Since I’ve been posting recently about my holiday to Tunisia, I thought it would be interesting to see my journey through the countries through my childhood. It all started when my family bought a tent and we took our first camping holiday to France in 2006 when I was 8. We went to Disneyland Paris where I was completely head over heels in love with the atmosphere. I can vividly remember the thrilling sensation of walking through the park and being completely overwhelmed with happiness and the sense of total freedom.
I’m not 100% sure on what happened in 2007 as there are no pictures of the holiday saved anywhere! But I am 100% sure that we went to France as we went every year until 2010. However, at the age of 10 in 2008 I went to France again and we went to a park called Futurascope where there were a lot of simulators and everything was themed futuristically. I can’t remember much of this holiday but I was clearly a fan of co-ords!
In 2009, aged 11 and also the year I started high school, we ventured out to France once again. Once again I can’t fully remember much about this holiday but we did go to Parc Asterix in Paris where it was very busy! I remember that we spent a whole day in and around this river which was running past a Chateaux (can’t remember what town though!). We weren’t allowed to drive down to this part of the river so we had to trek down the slopes in flip flops!
2011 saw our first holiday out of France! We toured into Holland and Belgium for 2 weeks. In the picture above, you can see me, my brother and mum in Amsterdam which was flocked with hundreds of bikes. We didn’t spend too long in Amsterdam, which made me quite sad, as we quickly ran into the Red Light District where it got very dangerous for us so we had to flee!
The second week of the holiday was spent in Belgium where we had a massive lake on-site which was heavenly. Again, we ventured into Brussels yet the same thing happened and we found the Red Light District very quickly and our Sat-Nav broke! It took us 3 hours to escape central Brussels and find a McDonalds! I hardly saw any of Holland and Belgium and would love to go back.
2012 saw my first travel away from my parents. I went on a trip to Spain with my school (I am centre in the shorts) where we stayed in Santillana Del Mar for a week. We visited Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum (where the picture above was taken), climbed the Picos de Europa Mountains and the Dune de Pyla in France on the journey down. It was truly the best week of my life and I wish I could relive it all again -sobs-. I made so many amazing friends on the trip and had such a great experience travelling alone.
As a family in 2012, we of course found our way back to France! I haven’t mentioned this, but most years we go on holiday with 2 other families (as pictured) as the caravan crew -snores-. Nearly every year that we go to France, we visit Mont St Michel which is a large monastery built ontop of a town settlement above sea level. It’s become a tradition if we ever visit this region of France! I think this was the fifth time we’ve visited and we’ve become regulars!
I’ll give you two guesses on where we went in 2013…France?…You guessed it! Aged 15 we sailed the channel again and stayed in the town of Granville for a week and Paris for the other. Whilst in Granville, I dragged mum and dad to Maison Dior which is the beautiful house pictured above. It is the house where Christian Dior (the fashion designer) grew up and began to design pieces. Inside, it is a museum where hundreds of his works are showcased in glass cases where members of the public are free to walk among its treasures. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but trust me, it was all beautiful!
2013 also saw our giddy return to Disneyland to rekindle our love from 2006. Mum and dad thought this would be my last holiday with the family- well weren’t they wrong! No matter how old you are, you’ll always act like a child in Disneyland, it’s inevitable!
So now we find ourselves here in 2014 on my last holiday to Tunisia where we finally broke out of the caravan and flew abroad. I actually have a post about my travels in Tunisia here so if you want to find out more I’ll let you wander on over there!
For a 16 year old, I actually think I’ve been quite lucky to see as many beautiful places as I have done. As the app ‘been’ has told me, I have visited 3% of the world therefore I have another 97% to go out and discover!
hannahtoughx 