I’d finally thought I should mention something about what is going on and all that so here it is…
I had an awesome time in Europe with my friends for 18 days, which really was pretty awesome. We started in Edinburgh, getting a coach (the megabus to be specific) to Newcastle for the single reason that flights to Paris from Newcastle were cheaper. We celebrated the start of our journey with a bottle of Piper Heidsieck by the Tyne! We then flew to Paris, met up with the 7th member of our party and some other friends from back home in Edinburgh! We were staying in a pretty nice area of Paris, very close to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs d’Elysees, just off Avenue Hoche to be exact. This meant we were close to loads of interesting things, which were tapped in the week we were there… Aswell as visiting the classic sites of Paris, The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and so on, we also found some great places to go, and some small brilliant restaurants, such as an amazing €34 a head place with some awesome food and a ~€8 a head place with great steak which is underground!
After our 5 days or so in Paris, we got a flight from Paris to Nice, out next location! The apartment we had was very cheap and very central, but wasn’t quite as nice as the one in Paris. Its ‘5 bedrooms’ turned out to being 3 bedrooms, and 2 of them having 2 floors. Nonetheless, it was about as central as you get, being above 2 bars on the Rue de la Prefecture! Just along from a brilliant ice cream shop (Crema de Gelato) and only a few minutes from the beach. Most of our time in Nice was spent on the beach (which was pebble covered!) and exploring the sites… We had a day trip to Monaco and to the Casinos and general grandeur of Monte Carlo one day which was pretty cool! Another day we went along the coast by bus for around 10 minutes to get to Villefranche, a town with a smaller more secluded beach which was less pebble covered, and more just gravel… Overall though, Nice was brilliant and I’d love to back just to experience the whole ‘chilled-out’ atmosphere again!
After Nice, we got a train and headed to Marseilles to get a plane to Madrid (the flights were again cheaper!). We didn’t get out into Marseilles much as we were just waiting around much of the afternoon. We eventually got into Madrid at about 11pm, and made our way (in the glorious subway) to a friend’s house where we were staying for the 4 days we were in Madrid. In Madrid I especially loved the Cervezceria’s where the beer is amazing (Mahou, the local beer is so good I brought back 8 cans) and the olives are stunning and all of the rubbish is thrown on the floor (which is a great idea)! We had some brilliant Tapas there, including Pig’s Ears which were a bit funky… Overall though Madrid is an amazing city, although very hot (40C) but with refreshing thunderstorms, but surprisingly (or should I say refreshingly again) cheap!
From Madrid we flew to East Midlands Airport (Cheap flights, yay!) and then I left the rest of the group to go down to Somerset for a few days to see family… Our Eurotrip was an amazing idea, and is totally worth doing, especially if you’ve just finished school and want to have loads of fun!