The First

My first journey away from my family and outside of the United States was because of my parents. I acknowledge I am privileged to have two hard-working and loving parents that want to give me and my siblings the best experiences in life they can give us. My mom's first trip to Europe was in 2019. Mine was 2012.  I am grateful for them both every day.

I was 16 and the trip was through EF Tours so it was a decent group of us from our small high school. We spent two and half days in England and then six and a half days in France. I bought a journal with the British flag on it as soon as I arrived. I came back with over 1,000 pictures... All taken with my digital camera.

I will never be as excited as I was going on this trip than any other trip. Nothing beats your first.

Day 1: Arrive in London. Check out the classic tourism destinations: Trafalgal Square, the National Museum, Big Ben, Eye of London

 Journal notes: "British people walk slow." "PAY TO   PEE!"

Day 2: Today happened to be Easter Sunday, so it was fitting we started out day off at St. Paul's Cathedral. We then checked out some of the Harry Potter spots the Leaky Cauldron and the "wibble wobble bridge" (huge Harry Potter fan so this was so cool). Then made our way to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guards. My favorite part of the day the trip up to Windsor Castle. I have never been in a castle before so it was pretty surreal. Apparently, the Queen was there because a particular flag was raised (not sure if that is really true or they just wanted to woo some teenagers).  We ended our day with a Jack the Ripper tour going to the spots where the victims were murdered. He committed 5 murders in 10 weeks... it was a spooky tour. An awesome day in London for sure!

Windsor Castle

Journal notes: "I had fish n' chips for the first time EVER... good, but I still don't like fish."  (25-year-old me does love fish n' chips especially if it's cod).

Cantaberry Cathedral

"camera broke...  >:( " 

(The struggles of having a digital camera back then..)

Inside Cantaberry

Day 3: We took a bus to Cantaberry Cathedral which was beautiful. It took over 400 years to build. We then took a ferry on the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France where I experienced my first motion sickness. We were on the road for two hours until we arrived in the most beautiful town in the Normandy area of France. No one spoke English and so we had to have a french bystander try to help translate our order as best she could to the workers. My friend Mac ended up with a sub that had french fries, lettuce and ketchup! 

 Journal Notes: I made a two-column table with "Survival French Words" (Really trying to immerse myself in the culture)

Normandy

Day 4: Early start to the day traveling all over! First went to the Caer museum to learn about WWII and D-Day. Then went to a beautiful place called Bayeux and roamed around the streets. Had my first crepe for lunch there. We then went to Normandy and Omaha Beach where there was a massive cemetery, bunkers, artillery shells and craters reminding everyone of the magnitude of the battle. This was my favorite day of the whole trip.

Journal Notes: "I want to live in France!!" (I still to this day want to live in France..)

Dinan

Day 5: We went to Mont Saint Michel, a monk monastery that is on a small island. You can only go to the monastery at low tide. There was also a town nearby called St. Milo where we explored for hours. The flowers were beautiful all over the town. We then stayed the night in a town called Dinan. Picture what an authentic, quaint French town would look like and that would be the essence of Dinan.

Day 6: We now made our way to Paris where we would spend the last days of our trip. We stopped at a town called Shat. The Shat cathedral has the most beautiful stain glass windows I had seen all trip. I was slightly obsessed with stain glass windows. I probably have a hundred pictures of just stain glass windows! After exploring Shat, we arrived in Paris. I had a flamenta for dinner which was... interesting (as described in my journal). We ended the day with seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night and climbed to the top. 1,665 stairs up to be exact.

Day 7: We started our day off with walking around Paris and doing some shopping. Till this day I still have this cute rouge colored jacket from a French store. Next, we went to the Louvre which I deemed "boring" but I would definitely feel differently about it today almost a decade later having more appreciation for the arts. I was surprised to see how small the Mona Lisa painting was! The night ended with a short boat cruise around the city. Dinner was at the Hippopotamus restaurant. Chicken and rice with a creme sauce that "reminded me of mom's crock-pot chicken dinner :'(" I was really missing my family by the end of the trip.

Notre Dome

Journal Notes: "The metro is so scary!" (I use the D.C. metro on a weekly basis so I've gotten over that experience.)


Day 8: The Notre Dome cathedral was the highlight of my day. A magnificent structure with more stain glass windows I fell in love with. My friends and I went back to the same "crepe man" to get the same banana and nutella crepe we got the other day. Another great day exploring the streets of Paris and embracing the culture.

And that was it. I would come back with mixed emotions. Happiness from all the good memories. Excited to be coming back to my family and loved ones, yet sad for leaving knowing there is so much more to explore and discover. That feeling for me stays quite the same throughout my adventures.

Sine Metu,

M.Turney