I’m overdue for my October 2022 updates but before I get to my financial updates on a different post, I figured I’d recap my trip to Europe!

I’ve wanted to go to Europe for as long as I can remember. For one reason or another, it just never happened till now. 2020 was the closest I got to a definite plan but everything went sideways with COVID. So for two agonizing years, I’ve been waiting to go.

I was initially supposed to go with two of my close friends in 2020. As you can imagine, things have drastically changed since then. One just got married (in fact her wedding was the reason I couldn’t go on this trip earlier) and the other could not go this year since she was already planning to use all the vacation time left to go visit her home country later this year.

I debated postponing the trip by another year, but I actually have a lot of PTO leftover this year and refused to just take it as a staycation. So when conversations came up with my old friend from pharmacy school about going on vacation together, somehow Europe made it on the list and it became a reality!

In hindsight, I could have waited for a more opportune time where I’d have more than 7 days to split between two major cities like London and Paris. It felt a bit like completing a checklist. Don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing time but I felt rushed on most days. I think I could have enjoyed the cities more and gotten a better flavor for them had I stayed longer.

Considering how ambitious my friend and I were though, had we had more time, we probably would have tacked on another city so I doubt that would have made a difference.

I think now that I’ve gotten the, “I want to go to Europe at all costs,” mentality out of my system I will be more mindful of really allowing myself to enjoy my time in my travels.

My Itinerary

I don’t plan on doing a detailed itinerary but figured for my own memory to look back in the future I’d list the places I visited, give it a * rating (from 1-5 star) based on my experience, and a brief comment on each place.

London:

1. Hop On Hop Off Bus (***) – good first day activity while still tired from flight. Got a bit cold on the top deck.
   
   
2. Westminster Abbey (*****) – beautiful, must see. It just feels like I’m stepping into history.
   
   
3. Big Ben (*****) – iconic London, you can pretty much see it from anywhere nearby so no hassle. 
   
   
4. Palace of Westminster (***) – got to watch a debate here, good experience.
   
   
5. Churchill War Rooms (***) – interesting but not too memorable. Also, belatedly realized it wasn’t part of the London Pass so it was an additional cost.
   
   
6. St. James Park (***) – Just passing through on the way to Buckingham Palace.
   
   
7. Buckingham Palace (**) – Could only see from the outside as the palace was not open to the public at this time of year.
   
   
8. Green Park (**) – I’m biased. I’ve been walking for a while now so I was definitely tired and this was a big park to go through.
   
   
9. Wellington Arch (*) – Just remember passing it, nothing memorable.
   
   
10. Hyde Park (****) – Beautiful Park! Again, the stars are downgraded because I’m pretty tired by this point.
    
    
11.  Albert Memorial (****) – My friend and I had a huge laugh at this location about an inside joke we had so it made this place extra memorable.
    
    
12. Kensington Palace (***) – Unfortunately, we had the wrong timing. Kensington Palace wasn’t open the day we went. We actually weren’t planning to visit it at all but decided at the last minute hence the bad timing.
    
    
13. Marble Arch (*) – Again, it looks great in person but wasn’t anything too memorable especially when I compare it to our visit to Arc de Triomphe in Paris later in the trip.
    
    
14. Tower of London (*****) – Amazing! So much history. But there are so many stairs!!
    
    
15. Tower Bridge (*****) – Prettiest bridge I’ve ever seen and been on.
    
    
16. View from the Shard (*****) – The views were great but the props were amazing! Best phone booth picture I have is from there!
    
    
17. Borough Market (**) – We didn’t have much time and all the restaurants we wanted to try all had a long wait time.
    
    
18. Shakespeare Globe Theater (**) – Just passed by.
    
    
19. Millennium Bridge (*) – Underwhelming! I wanted to visit this bridge as it was featured in Harry Potter. My expectations were too high.
    
    
20. St Paul’s Cathedral (****) – Beautiful but this is where I should have done more research. I climbed up the stairs to the dome thinking since it was called a “Gallery” there’d be something up there. There was, don’t get me wrong. It was a 360 degree view of the city which was spectacular, but at the cost of 528 steps. But hey! I can at least say I climbed to the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.
    
    
21. Leadenhall Market (*****) – After the failure with Millennium Bridge, I had lowered my expectations on this place that was supposed to be where Diagon Alley from Harry Potter took place. Absolutely exceeded my expectations! I felt like I truly stepped into Diagon Alley! 
    
    
22. Leicester Square (*****) – The Lego store is amazing. They built Big Ben and Gringotts Bank out of Legos inside.
    
    
23. Piccadilly Circus (**) – Just a quick look around. It made me think of Times Square.
    
    
24. Hamley’s (**) – 7 floors worth of toys! It was really crowded though.
    
    
25. Uber Boats (*) – Underwhelming. I didn’t feel like I saw more of the city from the boat than I did on land.
    
    
26. Afternoon Tea (*****) – Must-do experience!
    
    
27. London Eye (*****) – Breath-taking! I talked about this more in my highlights.
    
    
28. Trafalgar Square (***) – There was a guy playing music on Trafalgar Square and his voice was just amazing. It made the experience so great.
    
    
29. Platform 9 ¾ (*****) – They actually have workers from the store who lend you a Harry Potter scarf and help create the effect of the scarf blowing into the air as you go “into” Platform 9 ¾.
    
    

Paris:

1. Musee de l’Orangerie (****) – A pretty fast trip to see Monet’s Water Lillies.
   
   
2. Tuileries Garden (*) – honestly, below my expectation. The place was just sand? I was confused to be honest. I know it’s not spring so I wasn’t expecting a lot of flowers but I don’t even see where the flowers would even bloom?
   
   
3. Arc du Carrousel (***) – Nice picture of the Louvre fitting right in the arch.
   
   
4. Louvre (***) – We had reserved a time slot and still had to wait over an hour in line. I did like that since we went on a Friday and the museum was open till night, we were able to catch pictures of the Louvre during the day and night.
   
   
5. Pont Neuf Bridge (***) – I wish I saw that popular movie that had scenes on this bridge because it probably would have made the place more memorable for me.
   
   
6. Saint Chapelle (*****) – the stained glass windows were beautiful!
   
   
7. Notre Dame (***) – could only see the outside as it was still under construction from the 2019 fire.
   
   
8. Shakespeare and Company (**) – nice bookstore. The history makes it interesting.
   
   
9. Musee D’Orsay (*****) – I love this museum more than the Louvre!
   
   
10. Montmartre & Sacre Couer de Montmarte (****) – I truly felt like I was in Paris, as the Paris I’d seen in movies with the cobblestone streets and restaurants! Those hills and the crowd though… This was as crowded as the Eiffel Tower, which I did not expect.
    
    
11.  Eiffel Tower (****) – Wow, can’t believe I finally got to see it! The park (Champ de Mars) where I was planning to enjoy the view and picnic was closed for construction though. I also did not go up the Eiffel Tower.
    
    
12. Trocadero (**) – I heard great things about viewing the Eiffel Tower from here but it was so busy! Also, there were boards blocking the view for most of the area? I’m not sure if that’s always there or maybe some kind of construction was happening at that time.
    
    
13. Versailles (*****) – I wish this wasn’t on my last day as I was quite tired of museums/palaces at that point. I can definitely see myself spending more time listening to each story of the rooms in the palace. There was an event at the Garden the day we went so we would’ve had to pay extra to go in which we decided not to.
    
    
14. Arc de Triomphe (*****) – We almost didn’t go here because we were running out of time! So worth it! We had a little mishap with not knowing how to actually get there as this is in the middle of a huge roundabout and didn’t see any crosswalk. Turns out we had to go underground to reach it. So many stairs to climb up to the top!
    
    
15. Galeries Lafayette Haussmann (****) – the place is beautiful but all the shops had crazy wait times to get in so if shopping is the priority I’d go to a different mall.
    

Highlights

Here are some jumbled thoughts on what I found especially memorable from this trip.

Public transportation in London is next level. We were able to just tap our credit card to pay for our tickets so the process was just so seamless. Plus, they come so often and so conveniently located. It’s no wonder most people use public transportation in this city.

I love that tax/tip is already included in the cost. Why can’t America be like that? It makes things so much easier to split the bill, etc honestly!

I didn’t need any cash! The only time I had to use cash was when I was desperate for a bathroom and had to pay 2 Euros to use one. Otherwise, credit card was accepted everywhere else.

I didn’t know afternoon tea could take hours! We spent two hours on afternoon tea and even then were rushing to get out for our timed ticket to the London Eye.

The last time slot for London Eye was *chef’s kiss*! We booked for a 5:30 pm slot and I believe the last slot was actually 5:45 pm. We were running to get there and were already late for our slot. We were just hoping at that point that the London Eye was still operating and hadn’t closed for the day. 

We made it in the nick of time. In fact there was one last couple behind us. And thanks to this little mayhem, we actually got our own little pod (or whatever they call them)! The entire turn took around 30 minutes so we were able to “see” the sun go down. I didn’t actually “see” sunset but we were able to experience the changing skies as night came in.

This was our last day in London before going to Paris so it was honestly just the best way to end our time there. Because we were behind on our planned schedule, we had to move our London Eye itinerary to the end of the trip and honestly it worked out for the best.

We didn’t get any rain at all the week we were there and Paris hit a high of 75 degrees at one point (at the end of October?!).

I am definitely counting my blessings. We did a lot of planning but many things also went our way.

I didn’t realize Daylight Savings occurred a week earlier in Paris than in the U.S. We were able to get an extra hour of sleep the day we needed it the most!

We walked an average of 20k steps per day for 7 days straight, that’s almost 10 miles a day! No wonder I always felt so tired by the end of the night.

Costs

I honestly did not have a set budget for this trip (bad financial blogger). I knew that both my friend and I were fairly frugal so I wasn’t worried that we’d be spending extravagantly (spoiler: there is an extravagant purchase I will talk about in about 10 paragraphs from now).

My mindset going into the trip was that unlike my first international trip in 2019, I am in a better position now financially and that I am okay with splurging when necessary. Keep in mind, I knew that my friend was also financially stable but generally more frugal than me so I wasn’t worried about reeling it in.

I’ve broken down all my spending for this trip below with the exception of the “extravagant purchase” I meant a few paragraphs up. I thought it was deserving of its own category.

Hotel	$861.88
Transport	$226.21
Passes	$203.67
Gifts + Souvenirs	$80.89
Food	$522.01
Total	$1,894.66

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to use credit card points to pay for my flight (worth ~$900). The remaining transportation in this list include the train from London to Paris and buses/metro while in the city.

We opted for lower end hotels that were close to the city center (quite a hard search if you can imagine). There were cheaper alternatives but as I’ve gotten older, my tolerance for cheaper hotels has also gone down. Thankfully my friend feels the same way so definitely no hostels for us. We really just wanted clean, safe hotels to shower and sleep at night that were within the vicinity of public transportation and we got that.

The “Passes” category include the London Pass and Paris Museum Pass. 

We were so rushed for time at the end that we barely had a chance to get any gifts or souvenirs. I got myself a London lego set as my take-home memory of London.

As for my take-home memory of Paris, I got myself a Louis Vuitton bag and a wallet that totaled $2,580 (ouch).

Yep, if you compare that number to my spending table, I actually spent more on 1 bag than I did on my entire trip. 

Let’s get to a little backstory on this. How did self-proclaimed frugal me end up buying $2k+ bag?

Prior to going on this trip, I didn’t have any expectations of going luxury goods shopping. I know that it’s a thing that Paris is known for. 

I also know that as a foreigner, shopping in Paris is an incredibly good deal as you can receive a VAT refund on your purchases. But I still wasn’t convinced. I honestly have never been obsessed with luxury goods and neither is the friend I was going with.

I figured, even if I was interested in doing some luxury goods shopping in Paris, my friend really wouldn’t be and she’d probably sway me away from it.

Well, a few days before going, my mom had just come back from her own Europe trip (she went for three weeks and visited a lot more cities than me). She is also very frugal but at the end she did buy a Longchamp bag (less than $100) as everyone in her tour group was saying what a waste it was to leave Paris without buying one on such a good deal. 

We were discussing how the euro was 1:1 with the US dollar when traditionally euros have been more expensive. The cost of luxury goods are also generally cheaper in Europe as many of the products are made there. So those two factors combined makes it especially enticing to shop in Paris.

Anyways, I left for the trip still undecided if I wanted to buy anything in Paris. Well, surprise surprise, one of the first conversations my friend brought up was how she thinks we should go shopping in Paris. She was also undecided on what to get but she did want to get something as a celebration of her 30th birthday this year.

Long story short, we went to Galeries Lafayette Haussmann because we wanted to see the place anyways even if we didn’t do any shopping since the interior was supposed to be gorgeous.

We ended up staying in the Louis Vuitton line for an hour which probably escalated our need to get something considering we waited so long. She bought two bags and I bought a bag and a wallet.

I compared the cost to what I’d pay in the U.S. and sure enough by buying in Paris I paid ~$1,400 less. Not going to lie, it’s an incredibly good deal. I saved ~35% on my purchases. 

It was my first luxury goods purchase and honestly it was an amazing experience with an incredibly nice sales associate. I honestly had an imposter syndrome going in as we already had a whole day of sightseeing and were not looking so great. I was afraid we weren’t going to be treated well but our SA just went above and beyond. 

So more than anything, I paid for the experience of purchasing my first luxury goods.

But as I got back home, I realized I would be too afraid to use this bag everyday (I am using the wallet daily though). One thing I kept in mind when I was debating about buying was that these bags usually have a great resale value. Especially purchasing in Europe and reselling in the U.S. where prices are higher, I could probably get all my money back considering there are price increases every year.

So selling the bag in the future is something I will consider. For now it’s a great memory and will always be a reminder of my time in Paris.

Takeaways

Although I’ve travelled quite a bit in the U.S., this is still only my second international trip so I definitely went home with some lessons learned.

If I had a do-over I’d definitely try to find a better time to get more than 7 days for these two cities.

But to apply it to future vacations, I’d probably choose to stay in one city longer to be able to relax more than try to hit too many places and feel rushed.

I’d arrive at night or later in the day so I can just sleep first and start the next day fresh. We arrived at 7 am in the morning for this trip thinking we could hit the day running instead of wasting an extra hotel day. I was so tired upon arrival. Confession: I even fell asleep on the Hop On Hop Off bus on the first day.

This trip made me realize I really should travel more when I’m still young. I can’t imagine walking 20k steps or going up all those stairs when I’m older.

Now that I’m in my 30s, I can already tell that I get tired faster than I did in my 20s. Plus, all those stairs I had to walk up made me realize that if I went to some of these places in my 60s upon traditional retirement age, I’d have to miss out on some of these amazing places.