Adventure-A-Day April – Excerpt One

Welcome to my April adventure-a-day challenge.

I’ve done 3 consecutive months so far so why not keep going, hey?

It has been 10 months since I left on my European Adventure in June 2012 and I have yet to share it with most of my family, let alone my blogging family. So, I thought I would share my 29 day Contiki Adventure with you guys as my next challenge. It contains win’s all round. I get to tell my story, you get to read about some amazing adventures and everyone else gets a free taste of Europe!

Here we go:

June 8th 2012
DAY ONE!

We travelled from London to Paris. 5.45am was a painful start to the day but I knew at the end of it, I’d be in Paris, looking in awe at the Eiffel Tower. All bags needed to be weighed (20kg limit for 29 days! Talk about impractical for girls who LOVE to shop!) and loaded on to the coach so we were off and running by 6.45am.

We took the Dover Ferry across the English Channel and boy was it rough! If I had a bigger jacket on, I think I would have been like a sugar-glider possum, flying in the wind; it was INSANELY windy!

We drove across the French country side and into Parisian traffic! Considering it was a Friday afternoon, traffic was hectic but who cares, we were in FRANCE!

That night we were supposed to have a night tour of Paris but because we got stuck in traffic, we ran out of time. We had an average dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel then a group of us decided that we would take the train into the centre of town to see the Eiffel Tower, all lit up and gorgeous because we wouldn’t have time to see it the next night. Even though it rained, we were not disappointed. I don’t like using the word surreal but that’s the only word I can think of that really explains what my eyes saw. I remember it coming to my view and I was literally lost for words and I did in fact choke up a little. It was beautiful; more beautiful than any photo. I expected it to be big but it is enormous.

I called my parents when the light show began at 11.00pm, Paris time. I was approximately 6am, Saturday here and I thought, yep they will be at work. HAHA! Whoops, negative on the work front. They were both sound asleep. They didn’t mind, they were happy I was having a great time. I did wish they were with me because every word in the English language could not describe how I felt. Maybe I will take them there one day! 🙂

After fighting with locals for a cab, we got back to the hotel just after 2am! Risky late night on the first day of tour but totally worth it! Here are some photos from the night. (As I said, it was raining so some have rain spots in the because my lens got wet. I am in the process of cloning them out!)

Bonsoir,
C. x

*To Be Continued*