26 Day Western Europe Backpacking Trip PART 1: Dublin, London & Paris

5/10/05-6/6/05

This was our first (and longest) official grand adventure! The adventure to spark the fire of all our future adventures. And what could be a better first adventure than a flash backpacking tour through western Europe? In a time before Smartphones and GPS, at just 21 and 22 years old, we were ready for a trip of a lifetime filled with fun, new experiences, and A LOT of travel mishaps. And while this trip was a lifetime ago, it just didn’t feel right to have a travel blog without paying homage to the trip that sparked it all so Dana dug out her travel journal from this trip and we are officially digitizing our very first big adventure. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed living (and re-living) it!

Day 1: Traveling to Dublin, Ireland

Today was pretty much a flying day. Not knowing much about what “backpacking” really entailed, we packed for our month-long adventure in literal backpacks. Like the kind kids take to school (now we would use this - learn from our mistakes). We barely had enough room for a few pairs of clothes and toiletries, but we knew we’d be moving around a lot and wanted to travel light. 

We flew out of Fort Lauderdale, with a layover in Philly, to Dublin, Ireland. After a 2 hour delay (and of course a pre-trip beer in the airport), we made it to Dublin around 11:00 am. It was the first time either of us had been to Europe, and the experience still was very surreal. 

Day 2: Dublin, Ireland

We took a taxi from the airport to Gardiner Street where we had a reservation at a Bed and Breakfast called Fatima House. We had a nice private room and bathroom, and of course a delicious breakfast was included. We really had no idea where we were going (and remember, no GPS or instant access to Google), so we started to wander around. We were hungry so we ended up at a random pub where we ate some delicious Irish stew and our first local Irish beer. After that we hopped on a bus tour that took us to Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Dublin Castle. Then it was time for a nap (we were not seasoned travelers at this point and didn’t understand how to overcome jet lag…napping would become a theme on this trip). We slept from 5:30 to 9:30 and woke up ready to party!

Amazing Irish band at the Temple Bar

We headed out to the Temple Bar which had a great crowd and live music. We ended up hanging out with a group of guys at a bachelor party. We enjoyed the nightlife until closing at 12:30 (Early for us since we were used to 2 AM back home in Orlando) and then headed home for a much needed night’s sleep.

Day 3: Dublin, Ireland to Birmingham, England

When we planned this trip we had a loose itinerary for the countries we wanted to see, but we didn’t book much in advance so we’d have flexibility to change things up as we went. We would have liked to see more natural wonders of Ireland, but we knew we wouldn’t have time if we wanted to make it to the rest of the countries on our list. We decided we’d head out to Great Britain this morning. We just had to figure out how to do that. 

We headed downstairs for our complimentary breakfast and chatted with our host about the best way to get to England. On her advice, we finished packing and took a high-speed train called the Dart out of Dublin to Dun Laoghaire, a little city on the water. We bought a ferry ticket to Holyhead, Wales and then wandered around the cute little town until our boat arrived. We went to Harry’s Cafe Bar for a light lunch and hot chocolate (it was a beautiful day but a little chilly for our Florida blood in May). After lunch, we strolled down a cobblestone path lined with shops, and we each made a souvenir purchase - a hat for Alicia (which I still own today and can’t bring myself to discard even though I never wear it) and a scarf for me. We boarded our ferry at 4:05 PM. The ride would take 1 hour and 40 minutes and then we would hop on a train to make our way to England. And this is where we learned our first important lesson in travel. 

Our official "train gear" consisted of sunglasses to dim the light and headphones to drown out the sounds. 

We had purchased a Eurail pass before our trip, but didn’t take the time to figure out how to read it before now. Go figure. After a lot of confusion and panic that we wouldn’t be able to catch a train that night, we somehow figured out that there was a 6:34 PM train that would take us a far as Birmingham (we also realized in this scramble that we wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to London that night). So we booked that ticket and we were off. The train ride had the most beautiful views with green pastures as far as the eye could see, hills and mountains, and tons of sheep and cows milling about. It was somewhere along this train ride that we learned our second important travel lesson. 

We realized we would be arriving late in Birmingham and that it may be too late to find a hotel room for the night. So again panic ensued. We had one phone between the two of us with an expensive international plan. We turned it on and tried calling tourist information there (we didn’t have Google, but we did have a few old school travel books with us as guides-this one is our favorite we still use today even with Google). No luck. Stupid phone wouldn’t work. We debated getting off early in one of the small towns before it got too late, but we ended up staying on the train until Birmingham. When we arrived at the station we headed to the information desk and asked for recommendations on where we could stay the night. The desk clerk told us of a hotel nearby. Phew, no sleeping in the train station tonight! We took a quick bathroom break (and this is when we learned you had to pay to use public restrooms in some places in Europe) and went to book a room for the night. 

Day 4: Birmingham, England to London, England

Our first true hostel experience in London. 

We woke up in Birmingham, had a quick breakfast, and headed back to the train station. Luckily trains left for London every 30 minutes, so we didn’t have to wait long to catch our 2 ½ hour ride. We realized however that we had been spending way to much money (travel lesson #3), and we had to figure out some ways to cut back on spending so we wouldn’t run out before the end of the trip. We decided to stay in more hostels instead of hotels to try and save some money. We arrived in London around 1 and the first thing we did was figure out how to use the Subway system (called the Tube there). Luckily it was pretty easy to navigate and similar to the New York system which we were familiar with. Next we looked for a place to stay that night. Our travel guide book recommended a hostel called Curzan House Hotel so we headed there. It was definitely not as nice (ok, it was kinda gross) as the two previous rooms and there was no private bathroom, but the price was right! We dropped off our backpacks (which despite their size felt unbelievably heavy after walking around with them) and headed to our first stop: The Tower of London.

We were both in awe of the huge castle structure in the middle of a big, modern city. We also were very impressed by the Tower Bridge. We took a quick tour (unfortunately shorter than we hoped since we arrived close to closing) and then went to check out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (sadly also closed), and St. Paul’s Cathedral (closed again). We really needed to work on our timing for this trip (travel lesson #4), but we were still impressed with the external structures of all these historic buildings. We did become experts riding the Tube though since we did a lot of back and forth not sure where we wanted to head next!

We went back to Westminster for dinner. We ate traditional English food at a cute little place called the Duke of York before heading back to our hostel for the night. We may have mastered the Tube, but we hadn’t mastered a basic sense of direction. We got off at our stop and couldn’t remember where our hostel was! We wandered around aimlessly for 20 minutes until we finally found it. Day 4 was done and we were already exhausted, so we called it an early night. 

Day 5: London, England

We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel before checking out. The manager was kind enough to let us store our bags behind the counter the remainder of the day so we didn’t have to carry them around while exploring more of the city. Before heading out we booked our Paris hostel where we would stay that night (we learned from the Birmingham fiasco that although we want to be flexible, it’s a good idea to plan at least 12-24 hours ahead so we don’t end up sleeping in the train station). Alicia learned how to say “Hello, do you speak English?” in French (Alicia was in charge of languages and talking to people, I was in charge of maps and navigating, which to be honest, is still how we split up travel responsibilities today). With housekeeping done, we were ready to explore more of London!

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. The palace was packed! We climbed up to sit on the edge of a wall just to be able to see anything at all. We enjoyed witnessing the large ceremony performed by multiple guards and horses. When it was done, we cut through St. James Park to catch the Tube over to the National Gallery. This museum was huge! We casually strolled the halls perusing famous paintings from Van Gogh, Monet, and many others. When we had our fill of art, we headed out into Trafalgar Square which was quite a sight to see all the people milling around to admire the famous statues and fountain. 

Next it was time for lunch at McDonalds. Saying that now feels like a travesty to be eating McDonalds instead of enjoying local cuisine while we travel, but at the time it was a monetary necessity. The second way we were able to save money was by limiting ourselves to one nice, local meal a day. We would eat the free “breakfast” offered at the hostels we stayed at (usually a croissant or some other type of pastry) and for lunch we would eat McDonalds (which actually ended up being fun to see different items that were added to the menu in different countries). 

Somehow we lost track of time and we were running late to catch our 5:09 PM train (we were taking the Eurostar to Paris). We hustled to pick up our bags and ran through the subway system unfortunately to just miss it! We had already bought tickets to that train earlier in the day, so we were (again) panicking. Luckily they let us board the 6:13 train instead. Unfortunately, that put us in Paris a little later than we would have liked, at 10 PM. 

Hanging with our new friends and roomies in our Paris hostel

France was the first country we visited where we didn’t speak the same language. No Google Translate to utilize, so we were relying on a small travel phrasebook. At least we had already booked our hostel! Now we just needed to figure out how to get there. We were studying the Metro (formerly the Tube of London) map when a man came up to us offering to help. The man spoke very little English and we weren’t sure we wanted help from a stranger in the subway station at night time. We tried to politely decline, but he continued to follow us around through the station. He bought a ticket on his card and without thinking, we grabbed it. Then he demanded 60 Euros! We didn’t know much at this point, but we knew a metro ticket was not 60 Euros (actual cost 1.4 Euros per ticket). We felt a bit scared at this point, so we handed over the money anyway instead of risking other possible outcomes if we did not. At least the tickets worked and we were able to find the right train to get us to our hostel quickly enough. 

Our Paris hostel was our first hostel where we didn’t have a private room. We had 3 roommates, 2 girls from North Carolina and 1 from Tennessee, about our age. We stayed up chatting with them and learning about each others’ trips so far. Our neighbors came over to yell at us for being too loud, so we finally called it a night at 2:30 AM.

Day 6: Paris, France

Paris looked better in the light of day as we headed off to our first stop: The Louvre. Of all the museums we saw on this trip, this one was definitely our favorite. From seeing the famous Mona Lisa and the Virgin on the Rocks to intricate French sculptures and Egyptian art to the gorgeous pieces from the Renaissance and Medieval times, it was a sight to see! From here we took the metro to see the Arc de Triomphe which sits at the center of the world's biggest roundabout. Of course we couldn’t figure out how to cross the street to get a closer look, so we just admired it from afar. 

Next stop was the Eiffel Tower. We ate lunch at a little cafe along the Seine River with a view of the tower to enjoy our traditional meal of the day. Since we were in France we decided to order wine and cheese as “dessert” for our meal. There was an extensive cheese menu that we could not read so we just pointed to one and hoped for the best. It was served to us looking more like yogurt than cheese. We weren’t really sure how to eat it, but we chose to use spoons (in retrospect, we probably should have ordered some bread or crackers to go with it). It was quite delicious even though I’m sure we looked quite ridiculous the way we ate it!

After a big lunch and a glass of wine we were feeling sleepy so we took a nap lying in the grass of the Champ de Mars. When we awoke we headed up to the Eiffel Tower. It was packed with tourists! We decided only to climb about halfway up and avoid the massive traffic of people to the top. It was still a great view from the middle. 

We ended our day in Paris with some window shopping along the Avenue des Champs, the famous shopping district. We walked there instead of taking the metro so we could see a little more of the city. We made it another early night after another long and eventful day. 

Day 7: Paris, France

We overslept and missed our free hostel breakfast, so we headed over to a little cafe for omelettes and hot chocolate. Then we hit up the Pantheon and Notre Dame. Notre Dame we explored inside, the Pantheon we did not because Notre Dame was free to enter and the Pantheon was not. They were both beautiful, impressive structures. Then we enjoyed some crepes with nutella for a midday snack. We love French food! But we decided it was time to say goodbye to Paris and head to our next destination: Amsterdam. 

We grabbed our bags from the hostel and headed to the train station. Even though we had been on multiple trains at this point, this was our first one on mainland Europe. When we got to the station we found out we were supposed to make a reservation in advance. Wasn’t this travel lesson #1? We are not quick learners apparently, so now we had to learn the lesson at a price. There were no tickets to Amsterdam available that day. Nor were there any tickets to Brussels (the next stop on our tour). We debated spending another night in Paris and heading to Amsterdam in the morning, but we knew we were on a tight schedule and didn’t want to spend too much time in one city. So we looked at the options for trains leaving that day and booked an overnight train to Berlin. We were already planning on going there anyway, we were just doing things a little out of order. But that’s ok! We wanted spontaneity and flexibility, and we certainly had that. 

Check back soon for more of this crazy Dana & Alicia adventure through Western Europe! Next stops: Berlin, Brussels & Amsterdam.

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