Umm, So I Flew All The Way To Europe Just To See Taylor Swift, AND I’M HERE TO REVEAL IF IT WAS “Actually” WORTH THE TREK

Umm, So I Flew All The Way To Europe Just To See Taylor Swift, And I’m Here To Reveal If It Was *Actually* Worth The Trek
Another thing us Swifties can’t stop talking about: the European leg of The Eras Tour. Many of us around the world spend our nights (or days, for all my fellow North Americans) refreshing livestreams waiting for surprise songs and outfit combos. Because we have no life besides being Swifties.
Buuuuut, some of us got SUPER lucky (or have mad tech skills like me) and won the Ticketmaster battle a whole year ago, which means we scored tickets to one of Taylor’s gajillion shows in Europe. And I was one of those lucky people!!!!

So because I’m still living on a Taylor Swift high and I’m pretty sure that night will go down as one of the greatest in my lifetime, I thought I’d recap my experience — from prices, to my favourite performances, to the outfits we wore. And I’m definitely rating the surprise songs I got.

But before we get into that, let me just explain: this was monumental for me. Not only am I one of those Gen Z’ers who grew up with Taylor’s music — like, I definitely made Sims 2 music videos to “You Belong With Me” as a kid — but I also have been a huge fan for many years. And to prove my Taylor fan status, here is a God-awful photo of middle-school me from the 1989 World Tour:

We couldn’t really see the effects on the actual stage, though, but I’m 5’9″ so I wasn’t really blocked by anyone. My sister is 5’4″, on the other hand, so she didn’t have as great a view. BUT STILL. Less than $150, in today’s economy??

And must I remind you? Tickets in Canada and the US are going for WAYYYY more. It’s actually ✨factual✨ — tickets in Europe were “87% cheaper” because of consumer protection laws. Add that to the list of reasons why Europe is better than North America, I guess. So I figured may as well make a trip out of it, since I was saving money anyway.
Now, for the outfits! I dressed as my favourite era AND album, reputation. I wore snake tights from Amazon, which looked soooo cool, and snake earrings. I made my own shirt, which said “let the games begin” from “…Ready For It?”. Which also happens to be one of my favourite songs ever.

Singing this song during the show was seriously a core memory.

My sister, who is also a die-hard Taylor fan and rep girlie, decided to go a different route than me — she dressed as her favourite song, “ivy” from evermore (yes, she has A+ taste). Our vibes were veryyyy different, but they actually looked so good together..

As long as you’re decked out in an outfit from one of the eras, there’s really no wrong way to dress. But it was so much more worth it to make our costumes meaningful and personalized.

We also made sure to make TONS of friendship bracelets beforehand, but didn’t trade much (IDK, people weren’t really trading and besides, we were happy with the ones we made). My personal favourite one I made said “heart, hips, body, love” from “Death By A Thousand Cuts.”

Honourable mentions: “On the mattress” from “Better Than Revenge” (the original version), and “Antithetical dream girl” from “Hits Different” (because, yes, I relate).

It was a bit of a trek to get inside the arena, but once we were there, it was surreal and so incredible to see all these fans, dancing and singing together. The vibes were more immaculate than ever. Like, how often will you see over 50,000 people uniting over a shared love of music, positivity, and feminism? 🥹

And now, THE MUSIC!!! Of course, I’ve seen the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie three times now, so I knew what I was in for — and I figured I’d love hearing “…Ready For It?” and “my tears ricochet” the most. But neither of those ended up being my #1 most fun in the moment (although it was VERY CLOSE).

I’m shocked to say this, but I think my favourite to hear live ended up being “Shake It Off.” IT WAS JUST SO MUCH FUN, I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT. And I decided on this before learning that TikTok agrees with me, dubbing it the “Shake It Off theory”!!!