EuroTrip 2010: London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Barcelona & Madrid

Exactly a year ago, on March 31st, 2010, my boyfriend and I were on our way to our first Euro Trip. We had been together for only 4 months and we were both nervous about traveling for 20 days. I believe that traveling really shows the best and the worst of us. The best because you are on vacation and if you love traveling you are happy. The worst because you have to be together for 24 hrs a day and you will be present at moments when you are tired, cranky, hungry, and uncomfortable. We were lucky enough to come back from that trip in love and happy to have been to the old continent for the first time in our lives with the best company we could ever wish for. He told me later that he expected me to be more "difficult" during this trip. I was not offended because I knew that he enjoyed my company for 20 days BUT what is difficult suppose to mean? Is difficult complicated? or maybe spoiled? I know I am strict with how I like my things done. I am picky with food, I love going to the spa, buying nice clothes, going to good restaurants, and getting what I want. My answer to him was: I have to try everything once to at least have an opinion and only after that I can say if I like it or not. Traveling is the time where I really let go and just enjoy the new things around me. I love playing tour guide when I know the place and telling you if there are places worth the time or not is part of the guide's job. I'm not close minded when I travel to a new place. I don't think I will be trying fried roaches or other insects when I get to go to Asia but, as far as sight seeing I will go everywhere. 

We packed a big suitcase with half of it occupied by 2 sleeping bags. We also took 2 backpacks and a small hand bag with emergency clothes just in case the suitcase did not make it. Packing was not easy since we needed clothes for cold weather and also for warm weather. We were able to do laundry in Paris otherwise we would had been shopping for more shirts. The weather was nicer than we expected except in London. 

Ready to see Europe

There is a Juan Valdez at JFK. I LOVE their cappuccinos

We flew from Tampa to New York to London. We left on March 31st and arrived April 1st. We stayed in London until April 4th. We knew that my cousin was living in a small place in London. We were ready for it and brought sleeping bags with us from the US. We had no idea how small his room was. Now that I think about it he was to kind to let us stay with him. I have 2 friends living in London that offered me to stay with them if we needed it. They live outside the City but the transportation system is so good that they basically live in London. 

After London, we were headed for Paris for 5 nights and we took our sleeping bags with us. A friend of mine that lives in Paris let us stay with her. We knew that her apartment was a small studio and we were ready for the floor. We ended up not needing them, she had a nice futon for us. She was also very well located in the City. We could even see the Eiffel Tower from the main street. We left the sleeping bags in France with my friend just in case she needed them for her next guests. 

Italy was next on the itinerary. We had hotel reservations in Rome and Venice. No friends or family to stay with. After Italy, we flew to Barcelona for 2 nights and stay at a hotel in Las Ramblas. The last stop was Madrid where a friend of my boyfriend let us stay with her for 3 nights. We almost had to stay longer in Spain because of the Volcano ash coming from Iceland had most of Europe's flights canceled. We were worried about getting back to work but, at the same time we wanted to stay and go to a Real Madrid Soccer match day after we left. After waiting hours at the airport for cancellations we were told that our flight was delayed a few more hours for mechanical reasons. We lost our connection in Miami, we had to take the next flight to Tampa which was also delayed. They offered us to spend the night in Miami and fly to Tampa in the morning. We decided to wait and finally arrived to Tampa at 2:00 AM when we were originally supposed to be back around 6:00 PM. We had to go to work early the next day. I was exhausted and still in shock to be back at my desk when less than 24 hours ago I was living a dream.  I can't wait to return to Europe. I love history and seeing at the same places that I've heard about my whole life was unbelievable. I will happily repeat the Cities that we visited but, I know that we will go to new Counties on our next trip. At the top of my list are Greece, Germany, Czech Republic and, the Netherlands. 

PD: Basic packing tips when traveling to Europe are a nice fleece to keep you warm, a waterproof coat to wear on top of the fleece and, a nice scarf. I ended up buying lots of scarfs. Now that my memories are fading, the scarfs are my way to know which days we took the pictures (specially in London and Paris).