Leechee laughs: Travelling : What not to do

Two years ago I was lucky enough to go on a mini-Eurotrip with my university class.
We attended a conference in Barcelona and decided to travel a little while we were there.

It was my first time travelling in Europe and I was super excited.

We stopped over in Turkey (Istanbul) for a few days, then went through to Barcelona for the conference and ended our vacation with short stops in Rome and Paris.

The trip is one of the best decisions of my life and ultimately led me to decide I wanted to move to Korea after finishing university.

Istanbul. Vibrant and rich in history and culture. The city is also transcontinental.
In the photograph we are sailing down Bosphorus River which divides Asia and Europe.
These ladies. I miss them.

Barcelona. Sagrada Familia. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
Gaudi was a genius.
The church is a work of art and the architecture is almost organic.

Rome. Colosseum. Duh

Rome. This city was my favourite. Cobbled streets, live music, Italian food and opera.
Roman mythology mixed with Roman Catholic influence. The city is just breathtaking.

Paris. Eiffel Tower at night. You need to see Paris by night.

Travelling is a great lesson in how you deal with stressful situations and different people.

My life lessons usually tend to be the avoidable kind.

The ones that in hindsight I think,
"That was pretty dumb. Why the heck did I think that would be a good idea??"

Here are some of my insightful life lessons I learnt on my mini-EuroTrip...

Do not lose your passport. This is a bad idea. Passports are very important.

I somehow managed to leave my passport at the airport bus desk and hop on a bus for an hour before realising what I had done. Not one of my finest moments.

Someone was definitely looking after me that day, because I received said passport after a stressful 2 hours of waiting for the bus driver to come back....

Do not be late for your flight

We did this in Paris. Took the wrong shuttle bus. Went to the wrong terminal. Ran to the right terminal.
Then our carry-on was too big to fit in the little basket thing. There was lots of crying and pleading involved.

But we made it and celebrated by ordering loads of overpriced food from the in-flight menu. Plane party ^^

Do not pack a metal canister into your carry-on

We bought these cute, Italian metal canister things in Rome (they were pretty). To make sure we didn't have any weight problems we stuffed everything (and I mean EVERYTHING into our carry-on).
Then came the "Open your bag, please..."

Imagine a waterfall explosion of clothes and useless trinkets. All for a stupid canister.

My friend had to sit on my bag for me to get it closed again.

Do not trust European taxi drivers

We drove in a circle. Not even a big circle. An actual traffic circle. Around a fountain. Many, many times.

Then he charged us 200 euros. And pretended he didn't understand any English.

Do not get in the way of Beliebers

This was one of those bizarre kind of life lessons.

While exploring Rome, we came across a ~~hoard~~ mob of Beliebers. If you're not familiar with the term, let me paint you a picture... Imagine teenage girls, LOTS of teenage girls.
Teenage girls that love Justin Bieber.
Now add A LOT of purple (Justin Bieber's favourite colour).
Now add signs (like the kind they use in strikes and protests) and posters and things that say "Justin you are my soul mate" "Justin for president" "Baby baby" and more...

The girls had heard Justin Bieber was in Rome and were desperately looking for him... It was chaos.
No one actually knew where he was and girls were just running up and down streets in the hope of seeing him.

These girls were ON A MISSION. They were also very scary.

Don't mess with a Justin Bieber fan.