Hello everyone! Today has been an uneventful yet eventful day, as it marks the beginning of my family vacation to Europe! The first half of the day included me frantically packing and cleaning my room, as no one wants to return home from vacation to a dirty space. I’m never this last-minute with packing (ask anyone that knows me, it’s quite the opposite), but yesterday was my last day of school and this past week was finals week so I pushed packing aside as long as possible.
My family really wanted to pack light, and we all are using carry-on suitcases for the two and a half week trip (which was very difficult for me). My dad was the only one who brought a checked bag because has already been in Europe for the past week for a Rotary club convention, and he’s visited Germany, Amsterdam, and Belgium while my brother and I were finishing up school. I might share some of his experiences and pictures from his solo travels in a post later on because he has been gushing about them and they are all amazing places to visit. I will also make a post about what I packed and how I fit everything for my trip in a carry-on bag and a personal bag/backpack, but it will most likely be at the end of the trip so I can gauge the effectiveness of my packing and what I would’ve done differently.
My mom, my brother, and I left our house in the late afternoon today (Saturday, June 8- our first day of summer!) to catch our 8:00pm flight. We actually arrived quite early, as this is our first international trip and we wanted to make sure everything went smoothly. After checking in and going through security, we ate dinner at a sandwich place. It was actually really good; I got a turkey sandwich and an Oreo chocolate chip cookie which was delicious! I’ll add the place’s name if I can remember it. We got snacks and water, relaxed at the gate, and boarded around 7:00.
We’re flying Norwegian Air and even though we are currently only a couple hours into the flight, so far I would definitely recommend it! The service and workers have been very attentive, and nothing has gone wrong or been out of the ordinary. (Side note: the tickets were also a very good deal!!) We took off at 8:00 right as the sun was setting, and it was a beautiful view. The sun finally went down as we just began flying over the water, and then we could see the lit-up LA skyline. I personally love flying and I haven’t been on a plane in almost a year, so it was wonderful to feel the sensation of takeoff accompanied with a sunset view.
The flight is 10 hours so I’ve just been typing away so far, but I’m going to try and get some sleep since we will land at 2:30pm local time; from there, we’ll immediately meet up with my dad, check into our hotel, and start sightseeing. It is now completely dark outside, and the nearest lights I can see from my window seat are still extremely far away. We’re flying over Utah right now according to the flight map. It’s pretty late and I downloaded the season of Riverdale that just got added to Netflix and a documentary to watch, so that’s the plan for the rest of the night other than trying to sleep on the plane! I will check in tomorrow once I am in Paris and the trip has actually begun. Happy travels!
Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 