Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2016
Edit Blog Post
Nearly two years ago now, I filled a rucksack with all the essentials for surviving on unfamiliar ground, hopped on a boat and a few trains and took to backpacking Europe. Only now, figuring a route I want to take in life, am I going to share my experience. Well at least what I remember from it but those must be the best parts, right?
6 countries, 13 individually unique places and only two weeks to complete a full circle. In retrospect, we probably spent more time shuffling and dealing cards on high speed trains than exploring all the nooks and crannies in each country but nevertheless, the sights we did witness were truly breathtaking. Considering we did cover a lot of ground over the course of the 14 days, I may split this experience across a few posts and recall as much as I can.
Bienvenue a Paris! The city where the adventure both started and ended. Anyone who has ever been to the city of love would probably agree it is full of surprises and I was particularly surprised at how terrible my accommodation was. The box shower that is any claustrophobic's nightmare and a solid mattress
to kill your back, wasn't even worth one star on trip advisor but I suppose we didn't expect much for cheap price. Besides, a backpacking trip isn't complete without at least one disappointing room. It is all part of the experience.
It is easy to say that exploring the streets of Paris was a lot more exciting, that is once we got off of the backstreet and found civilisation again. In the day and a half we spent there, we climbed the many, many stairs to the Sacre-Coeur, climbed some more stairs up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and tired from all the previous stairs, took an escalator up to La Terrasse Du printempts, so we could lounge on some sunbeds for a bit. Despite that being the most exercise I had done in a long while, it was all worth it because the views were phenomenal. Just picture yourself looking out to one of most stunning cities during a sunset, during the evening when everything is lit up and the Eiffel Tower is sparkling. Now imagine all of that from several angles, different perspectives of the same city, all as magnificent as the next. The
best part is you get to experience this surrounded by people from all over the world, experiencing the same thing. Every single person would have a different opinion, a different view on what is in front of them and everyone captures it in their own photo, their own memory. To me that is an amazing thing.
The walk up towards the Arc de Triomphe was also one of my favourite times. It is a shoppers dream, if only you have the money to actually spend there. The majority of the walk is very high end and let me tell you, it is a very long walk. If someone gave me a £100,000 I would probably head on over to Paris and spend a lot of it on that road. As the sun starts to go down in the evening, the view of the Arc de Triomphe ahead with the sun disappearing behind it, is a wonderful thing to see as you exit each shop. With trees planted so perfectly symmetrical either side and the sunlight peaking through the gaps, lighting up the walkway, it makes the endless walk a very pleasant one. I would happily sit in the middle
of the road and just look out ahead with my camera in my hand, waiting to capture that perfect picture.
Despite no longer having the thousands of padlocks attached to it, back in 2014, they still existed on the Ponts de Arts bridge and it was quite a unique sight. Personally I don't understand the whole padlocking your love to a bridge and throwing away the key but it make an interesting stop. Unfortunately, it is not something I can recommend to go and see on any future trips you may have to Paris but if you were lucky enough to have previously seen it, you would probably agree it was unique and maybe a little odd.
The main point of this budgeted backpacking trip was to get a small insight of different countries to figure out where we would like to return to in the future and explore properly in depth. So, on our first stop in Paris we didn't really experience high end French cuisine (If I recall we had a burger and chips) and we didn't get to discover all the museums and chapels but as we boarded the night train to head down south, I knew that I had experienced enough to fall in love with Paris.
My top tips for visiting Paris... 1) Take a bit of money. It is an expensive city where even a bottle of water is around 3 euros and if you want to enjoy as much as you can or even treat yourself in one of the luxury department store, it may be wise to gather all your change from your piggy bank.
2) Check out reviews for hotels first. A nice hotel does complete the trip, it doesn't have to be the most expensive thing on the block but make sure you know you will be comfortable. After the first disaster we took to using AirBnb for most of accommodation and it was probably the best decision ever. Our room on our return trip to Paris was probably one of the best rooms from the entire trip. The rooms can be as cheap as about £20 per night and sometimes you have a place to yourself and sometimes you share with the owner. It is a great chance to meet people, those who live in the area and can recommend some of the best spots that you may never have known about.
3) Try at least one fancy French meal. It just has to be done.
4) Go up the Eiffel Tower. You won't regret it but more on that later.
I apologise if this was a bit of a ramble. I have never done this before but as a person who travels a lot, it is something I want to perfect. With my trip to Tokyo coming up in July, I plan to be prepared with a travel journal and my camera.
I will upload more of this adventure very soon, so if you are interested please look out for my next post.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.542s; Tpl: 0.034s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1017s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb