tour guide EVER- we literally cannot imagine anyone who could possibly be a better tour guide- and our bus driver John, a super nice guy who had fought in three wars in the British army and was really cool and fun to talk to. Petula went over our itinerary, schedule, logistics, etc. for our trip, and then it was time for an included dinner in the hotel, which included a delicious dessert of profiteroles.
From there, Petula took the group to Covent Garden, a popular shopping area during the day and going-out area at night, so we could hit up a super popular British pub, Punch and Judy. It felt exactly like how you would expect a British pub to feel, and was appropriately packed with lots of British guys in rugby shirts. The most popular drink among our group was some delicious strawberry-lime cider. After some time at the bar, some of the group stayed out to continue their night, and we headed back to our hotel to get some much-needed sleep! The trip was off to a fantastic start. Check back tomorrow to read Annie’s blog post about our second day!
With my roommate Natalia, who was from Brazil, at Punch and Judy pub in London- looking a bit tired after a long day of traveling!
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