I spent the month of June in 2016 traveling around Europe , too long ago now for me to give you much advice on how to get around or where to eat. Instead for this post I’ll focus on my favorite parts of each city and things I wish I had known.
Dublin
Ireland is one of my favorite countries, overall everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. Dublin felt more like a small town than a large city. I added Dublin as a 3 day solo trip before my month long tour was supposed to begin but in an interesting turn of events I ended up with my very own adorable irishman to show me around.
Quick backstory in April I went on a school trip to Atlanta, Georgia. Our hotel happened to be right down the street from this really cute little irish bar. And believe it or not there was actually a bartender from Ireland that worked there, Colin. We got to chatting I told him about my upcoming trip and he says dead seriously ” I’ll meet you there!”. As it turns out after living in America for 10 years his visa got declined and he had to move back home. I proposed but he declined, too bad! We did keep in contat though and as my trip approached I reached out about meeting up again he said he unfortunately wasn’t going to be there but that his cousin Seamus would be happy to show me around. And that’s how I ended up with an adorable private tour guide.
My favorite spots:
- Trinity College: the library is stunning whether or not you’re a book lover. Pictured left
- Guinness factory: at the end of the tour you can go up to the top floor to have a free beer but that’s not even the best part. The walls are all glass so you can see all of dublin while drinking your guinness
And for inquiring minds of course I slept with Seamus, 3 times a day and he did not dissapoint!
London
Important information there are about at least 5 airports in London, make sure you are flying into the right one. I did not do this, oops. Overall London felt like New York City to me, there were some great spots but not much difference culture wise. Here are some of my favorites
- The chewing gum art on the milennium bridge, if you don’t know it’s there you would never even notice it!
- Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, tourisity of course but super cool to see
- Borough Market, as a food lover this place was heaven! There was all types of food there as well as fresh produce for sale.
- St. Pauls Cathedral, I recommend making the long trek up to the top the view of london is pretty spectacular
Gum art on the Millennium bridge 
Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace
Salted caramel honey comb donut from the borough market 
One of the ceiling murals in St. Pauls Cathedral
Paris
Ah Paris the city of love and great food or so I imagined. Nearly 3 years later it is still my least favorite city. For me it was just too crowded and too tourisity. The whole time I felt like there was a sign on my back that said “scam me”. Around every courner there were 5 people pushing Eiffel Tower keychains at us, and unfortunately I did not find the parisians to be helpful or friendly overall.
We also happened to be there during the hundred year flood. Quite a few of the metro stations were closed and many museums were closed as well. However it was also kind of surreal to see the river so high.
A boat should be able to go under the bridge 
The stairs usually lead to a walkway by the river with benches and streetlights
While I didn’t love the overall feel of Paris the sights were undeniably remarkable. These are my favorite experiences in the city:
- The Eiffel Tower: definitely be sure to see the tower light up at night
- Eat all the croissants you come across, are they particularly better than ones in the USA no, but where else do you walk by 5 decent croissant places a day?
- LaDuree, super well known french bakery right down Champs-Èlyèes while it may be touristy it’s well known for a reason the pastries are delicious
- See a Moulin Rouge show, such a cool experience. All the dancers are topless though so be prepared for that! Also lower your expectations for the food, the one I went to was very disappointing in that department.
- Check out Versailles, it is huge and stunning. All the rooms are ornately decorated and I personally loved the over the top ceilings of the time period
I have a thing for ceilings, this is one is from Versailles 
Flakey, buttery croissants 
Obligatory photo with the Eiffel Tower 
French Macs at Ladurèe
The Men
Don’t think I’ve forgotten about this part! In london when I met up with my tour group my roommate, Cynthia, we made a bet to see who could have the most sex of the trip. Innitially the goal was to sleep with 1 per city, we quickly decided that we would count making out because we needed to be a little more realistic.
In London I was unsuccessful, I was kinda into this bartender at Scarlet’s but when I went back for the 2nd night it was too busy he had to actually work.
In Paris a group of us went out after the Moulin Rouge show. The group was a little too high maintenance for me they only cared about taking selfies and video taping every shot we had so I stayed behind when I found a bar that I liked.
I had to order 2 very large beers because I only had a card, so after 10 very awkward minutes of me standing there holding huge beers. I heard a guy order in english so I struck up a conversation. He was from the Netherlands visiting a friend who had just moved to Paris. He introduced me to his group and we all ended up chatting. At some point the rest of the guys left and it was just me and this 6 ft tall dutchmen. He had the perfect amount of scruff and gorgeous green eyes.
Around 4 am his friend came over and told him in dutch that if he was going to make a move he needed to do it now because they were going to be leaving. So he finally kissed me, and what a kiss that was. We made out for a bit before the bar shut down and we were forced out into the street. Unfortunately neither of us had a place we could go back to so we had to part ways.
I found out the hard way that night that the metro does in fact stop at a certain hour in Paris and ended up havng to take a taxi back to the hostel. Definitely worth the price of the taxi though!
