London / Paris travel guide!

hi cuties! If you’ve been following along with my insta (marinna_tayyy) you know that I got back last week from 7 days abroad in London and Paris with my best friends, and based on our insta’s it looked like a dream-which it absolutely was, but if you want the behind the scenes of the trip, I suggest to keep reading this post…

Since I try to be as transparent with you guys as possible, you’re getting the GOOD, BAD and the UGLY about the trip, and I promise, you are not gonna want to miss this. So my advice to you right now is to stop here- go get yourself a glass of something (I got my wine right here), and I honestly suggest even grabbing a snack, because this is gonna be a long one! SO sit back, enjoy and laugh like hell at the series of misfortunate events that happened during our trip, but before I get to the good stuff let’s start from the beginning—

Three girls, seven days, 3 carry on’s and a personal item each… and our personal item and carry on had to be a combined weight limit of 22 lbs… Let that sink in, because I’m THE GIRL that STUFFS a Vera Bradley duffle bag for an OVERNIGHT TRIP… so AFTER my mental breakdown, taking out clothes I wanted to bring, putting on 4 different layers- we headed to Jen’s and then off to Boston. God must have been on our side because they took our bags and checked them for us free of charge- so we could finally breathe again. But I’d just like to take a moment and be proud that I only packed 4 shirts, 3 pants, 2 cardigans and 3 pairs of shoes for a 7 day trip.  

All was good and dandy when we got to our seats on the plane UNTIL the two out of the three people sitting behind us started talking.  Two girls and one guy- the guy was literally from London, and the two girls were just going to visit like we were. In my opinion, if we were sitting next to this kid FROM LONDON (aka where we were traveling to) I’d be asking him all the things to do and see, and little hidden gems that no one knows about. But nope, these girls thought they had the MOST interesting lives ever, and told this poor guy every little thing from the different surgeries they’ve had (and didn’t hesitate to show him pictures) to literally anything else you can imagine… but I’m not kidding when I say they talked for 4 out of the 6 hours we were on the plane. Poor guy and poor us. 

Fast forward to arriving to the Airbnb we were staying at for the three days we were in London, and of course after a long day of travel, and being jetlagged- we all needed to go to the bathroom… but series two of the misfortunate events: we arrived to a malfunctioning toilet! Honestly didn’t seem like that big of an issue initially, so we just let the host know and were off to explore! We got on the tube and headed to Tower Bridge which was so BEAUTIFUL to see in person, I’ve seen pictures of it before, but I never really understood how massive it was! 

After lunch, we headed to this coffee shop called Fuckoffee… LOL mainly for the name, but on the way there we passed a Tanner & Co restaurant (heyyy t $)  

After that we just wandered through the streets on our way back home, and found this adorable little market place, saw where the original Shakesphere’s Globe used to be (im embarrassed to admit this, but my inner English Major was so excited), we saw Saint Paul’s Cathedral and then hopped on those red double decker busses and headed back home….

To still a non working toilet and a very temperamental shower. So to end our first day in London, EXHAUSTED, and physically drained, we got to hangout until Kyle the plumber was done— (when you’re on first name basis with the plumber you know it’s tough..)

Happy Friday, January 11^th– still no working toilet fyi but Kyle had plans to come back during the day to fix the shower and toilet for us, so back out exploring we went. Big day for us, and absolutely beautiful weather woohoo, first stop- coffee (duh) but then we headed to Kensington Palace, (which I only now know is where Meaghan and Harry AND Kate and William live……. UGH. But on the plus side of being next to royalty, there were SO MANY puppies running through the gardens!

Once we left there we walked past the first telephone booth we saw- obviously needed to take pictures #TOURISTS. 

Before heading to Buckingham, we stopped at Harrod’s to check it out, and oh my god. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a one stop shop, for literally everything and anything you would need / (dangerously want) to buy from a Gucci belt, a Hermes bracelet, a Chanel bag or if you needed to do your grocery shopping – don’t forget to stop at the meat and fish market, fruit and bread section, then head to the endless macaroons and desserts. Thirsty? go make your own tea flavor. Hungry? Sit down and eat oysters and drink champagne before you go up a few floors to try on priceyyyyyyyy evening wear. I mean, completely wild. 

 After we were done in dream land, aka Harrod’s we headed to see the Queen, and Jen and Ali can vouch for this. Walking down the path towards the palace, all of a sudden I hear trumpets and see MASSES of people heading towards the gates, and I start yelling “omg I swear to God if it’s the queen and I miss it” soo… naturally I start RUNNING, only for a little bit because I got afraid I would get tackled by guards or something, but we all started speed walking. We get to the palace and there are HUNDREDS of people, I mean HUNDREDS, glued to the fence, everyone with their phones out video taping… only to find out that it was the changing of the guards ceremony. (like are you kidding me) But still crazy to see.. besides the fact that it completely got my hopes up that maybe the queen was hanging out at the gates talking to everyone… a girl can dream right?  

After we left the huge performance going on at Buckingham we headed towards Westminister, Big Ben and the London Eye. But the misfortunate events strike again BECAUSE Big Ben was under construction AND the London Eye was having its annual maintenance done. But that did not stop us from having a full blown photoshoot in front of both of them lol.

Next we were off to Trafalgar Square (told you this was a big day) where Ali tried to get me arrested 🙂 If you’ve ever been to Trafalgar Square or seen pictures of it- there are these four gigantic lion statues on each corner. And when we were walking up to it, on almost every lion there was someone taking a picture sitting on it. So Ali helped hoist me up onto this 6 foot platform and I tried to get on the lion as Ali was snapping pictures, then this lovely lady police officer comes over and tells me not to do it, which of course I instantly oblige and Ali tells the officer to arrest me. THANKFULLY she laughed and walked away and I was so anxious on how to get off this thing that I had to jump off the 6 foot ledge and by doing so I definitely sprained my ankle but continued to walk all around London for the rest of the day like a trooper (by the end of the night Ali and Jen were both laughing at the size of my foot lol, but I lived.)

We then headed to Piccadilly Circus which was the furthest thing than what I was expecting it to be! It felt like we left London and was in the middle of a way less crowded Times Square. Honestly how I felt the entire time being in London, it just felt like a remarkably clean New York, with way nicer people. 

We headed back towards the London Eye on the Golden Jubilee bridge and watched an absolutely beautiful sunset. Probably my favorite part of the trip honestly, and If you ever make it to London I totally suggest putting this into your plans.

After happy hour drinks and a big plate of mac and cheese we headed back to the Airbnb with the plan to just hangout… but guess what- Kyle was still there! We had a functioning shower, but the toilet was even more broken than when we first got there. Long story short, Kyle had fixed every part of the toilet and it was still broken and the only other solution was breaking the cement around the toilet and physically putting in a new one.  Looking back on the whole situation it was truly a blessing in disguise (plus a full refund softened the blow lol). Saturday January 12 was our last day in London and we had an early train to Paris on Sunday, and our new Airbnb we got was right across from the station we needed to leave out of!! I am a firm believer that the big man upstairs has a plan, and as stressful as that night was- I should of put all my faith in God because his plans always have a way of working themselves out.

Saturday January 12- was the day we were all looking forward to! We had our reservation at Duck and Waffle and oh my god it was so amazing! This restaurant is 40 floors up in a sky scrapper and they literally serve duck. How we serve chicken and waffles in America… they served duck and waffle (I got it) and before anyone gets grossed out, duck tastes better than chicken.

Then we headed back to Buckingham in hopes that less people were there so we could take pictures in front of my dream home. Hit up a few gift shops, and then hung out in a quaint coffee shop before heading home. We packed up all our stuff, got dinner at Honest burger, and planned out what to do and see in Paris before we went to bed.

Sunday January 13 at the crack ass of dawn, I’m pretty sure it was like 11pm in America to be completely honest. But we quickly went to Kings Cross station, and sneakily took our own pictures in front of the 9 ¾ platform next to the Harry Potter store (you’re welcome Jojo and Ben) before heading to the station and getting on the train to head to Paris.

Once we arrived in Paris I instantly felt like I was in a different country, probably had to do with the fact I had no clue what anyone was saying lol. We made it to our unbelievably cozy Airbnb (+ a working toilet!!!) dropped all our bags off and once again headed off exploring! We took the subway (and maaaajor thank you to Ali and Jen who knew what the hell they were doing whilst navigating ) 

We headed right for Notre Dame Cathedral & climbed it — AND HUGE TY to Miss Jessica Oliveira for list of do’s & don’t’s – we never would have been able to climb Notre dame if it wasn’t for your advice!! And like Jess told us- I absolutely recommend doing this! The views of Paris were breathtaking, and after we climbed all the way to the top, we went inside the cathedral, and it was just as beautiful as the view outside. I lit a candle in honor of my Vovo, and we just walked around the entire cathedral.

Once we left Notre Dame, Jen and I stopped and got a crepe -aka the first indulgence of total carbs in Paris. Headed back home to just relax for the rest of the night (with a fully functional bathroom).

Monday January 14 was our ‘big day’ in Paris, we headed right for the Louvre in the morning which was so cool to see in person, and then walked from the Louvre to the Eiffel tower, which I absolutely suggest doing! It was so amazing to 1- take in all the culture and look around and 2- watch the Eiffel tower just get bigger and bigger as you walk closer to it!

We went to the Trocadero gardens to get a good view of the Eiffel Tower and have a nice spot to be able to take pictures of it in the background- then once we hit our quota of pictures we walked across the river to the side the Eiffel tower is on and took it all in. Got lunch and a baguette (of course) and had the happiest looking photoshoot ever, I’ll just leave them here so you can judge the level of happiness for yourself!

Tuesday was the funniest day honestly- we woke up earlyish (730) grabbed our champagne and headed to watch the sunrise at the Effiel tower AT 840AM (bananas how late it was) and of course it was completely cloudy, but we still had a ball. Then we ‘got lost’ which so many people had suggest that we do, we wandered around the streets of Paris, and Marais. Got macaroons at Pierre Herme of course, and did some souviner shopping. Then we went back home, relaxed for a little bit and then headed back out- to go watch the sunset at the Eiffel tower lolol. That was so amazing though, of course there was no sunset, but we did watch the lightshow and that was truly something!!

Our last day in Paris ☹ we woke up (to a GORG SUNRISE from our place of course lol), and headed to the Arc De Triomphe which I wasn’t expecting it to be as incredible as it was. We’ve all see this in movies, but you never truly get the beauty of it until you’re looking up at it. Plus the SKY LOOKED UNREAL.

Then we went back to the Airbnb, packed our stuff up and headed to the airport like 6 hours before our flight was taking off.  Then that’s when the biggest misfortunate event happened, fast forward from noon till 6:20 when we took off, everything was perfect the plane had like 30 people on it max, so we all spread out. Before we took off the estimation arrival was on the tv, so I quickly texted my mom saying to keep looking at the flight because it said we’d get to Boston at 730 Pm. We were all so excited to be getting home early, so we put in headphones and started watching movies to try and kill some of the time out of the 8 hour flight! TWO HOURS INTO THE FLIGHT the pilot comes on the loud speaker and says “Um the plane cannot accelerate fast enough to make it over the Atlantic ocean so we are turning around and heading back to Paris where we plan to fix the issue.”  So NATURALLY all of us were seconds from a meltdown, like ok we are on a plane that can’t make it over the Atlantic ocean so will we make it back to the airport? Obviously – spoiler alert you’re reading this blog post so clearly we made it, but after a few meltdowns. Once we landed.. in Paris (again) there were firetrucks, police and ambulances on the tarmac- but to ease some of the nerves the pilot said that they didn’t even know why they were there. After about 30 minutes, he came on again and said that the problem was fixed and they just needed to fill out paperwork and we’d be back on our way in 30 minutes… TWO HOURS LATER all the paperwork was signed and we were back in the sky, thank the freaking lord. Like I said, we made it- barely, but we made it. Jojo and my dad were there in Boston at midnight for us, (4 hours after our original arrival time) with a cooler of water and snacks #myparentsaresaints.

Let’s just say, I will never fly with Norwegian air againnnnn and I will be taking a very long break from going on a plane after that fiasco. Like.. what kind of plane can’t accelerate over the ocean, and how is that a 30 minute fix, but we lived to tell the series of misfortunate events.

I’m sure by now, your drink and snacks are done- but aren’t you glad I told you to go get some!! Thank you for staying tuned through the recap of our vacation, and as crazy as some parts of it were- I had the most amazing time with two of my oldest best friends and I wouldn’t change it for the world. We’re mentally prepared for anything now. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!