Day 10: Europe Trip - 10 Lessons Learned after 10 Days of Travel

So, we survived 10 days of travelling together. Hurrah!

Here’s the quick summary of what’s happened in these past 10 days…

Cities visited:

Sydney, Australia (spent half a day here), doesn’t really count
Hong Kong, Hong Kong - quick layover here, doesn’t count lol
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France
Lisbon, Portugal
Porto, Portugal

Transportation used:

Melbourne to Sydney: 1 hr 30 min flight (via Jetstar)
Sydney to Hong Kong: 9 hr 15 min flight (via Cathay Pacific)
Hong Kong to London: 14 hr 5 min flight (via Cathay Pacific)
London to Paris: 3 hr train ride (via Eurostar)
Paris to Porto: 1 hr 20 min flight (via Vueling)
Porto to Lisbon: 3 hr 15 min (via Flix Bus)

Next destination:

Madeira, Portugal!

Our 10+ lessons learned and favourite things

I decided to ask Slam for his “5 lessons learned” so we could have a collection of 10 lessons learned in total but he side-tracked and gave me more than 5, so I’ll just add all of them in this blog post!

Slam’s 5 (or more) lessons learned/discoveries:

Europe is a tight arse for water
Be prepared for walking
Get used to sunlight (I think he was surprised that the sun rose REALLY early and set REALLY late here!)
Europe is very open about drinking and smoking in public
Air conditioning on public transportation is not a thing (referring to the London train we took)
I wouldn’t combine Nordic destinations with the hotter destinations (he wanted to pack more summer clothes instead of the limited amount he had)
Pickpocketing is not as bad as I expected in Paris
Bring hay fever tablets
Don’t do park runs (LOLLL. Slam tripped and fell over during our first full day in Europe! Leaving him huge scars and scratches all over his arms and legs, oof!! I meaaaan… he’s the one who really wanted to do the Parkrun so….) Lol

Slam’s favourite meal:

Seafood Spaghetti, Porto Portugal

Slam’s favourite memory:

When Kim lost her boarding pass at Paris flying to Porto
- Kim: HAHHHAA. I mean, I got on the plane perfectly fine since I had a mobile QR code but yes, I did lose the printed one and a flight attendant actually GAVE me my own boarding pass when I was sitting in my seat. Like, where did they find it!??

Slam’s favourite city so far:

Porto, Portugal - food was good, no hecklers, the McDonald’s was nice
- Kim: I’m literally writing exactly what he’s telling me - he’s a man of few words. I told him to elaborate but he said no. Lol. But I agree, Porto was soooo nice!

Okay, my turn!!!

Kim’s 5 lessons learned/discoveries:

Wear grippy shoes in Portugal - there are cobblestone paths everywhere you go so it gets slippery if you don’t have grippy shoes.
Consider booking accommodation with laundry facilities when traveling a lot. Having accommodation with laundry facilities wasn’t the highest priority for me when booking accommodation however I have realised how important it is to have a place to do your laundry every few days. We packed a limited amount of clothing and are sweating through most of them quickly so having a place to do our laundry is important. Fortunately we were able to do our laundry at our Airbnb in London (it wasn’t even listed in their listing but they offered it for us for free!) and at a nearby laundromat in Porto.
Search up storage solutions if your check in time and check out time doesn’t match up with the time you arrive or leave - or book a place with storage facilities like a hotel. When booking accommodation, one of the reasons for making decisions was the price and I forgot about the extra benefits a hotel would bring (e.g. you can typically store your luggage there for no extra cost). During our time in Lisbon, we booked a shared “guesthouse” - there wasn’t any storage facilities in the place so we ended up storing our luggage at a nearby luggage storage place.
Understand currency exchanges and total costs of things before booking things. My biggest eff-up was booking Frozen tickets for 69 pounds each. I thought it was booking two tickets for that price and I just quickly went through the process on my mobile phone (it said it was discounted with the purple star and everything) and I ended up just clicking “Confirm” and BOOM. I just bought TWO tickets for 69 pounds each. OMG. That killed our budget completely and I still haven’t told Slam how much those tickets cost HAHHAHAAH. He probably won’t ever read this blog so let’s just keep that a secret from him.
Compartment bags/packing cubes are the best things ever!! It makes packing items in a backpacking backpack much easier. I bought packing cubes at K-mart just a couple of days before our trip and they have been a great investment and time-saver to help pack quickly and happily squish things in. It comes in 3 sizes and I use the largest bag to pack my pants/dresses/jeans in, the medium-sized one for t-shirts, sports bras, tops, and the third one for socks and undies. I actually have a separate small laundry bag for my undies and socks so I have been squishing it into the medium packing cube and then keep the smallest one open for other random things like toiletries and stuff.

Kim’s favourite meal:

The crème brûlée at Le Soufflé in Paris, France - it was soooooooo good!

Kim’s favourite memory:

Seeing Simon see the Eiffel Tower for the first time - he was sooo happy hahaha

Kim’s favourite city so far:

Porto, Portugal - it was a good place to rest and rejuvenate. It had lovely bridges and water. I had fun seeing the sunset on the hill as well (Jardim do Morro).