The next several entries will come from a travel diary I kept on my first trip around Europe with my good friend Francesca Saffari (Decca). I am more or less copying straight from the diary to here (removing only anything very personal) and so I apologise in advance for any cringiness from my past self…

Place: Between Newcastle and Paris

Date: 01 - 05 - 08

Well we are off and spirits are high! Said goodbye to family at airport - will miss them, especially my niece and nephew.

Already had a bit of an adventure because when we were sitting waiting in the lounge an announcement called out. I casually commented to Decca that it sounded like her name before the announcement was repeated most definitely calling for a Francesca Saffari.

I, being a first time traveller (this was my first ever international flight), immediately panicked and became convinced it was because she must have had something in her bag. Thankfully Decca is a more experienced (and generally calmer) person than me and pointed out that we had already been through security. It turned out that she had left her passport and boarding pass in the toilets so thank god somebody handed them in!

We couldn't help but giggle though and after that little mishap we managed to board smoothly and get seats next to each other on the plane. We have just had a few games of music trivial pursuit and now are just waiting to arrive. I am a little nervous about finding our hostel but hopefully it will be a relatively smooth journey!

Place: ST Christophers Inn, Paris

Date: 01 - 05 - 08

Alone in bed because Decca and I couldn't share a room. To be honest I am finding it all a bit overwhelming and right now 8 weeks away from my family seems like a long time. I am sure I will be fine tomorrow, I am just tired and keep thinking I have lost various items! We did meet a nice guy though who gave us his internet pass to use whilst we are here so at least I can keep in touch with everybody for the next few days.

Place: ST Christophers Inn, Paris

Date: 02 - 05 - 08

I was right, today was a million times better than yesterday. We decided just to have a day of being total tourists. First off we went to the Sacre Coeur. It was amazing and we managed to avoid getting conned by the bracelet men! (Before I had come on this trip my brother had warned me about men trying to sell you bracelets at great cost around the Sacre Coeur and so I was very wary of them!). The atmosphere of the lace is just amazing, such a cool place to hang out. Some Japanese guys wanted their photo taken with me and Decca which was random but pretty funny. Next we headed over to Hotel des Invalides where Napoleons tomb is. We got in for free because the girl pretended we were under 18.

This evening we did a bike tour, was so much fun cycling through Paris at night. There were some crazy drunken American ladies who were pretty funny and everyone else was great too. Met two nice girls called Courtney and Melissa and a guy named Justin who had a very dry sense of humour which we enjoyed. After the tour Justin and his cousin Eric wanted us to go out with them but we decided against it although did all swap contact details (Facebook). Got a taxi home because were unsure of using the metro at night. Now I really need to sleep, have been walking or cycling all day!

I think I need to add a bit more about the bike tour to this entry - it was with a company called Fat Tire Bike Tours and I really can't recommend it enough. Our tour guide was informative, throwing in extra little interesting facts about the various sights we visited. They took us to an amazing icecream shop - I still remember to this day that I had white chocolate flavour and that it was delicious. At the end of the tour you take a boat down the Seine and are given wine to drink. It was just a fantastic tour and I would advise anybody in Paris to do it.