First of all: what the heck is a Topdeck? I had certainly never heard of it before I came to the UK, but apparently it is the most popular way to travel around Europe. The basic idea is that you pay a fee upfront for transport, accommodation, and some meals on a trip of your choice. There are a ton to choose from, and I went with a week-long trip through France, Spain, and Andorra (one of the smallest countries in Europe, wedged between France and Spain). Some of them can be pretty pricey, but I think it's worth it for the hassle-free aspect of Topdeck. I learned from my Italy/Scandinavia trip how much of a headache planning out transport and hotels can be, so the peace-of-mind that Topdeck brings was pretty tempting. Topdeck tours are aimed at 18 to 30-somethings who are interested in meeting like-minded travelers. It's also really popular for people who are traveling alone. I traveled by myself on this trip, so I figured it would be perfect. The trip I chose was a "EuroHotel", which just means that you stay in hotels rather than hostels. Hostel trips are notorious for attracting people who just want to party in Europe. The hotel option is usually a bit more mature. Not to mention how beautiful the hotels are... most of the ones we stayed in were four-stars. You spend a lot of time on the coach going from one city to the next, but the drives are beautiful. I think Topdeck strikes a really good balance between herding us around like sheep and then also giving us time on our own to explore, so I was really pleased with the whole experience.
I had to meet up with the group at a hotel in London (coincidentally, the same hotel I stayed in for my Bridging Cultures program at the beginning of my study abroad experience), so I stayed one night in London beforehand. I didn't really do much that night other than walk around Soho. I wanted to get a good night's sleep considering I had to meet at the hotel at 6am the next morning.
In the morning, we all piled onto the coach. I immediately noticed quite a few differences between myself and the rest of the people on the trip: I was the youngest, I was the only one traveling alone, I was the only one backpacking rather than having a gigantic suitcase, and I was the only American. Everyone except two Canadians were from Australia or New Zealand. I was told we'd be meeting up with some others who were traveling alone in Paris, so I was looking forward to meeting some fellow loners.
To get from the UK to Paris is fairly easy; you can fly, take an underground fast train, or a ferry. We at Topdeck got the ferry ride experience, which was about an hour and a half long. I would call it more of a cruise ship than a ferry; it was gigantic and pretty luxurious inside. I chatted with the Canadians over breakfast on the ride, and we were in France before we knew it.
Paris
During two-night stays in major cities, Topdeck tends to do a bus tour straightaway to give you a good feel of the city, and then the next day is free to explore on your own. The nighttime Paris bus tour was gorgeous and gave me a good idea of where I wanted to spend most of my time. We only made one stop on the tour to take photos. I think you can guess where.
To be completely honest, I almost feel as though the tower is a bit of an eyesore. The rest of Paris is filled with beautiful white marble buildings with delicate lace-like fences and shutters, while the Eiffel Tower sticks out as a poopy brown, industrial-looking monument. The French government wanted to build the largest tower in the world in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution, and thus the Eiffel tower was created. Many artists and architects vigorously opposed it after it was built, claiming that it was the "dishonour of Paris". One famous artist, Maupassant, hated the tower so much that he ate lunch in the restaurant inside the tower every day. Why? He said that it was the only place in the city that he couldn't see it. Don't get me wrong, it was still great to see it, but I prefer other areas to it.
I started off the next morning climbing to the top of Arc de Triomphe (Triumphant Arc), as I was told that it gives the best views of the city. This monument stands at the very top of the most famous shopping street, Champs-Elysees, and is dedicated to those who served/died in the French Revolution.
Next stop was the famous Notre Dame. It was actually good timing; right when I got near, it started to completely downpour. I had forgotten my umbrella so it was lucky that I could spend some time in the cathedral and wait out the worst of it. The cathedral was gorgeous, no surprise there. It was mostly exciting for me simply because of how much I used to love watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame. No talking gargoyles in real life, though.
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| Louvre |
The previous night, I had decided to spend the majority of my day in the old-town area of Paris when I got a glimpse of it on the bus tour. This area includes the Louvre (hugely famous museum, home to the Mona Lisa), a park, the Royal Palace, and all sorts of other cathedrals and beautiful architecture. I got lost on my way from Notre Dame to this area, but that was fine with me. After spending a few hours in the area around the Louvre, I walked along the main shopping strip on the way back to the Eiffel Tower, where I met up with the rest of the Topdeck group for a picnic. I'll just add some photos to give an idea of what I looked at all day.
This is "Lover's Bridge". Happy couples have been writing their names on locks for decades and locking them to this bridge.
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| dinner picnic |
Something that was immediately obvious to me was how unfriendly the French people are toward non-French. Our tourguide warned us about this; the French are very proud people and really try to keep out any non-French influences. For example, all radio stations are required to play a minimum percent of French music. The locals are more likely to be kind to you if you approach them in their language ("Parlez-vous Anglais?") than if you just start speaking to them immediately in English. I learned this the hard way when I went up to a man to ask him directions and started with "excuse me?" to which he completely turned around and walked the other way. From then on, I tried to use as much French as possible.
Chambord
On the way from Paris to Bordeaux, we stopped at Chambord to see the castle and have some lunch. It was definitely the most impressive castle that I've been in (at least, I can't think of any at the moment). Chambord is in the Loire Valley (huge stretch of land along the Loire river, known for its architecture and vineyards), and its original purpose was as a hunting lodge for Francois I. Yes, just a modest little hunting lodge...
It took a good hour or so to explore the entirety of the castle. Much of the original furniture is still in place, so we got to see the King and Queen's bed, along with the room for the King's mistresses and servants. The main entrance to the rooms upstairs are up one of the two staircases that make a double-helix shape. Some have said that the King chose this type of staircase so that his wife and mistresses would never have to walk up or down the same stairs. Aww, what a gentleman.
Bordeaux
Moving southward, we headed into a city called Bordeaux, which is most famous for its wine. The town was really nice... it felt like the old-town bit of Paris, but less touristy and more modest. Our Topdeck adviser, Asia (from Poland, pronounced "Asha") took us on a quick walking tour of the city before we headed to a restaurant for dinner. Here we all tried some of Bordeaux's famous wine, but didn't indulge too much considering we had a wine tasting the next morning at 10am. Some people went out for drinks after dinner, but us four took a long walk along the river back to the hotel, stopping at the big central fountain. |
| reflecting pool |
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| mist-ified reflecting pool |
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| Bordeaux wine (can't remember the name) |
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| river walk back to the hotel |
The next morning we headed about half an hour out of the main city center to a local vineyard. We had half an hour or so to explore the area around the winery, which was absolutely gorgeous. We then got a full tour of the winery and got insight into the whole wine-making process. The family only make three wines; one red, one white, and one rose. At the end of the tour, we got a taste of the red and white. I liked the red so much that I had to buy some for my mom to try.
Carcassonne
After a post-wine nap on the bus, I awoke to find myself in yet another French town, Carcassonne. If I had to pick a "favorite" place I saw on the tour, this would probably be it given the time-warp feel that it had. The castle and fortress are still intact, and the city walls reminded me very much of Conwy (see "The Mother of All Travels). 
Asia explained to us where the name Carcassonne came; some time in the 700s, there was a major siege at Carcassonne by the Franks, who were attempting to take over the city. They couldn't get through the city walls, but knew that the people of the city didn't have much food or water supply and would soon starve, so the Franks waited outside the city walls. The inhabitants of the city were indeed starving, and nobody knew what to do until a widow named Dame Carcas devised a plan. They fed all of their remaining food to a pig in an attempt to fatten him up as much as possible before they chucked him over the city walls. At the sight of such a waste, the Franks decided that Carcassonne must not be starving and left them alone. Dame Carcas then rang the bells in celebration, and thus Carcas sonne ("Carcas rings") came to be. Seems a little far-fetched to me, but it's an interesting story.
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| cathedral |
We had a few hours to explore the area inside the city walls by ourselves before meeting back up to check into the hotel. We just wandered around the town, stopping to looks at some shops along the way and to get a scoop of sorbet, walking around inside the town's cathedral, and walked around the outer city walls.
We had dinner at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. At this point, I was starting to get a good feel for what French food is like: oily and salty. Topdeck and the restaurants did a great job of making sure that my meals were vegan-friendly... I usually had some sort of grilled vegetable dish or soup, and fruit for dessert. I tend to use a lot of salt in my cooking, but the food in Carcassonne surpassed even what I would normally use. 
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| light show |
After dinner, the 3 Aussies and I walked along the river for a bit, exploring the outskirts of the city. I really wanted to watch the sun set from the city walls in the castle area, and everyone else thought it was a good idea, so we made the trek back to the old town. It was so worth it! As we went to leave and head back to the hotel, we noticed a large group of people waiting at the entrance to the castle itself (which we didn't go into earlier because it was pretty pricey) and found out that there was a free light show. It turned out to be an animation projected onto the castle wall about the various sieges and wars in Carcassonne. It was all in French, so we didn't understand a word, but it was still cool to experience. The walk back to the hotel gave us some amazing views of the castle all lit-up in the distance. Carcassonne was a pretty short stop, so I was glad that we stayed out a bit later this evening to see the city walls again and get as much as we could out of the experience.
The next day, we said goodbye to France and stopped at the tiny country of Andorra on the way to Spain. Andorra only has a few cities, and we had a lunch break in the city of Andorra (really original). There really wasn't anything special or interesting about this area other than duty-free shopping. I think it was just an ideal location for a stop in between France and Spain. What I enjoyed more than stopping in Andorra itself was the drive into the country. I was so tired, but couldn't bring myself to fall asleep when I was surrounded by all of this beautiful landscape.
Barcelona
This was my most anticipated part of the journey. Many people have told me that Barcelona is their favorite city in the world, and it just has a reputation as a "must-see". As with Paris, we started off with a bus tour around the city to get ourselves acquainted with the area. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful; we had a buffet dinner at the hotel (the highlight of which was the Sangria) and then had a failed attempt to go into the city. Basically, the metro line was shut down, so it was either take an expensive cab or go back to the hotel. I was pretty wiped out, so I didn't mind heading back for an early night with some others. Plus I had a big open day ahead, so I wanted to rest up.
The Sagrada Famiglia, one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, was the first place we wanted to see. This cathedral was the brain-child of Antoni Gaudi, a well-known Spanish architect. He passed away in the 1920s but the building is still under construction, with an estimated completion in 2028. It's definitely not your typical cathedral; Gaudi really focused on combining natural elements to the man-made elements, and there are just a lot of really unique aspects to the building.
Lines can get ridiculously long during the day, so we got there about a half hour before it opened. We got our entrance tickets and then also decided to get a ticket for a lift to the top of one of the towers, which gave us an amazing view of the city. We then descended down the largest and narrowest spiral staircase that I've ever been in. One of the girls I was with has a major fear of heights, so she was struggling a bit.Inside of the Sagrada Familia was completely breathtaking. I usually don't get too affected by art, architecture, or anything else man-made, but experiencing this place was out of this world. I literally lost my breath when I walked in, and I'll even admit that I teared up a bit at the beauty of it all. I have no idea where that all came from, but it was definitely a memorable experience that truly impacted me.
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| ceiling |
Wanting to beat the hottest part of the day, we left the cathedral and headed to Guell park, a lovely garden complex with a lot of Gaudi's architecture and artwork strewn about. I enjoyed his cathedral so much that I wanted to see more of his work, especially if it was going to be in a park. We spent a couple hours wandering around, listening to some local musicians and enjoying the weather. Toward the end of the park was the main area of Gaudi's architecture. He definitely has a distinct style that I'm sure even comes across in photos.
The most well-known street in Barcelona is called La Rambla. It has loads of shops and restaurants, but is most famous due to its gigantic open-aired market called La Boqueria, where we had lunch. I've never been in such an impressive and expansive outdoor market before! It had everything: herbs, spices, vegetables, meats, nuts, chocolate, candies, baked goods, alcohol, greek food, pizza.... but the best part for me was all of the fruit. Fruit here was so incredibly fresh, delicious, and cheap. There are also a lot of fresh smoothies to choose from. For lunch, I opted for a box of fruit (dragonfruit, watermelon, pineapple, mango, orange, papaya), a mango-coconut smoothie, and some greek olives. Barcelona is notorious for pickpocketing, especially in crowded spaces like the market, so I didn't want to bring out my camera. But these are just some photos from the web.
The rest of the day was simply spent wandering. We walked up to the northern end of La Rambla and strolled our way back down, which led to the port of Barcelona. We then followed along the port (of the Balearic Sea) until we got to the Barceloneta, the main beach area of the city. We sat in the sand for a bit and relaxed by the water, but soon had to return to the metro to get back in time for a shower and dinner before the Flemenco show. We tried but failed to find authentic Spanish food near the hotel, so just grabbed some snacks and headed to the show.  |
| (not my photo again) |
Flamenco is the traditional dancing entertainment of Spain, usually accompanied with guitars and singing. I was pleasantly surprised by the show; I didn't realize how skillful the dancers would be. Plus it was great to see some authentic Spanish dress and music. Older women are preferred to younger ones for these dances, as they're seen as more mature and confident. This was definitely noticeable; the dancers came out from youngest to oldest, and the performance improved with each dancer. This is in pretty stark contrast to a lot of dance in the states, where women are seen as being at their peak in very young years.
After the show, we finally got our traditional Spanish Tapas. "Tapas" are small finger-foods that are very common in Spain. The idea is that you order a few of them and share with friends. We started of with some Sangria, and I ordered the gazpacho. It was SO good, probably my favorite thing I ate all trip. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what other people ordered, but I think it was a lot of seafood, which Barcelona is famous for.
The next morning I said my good-byes to the rest of the Topdeck crew as they went off to Rome. I decided to book an extra day in Barcelona after the Topdeck was completed, so I dropped off my luggage at a hostel and continued my wanderings of the city. I went straight back to the Boqueria for another fresh fruit-filled lunch, and then went to the beach to just relax and enjoy the gorgeous weather. I think I must be getting bad at relaxing, though, because I got bored really quickly and headed to the zoo. The Barcelona zoo is pretty well-known, especially due to the fact that they housed a famous albino gorilla a few years back. I'm pretty devastated that my camera was dead at this point because I saw some amazing exotic animals that I'm sure don't exist in American zoos. Obviously, the birds were my favorite part. So many of them were very rare birds from Africa (keep in mind how close Spain is to Africa, so it makes sense... see, I'm getting better at geography), but there were also a huge variety of primates and reptiles, including a huge exhibit on the Komodo Dragon. The Barcelona zoo is heavily involved in conservation projects, especially in South East Asia. I definitely think I benefited from learning about conservation practices in places other than the states. The zoo was huge, so I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there. I really had no other plans, so I ended up walking from the zoo back to the hostel (a little over four miles, gorgeous architecture the whole way).
It was a long week of early wake-ups and long days in the sun, so by the end of the trip I was completely wiped out. It was such a great experience, though, and I highly recommend Topdeck to anyone who wants a hassle-free way to travel. Topdeck is even available in some places in the US, or so I've heard.
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