Euro Tour: Part 2

The joys of travelling! The second part of our tour consisted of a 6-hour drive from Chamonix to Paris, a short flight to Barcelona, and a pretty lengthy flight to Dubai before returning home. This part of the tour was a little more entertaining - I guess anything would more entertaining than the 2 nights we spent in a ski town (Chamonix) and taking part in absolutely no skiing. Read more for pictures and details of our escapades in the various countries.

PARIS, FRANCE

Pictured above is myself and my dear friend Chryssi a few hours after our arrival in Paris (6 hours drive from Chamonix, grrr!) We were pretty exhausted, but took the Metro into the city and walked for quite a while to get a taste of the city and pretty view of the Eiffel Tower.

Our second day was spent at Disneyland, the happiest place in the world. That was a lot of fun, but all junk I ate combined with the rides we went on (we had a mission of going on all the thrill rides) had me feeling pretty sick by the end of the day. We got really into the whole thing with our Minnie Mouse ears and everything – aren’t we cute?

On the last day we went up the Eiffel Tower, but unfortunately the weather was pretty awful - most of our group ended up buying the cheap umbrellas from the street vendors found abundantly in Europe. The view of the city was mostly covered by fog, and I guess the cold made us all a little grumpy - not a great setting for an experience many of us looked forward to. Anyway... The rest of the morning was spent on and off a tour bus experiencing some different sights (and sites), and taking in all that we could of the city of lights (I thought it was of love, but since being there I've been corrected.) In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours on the Champs-Élysées! Please note: never go shopping in Paris on a Sunday, forget it. All the shops are closed, except those on the Champs-Élysées. Somehow our tour guides were unaware of that??

Disney!

A gloomy view of the city from the Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

The absolute centre of Paris

Sacré-Cœur

BARCELONA, SPAIN

We landed in Barcelona after a very early flight, and unfortunately we weren’t allowed the luxury of changing into something a little less ‘I’m on a flight, I’m tired and I don’t care what I look like’ and a bit more ‘I’m touring Barcelona, and need to look good because I’m gonna be taking a thousand photos’, so please forgive me for my track pants and ill-fitting tank.

Barcelona was one of the best places because the things we did piqued a lot of my interests:

1) FC Barcelona: our first stop was Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium. This was a pretty big deal because FCB is my favourite club, and we got to see the pressrooms, changing rooms and all the memorabilia in the museum.

2) Art and architecture: Antoni Gaudí, a Spanish architect, designed some beautiful buildings and furniture in his time. We visited the Sagrada Familia, a church in Barcelona designed by Gaudi famously known for the fact that it is still under construction. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I've ever seen. We also visited Gaudi’s park, Park Güell, which was also really beautiful.

3) Really good food: my friends and I had made a point of eating foods that the various countries are known for, so our first and second meals in Barcelona were paella and tapas. The whole style of eating with lots of bread, olive oil and vinegar is really enjoyable. We also found an ice cream parlour in an alleyway I don’t remember, which played great music and had amaaazing ice cream.

4) Shopping: We spent a day on a popular street called Passeig de Gracia with toooons of shops; Bershka, Mango, Zara, Brandy Melville, Stradivarius and more all on one street. Most of the clothes I bought were from Spain – look out for a New In post next week featuring some of the things I bought in Europe.

La Sagrada Familia

Park Güell - These benches were so damn comfortable!

ICD CREEEEAM - I had two cones (judge me)

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

When we landed in Dubai it was 1AM and 33 degrees Celsius outside. The heat and how people could survive living in it is beyond me. After barely sleeping at all, we visited two of the many buildings Dubai is known for:

The main shop we were really keen on going to was Victoria’s Secret, because we hadn’t been able to find it at the places we went to in Europe. The only setback was Ramadan, because my roommate and I had slept in by mistake and missed breakfast, and all the restaurants were closed, and either way, we couldn’t eat in public.

After all the shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dune hopping and a Bedwaan dinner in the desert. The drivers we had drove like maniacs on the dunes, with us laughing and screaming hysterically while being thrown around the car. The dinner was YUMMY and the henna and dancing and everything was great. That whole experience was honestly soooo much fun, and a great end to a great trip.

At the Bedwaan dinner :)