Nicole in Europe

Guyssss I'm back with another blog post that sounds like a trip advisor review.

Wow it feels like I haven't said that in a minute. If you don't remember my lil travel blogs, please scroll back and have a browse. 

So Nicole in Europe, a little spin off of Emily in Paris or wherever she is. Can’t say I've watched it, but my friends love to compare me to her. Something you should know about me is that I love to travel, and I've always got a story to tell. I am that friend who is doing everything for the plot, to keep the group chat entertained. Just you wait until you read the blog post I'm currently working on…

But yeah, when majority of your friends are married with kids, someone has to take one for the team right?

Anyways, after spending a whole heap of time working on myself, practically funding my therapists retirement and going completely incognito for a number of months (sorry again to my friends who thought I was dead). I hit a point where I was like fuck, I need to start moving. I'm sure I said it in one of my other blog posts, but if you're feeling down or in my case a tad bit depressed, the best way to feel better is to expand your surface area. 

My therapist literally said, ‘your life needs to grow bigger than your sadness’. Okay honey, put that quote on a t-shirt and I'll pack it in my suitcase, because your girl is out of here.

So after spending a wholesome weekend with friends in London, and when I say wholesome, I mean it. Lets just get the story straight before we go further. I'm fun, I'm spontaneous and I love living life to the absolute fullest, but I'm not a messy girl. I love a tequila but we don't do black out drunk, we don't do calling your ex crying at 4am, and we don't do scatty. She's a classy girl, you feel me?

So with that, I spent the weekend in London and we had a ball. We even managed to get the glass dining table outside, through a door it definitely shouldn't have fit through - who needs a man? The weather was hot, the vibes were good and the tequila was... reposado, yeah you guessed it. 

At 1am we laid out in the living room playing Uno and I thought ‘yeah, let me Uno reverse this whole script and hop on a flight’. So that's what I did and the following day I left for Como. 

Now a lesson I learned over the last 6months is to always have my passport with me, knowing how spontaneous I am. I made a rookie mistake and had to drive 4 hours from London to the north to get my passport and get to the airport for a flight that was leaving pretty soon. My friends hate me for it, but I am that girl that's running through security while the flight is boarding.

Final call for passenger Nicole Eves. 

Have I missed flights before? Countless, however what's that red light theory? Sometimes you get stuck at a red light because the universe is making sure something bad doesn't happen? 

Something like that, or maybe just lack of planning on my side, but either way... we move.

So I popped over to Como and I'm not going to lie the weather was shit but the trip was needed. It was my first little trip after being a sad girl or sad bunny as I like to call her. It definitely gave me the time to process things, expand my surface area and look at life from a different perspective, in a different country. 

Oh and I finally ate pizza in Italy. The amount of times I've been there without eating pizza is honestly ridiculous. So yeah dinner, drinks and grabbed a pizza on the way back, before driving around the side of the lake listening to Wait For You by Drake & Tems.

One thing about me, I attach songs to memories and times in life and I love that song, but whenever I heard it, I'd skip it. So what better thing to do than make a new memory attached to that song? Now when that song comes on, I think of pizza on my lap, driving around the side of Lake Como and a full moon. One for the memory bank. 

Following on from Como I headed back to the UK for a couple of weeks and I had the travel itch again and what do you do when you have an itch?

Scratch it.

Lets go to Barcelona cariño.

Now I've wanted to go to Barcelona for the longest time and I don't know why I hadn't been before. I love Spain and I love Spanish culture. Did I tell you I'm learning Spanish by the way? Got a tutor and everything. Your girl is gonna (try) be a bilingual babe. 

Barcelona had to be a quick one because I had photoshoots planned and Italy the following week, but that's what weekends are for right? Exploring a little.

Call me Dora - Vámonos!

So Barca was fun, the weather was unreal, the food was amazing, the language is sexy, the men are sexier and it was another place I added to my bank of places where I'm like, 'I could defo live here'.  

So after a quick trip to Barcelona, I landed back in the UK, emptied my case and repacked it, because a couple of days later, I was heading to Puglia, Italy. 

Let me start by saying, why the fuck do Italian people hate iced coffee? Both times I was in Italy and asked for an iced latte with oat milk, the staff laughed at me. Like don't get me wrong, I love an espresso, but it's also 35 degrees babe.

So I popped over to Puglia or Apulia as they call it, for a friend’s wedding and I'm not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive. Going to a wedding full of love, happiness and couples after a breakup is definitely some form of exposure therapy, and on top of that, it was a wedding I was supposed to go to with my ex.

Not going to lie, I could feel the sad girl creeping in. But I did my best to leave her at Manchester airport and I decided I was going to romanticise the fuck out of the trip. Like come on Nic, get it together. 

So with that I booked a really cute hotel, I hired a car, packed my body oil and bought some really nice outfits. Now one thing I didn't really think through was the car situation.

If you asked my family and friends if I'm a good driver, they would probably say no.

If you asked the DVLA if I'm a good driver, they would also probably say no.

However I disagree. 

I had the idea to hire a little Fiat 500 to fly around Italy in. Like how Italian of me.

Honestly, I aim to live my life like a story book. 

Thankfully when I got to the car hire place, they had none available and offered me an automatic. Worked out for the best tbh, because although I can drive manual, I don't, and I've never actually driven a Fiat 500. Nor have I driven on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road and changed gears with the wrong hand. So having an automatic eliminated one of my problems. 

Anyways, Apple Maps fucked me over and I ended up in a field. Great start.

Then I ended up in a town centre that was definitely too small to drive in. 

Was there a few moments where I was driving on the wrong side of the road? Maybe...

Did I graze the car on an extremely high curb? Maybe...

Did I pay for additional insurance so I didn't have to pay if I crashed the car? Of course. 

However, I think the locals were okay with me, I had my windows down, blasting Bad Bunny and I did shout Ciao to the people of Italy a few times. To soften the blow. 

So your girl spent 5 days in Italy for the wedding and I had the best time, like genuinely. Sad girl was definitely left at Manchester airport. I laughed, I danced, I tanned and I actually felt really good.

Did I have an alcohol infused moment where I got back to my hotel and cried? Maybe.

Did I call my ex at 4am? Absolutely not, because like I said before... classy girl.

Come on now, keep up.

Next question...

Or should I say next destination because I landed back from Italy, unpacked my case, repacked my case and headed over to Paris. Au revoir!

Now if you know me, you know how much I love Paris. It's defo one of my favourite cities for sure. My friend and I hadn't had a lil Paris trip since 2023 and boy, did we need one. 

It was the weekend of Fête de la Musique, something we'd been to before when working out in Paris with PUMA in 2023 - please refer to my old blog posts. However, I'm not going to lie, Fête back then felt like such a wholesome vibe. Think salsa dancing down by the river.

In my personal opinion, not many British people knew about it, or went to it. However, this time, since it blew up on TikTok, every man and their dog from the UK was in Paris. Oh and it was 40 degrees. Yeah a whole 40. 

Was I complaining? Absolutely not. 

Did my hotel lie to me and say it had AC, when it just had a rotating fan in the room? Yes.

But I digress. 

My friends travelled over from London, I flew over from Manchester and the Paris link up commenced. 

We had an amazing 4 days in Paris and can you actually believe I got my flight home? I know, I know, I'm just as shocked as you. 

If you've read my older blog posts, you'll know the last time I was in Paris I missed around 4 flights home. See that there? Growth. 

We had a nice mix of wholesomeness and vibes. I also managed to do a little bit of work out there and shoot for a brand, in the 40 degree heat, on 3 hours sleep... see that there? Dedication. 

Paris was busier than I've ever seen it, so busy I couldn't actually get a lime bike - one of my favourite modes of transport in Paris. So yeah, I did sit in the basket of my friend's bike and fly around the city in it...and I have the bruises to show for it. 

I remember asking myself at the beginning of the year:

Will I feel happy again, will it get better?

And I guess I do, and it did.

Better than expected. 

The comeback was needed.

Bad Bunny, no Sad Bunny.

Seguimos aquí.

Until next time x