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it's been about two weeks since i last wrote, i believe. in that span of time i have traveled across europe for the first time in my short life! i visited london, paris, and rome on this little trip and hopefully didn't hit my finances too hard with this whole thing (i'll be calculating just how hard i was hit once i'm on my desktop computer at work which for some reason is the place i store all my financial stuff).
short thoughts about each city to follow, but first let me set the stage. i have always loved old things, especially architecture and history. being born and raised in america didn't exactly lend itself to experiencing very old things as my country is just an infant in the grand scheme of the world. when i was a small kid they took us to see a historic place that was only about 300 years old and my tiny brain was absolutely blown by how old it was. i couldn't even fathom being inside something that ancient.
so you can see how it might've felt visiting places like the windsor castle, the louvre, and the colosseum for my now grown up brain. in my visits to seoul and tokyo and shanghai before i was more excited to visit modern wonders, more enthralled with the technologies of the city than those historic areas. in the case of europe my main drive for wanting to go was just how much history i could walk in the footsteps of. i came out from the other side with a healthy appreciation and love for old ass architecture, hitting up so many damn cathedrals and loving every second of it.
i want to visit more castles next time i'm in the uk because windsor was by far my favorite part about london. out of the three cities however i felt the most love for paris which was shocking to me, because i never really considered myself to be a francophile. i deliberately chose to make our stay in that city the shortest (only two full days) since i didn't have any particular fondness or wish to see it. we only even stopped there because my mom wanted to and the eiffel tower is one of the most famous landmarks in europe.
but shockingly paris was amazingly beautiful to me and i loved the language too. i loved that i was lowkey forced to use it because so many people didn't respond to english. not that i know any french really but i picked it up quick, let me tell you. anyways, i really appreciated paris' commitment to the aesthetics of their city and the fact that so little of it had been truly modernized in terms of the old architecture. and i loved loved loved the museums and how many of them were free on certain days. i could really go back there and spend a month on those alone.
my second favorite was rome. i'm addicted to coffee so you can see why. i loved the ancient ruins and i loved the fountains and fresh water all over the city, plus italian is fun. i also noticed that the italian sky even in january was cloudless every day. i've never in my life seen such a clear, empty expanse of blue before. the sun was also bright and warm which was amazing, considering it was so cold in every country. plus my favorite european food is italian, so i got to enjoy my pasta and pizza and salads with love.
london was everything it looks to be in bbc shows, to be honest and very much like america in several ways. it lands as my least favorite of the three but i was absolutely in love with fish and chips as well as the traditional english breakfast. hyde park being filled with leash free doggos was also a special treat. i think it's telling though that my favorite aspect of visiting here was the windsor castle a bit outside of the city, as well as westminster abbey simply because it was so old and being inside felt a bit removed from the hustle and bustle. i didn't particularly enjoy london as anything more than another western hub, nothing new to my senses, but castles though. amazing. i love them so much. when i revisit the uk i plan to go out to the countryside more and hit up all the castles along the way!
anyways, that's a basic overview of the trip. it was definitely worth my money and i'm excited that i'll be flying to venice in may this year. i haven't decided where else in europe i plan to visit on that trip, or if it's just going to be an italian party (namely me and my sister hope to visit florence and palermo, everything else is gravy). but so far europe really left a great impression on me.
in the vein of my writing and how that's been going, as i've joined up with gywo this year in order to keep all that momentum, i will say that i did write a bit on the flights. not nearly as much as i'd hoped but that's not even remotely unexpected. now that i'm back in my apartment in america, i hope to throw myself wholeheartedly back into the fire and crank out words like never before! i even planned the rest of that fic out (and was hit with lots of inspiration for new fics post european trip--think roman gladiators and british royalty--so i will hopefully be using that as fine motivation in finishing the behemoth)
til next time~ i hope the 2020 treats me well
short thoughts about each city to follow, but first let me set the stage. i have always loved old things, especially architecture and history. being born and raised in america didn't exactly lend itself to experiencing very old things as my country is just an infant in the grand scheme of the world. when i was a small kid they took us to see a historic place that was only about 300 years old and my tiny brain was absolutely blown by how old it was. i couldn't even fathom being inside something that ancient.
so you can see how it might've felt visiting places like the windsor castle, the louvre, and the colosseum for my now grown up brain. in my visits to seoul and tokyo and shanghai before i was more excited to visit modern wonders, more enthralled with the technologies of the city than those historic areas. in the case of europe my main drive for wanting to go was just how much history i could walk in the footsteps of. i came out from the other side with a healthy appreciation and love for old ass architecture, hitting up so many damn cathedrals and loving every second of it.
i want to visit more castles next time i'm in the uk because windsor was by far my favorite part about london. out of the three cities however i felt the most love for paris which was shocking to me, because i never really considered myself to be a francophile. i deliberately chose to make our stay in that city the shortest (only two full days) since i didn't have any particular fondness or wish to see it. we only even stopped there because my mom wanted to and the eiffel tower is one of the most famous landmarks in europe.
but shockingly paris was amazingly beautiful to me and i loved the language too. i loved that i was lowkey forced to use it because so many people didn't respond to english. not that i know any french really but i picked it up quick, let me tell you. anyways, i really appreciated paris' commitment to the aesthetics of their city and the fact that so little of it had been truly modernized in terms of the old architecture. and i loved loved loved the museums and how many of them were free on certain days. i could really go back there and spend a month on those alone.
my second favorite was rome. i'm addicted to coffee so you can see why. i loved the ancient ruins and i loved the fountains and fresh water all over the city, plus italian is fun. i also noticed that the italian sky even in january was cloudless every day. i've never in my life seen such a clear, empty expanse of blue before. the sun was also bright and warm which was amazing, considering it was so cold in every country. plus my favorite european food is italian, so i got to enjoy my pasta and pizza and salads with love.
london was everything it looks to be in bbc shows, to be honest and very much like america in several ways. it lands as my least favorite of the three but i was absolutely in love with fish and chips as well as the traditional english breakfast. hyde park being filled with leash free doggos was also a special treat. i think it's telling though that my favorite aspect of visiting here was the windsor castle a bit outside of the city, as well as westminster abbey simply because it was so old and being inside felt a bit removed from the hustle and bustle. i didn't particularly enjoy london as anything more than another western hub, nothing new to my senses, but castles though. amazing. i love them so much. when i revisit the uk i plan to go out to the countryside more and hit up all the castles along the way!
anyways, that's a basic overview of the trip. it was definitely worth my money and i'm excited that i'll be flying to venice in may this year. i haven't decided where else in europe i plan to visit on that trip, or if it's just going to be an italian party (namely me and my sister hope to visit florence and palermo, everything else is gravy). but so far europe really left a great impression on me.
in the vein of my writing and how that's been going, as i've joined up with gywo this year in order to keep all that momentum, i will say that i did write a bit on the flights. not nearly as much as i'd hoped but that's not even remotely unexpected. now that i'm back in my apartment in america, i hope to throw myself wholeheartedly back into the fire and crank out words like never before! i even planned the rest of that fic out (and was hit with lots of inspiration for new fics post european trip--think roman gladiators and british royalty--so i will hopefully be using that as fine motivation in finishing the behemoth)
til next time~ i hope the 2020 treats me well
