Hey ya´ll! I´m in Europe!

So I´ve saved, slaved away, and finally made it to Europe with my friend. We left about a week ago, and everyday seems to bring more problems. Don´t get me started! But I have learned a lot of things some serious, some random, some downright weird. This is my list of things for everyone to know, but especially someone planning on going backpacking.

1. Eurail passes should be ordered outside of the continent. They charge you fees if you do it in their office, and I ended up paying $900 on top of the 700 I paid at home. Somehow due to their terrible selves decided not to send my pass and I was only given an option of buying a new one.

2. If you have a big backpack and ask a worker at Kings Cross Station he will say that he doesn´t know where Mr. Potter is. No joke.

3. Mistakes happen, and unfortunately they can cost you a lot of money, so come with at least $500 more than what you thought you´d need.

4. Parents are the best.

5. Texting is a hard habit to break, but it needs to be done.

6. Know survival phrases for whatever country you´re going to.

7. Don´t assume everyone speaks English.

8. Be prepared for lots of walking. Just because you have places to sleep booked, and trains to ride it doesn´t mean you will be free from walking. There´s a LOT of walking.

9. It saves money to buy things from the grocery store. You can go and have fun during dinner with traditional foods, and all the alcohol, but for breakfast and lunch try to stick to cheap! It´ll save you sightseeing money, and it will save you souvenir money.

10. Hostels sometimes have laundry services, but a lot of places are expensive. Try and wash your clothes in the sink if you have to, and if you´re going to be staying a long time somewhere. It saves you money and gives you something to do if you´re tired of walking around.

11. Bring extra shoes. Flats, flip flops, something other than walking shoes, because your feet will thank you.

12. Bring an umbrella. Extra points for you if you find a compact one. Thing to remember with that. It won´t do you any good if you forget it. Not that I did that or anything.

13. Make sure the person you´re going with knows how you act in the mornings. You will have a rude awakening if you haven´t. People act differently when they´re still half asleep.

14. A light jacket or sweatshirt is a girls best friend.

And these are my notes of places we´ve been so far, and in no particular order starting with...

Paris: Save your money and go somewhere else. Transportation is a nightmare, people either don´t want to help you, can´t help you, or find it funny that you´re stuck with no place to go, you can´t get into hotels or hostels last minute because they are completely booked, and you might as well find a piece of cardboard to grab a hold of and sleep on. Oh and everything costs double from everywhere else. Visiting it ruined the movie ¨Ratatouille¨ for me. There aren´t cool rats making your food, no one speaks English, and it doesn´t look like it smells in the movie but DANG there are trash bags laying EVERYWHERE! Oh and don´t just go for a crousant and a picture in front of the Eiffel tower.

London: Well...try to know where you´re going. It´s a bad place to try and navigate through. The subways are...lovely. alright, I can´t really say much for London since the only thing we saw of it was the subway station, and the RailEurope office trying to fix the Eurail pass problem. I´ll update you when we go back at the end of the trip.

Scotland: Yummy food, yummy boys, and couples making out in the park. No, I´m not lying. Also, Jamila and I learned that there are only around 65 kilt makers left in the world. A master has to study for 25 years atleast and each maker has their own stitch that they finish off seams with. That way a maker can always tell when they´re looking at one of their creations. Plus, really cute street musicians. How can you go wrong with an accent, music, cute boys, and kilts? The castles are gorgeous and there are people playing bagpipes on the street. It´s fun just to stand and watch them play.

Ireland: Don´t talk to the nice Irishmen. They may seem friendly but they get creepy really fast. Oh, and they like to invite you to their hotel room. Gaelic is still spoken there which I wasn´t aware of, and we found a couple signs around town written in it. Laundromats are closed on Sunday, and if you really wanna be safe speak with a fake accent walking down the street. People sometimes like to creep Americans out, so if you have an accent in passing no one thinks about it. It especially came in useful here. People liked to follow you close enough to hear your conversation. It was really weird. In Dublin they have lots of bridges, and a really cool castle. It was rebuilt due to a fire in a...Shoot I can´t remember what era it was built in, but I believe only one original tower remains. They have a college in Cork. Cork was probably my favorite place in Ireland. The town seems to always be moving. The hostel we had was right next to the campus so we got to see students going to and from class, or their dorms. There are also pubs across from one another so it was fun to walk down a street and have the guards at the door talking across the road to one another.

Barcelona: Well, we´ve only been here for a couple hours, but already we love it here more than any other place we´ve visited. The woman who owns the hostel is SO incredibly nice, and is willing to help us out by showing us shortcuts to where we want to go, we get free internet (Hence me writing this LONG post), We have a room to ourselves tonight, and the firs thing that the lady at the desk asked when we came inside was if we´d like some tea. People here are also willing to help you out, and beside the hills that we walked to find our way through the town, it´s been a really nice walk. As in it doesn´t smell. I love the cobblestone roads. They make me feel like I´ve stepped back in time. Hopefully tomorrow we´ll also get to go to a full Spanish meal, and a show. Maybe we´ll go on a bike tour. All I know is this place is so willing to help tourists have a good time. I suggest to put Barcelona on your bucket list.

That´s all for now folks. I´ll probably post after my second week out. I´m not sure. It all depends on if I can get cheap internet access. I hope everyones having a lovely time at home! I´ll talk to ya´ll soon.

Adieu, Adios, Goodbye! :)