I feel like I should have a more clever way to start these blog posts for Blogtober. Just starting it with the prompt is boring but I also feel like I’m trying too hard to come up with an intro…
Today’s prompt: Best/worst vacation!
I don’t think I can definitively say that I have a best or worst vacation, but one vacation that sticks out in my mind as being particularly great is the trip to London and Paris that I took with my parents and sister in the summer of 2009. It was just one week, with about 4 days in London and 3 in Paris, but it was my (and my dad’s and my sister’s) first time to travel overseas!
We flew straight to London from DC, and the flight was pretty miserable – it was an overnight flight, and I just cannot sleep on planes. Once we got to London, the excitement took over and I (sort of) forgot how jet lagged I was. I completely fell in love with London on that trip, and have so many great memories of exploring the city and taking in all of the sights. We went to a lot of art museums, too – that’s something my family does everywhere we go.
One of my favorite memories from the London trip was actually the day trip we took out to Windsor Castle, via train. The train ride was so beautiful, and so was the castle, but what I loved the most was walking through the small town (Eton, I think) surrounding the castle. It was an absolutely enchanting little English town (or at least is was in my memory!) and I remember feeling like I was just in the right place there. I felt the same way on my family’s week-long trip to Ireland in 2012 and during my time in Ireland this summer. I would love to live in a place that gives me that same feeling someday!
Our trip to Paris was short, but so exciting. I took French for a few years in high school, but was never great at speaking it, so being in Paris was definitely a challenge! Prior to the trip, I tried to teach my family a little French to get by, and they supplemented that with audio tapes in the car. I was nervous about the language, but we got through the trip just fine, and were able to speak in French when we needed to. I remember the food in Paris being amazing (hello, crêpes!) and enjoying every bit of tourism that we did. We went (part of the way) up the Eiffel Tower, climbed up a seemingly never-ending staircase to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, visited a lot of museums, and most importantly, spent time eating fresh almond croissants on the balcony of our hotel, overlooking the streets filled with gorgeous Parisian buildings.
It was an exciting, eye-opening, and fun trip for my family to take together. Although we have our moments of arguments and clashed opinions, I think we travel pretty well together. I feel so lucky to have the privilege to travel the world with my family, and will hopefully never take that for granted. There are definitely some memories I have from that trip that I still laugh and smile about, and I won’t forget it for a long, long time!
Thanks for reading! Margaret
