Not many people get the opportunity to meet their friend in Europe for a week. My sorority sister Maddie was done study abroad and she was traveling for the next week with another girl, Bridget, from our university, and several other people they had met studying abroad. So my mom dropped me off in Europe for a week.
My mom is a flight attendant, and since I had never been to Europe, she worked my flight to Paris where I was meeting my friend, a girl I barely knew, and 5 complete strangers. The flight to paris, I spent most the flight trying to work on my online class, but got disrupted by a boy who was an intern for the airlines and was taking a quick weekend trip to Paris. We talked about traveling and college and fell asleep the last hour of the flight.
Upon arriving in Paris, my mom and I, along with the intern I met and another intern, we tried to navigate the Paris public transit system. We finally made it to her hotel and then to my AirBnB. I was staying with my sorority sister, the girl from our university, three other girls they met study abroad and two boys. As my mom went to leave and find her way back to her hotel, she hugged me bye, getting tearied eye, she said “I am leaving you in an apartment with strangers and boys.” I laughed because I had been at college for the past year in a coed dorm and was going to be living off campus in a house the next year. “I’ll be fine mom, its only one week,” and off she went. I had never met any of these people they met studying abroad, I didn’t even know their names. We went off to dinner and I got to know little things about each of these people. All these strangers were from so many different places, studying different things, but they all had small connections. Camila, was Maddie’s roommate, Claire and Molly lived in an apartment together while studying abroad, Molly was from Kansas, not too far from me. And two boys AJ and Javier, I am not sure how they intertwined in all of this, but Javier took pictures just like Maddie. All these people, so different, strangers to me, and we were all exploring Paris together for the next few days.
We went to Sacre Coeur and the Catacombs our first full day of adventuring, and laid under the Eiffel Tower. One day we went to Monet’s Garden, about an hour train ride outside of Paris, and that is when i became the butt of a lot of Bridget’s jokes. I hadn’t been really informed about where we were going or what we were doing since I was just kinda along for the ride.
“Sarah, do you even know where we are going?”
“Some garden right?”
They all three begin to laugh
“Sarah… we are going to Monet’s garden…” They all stared at me like I had just spit on a puppy.
I stare blankly at them, “That’s a famous painter right?”
I was correct, and then was told I should maybe so more research before we go anywhere, which was impossible since I never had any idea where we were going or what we were doing.
The boys made dinner for us and then we jumped on the metro to watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower one last time, and running to get on the last metro back to our AirBnB. And then we parted ways in the morning. Molly was headed back home to the states, Claire was off to more Paris adventures with her friend, and the boys were headed to Amsterdam, where we would be in a few short days. And the four of us, Bridget, Maddie, Camila and I headed to Brussels on a three hour bus ride.
Brussels was our time to relax between the whirl wind of Paris and the craziness of Amsterdam. We went shopping and a little sightseeing around the area. There was always people playing music in the streets and we watched an amazing performance by this group of saxophone players. We were in love and wanted to see them again before we left but never did. Maddie and I woke up earlier one morning to go to Brugge, a small medieval town that look like it was straight out of Beauty and The Beast, with large castle buildings and small cottage shops along the streets. And we ended both nights in Brussels laying in the Grand Palace eating waffles.
And off to Amsterdam we went, another 3+ hour bus ride. Upon arriving, it was rainy and cold and we had to wait way too long for an uber and sit in too much traffic to get into the city. Our hostel was walking distance to attractions and the red light district. Javier and AJ, the boys we had been in Paris with were still in Amsterdam so we met up for dinner. Javier had been to Amsterdam before. After dinner, we made a trip through a small portion of the Red Light District and that was the only time we witnessed what is one of the most famous features of Amsterdam. Javier was on to his next adventure in the morning, so everyone said their goodbyes. The next day we spent relaxing, we slept in and went to breakfast with AJ and then headed to the Van Gogh Museum. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city and walking around. The next morning Camila and I slept in and got breakfast while Bridget and Maddie were at Anne Frank Museum. They had bought tickets a few months in advance, before the rest of us had planned to tag along. And then the four of us parted ways for the afternoon. The three of them went on a canal tour, and I did as well with my mom, who was laying over in Amsterdam and was going to work my flight home. My mom and I went off and got dinner and then she made her way back to her hotel while I met up to go out with Bridget and Maddie.
They ate dinner while I sipped on an expensive drink that I spilt on myself about two sips in. We laughed so hard because they watched the whole thing happen in slow motion, and I was now bathing in a drink I paid 8 euros for. We repeatedly apologized to the workers cleaning up my mess, and to which they replied, “We are sorry for you…” since I was now drenched in my drink. Bridget and Maddie took endless photos of me and laughed at me for the rest of the evening. It was sad to think our european adventures were coming to an end.
We stayed up till 1am packing, and we had to get up at 4am to go to the airport… and we all slept through our alarms. We frantically got dressed and called a cab because uber is not a thing at 4am. We arrive to the airport and I facetimed my friend at home, it was only 10pm back at home. I then found out that my flight home cancelled… my mom would be stuck in amsterdam another day, but since I only get on the flight if there is open seats, and that flight would end up being full, I had to find another way home.
And that is how I ended up on Bridget and Maddie’s flight home. “We are never going to get rid of you, are we?” Bridget laughed as I sat down in front of them. What are the odds I would end up getting the seat right in front of them. We got to detroit where we finally had to part ways. And we wouldn’t see each other until school started in a few weeks and we wouldn’t be able to hang out until sorority recruitment was over. We all hugged goodbye, realizing these were the last goodbyes we had, it meant our trip was really over.
I wanted more, I want to go back. I didn’t get to see everything I needed to see, we didn’t go to everything I wanted to go to. I will return to Europe someday and see all there is it has to offer. There is so much of the world to see and I am not done seeing it.
