This winter, I was fortunate enough to visit Europe. I want to thank my mum for taking my friend and I on such a wonderful trip. I’m so incredibly grateful to her.
I visited London, Britain, Lapland, Finland, and Amsterdam. Here’s what I learned about the culture and diversity of each place…
In London, the people are incredibly nice. Everybody you come across is friendly and more than willing to chat or give you directions. Not to mention, it’s home to the band Arctic Monkeys, the singer-songwriter Matt Maltese, and the video game franchise Call of Duty, some of my favourite iconic artists and games. The city is absolutely beautiful, with many sights to see including the London Eye, the iconic Madame Tussauds wax museum, the Buckingham Palace, and much more. The entire city looks very classy and old-timey. Many buildings (especially colleges) in England and Scotland were built hundreds of years ago.
The food was mediocre. England isn’t known for their food, though some of the restaurants had pretty delicious food. I went to a small coffee shop in the city and the hot chocolate and croissants were resplendent. Overall, London is undoubtedly a bucket list city.
Next, I visited Lapland, Finland, home to the famous year-round Santa Claus village. This place was straight out of a postcard. We rented a small isolated cottage, owned by what had to have been the sweetest couple I’ve ever met. Jukka and his wife drove us from the airport (where I witnessed two men fighting in the snow) to the remote cottage. They provided us with fresh Finnish groceries (bread, butter, cheese, yogurt, and chocolate), and Jukka told us all about his culture and the place we were staying at. He drove my mum to a grocery store to get the remaining food items we needed, as well as driving us to other various places for free.
The cottage was absolutely exquisite. It had a small kitchen, a second floor that hosted two mattresses, and heated floors. There was a sauna in the shed in front of the cottage, and a trail leading to a sea of trees that surrounded a frozen lake.
During our stay, we visited Santa Claus Land, where we ate Chinese food and saw Saint Nick’s “workshop.” I took some time to go skiing, which was absolutely terrifying. I was used to weak slopes like the ones in Colorado and North Carolina, but these slopes were no joke. We also saw reindeer and huskies.
Our layover was in Amsterdam. There, we enjoyed a nice, yet brisk, tour of the city. The people in the Netherlands speak Dutch. Fun fact, English is spoken by over 1.3 billion people worldwide, with many second world countries learning it for the purpose of business and travel. So, you most likely won’t have a problem travelling as an English speaker.
The different cultures and diversity between the countries will dazzle you. As a Spaniard and an Italian, I can tell you that Europe is absolutely stunning, and a thousand percent worth visiting.
